IntrotoGeoQuestions.docx

When you make your measurements, be aware of the precision, or how exact your measurements are. Precision is a way of stating how sure you are of the exact value of your results. If you are really sure, you might have a very high precision, perhaps to the nearest hundredth or thousandth (0.01 or 0.001). It is important to be as precise as your measuring device allows. Round your work to the degree of precision specified. So if you are told to be precise to the nearest tenth, and you plug your values into a calculator and come up with 123.45678, your answer would be 123.5

Answer the following questions. Show your work.

4. Look in your atlas for a map of the western United States. What is the distance in miles between Sacramento CA and Las Vegas NV? (precision to nearest whole number) Note that this is the ‘as the crow flies’ (straight line) distance, NOT the driving distance as Google maps would calculate for you. Show your work.
5. Look in your atlas for a map of the Middle East. What is the distance in miles between Cairo, Egypt and Istanbul, Turkey? (precision to nearest whole number) Show your work.
6. You are given a map that is 1:500,000 scale. City A and City B on the map are 3 inches apart. How many miles apart are they in the real world? (precision to nearest tenth) Show your work.
7. You are given a map that is 1:100,000 scale. City R and City S on the map are 6.5 inches apart. How many miles apart are they in the real world? (precision to nearest tenth) Show your work.

3-D Live Wind Map

Please go to the following link:

https://earth.nullschool.net/ (Links to an external site.)

This is a 3-D map of real time conditions of the Earth, updated every three hours, generated by a supercomputer. Please do the following:
· Click on the word “earth” on the bottom left corner of the page. This will open the legend, and some options for the data you can show.
· Look at the very bottom of the legend, and click on “about”. Read through where the data from this map is coming from.

Please answer the following questions about this map.

8. Using the legend, look around the Earth. Where is the fastest wind you see on the Earth now (if there is more than one location, pick one)? How fast is it? What color is used to represent this speed?
9. Look for “Overlay” in the legend, and click on “Temp”. Where is the highest temperature you can see on Earth now (if there is more than one location, pick one)? What temperature it is? What color is used to represent it?
10. Where are the coldest temperatures on Earth now (if there is more than one location, pick one)? What temperature is it? What color is used to represent it?
11. Finally, click on “RH” next to “Overlay”. This stands for “Relative humidity”, and tells us how full the air is of water. Where is one of the driest places on earth now? What is the relative humidity? What color is used to represent this?

NASA Earth Observatory Maps

One of the best sources for information about our Earth is NASA. They are the ones that put the stallites in the air for us to collect data. They have a cool collection of global maps.
Please follow this like to find the Earth Observatory’s Global Map collection:

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps (Links to an external site.)

Please click on the “Land Surface Temperature” map. Notice that you can look at the maps through time, going as far back as February 2000. Below the map is a discussion of patterns , causes, and how they got the data.

Now go to the right, and click on “Show all maps”. Then select the “Fire” map. Please answer the following questions.

12. As you slide the time from 2000 to today, what general patterns do you see in both maps?
13. Look at Africa specifically. Please compare the maps in June to the maps in December. What do you notice?

Interactive Mapping with Google Earth

The last thing I want to do is look at a very powerful free online map, Google Earth. To use this software, you will need to download Chrome. This is free, and should work on all computers. There are versions of this software for tablets and phones as well, but I can’t say if this assignment will work on those devices.
Launch Google Earth in Chrome. If you haven’t used Google Earth, you essentially have a detailed map of the entire planet at you fingers for free. You can type in an address, get coordinates of a location, and even measure distances and areas. We are going to look at some of the capabilities of this tool while also looking at the way scientists are using mapping technology to study our world, and protect endangered animals.
· Please click on “Voyager”. You can find this by looking for the symbol that looks like a ship steering wheel on the left.
· Click on “Educational” and scroll down the find “Scientists at Work”
· Select “Lions in Mozambique”.
· Look at the map, and then watch the YouTube video provided
· Click on “2/3” to see the ranges of individual lions
· Click on “3/3” to see a map of trail camera locations

Please use “Lions in Mozambique” to answer the following questions

14. How are scientists using GPS to protect lions?
15. Click on one of the camera locations on the map. What information is provided about each camera?
16. Scroll to the bottom of 3/3, and click on the link to the Citizen Science project,

WILDCAM GORONGOSA (Links to an external site.)
. Cameras have been set up on the trails in the park, and they take a picture every time an animal passes by. You are going to help these researchers! Click on “Get Started”. Read the tutorial instructions, and please identify the animals in five images from the park. Please list here what animals you saw in each of the five images (if they were difficult to identify, just do your best, or say so in your answer).