D2.Geo.1.9-12C3 FrameworkSocial StudiesGeographyGrades 9-12

D2.Geo.1.9-12: Using GIS to Map and Explain Cultural and Environmental Patterns

In plain English: D2.Geo.1.9-12 is the C3 Framework geography indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to use geospatial and related technologies, such as GIS, to create maps that display cultural and environmental patterns and to explain them. Students join data to map layers, choose classes and test explanations with evidence.

Use geospatial and related technologies to create maps to display and explain the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics.

C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Geography · Geographic Representations: Spatial Views of the World · Official standard

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Lesson Plan

70-80 min

Overview

D2.Geo.1.9-12 asks students to use geospatial and related technologies to create maps that display and explain the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics. In this lesson students work like GIS analysts with real federal data for Louisiana's 64 parishes (Louisiana's name for counties). The cultural layer is the share of residents age 5 and older who speak French, Haitian or Cajun at home, from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The environmental layer is the share of each parish's area that is water, from the Census Bureau's Gazetteer files. Students learn how a GIS joins a data table to map shapes, why rates map better than counts, how the choice of classes changes what a map shows, and how margins of error limit what a map can claim.

The explanation step is the heart of the lesson. The two maps overlap only in part: the parishes with the most water surround New Orleans, while the parishes with the highest share of French speakers lie west of it, in south-central Louisiana around Lafayette. A National Park Service history of the Acadians (Source 1) gives students the evidence they need to explain the difference. Students can do the work on paper or in a free GIS program; every step is written so it works either way.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Describe what a geographic information system (GIS), GPS and remote sensing contribute to making maps, and name the parts of a GIS layer
Join a data table to map features with a shared ID and normalize counts into rates before mapping
Classify the same data by equal intervals and by quantiles, and explain how the choice changes the map's message
Create a choropleth map that displays a cultural characteristic and compare it with an environmental layer
Explain a spatial pattern with map evidence and a historical source, noting the limits set by margins of error

Prior Knowledge Required

Students should already be comfortable with:

Constructing maps to represent and explain spatial patterns D2.Geo.1.6-8
Computing percents, ranges and medians HSS.ID.A.2
Integrating information from maps and data with print sources RH.9-10.7

Lesson Procedure

70-80 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

Warm-Up5-10 minutes
Warm-Up Prompt
"Two news sites print maps of the same county-level data. On one, half the state is dark. On the other, only one county is dark. Neither site changed a single number. How is that possible, and which map is telling the truth?"
Collect answers. Students usually guess color choice or cropping. Tell them a frequent cause is the classification: where the mapmaker draws the lines between shades. Today they will make that choice themselves and see its effect, using real data.

Direct Instruction20 minutes

Part 1: The technologies. Geospatial technologies are tools that collect, store or analyze data tied to locations on Earth. A geographic information system (GIS) stores map data as layers. A vector layer holds points, lines or polygons, and each feature has a row in an attribute table; a raster layer is a grid of cells, such as a satellite image. GPS (the Global Positioning System) records the coordinates of a point on the ground. Remote sensing gathers data from satellites or aircraft. "Related technologies" include the spreadsheets and statistics software analysts use to prepare the data before it reaches the map.

Part 2: Join, normalize, classify. A GIS can only map a number that is attached to a shape. A join links a data table to the layer through a shared ID; Census data use the GEOID, a code such as 22055 (22 for Louisiana, 055 for Lafayette Parish). Next, normalize: a choropleth map (a map that shades areas by value) should show rates or shares, not raw counts, because big places have big counts. Finally, classify: equal interval classes split the range into equal widths; quantile classes put the same number of areas in each class; manual breaks use round numbers the mapmaker chooses. Each method is honest, but each tells a different story.

Part 3: Estimates have error. The American Community Survey (ACS) is a sample survey, so each number is an estimate with a margin of error (MOE). The Census Bureau publishes MOEs at the 90 percent confidence level: the true value is likely to lie within the estimate plus or minus the MOE. Small parishes often have large MOEs compared with their estimates.

