Build a city

Section 3: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Plate Tectonics

Build a city

Project Type: Model
Have students apply historical and current maps, satellite images, and remote sensing images in ground truthing a major U.S. city. After comparing historical maps of local landforms, populations, and reflectance curves from 25 years ago to the present, have students predict changes of land use, urban sprawl, resource management, and weathering over the next 25 years. Students can then use their data and predictions to write a creative, yet factual, futuristic picture book featuring a space alien coming or astronaut returning to Earth using out-dated maps and satellite imagery. Problems, predictions, and solutions should be included in student literature.

Introduction:
Geographical information system (GIS) is a geospatial data tool that provides the ability to investigate real-world problems. GIS is experiencing a rapid increase of use in content area such as Earth science and oceanography and is no longer considered only a resource when studying geography.

Using GIS to analyze geospatial data from a historical perspective is one strategy for understanding how cities have changed over time. These tools are being effectively used by scientists and researchers to understand how cities have grown and to predict and plan for a community's future needs.

Task:

Open a Web browser and navigate to http://davidrumsey.com/index.html.

Select GIS Browser from the index page.

Choose one of the following major United States cities to investigate historical and current maps and satellite images.

San Francisco, California
Boston, Massachusetts
Washington, D.C.
New York, New York

Click GIS Professional Browser on the city's main page.

Use the geospatial tools on the GIS interface to project different maps of your city. You can use the tools in the menu bar to show multiple layers of maps together.

Once students have had a chance to explore different maps, have them create a futuristic picture book that depicts an alien or astronaut coming to the city they have chosen using out-dated maps to navigate. Their book should include images from maps that provide geospatial data to support their descriptions. Students should address the following issues in their book:

How have the boundaries of the city changed over time?

How has the population center of the city changed over time?

What types of modifications to natural features have happened over time? For example, are there areas that were once mountainous that are now lower in elevation?

Time:
2 class periods; one to research and one to create their book.

Rubric: