Written by Unit 1: Thinking Geographically
1.6: Scales of Analysis: Geographers analyze relationships among and between places to reveal important spatial patterns.
If you’re looking for a lesson plan or activity to help reinforce the concept of scale of analysis, introduce them to ArcGIS’ Living Atlas of the World. Here, they will use data sourced from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to analyze data distribution changes at three different local scales of analysis: Substate (Kentucky vs. Ohio), county, and census tract. If you struggle trying to find a way to show how geography can be dynamic, try this one out. This lesson encourages your students to zoom in on their local scales to make spatial observations about their state, county, and school’s census tract. I had the maps on my projector while students used their 1:1 devices to investigate on their own. If you aren’t 1:1, you can still work through it with your class and a classroom projector.
Here is a link to the PDF that you can use with your students.
It went over well with my class and I was able to introduce a bunch of concepts that span the course: GIS, quantitative data, formal regions, census tracts, poverty, Sustainable Development Goals, supranational organizations, ArcGIS, using the Census Bureau as a source, and of course scales of analysis.
As always, if you see an error or dead link, let me know and I will fix it. Humanimprint@hotmail.com
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