A GIS workflow for this lesson
Step	What the analyst does	In this lesson
1. Get the layer	Download polygon shapes for the places	U.S. Census Bureau 2023 cartographic boundary file of counties and parishes
2. Get the data	Download a table with one row per place	ACS 2020-2024 table C16001 (language spoken at home) and the 2023 Gazetteer (land and water area)
3. Join	Match rows to shapes by a shared ID	Join on the five-digit GEOID
4. Normalize	Turn counts into rates	Speakers ÷ residents age 5+; water area ÷ total area
5. Classify and symbolize	Choose breaks and a color ramp	Four classes, light to dark in one color
6. Compare layers and explain	Overlay, look for matches and mismatches, test reasons	Compare Diagrams 1 and 2 with Source 1

Counts versus rates
Lafayette Parish has 6,765 residents age 5+ who speak French, Haitian or Cajun at home, the largest count in the state. Evangeline Parish has 3,635.
Result: Rates: Lafayette 6,765 ÷ 231,643 ≈ 2.92%; Evangeline 3,635 ÷ 29,943 ≈ 12.14%. A count map would make Lafayette darkest; a rate map shows Evangeline has the highest share.
Equal-interval breaks
The parish shares run from 0.00% (Red River Parish) to 12.14% (Evangeline). Make four equal-interval classes.
Result: Width = (12.14 - 0) ÷ 4 ≈ 3.035, so the breaks are about 3.04%, 6.07% and 9.11%. Only Evangeline falls in the top class.
Quantile breaks
Make four quantile classes for the 64 parishes using the ranked table in Independent Practice.
Result: 64 ÷ 4 = 16 parishes per class: ranks 1-16, 17-32, 33-48 and 49-64. The top class now holds 16 parishes, from Evangeline (12.14%) down to St. James (1.39%).
Reading a margin of error
Cameron Parish: 248 ± 140 speakers among 4,634 residents age 5+.
Result: Low: (248 - 140) ÷ 4,634 ≈ 2.33%; high: (248 + 140) ÷ 4,634 ≈ 8.37%. The estimate of 5.35% could belong to any of three classes on Diagram 1, so its shade is uncertain. (This quick check treats the 4,634 as exact.)

Guided Practice15 minutes
Compare two layers. Project Diagram 1 (cultural layer) and Diagram 2 (environmental layer) side by side, as an analyst would toggle two layers in a GIS. Use the steps below, then read Source 1.
1. Describe the cultural layer. Prompt: where are the darkest parishes? Teacher note: in south-central Louisiana, west of Baton Rouge and New Orleans and around Lafayette; the north of the state is almost all in the lightest class.
2. Describe the environmental layer. Prompt: where is water a large share of the area? Teacher note: along the coast and especially around New Orleans, where several parishes are more than 40 percent water.
3. Find the match and the mismatch. Prompt: do the two layers line up? Teacher note: partly. Both patterns are southern, but the parishes with the most water (around New Orleans) are mostly in the lighter language classes, and some of the darkest language parishes are inland with little water.
4. Form a question. Prompt: if water alone does not explain the language pattern, what else might? Students suggest history, migration or the kind of land people farmed. Then turn to Source 1 to test those ideas.
Source 1 is a page from the National Park Service, which runs three Acadian cultural centers in Louisiana. Acadie (Acadia) was a French colony in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada; Le Grand Dérangement ("the great upheaval") is the Acadians' name for their removal by the British. A bayou is a slow-moving stream in low, wet country. Ask students to mark every place word in paragraphs 5 and 6 and to say which kind of environment each one names.
The three Acadian cultural centers of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve share the stories and customs of the Acadians who came to Louisiana and became the Cajuns, people proud of their French roots who adapted to a new land and a new life.
The Acadian story begins in France; the people who would become the Cajuns came primarily from the rural areas of the Vendee region of western France. In 1604, they began settling in Acadie, now Nova Scotia, where they prospered as farmers and fishers.
Over the next century, the ownership of the colony of Acadie changed hands several times. In 1713, Great Britain acquired permanent control of Acadie, but many Acadians did not become cooperative British subjects, preferring to maintain their independence and refusing to swear allegiance to the British crown and church.
In 1755, the British began the removal of the Acadians from their homeland. The "outlaws" were taken into custody by a British officer, then herded onto British ships setting sail for destinations unknown to the exiles. Le Grand Dérangement dispersed the Acadians to France, the Caribbean, Britain, and to British colonies along North America’s east coast.
Many of the exiles were unhappy in their new homes and moved on. Some of them found their way to south Louisiana and began settling in the rural areas west of New Orleans. By the early 1800s, nearly 4000 Acadians had arrived and settled in Louisiana.
Many lived in the bayou country where they hunted, fished, trapped, and lived off the bounty of the Mississippi River delta. Some moved beyond the Atchafalaya Basin onto southwest Louisiana’s prairies to raise cattle and rice. The new arrivals learned new skills and shared what they brought with them with the many peoples already in the area: American Indians, free people of color, enslaved Africans and their descendants, and immigrants from Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
The Acadians became Cajuns as they adapted to their new home and its people. Their French changed as did their architecture, music, and food. The Cajuns of Louisiana today are renowned for their music, their food, and their ability to hold on to tradition while making the most of the present.
National Park Service, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, From Acadian to Cajun (Source 1) (2026). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.

