Discussion
We made an accurate map of the
Field Reasearch Station. The fields, trails, and streams were all mapped.
We didn't have a clue as how to make a
map like this. Niether one of us had done this before. We had to come up
with what needed to be on our map. We started with colored lines and points
and had to turn them into something that people could use in the
Field Research Station. We needed to provide boarders, trails and fields
so people could read and understand the map. After studying other maps,
reading material on what constituted a map, and researching how they were
made, we had no trouble with making our own map.
Before we could make the map we had to
gather the data. In the winter time we had trouble with the deep snow.
It was to the point we were spending more time trying to get to where
we needed do be for the days work than actually gathering data. We did
have snow shoes, but when the snow was waist deep it didn't help much.
Maybe a little experience in that area would have served useful. There
was another factor that contibuted to collecting data. During the middle
of the school year, Nick had the flu and Denver had mono. It made a difference
when we were both working out in the field, as far as discussing what we
needed to map. It helped sort things out when we could discuss them between
us. Besides these minor pitfalls, collecting data was time consuming but
easy. Each day we collected a little data. By the end of the year we had
compiled quite a bit of data. Keeping the data organized once we
gathered it was important. One day we couldn't find the laptop computer
only to find that someone took it and erased all the data on it. We had
been backing up our data which was a good thing but still lost one months
worth of data. We had to back track and try to fill in that time again.
That was a difficult task and we were not able to recover all our
data that was lost. Despite the little data that was lost and not recovered,
we had enough good data to make our map.