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Understanding the Lab Format
The labs have been formatted to be relatively easy to
follow and read on-screen, as we do not want you to print out all 15+ pages of
each lab.
Here is the general format of the labs:
Outline - Each lab will begin with an
outline. The major sections and subsections will be hyperlinked from the
outline, so you don't have to hunt around for where you left off.
1.1 Purpose -- Overview of main points of the
lab.
1.2 Introduction & Background -- Basic
background material. Be sure to read this section - it, or the website
links on it, will often contain information helpful for answering the
questions, especially if you're new to a topic.
1.3 Data -- A brief description of the datasets used in the lab.
The data for each lab will be hosted in the class folder.
1.4 Procedures -- Instructions for the lab.
Sometimes these will be step-by-step, sometimes not. Once you have learned
"how things are done" in ArcGIS, you should be able to figure out how to
accomplish a wide range of tasks on your own (See below for what the colors
mean).
1.5 Conclusions -- Summary of material covered
in the lab.
1.6 What to turn in -- Summary of items you will be handing in.
What do the colored boxes mean?
Rather than simply having a
huge list of instructions on a white background, the various procedures in the
lab have been broken into small modules. A particular task in ArcGIS
will be found in a light blue box, like this:
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ArcGIS Help
ArcGIS Help works
like any Windows program help section.
When you're looking for something in ArcGIS
Help, make sure to Search in both the Index and the Search tab. Trying
the search with different terms (e.g., data models, or coverage, or
geodatabase) increases the odds of finding something useful...
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Additional information, links to relevant webpages
(e.g., www.esri.com, www.usgs.gov), and hints will be found in the
salmon-colored boxes:
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If you're curious about how to save layer or map
document Properties so they can be used by others or by yourself with
other layers or documents, look at the Help files on creating
Layer files in ArcCatalog, and on ArcMap's Style Manager, found in the Menu
Bar under Tools-->Styles-->Style Manager. |
Questions, to which you will give typewritten answers,
will be delineated by these orange boxes:
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Answer question
4:
Which of the three layers do you think was the
original data layer? Which is "second generation" and which is "third
generation"? Why? |
Note: The questions will be shown in the lab and
also on a separate question page for the lab. Therefore, if you want to print
out something to take notes on, print out the question sheet.
For most lab, you will be composing a map, printing it
out, and handing it in. Instructions about maps will be found in green
boxes:
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Your map for Lab 2:
Make a map of mainland Santa Barbara county with
the streets theme overlaid on the contour theme, using your knowledge &
skills from Labs 1 and 2. You will have to choose appropriate properties
for the two themes so that they are not confused on your black and white
printout and so that they are easily distinguished by the viewer. Also,
make sure you follow the basic principles of cartography outlined in
Lab 1. |
Bugs discovered during the writing of the labs are
listed in yellow boxes at the end of the labs:
Your TA may also add
notes if he/she discovers
additional problems, which will be compiled in the Software Bugs and Workarounds
page. As software versions change regularly, this is a fact of life.
Some labs were written by
Nick Matzke and
Sarah Battersby in
2001 and were updated by
Jeff Hemphill in
2003. All are (were) graduate students in the UCSB
Geography Department. Partial support for
development of this lab series was provided by the
National Science Foundation,
through UCSB's
Center for Spatially Integrated
Social Science (CSISS) and
Varenius Project, a project of the
National Center for
Geographic Information and Analysis, or
NCGIA. The supervisor
was
Mike Goodchild.
Copyright © 2000, Regents of the University of
California
Used by permission
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