2017-18 Winter: Learning About ESRI ArcGIS Mapping
01-31-18
Work with your table group to complete the course: Demographic Analysis Using ESRI. Once you’ve completed the activity, come back to this discussion thread to share your reflections and insights.
The introduction video is available here if you would like to watch it again.
Comments
In the discussion in E. Oregon/C. Oregon we feel that this is applicable in our AP/IB realm or in the teacher creation role, but for students to create this task seems to be time consuming and not super efficient. The discussions taking place from this data and maps would be rich and exciting for students.
For frontier areas such as Burns the data was limited due to the population as compared to the budding area of Bend.
Again, for students interested in this realm…AWESOME TOOL!!!
Pendleton, OR Group - Our geographic area does not contain as much data due to the population per square mile. It is evident that the median income is much lower than the surrounding areas (i.e.Walla Walla, Kennewick). We would like a map layer that includes various minority populations so that we can compare median income to cultural demographics.
Gresham, OR- We were surprised by the pockets of higher SES populations within the city limits. The closer you are to the Columbia River and rural areas, the higher the income, however, many of these areas have a lower child population. Lower SES populations are closer to Portland (West).
We wish you could separate how many students go to public vs. private schools.
As a whole this has a ton of valuable information. We thought it might be a little difficult for students who might struggle, but great for some more of our AP or advance level courses.
We also felt this would be very helpful for our district level folks who need to have access to data at this level. PR, communications, data analysis folks and the like
“Save Often.” The size of the group often. When there was three, one person out. Data was validating for one group, one group was not accurate because population did not fill the census. The data is only as accurate as what is filled out. When your geographic point is to small, you don’t get the breakdown you need.
Coos Bay with Jessica Hageman How accurate is the map? How many families have actually filled out the census? We noticed there were more children in the lower income areas. The map was a nice visual.
A powerful tool – very dense information. 11/12 students might do well paired up (AP Prob and Stats!); middle schoolers could do well if teacher pulled info and maps and gave those to students to compare and draw conclusions. Relevance to students engaging - looking at information about where they live.
We’re grateful that we have a district level data person who can pull this information for us.
The observation was also made that undocumented families did not seem represented in parts of town where we know there are more families and children. My own school district noticed a drop in families completing Free/Reduced Meal application forms and maybe that is partially related to undocumented families not completing the FARM applications.
There was a level of complexity that could prove problematic for students trying to follow a similar set of instructions. Difficult to have good analysis if your base layer is not granular enough (census track in rural ares).
Southern Oregon group: SPIDERS. The data is misleading because there is a lack of minority groups who fill out the census form. Therefore, our median income was driven higher than what it really is. This has impacted title one funding to our school district because of the lack of true data.
I know that a lot of you that I spoke with about this activity thought that creating the maps would be a challenging class activity, but that using them to interpret data and information would provide the basis for powerful discussions. This morning I came across the Esri GeoInquiries for Schools section of the Esri ArcGIS site. There are a ton of activities grouped by subject area with related standards, pre-created maps, and lesson plans. I haven't had time to dive too deeply into it, but it looks like this is exactly what many of you said would be useful for classroom teachers!