Independent Practice20-25 minutes

Create your own map. Using the ranked table below, each student creates a quantile map of the cultural layer on a blank parish outline map (or in a GIS program), using four shades of one color. Then each student writes a 5-7 sentence explanation that (1) describes the pattern on their map, (2) compares it with Diagram 2, (3) explains it with at least one quotation from Source 1, and (4) names one limit of the data, using a margin of error. The full steps are in Activity 2.

Louisiana parishes ranked by the share of residents age 5+ who speak French, Haitian or Cajun at home (real data: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table C16001; water share computed from the Census Bureau's 2023 Gazetteer of counties as water area ÷ (land area + water area)). Margins of error are at the 90 percent confidence level. Louisiana as a whole: 65,091 ± 2,199 of 4,326,919 residents age 5+, or 1.50%.
Rank	Parish	Residents age 5+	Speakers (± MOE)	Share (%)	Water share of area (%)
1	Evangeline	29,943	3,635 ± 418	12.14	2.5
2	St. Martin	48,187	3,696 ± 462	7.67	9.7
3	Vermilion	53,515	3,492 ± 385	6.53	23.5
4	Avoyelles	36,359	2,317 ± 339	6.37	3.9
5	Assumption	19,462	1,081 ± 241	5.55	7.0
6	Acadia	53,101	2,890 ± 537	5.44	0.3
7	Cameron	4,634	248 ± 140	5.35	33.7
8	Lafourche	90,587	4,624 ± 566	5.10	27.3
9	St. Landry	76,020	3,766 ± 538	4.95	1.6
10	Jefferson Davis	29,871	1,410 ± 310	4.72	1.1
11	Iberia	64,011	2,256 ± 394	3.52	44.8
12	Terrebonne	99,412	3,246 ± 583	3.27	40.9
13	Allen	21,123	657 ± 186	3.11	0.5
14	Lafayette	231,643	6,765 ± 829	2.92	0.2
15	Calcasieu	193,272	2,696 ± 463	1.39	2.7
16	St. James	18,416	256 ± 115	1.39	5.9
17	Pointe Coupee	19,276	266 ± 116	1.38	5.7
18	Orleans	351,634	4,389 ± 650	1.25	51.6
19	St. Mary	44,657	530 ± 164	1.19	50.1
20	Plaquemines	21,389	237 ± 139	1.11	69.6
21	Jefferson	403,900	4,431 ± 903	1.10	53.1
22	Sabine	20,681	224 ± 99	1.08	14.3
23	West Feliciana	14,663	131 ± 82	0.89	5.3
24	East Carroll	6,951	62 ± 51	0.89	4.9
25	Beauregard	34,222	300 ± 168	0.88	0.7
26	West Baton Rouge	26,276	222 ± 152	0.84	5.6
27	Ascension	121,752	997 ± 349	0.82	4.2
28	St. Tammany	256,842	1,934 ± 695	0.75	22.8
29	Concordia	17,089	123 ± 114	0.72	6.7
30	Vernon	43,361	303 ± 120	0.70	1.0
31	East Baton Rouge	424,732	2,933 ± 667	0.69	3.2
32	St. Charles	48,730	306 ± 164	0.63	30.0
33	Washington	42,195	259 ± 139	0.61	0.9
34	East Feliciana	18,379	110 ± 79	0.60	0.5
35	Iberville	28,189	168 ± 90	0.60	5.2
36	Franklin	18,147	99 ± 78	0.55	1.7
37	Rapides	119,328	619 ± 234	0.52	2.7
38	St. Helena	10,267	51 ± 50	0.50	0.3
39	Caldwell	9,034	44 ± 48	0.49	2.1
40	Grant	20,836	96 ± 47	0.46	3.2
41	Natchitoches	34,525	156 ± 54	0.45	3.6
42	Madison	8,832	37 ± 28	0.42	4.1
43	Bienville	11,898	49 ± 47	0.41	1.3
44	Winn	12,778	52 ± 47	0.41	0.7
45	Tensas	3,745	14 ± 22	0.37	6.0
46	Bossier	121,487	442 ± 247	0.36	3.2
47	St. John the Baptist	38,350	139 ± 119	0.36	47.7
48	Livingston	138,621	500 ± 203	0.36	6.3
49	Lincoln	45,722	159 ± 112	0.35	0.2
50	Webster	33,756	113 ± 80	0.33	3.5
51	Morehouse	23,110	76 ± 57	0.33	1.4
52	Tangipahoa	127,408	408 ± 176	0.32	6.3
53	Jackson	14,163	45 ± 36	0.32	1.9
54	LaSalle	13,574	41 ± 50	0.30	5.7
55	Caddo	216,046	576 ± 182	0.27	6.1
56	Union	19,632	50 ± 42	0.25	3.1
57	Catahoula	8,157	20 ± 25	0.25	4.3
58	Richland	18,555	41 ± 36	0.22	1.6
59	West Carroll	8,963	19 ± 20	0.21	0.3
60	St. Bernard	41,508	79 ± 52	0.19	82.5
61	De Soto	25,456	33 ± 21	0.13	2.0
62	Ouachita	148,343	161 ± 95	0.11	3.4
63	Claiborne	13,214	12 ± 13	0.09	1.6
64	Red River	6,990	0 ± 20	0.00	3.3

