Light Saber Labs
Below you will find assignments and laboratory materials for multiple courses in Geography and Earth Science.
Lab Manual: Introduction to Human Geography with ArcPro (3.x)
This lab manual is designed to accompany the online textbook, Introduction to Human Geography: A Disciplinary Approach. The lab assignments are designed to introduce students to ArcGIS Pro, the flagship desktop Geographic Information System software by ESRI. It requires access to ArcGIS Pro. Files are available for download at ArcGIS Online.
Instructions (Text)
Introduction to GIS.
Predictive Crime Analysis with GIS: Catching the Hollywood Arsonist.
Black Ghettos in the United States.
Fast Food and Fitness in Los Angeles.
Retail Site Location - The Doughnut Shop Lab.
Course materials for learning management systems are available in Canvas Commons or by request
YouTube Tutorial Videos
Predictive Crime Analysis with GIS: Catching the Hollywood Arsonist.
Black Ghettos in the United States: Part 1
Black Ghettos in the United States: Part 2.Fast Food and Fitness in Los Angeles: Part 1.
Fast Food and Fitness in Los Angeles: Part 2.Retail Site Location: Part 1.
Retail Site Location: Part 2.
ArcGIS Online - Lab Assignments and Data
Use the links below to explore, analyze, and visualize spatial data to solve real-world problems.
Introduction to ArcGIS Online - Basic Functions
YouTube tutorial (for use with Canvas learning management system)
Catching the Hollywood Arsonist - Using GIS to Predict Serial Criminal Behavior and Apprend Suspects
YouTube Tutorial (for use with Learning Management System)
Resources for Teaching and Learning Problem-Solving Skills in Geography
Resources for Teaching and Learning Problem-Solving Skills in Geography
Basic Statistics and Simple Bar Graphs via Pivot Table - Water Use Data.
Video: https://youtu.be/t2V21v68yXU?si=iWPDFBApwCRkOkVR Data: forthcoming...
Below are links to a series of exercises designed to introduce students to a variety of problem solving strategies used by working geographers.
Many of the exercises also introduce students to common tools-of-the trade used by geographers and other scientists.
Most of these exercises are also available for download / use in a learning management system, like Canvas , Blackboard or Moodle.
Exercises for Human Geography (ArcMap via Citrix)
The Beginner Lab: Introduction to ArcMap GIS (Light Saber 101)
The Arson Lab: Spatial Profiling of Serial Crime (Crime Geography)
The Zombie Lab: Mapping Contagion and Barriers to Diffusion (Medical Geography)
The Ghetto Lab: Analyzing Patterns of African-American Segregation in the US (Ethnic Geography)
The Doughnut Lab: Retail and Wholesale Site Location (Business Geography)
The Fastfood Lab: Modeling the Relationship between Food Access, Demographics and Childhood Fitness Levels (Health Geography)
The Football Lab: Recruiting? Bias in the AP Voter Polls
Video Tutorial Series (YouTube)
All Labs Below Available via Canvas Commons.
https://lor.instructure.com/resources/a34e1e1b8ab048b5a2df32a1699aa7b6
Search Graves, Geography.
Exercises for Physical Geography
Earth-Sun Relations - Using An Analemma (Excel, Google Sheets)
Weather Lab 1: Temperature and Air Pressure (Excel, Google Sheets)
Weather Lab 2: Insolation and Temperature (Excel, Google Sheets)
Humidity Lab (Excel, Google Sheets)
Classifying Climates - no software required
Reading Topographic Maps 1: Tectonic Surfaces (Google Earth)
Reading Topographic Maps 2: Erosional Landscapes (Google Earth)
Burbank's Changing Climate - google based - experiment.
This lab uses a spreadsheet of data to introduce students to weather and climate data, and some basic statistical measures used by climatologists and geographers to understand the magnitude of difference between unusual weather events and climate normals. Software: Microsoft Excel (alternate: Google Sheets, Parts A, B, & C)
GIS-BASED EXERCISES (contact Dr. Graves for datasets)
Introduction to GIS in the Virtual Environment (ArcMap)
Tropical Systems (ArcMap)
Modeling Orographic Rainfall in California (ArcMap)
Projections, Scale and Coordinate Systems (ArcMap)
Modelling Earthquake Risks in Los Angeles (ArcMap)
Modeling Landslide Debris Volume in Los Angeles (ArcMap, Spreadsheet)
Predicting Grizzly Bear Habitat in California (ArcMap)
Data Analysis for Community Organizations
This page contains links to some of the videos and accompanying files for a few of the video tutorials posted on my YouTube Channel.
VIDEO LINK DEMONSTRATED SKILLS FILES
Downloading Census Data Downloading Demographic Data from US Census Website (2021) -None
Download Data from Los Angeles Data Hub Downloading Data from Government Data Hub (Los Angeles Police Department Data) -None
Convert Vertical Data to Horizontal with Pivot Table Convert Vertical Download Data to Horizontally Arranged Data with Pivot Table LA County Ethnicity Data- Census Tracts, 2010 Excel
VLOOKUP Tool to Join Datasets Join/Merge two tables with a common identifier. Convert numeric data to text. Text to column tool. VLOOKUP tool. EPA and Census Data Excel
Pivot Tables to Join Datasets Join two tables with a common identifier. Convert numeric data to text. Text to column tool. Pivot Table. EPA and Census Data. Excel
Calculate Mean, Median, Standard Deviation, Skewness, etc. using formulas and Data Analysis too. Create Simple Histogram of Data. California Income Tax data by ZIP Code. Excel
Calculating Percentiles and Z-Scores Part 1 Part 2 Calculate Percentile Score and Z scores in Excel California School Enrollment & Lunch Data Excel
Calculating T-Tests Part 1 Part 2, One Sample & Two Sample Difference of Means t-Tests Paired Samples Difference of Means t-Test Los Angeles Police Department Data Excel (large file)
Calculating Correlation Coefficients Part 1 Part 2, Calculate Pearon’s R Correlation Coefficient & Spearman’s Rho for Ranked Data (skewing) California EPA Data, Excel
Linear Regression, Part 1, Part 2, Creating a Linear Regression Model, Preparing Data for Regression, Interpreting Output Diagnostics, Los Angeles County Fast Food Data (Census) and California Dept. of Education Data, ZIP Code Level, Excel