My challenge for you is to create your own Geographical Information system -GIS, like Google maps.

Watch the video to find out more.

You will need:

A phone – with a lux meter app.

A map of your garden or school grounds – watch my video to see how to make one.

Paper

Scissors

Glue

How to do it:

Take your light meter app around your garden stopping in lots of different locations.

Whenever you stop, take a light meter reading and write it on the map at the location where you took the reading. Or write it on a piece of paper or results table with the location described next to it.

You can use the results table below.

Once you have gathered your data you can use it to create a bar graph on J2Launch. Next print out the graph and cut out the bars. Stick the right bar on your map in the right location. You have now created your first layer on your GIS.

You can repeat this by taking readings for temperature, or windspeed or rainfall.

To make your map a truly interactive GIS like Google maps then use a digital application. ARCGIS is available for schools free so get your teacher to apply for it here.

Then download Survey123 app and make a survey for microclimate. Or you can use mine here. Go around your garden or school grounds filling in the survey at different locations to create a data set for all the data you collect.

Once uploaded onto Survey 123 you can access the data on your ArcGIS account and display the data using different sized proportional symbols for the different measurements. You can even change the symbols so they are representative of your readings.

Or if you don’t have access to survey 123 you can use your phone to get the exact GPS location for you sites and add that to your results table. Place in an Excel document using the template below and save as a .csv file.