Closure10 minutes
Gallery check. Students place their quantile map next to Diagram 1 and answer aloud: what does your map make look bigger, and what does Diagram 1 make look bigger?
Exit ticket (index card): "Name one choice you made as a mapmaker today that changed what your map shows, and one piece of evidence that explains the language pattern."
Teacher notes: the Census category "French, Haitian, or Cajun" also counts speakers of Haitian Creole, which matters most in the New Orleans area; say this when students compare Orleans and Jefferson with Acadiana. In paragraph 4 Source 1 puts "outlaws" in quotation marks to show it is the British authorities' label, not the Park Service's own view. Paragraph 6 lists enslaved Africans and their descendants among the peoples already in the area; treat this as part of the documented history of south Louisiana. Source 1 also simplifies the early history: the first French settlement of 1604 was on Saint Croix Island (in today's Maine), followed by Port-Royal in today's Nova Scotia in 1605; Acadie also took in parts of today's New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Maine; and historians trace many founding Acadian families to the area around Loudun in Poitou, next to the Vendée.

Differentiation Strategies

For Struggling Students

Give the equal-interval and quantile break values and have students shade only the top two classes
Pair each student with a partner for the join and classification steps before they write alone
Provide a frame for the explanation: "The darkest parishes are ___. Diagram 2 shows ___. Source 1 explains ___ in paragraph ___. One limit is ___."

For Advanced Students

Make a third map with manual breaks of your own choosing and write a caption defending them
For three small parishes, compute the low and high shares from the margin of error and decide whether their shade on Diagram 1 is reliable
Suggest a remote-sensing layer, such as a land cover map from satellite images, that could test Source 1's paragraph 6 description of where Acadians settled (an extension beyond this lesson's data)

Assessment Guidance

What to Look For

Strong work normalizes before mapping, states the classification method and its breaks, and uses one color ramp from light to dark. Strong explanations describe the pattern with place names, admit where the two layers do not match, and cite Source 1 by paragraph to explain the mismatch. Watch for maps of raw counts, for keys whose classes overlap or leave gaps, and for claims that a small parish "has more French speakers" when its margin of error makes the difference uncertain.

