Study Site Survey

Mapping (Cartography) Team

Your job is to create a map of your study site, including several of its major features. This task is divided into several jobs: surveying, pacing, and mapping. You should work together on all of these jobs to create the final map. Use the Mapping worksheet included with this activity.

Surveying

Determine the boundaries of your study site and draw and outline a map of the study site on the Mapping Worksheet.

Locate on the map the cardinal directions east, north, west, and south.

Locate the five most significant features of the study site and add them to the outlined map. Write in your journals why you selected these features.

Pacing

Pacing is a field technique to measure distances that was first established in Roman times. A pace is generally defined as the length of one step as measured from the heel of one foot to the heel of the other as a person strides naturally.

Since people have different strides, the pace for each pacer must be carefully measured. Starting from a stick in the ground, have one team member (the pacer) walk normally in a straight line for 50 paces. Measure the distance traveled from the stick and divide by 50. The resulting number will be the length of an average pace of your pacer. Make sure the pacer walked in a consistent, unhurried fashion for every measurement.

Now, carefully pace off all key distances and add the measurements to the outline map. Be sure each number is measured from features already depicted on the map.

Mapping

Carefully record all findings and measurements taken by the surveyors and pacer. Use symbols to represent findings on the map. Add a legend that explains each symbol.

(Example Below)