Your Process!

Task #1

A

 To discover what is known about your community, you need to learn how to use the Agency's new portal to the existing information. The application is called an online GIS (Geographic Information Systems). It lets you explore the whole state right down to a local neighborhood. In order to understand how this is possible, you need to know how to use the site. Go to the Help site and go over each of the following sections: Getting Started, Map Tools, About the Layers, Searching, and Reports.

 

B

 Now that you know what is possible, you need to investigate, explore, and develop a sense of the historical makeup of your community. Look at your community as a total picture and then have different investigators examine specific areas and report back about them. Using the Agency's HAARGIS site, you first need to locate and zoom into your county. Now locate your community and zoom in again. Keep doing this until you find the area you are going to investigate.

Task #2

A

 Now you need to explore and investigate the data that has already been collected for your community. Locate the different triangles that represent recorded data and using the Select button, click on the one that you want to check out. The link to the "Report" of that location will appear in the middle window, below the map. One of your assignments to to check the validity of the information collected. Is it mapped correctly? Is it missing any information that you could add to the report? Does it have a picture to identify it?
B
 Your team now needs to decide what additional places should be added to the IHPA informational database. This could be buildings, historical markers, roadside attractions, special types of buildings, unique advertising items and any other feature that make your town special.
Task #3
 After deciding on what your team is going to investigate and report on, go out and do the fieldwork. Remember to follow the Agency's guidelines and teacher's directions as related to the process of collecting data and reporting the metadata about your unique find. Also if possible, take several digital pictures of the item to enhance its importance.

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