Classroom Activities

3 Activities

Join Detective

15 minPairs

A GIS join fails silently when IDs do not match exactly, so analysts check every join. Pairs receive a 10-row data table that a classmate typed by hand to join to the parish layer. Their job is to find each row that will not join, or will join wrongly, and fix it. The correct GEOIDs come from the Census Bureau's files.

The Hand-Typed Table (with planted errors)

22001, Acadia
22003, Allen
2209, Avoyelles
22023, Cameron
22039, Evangeline
22045, Iberia
22055, Lafayette
22097, Saint Landry
22055, St. Martin
22113, Vermilion

Answer Key

Row 3: the GEOID has only four digits; it should be 22009, so it will not join. Row 8: the GEOID 22097 is right, so a join on GEOID works, but a join on names fails because the layer spells it "St. Landry." Row 9: 22055 belongs to Lafayette, so St. Martin's data would land on Lafayette Parish; the correct GEOID is 22099. The lesson: join on IDs, not names, and check every ID's length and uniqueness.

Discussion

Ask: which error would be easiest to miss on a finished map, and why? (Row 9, because the map still shows a value for every parish; one is simply wrong.)

Create the Quantile Map

25 minIndividual

Students create and explain their own choropleth map from the ranked parish table in Independent Practice. This is the main creation task of the lesson.

Steps

Split the 64 ranked parishes into four quantile classes of 16 (ranks 1-16, 17-32, 33-48, 49-64). Write each class's range of shares in the key.
Shade the parishes on the outline map, darkest for ranks 1-16. In a GIS, use the layer's symbology settings, choose "Quantile" with 4 classes, and check that the program's breaks match yours.
Add a title with the variable, place and years (2020-2024), a key, a north arrow, a scale bar and a source line naming the ACS table.
Compare your map with Diagram 1 and Diagram 2, then write the 5-7 sentence explanation described in Independent Practice.

What a Strong Map Shows

The darkest class covers a block of south-central parishes, so the quantile map makes the French-speaking region look larger than Diagram 1 does, while the north stays light. The key shows that the top class starts at only 1.39%, which a careful reader needs to know.

Modification: Digital Version

With computers, students download the boundary file and the ACS table, join them on GEOID in a GIS, and export the map. Check that they normalized first: a common slip is to map the speaker count instead of the share.

Plan a Ground-Truth Test

15 minGroups of 3-4

Paragraph 6 of Source 1 names two kinds of environment where Acadians settled in Louisiana. Groups plan, but do not carry out, a geospatial study to test whether those two environments still line up with the language pattern.

The Plan Must Name

Two data layers to compare: one cultural, one environmental, with the kind of layer each is (vector or raster)
One related technology and its job, for example a land cover raster made from satellite images (remote sensing), or GPS points collected at farms
The map or overlay they would make, and the result that would support or weaken Source 1's description

Model Plan

Cultural layer: the parish language shares (vector polygons). Environmental layer: a land cover raster from satellite images, such as the U.S. Geological Survey's National Land Cover Database, showing wetlands and cropland or pasture. Overlay: the percent of each parish covered by wetlands and by cropland or pasture. Support: high-language parishes split into a wetland group and a cropland or pasture group. Weaken: high-language parishes show no difference in land cover from low-language parishes.

Variation: Share and Critique

Groups swap plans and write one question the other group's plan could not answer.

Diagrams & Visual Aids

2 diagrams

Diagram 1: The Cultural Layer, French, Haitian or Cajun Spoken at Home

Choropleth map of Louisiana's 64 parishes, shaded by the share of residents age 5+ who speak French, Haitian or Cajun at home (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table C16001), with manual breaks at 1%, 3% and 6%. Parish shapes are simplified from the Census Bureau's 2023 cartographic boundary file (1:20,000,000) and joined to the data by GEOID. Red circles mark cities from the 2023 Gazetteer of places for reference.

Diagram 2: The Environmental Layer, Water as a Share of Parish Area

Choropleth map of the same parishes, shaded by water area ÷ total area from the Census Bureau's 2023 Gazetteer of counties. Water area counts lakes, rivers, bayous and coastal water inside each parish's legal boundary, which is why some coastal parishes are more than half water. The drawn outlines follow the shoreline, so the water itself is not shown as part of the shapes.

