Embedded Files
This year-long project focused on understanding how tree canopy shapes heat, safety, and daily movement in the neighborhoods surrounding Polly Gonzalez High School in the Las Vegas Valley. In a desert city where summer temperatures regularly exceed 100°F, shade is not a luxury it is essential infrastructure. Students partnered with the City of Las Vegas municipal urban forester to study where trees exist, where they are missing, and how those patterns connect to surface temperature, land use, and transportation corridors common in Las Vegas, such as wide arterial roads, bus routes, and school walking paths.
The real-world challenge was immediate and familiar. Extreme heat affects how students walk to school, wait for buses, and move through public spaces across Southern Nevada. Learners set out to gather evidence through maps, field observations, and community conversations to support more equitable and realistic tree planting decisions in a desert environment.
What the Work Looked Like
What the Work Looked Like
• Technical Foundations: We started by learning to use mapping software and layer geospatial data. Initially, these were just "colors on a screen," but they became real when we applied them to our own streets.
• "Ground Truth" Fieldwork: We spent weeks walking arterial roads like Maryland Parkway and Stewart Avenue. We used handheld sensors to measure the "Heat Gap"—the difference between what satellite imagery shows and what a person actually feels on the pavement.
• Community Inquiry: We didn't just look at data; we listened. We spoke with residents—parents, seniors, and outdoor workers—whose stories of physical exhaustion helped us prioritize "exposure zones" over mere aesthetic gaps.
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