2020 was a very challenging year due to the COVID school closure. Elk Grove Unified announced closure of its schools on March 7. Shortly after the closure announcement the Elk Grove Education Association announced a prohibition of teachers to engage with students and parents until an agreement was made with the District which lasted a total of six weeks.
Just prior to the closure the Story Map team was beginning to organize and meet with and contact data and research sources. There were a total of five teams with seven students. With the EGEA restrictions only two students were able to be contacted and they completed one project that was submitted to the Competition. There was one project that was being built on from one of the final projects completed as part of the Web Mapping Mini Course by a seventh grader, which may be completed and submitted in the 2021 Competition.
The entry submitted not only placed first in the State Competition but was recognized in the National competition for its details page.
Bay Delta - Center of California Water Wars - Jaydon Do and Leo Liang
California Earthquakes - Rosie Yang (This was in the process of being expanded to include preparation for the big one)
This project idea was part of the list of ideas for projects began at the beginning of the school year. It was put on the list because the Delta Tunnel project was in the news. We chose it because one of us did the final project for the Web Mapping Mini course on California fresh water that had maps on average precipitation, watersheds, and rivers. In the research on that project the Delta was mentioned, so it seemed like a good project. The Web Mapping Mini Course was taught by Marc Epstein of the California Environmental Technology Education Network as part of our Computer Technology class.
The first thing we did was do some general research on the topic, mostly the Wikipedia article. Mr. Epstein also provided some articles to review. We also began to look for layers available in the ArcGIS Online library. Mr. Epstein also began to contact people as resources and invite them to meet us at school. Our first and only meeting was the last day before school closed because of the Corona Virus. That was with Todd Mofitt with the California Senate Natural Resources Committee - Republican Policy Office. The other people we connected with was through email. The emails were sent to Mr. Epstein and he copied and pasted us the emails in Edmodo. Then he would send them our questions. It was done this way because of the school rules of communication with other people outside the school. These people provided us with good information and many links.
At the end of the first week of the school closure it was announced that schools would not reopen until after the spring break which was after the original deadline to submit to the competition. When that was announced Mr. Epstein contacted one of us to see if we wanted to continue to work on the Story Map competition. When the answer was yes we met and outlined a plan and what to cover based on the meeting with Todd Mofitt. This is when we decided to use the Tabbed Story Map because in the text box it included the legend. We also decided the order and topics of each of the web maps to put into the story map.
After researching, we started creating web maps. We began with the base for the location, that was completed before the school closed. We initially created the four rivers using map notes, but Mr. Epstein created those sections as a line file using GIS software that we imported to the web map and deleted the map notes. The first map after the school closure we created was the Overview map by changing the Location map a bit. We did a search for an image in Google. Originally we were going to use an image in the main stage, however we changed that plan when the rules changed on images and videos. We then created the Tabbed Story map adding both the Overview and Location web maps.
Next, we created the Land Use History map by adding the layer, Land Use Sacramento San Joaquin Delta 2015 by BIOS_Admin, and added it to the Story Map, with a picture that shows how the Bay Delta has changed. We originally were gong to put this image in the main stage, but we put in the text box after the announcement of the rules changes about images and videos. The image we found was from a link provided by Stacy Hayden of the Delta Protection Commission called marvinsnotebook.com. This site gave us a number of links to images that were also used in other parts of the story map.
Then, we began to create the Water Distribution web map. We created a spread sheet of the 15 largest California cities to make a layer using, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_California_cities_by_population for the data. We also put the population in each county by editing and adding the population into Stat 1 from a data layer Mr. Epstein provided us and imported into the web map. We also added the data layer on average precipitation. This was the same layer one of us used for the final project in the web mapping mini course. This is a layer Mr. Epstein provided us from one of his Earth Science lessons. After we finished with this, we edited the layers for symbols color and classification and added the web map into the Story Map.
Then, we started working on the Water Transfer map by inputting the total number of gallons used in each county in the Stat 1 field. We achieved this by using the data from the link, https://www.arcgis.com/apps/StorytellingSwipe/index.html?appid=7e8fa5c82db447e2bb453bc6a2a75746&webmap=283d2cbeae864434abef61510c872de2#. This was one of the links from marvinsnotebook.com. For the Water Transfer map, we also added the layer California Aqueduct by ChicoBasinWCD and Hydrologic Regions by GIS Admin@DWR. We changed the line of the layer Hydrologic Regions to black and made a spread sheet for the Banks and Jones Pumping Stations. When finished with the spread sheet we imported it into the map in csv format. We created another spread sheet for Hydrologic Units by using the measure tool to get the latitude and longitude on the center of each Hydrologic region. We created a spreadsheet for those coordinates and created a field for the percent of Delta water that on average is exported to those regions. The percent numbers were calculated from an image created from Department of Water Resources data we found in marvinsnotebook.com. To calculate the percentage, Mr. Epstein had the image printed and enlarged onto a 11 x17 paper, and used a civil engineering ruler to measure the heights of the bars on the graph. The reason we did this is we were unable to get that data from the Department of Water Resources due to the stay at home order and reduced staff at the Department. We did ask Jane Schafer-Kramer, our contact at the Department if those numbers sounded right. She said they were a good approximation. We imported it into the Water Transfer map, changed the symbols of the layers, and added it to the story map. We made the percent data as a square rather than a circle because it looked a little like bars from the image.
Next we made the Salinity web map, added it to the Story Map and put the salinitycomposite png file into the text box. The image was created from two images we found in marvinsnotebook.com. Our original plan was to put this in the main stage, but decided to put it into the text box after the change in rules related to images and videos. Combining the images into a single image was done by Mr. Epstein since we did not have the right software on our computers at home.
The next step was to start the Delta Smelt map. We searched and added the layer Delta Smelt Critical Habitat and changed the symbols. After this, we added the map to the Story Map, searched for a picture of a Delta Smelt, and added it to the text box. We could not find a good picture of the Delta Smelt or other fish being caught in the pumps so we did a YouTube search. We found a video with a small section that talked about that. Since we did not have the right software on our home computers, Mr. Epstein downloaded the video and edited to get the clip we wanted, uploaded it to YouTube than we put it in the text box.
Next, is the creation of the Tunnel map. We first looked at pictures of the proposed tunnel route and used the line tool in the map notes to create a replica of the tunnel route. Then we added the Tunnel web map to the Story Map. When we did our write ups we decided to put the arguments in favor and against in the map as a map notes pop up, so we had to go back to the web map to do that. The information on the arguments came from handouts and links provided from different groups given to us by Ellen Hanak of the Public Policy Institute of California.
The final step was doing the write ups for the text boxes and the details page. At the completion of the draft we had the story map reviewed by Roger Palmer of GISEct. and Pasco Scientific. He recommended that we add the groups for and against the tunnel proposal and we take a position and explain it. In past years the final editing of student writing would be done with our English teachers, but with the closure of schools this year that was done by a friend of Mr. Epstein.