Homework Assignment

~30 min

D2.Geo.1.9-12 Homework: Mapping the Vellan Valley

Directions: The Vellan Valley and its data are invented for this homework. Use this table for every problem. Invented data, 8 districts (district: residents; residents who speak the Orvish language at home; share of land in forest): Ardley: 12,000; 1,560; 62%. Bexley: 8,000; 880; 55%. Carvel: 20,000; 1,200; 40%. Dressel: 5,000; 450; 70%. Elm Hollow: 30,000; 600; 12%. Fenwick: 15,000; 450; 18%. Garrow: 40,000; 1,600; 8%. Holt: 2,000; 130 ± 90 (a survey estimate with its margin of error); 48%. Invented background note: Orvish-speaking families have farmed and logged the forested uplands for generations. The valley-floor towns grew around a railroad built about 1900, which drew English-speaking workers.

Part 1: Prepare the Data (Problems 1-3)

Normalize the data: find the share (percent) of residents who speak Orvish at home in each of the 8 districts. Which district has the largest count of speakers, and which has the largest share?
Make four equal-interval classes from the lowest share to the highest. Give the class width, the three break values and the number of districts in each class.
Make four quantile classes of 2 districts each. List the districts in each class from highest share to lowest.

Part 2: Create, Critique and Explain (Problems 4-6)

Holt's estimate is 130 ± 90 speakers out of 2,000 residents. Find the lowest and highest share that the margin of error allows, and explain how this should affect the way you shade Holt on a map.
A classmate maps the speaker counts (not the shares) with darker shades for bigger counts. Name the district that their map makes look most Orvish-speaking, compare it with your answer to Problem 1, and explain in two sentences why a choropleth map should show shares.
Sketch the Vellan Valley as eight boxes in two rows (top row, forested uplands: Ardley, Bexley, Dressel, Holt; bottom row, valley floor: Carvel, Elm Hollow, Fenwick, Garrow) and shade them with your quantile classes. Then write a pattern statement and an explanation that uses the forest data and the background note, and name one geospatial technology that could test your explanation.

Rubric

Criterion	Full Credit (2 pts)	Partial Credit (1 pt)	No Credit (0 pts)
Normalizes and Classifies	All shares, breaks and class counts correct	Most correct, or one method wrong	Counts mapped or classes missing
Handles Uncertainty	Correct range from the MOE and a sensible shading decision	Range correct but no decision, or the reverse	Margin of error ignored
Creates the Map	Shaded sketch with title, key and source line that match the classes	Map present but key incomplete	No map
Explains the Pattern	Pattern and explanation cite the forest data and the note, and a fitting technology is named	Explanation with little evidence	Description only

Quiz: 20 Questions

Interactive, with answers

Instructions

Questions 11, 15 and 16 use the ranked parish table in Independent Practice, and questions 15 and 20 also use Diagrams 1 and 2. Questions 12, 13, 14 and 15 use Source 1 in Guided Practice. The other questions test GIS ideas with new examples. Choose the best answer, then check it.

Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.

0 of 20 answered · 0 correct

Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In a GIS, what is a layer's attribute table?
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A land cover map made from satellite images is stored as a grid of square cells, each with one land cover value. What kind of GIS layer is it?
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A student wants to record the exact coordinates of a cultural center while standing in front of it. Which technology fits this job?
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Why do analysts join Census data to map layers by GEOID instead of by place name?
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Parish X has 900 speakers of a language among 60,000 residents. Parish Y has 300 speakers among 6,000 residents. On a map of shares, which parish gets the darker shade?
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A data set runs from 0 to 20. What are the three break values for four equal-interval classes?
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
An analyst makes five quantile classes for Louisiana's 64 parishes. About how many parishes go in each class?
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A few parishes have much higher shares than all the others. Why does an equal-interval map of such data put most parishes in the lowest class?
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
A parish's estimate is 500 ± 200 speakers among 10,000 residents. Treating the 10,000 as exact, what range of shares does the margin of error allow?
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
The Census Bureau publishes ACS margins of error at the 90 percent confidence level. What does that mean for an estimate of 248 ± 140?
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use the ranked parish table. Which parish has a language share above 5% but a water share below 5%?
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 5 of Source 1, where did the Acadians who reached Louisiana begin settling?
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 6 of Source 1, which two kinds of environment did Acadians settle in?
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 5 of Source 1, about how many Acadians had arrived and settled in Louisiana by the early 1800s?
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Use Diagrams 1 and 2, the ranked table and Source 1. Explain the spatial pattern of French, Haitian or Cajun spoken at home in Louisiana. Say where the pattern matches the water layer, where it does not, and why.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
St. Martin Parish: 3,696 ± 462 speakers among 48,187 residents age 5+. Find the lowest and highest share the margin of error allows (treat 48,187 as exact). Could St. Martin belong in a different class than the one Diagram 1 gives it (6% or more)?
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
A classmate's map of Louisiana shades each parish by the number of French speakers, uses red, yellow, green and blue for the four classes, and has no source line. Name three problems and how to fix each.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
You want to map where residents age 5+ speak Spanish at home in Louisiana's parishes. List the GIS steps you would follow, naming the data you would join and the field you would map.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain how GPS could be used in a field study of where Cajun dance halls and music venues are found in south Louisiana, and how the results would become a GIS layer.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Your quantile map's top class starts at 1.39%, while Diagram 1's top class starts at 6%. Which map better displays the French-speaking region to a general reader? Defend your choice and write a one-sentence caption that keeps readers from misreading it.

0 of 20 answered · 0 correct

Frequently Asked Questions

10 Questions

What does D2.Geo.1.9-12 mean?

D2.Geo.1.9-12 asks high school students to use geospatial tools to make maps and then explain the patterns on them. The full text is "Use geospatial and related technologies to create maps to display and explain the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics." It adds the technology and the data work to the middle school version, D2.Geo.1.6-8.

What counts as a geospatial technology?

Any tool that collects, stores or analyzes location-based data. GIS software, GPS receivers (including phones), satellite and aerial imagery, and web mapping tools all count. "Related technologies" covers the spreadsheets and statistics tools used to prepare the data.

Do we need GIS software to teach D2.Geo.1.9-12?

No, but it helps. Every step of a GIS workflow (join, normalize, classify, symbolize, overlay) can be done on paper with a data table and an outline map, as this lesson shows. Free programs such as QGIS, or the mapping tools on the Census Bureau's data site, let students repeat the same steps digitally.

Why map percentages instead of counts?

Because counts mostly show where many people live. A choropleth shades whole areas, so a large parish with a small share can look darker than a small parish with a large share. Dividing by the population first (normalizing) lets the map show how common the characteristic is.

Which classification method is best?

None is best for every map; the right one depends on the message and the data. Equal intervals are easy to read but can hide detail when a few values are extreme. Quantiles show rank order but can put very different values in one class. Manual breaks at round numbers are clear but need a reason. Good mapmakers state the method in the key.

Why does the lesson use Census language data for a cultural characteristic?

Language is a clear cultural characteristic, and the Census Bureau measures it the same way in every parish. Its American Community Survey asks what language each person age 5 or older speaks at home, so the data can be mapped and compared across places.

What is a margin of error, and should students worry about it?

Yes, students should check it. A margin of error is the range around a survey estimate that is likely to contain the true value; the ACS reports it at the 90 percent confidence level. For small places the range can span several map classes, so a careful map notes the uncertainty.

How is D2.Geo.1.9-12 assessed?

Usually with a map product and a written explanation. Teachers can score the map for correct normalization, a stated classification and complete map elements, and score the explanation for pattern, evidence and limits, as the rubric in this lesson does.

Is the Cajun history in the source a settled fact or an interpretation?

The main events are documented history: the British removal of the Acadians from Nova Scotia beginning in 1755 and their later settlement in south Louisiana. Linking today's language map to that history is an interpretation that students support with evidence and test with other layers.

What comes after D2.Geo.1.9-12?

Using geographic data to analyze how patterns vary, in D2.Geo.3.9-12, and using maps and images to explain how locations relate to political, cultural and economic dynamics, in D2.Geo.2.9-12. The GIS skills in this lesson carry into both.