Geostac Lesson SL

Student Lesson

Lesson Title: Thinking Spatially about Japanese Internment

Lessons Summary: This lesson is a student demonstration and uses Web-based GIS and spatial thinking skills to explore Japanese Internment during WWII.

Lesson Objective: Students will demonstrate an understanding of web-based GIS, spatial thinking skills and Japanese Internment by executing GIS tasks, working cooperatively and participating in discussion regarding spatial thinking concepts.

Before you begin using this module, students will need to know about using a Web-based GIS viewer. They can do this by watching the tutorial video or working through the tutorial. The tutorial video, student activity, and Web-based GIS Tutorial Viewer can be found at http://gis.lanecc.edu  “Modules” tab  “Tutorial” link. The activity works best with a high speed Internet connection. Prior Skills: You will need to know how to turn layers on and off, use the ID tool and, zoom in and out of the map, toggle from layers to the legend, and perform a search (Boolean) query. Remember: Computer steps are indicated by a symbol and questions you need to answer are numbered.

For this lesson you will need to set the status bar in Mozilla to show latitude and longitude.

Open Mozilla  Tools  Options  Content  Advanced

Choose OK - Now the latitude and longitude of the mouse cursor will show at the bottom of the map.

Connect to the Web-based GIS viewer http://arcgis.lanecc.edu/website/jinterncensus/viewer.htm

The initial page will look like this example.

GEOSTAC NSF-ATE # 0903330 1 Explore the Data

Turn off the inset map

Click the Zoom tool and draw a box around Californian to zoom into that area. Make City Active and Visible – Refresh the map. Use the select tool and draw a square around the largest circle symbol in California. A Data table will show below the map.

Q1) What is the name of the city and the population? Is it a capital? Toggle the legend / data layer button .

Q2) What are the data ranges for city population? What range (lowest, middle, and highest) is the city located to the south of San Francisco?

To locate the capitals, set up a query. Set Field to Capital Set operator to = Set Sample Value to “Y” Add to Query String and Execute

Q3) How many Capitals are in the United Sates? Is the data field Capital state capitals or national capitals?

Exploring location -Why Internment Camps were located in specific places.

Make Internment camps active and Visible, Turn off topography and ocean – Refresh the map.

GEOSTAC NSF-ATE # 0903330 2 Zoom out to see the entire US.

Q4) Describe the relationship between Internment camps and the following: Large Cities , Oceans, Other camps Make City active and visible – Refresh the map.

Create a spatial buffer around the cities to see some patterns.

First query to select all the cities in the United States of America. Field = CNTRY_NAME Operator is = Add to query string Type this in the box "US" Execute

Click the buffer tool. With the cities selected type 100 in the distance box.

Select Create Buffer.

You will get a map that looks like the one shown.

Q5) Are there any internment camps within 100 miles of a large city? Q6) Estimate the distance from San Francisco to the nearest Internment Camp.

Use the measure tool to determine the distance. You may need to zoom in closer to have a more accurate measurement.

Q7) What is the absolute location of the camp closest to San Francisco? (lat/long)? What is the relative location? (north of…, south of…, west of…, east of…, X miles north of…)

Turn on elevation layer and toggle to the legend.

GEOSTAC NSF-ATE # 0903330 3 Q8) Describe the location relative to elevation?

Q9) Condition: What might you see, hear, smell etc. at the internment camp near San Francisco? How would this me the same or different form what you might see, hear and smell at the Internment camp in Arkansas?

Q10) Connection: List/describe ways the internment camps are connected.

Q11) Comparison: How are the sites similar/different?

Q12) Aura/influence: what effect does an internment camp (or the creation of it) have on its neighbors?

Make “Exclusion Zone” active and visible- Refresh the map.

Q13) Region: How would you define the region of the exclusion zone?

Make “Census 1930” visible and active

Q14) Transition: describe how internment sites are geographically dissimilar to areas of high Japanese population in 1930.

Repeat this with “Census 1940” and then with “Census 1950.”

After examining the change in population density and counties on a superficial level, dig deeper.

Make “Census 1930” visible and active - Refresh

Q15)Diffusion: Which counties had a value of 0, or no Japanese population in 1930? What was the highest percent of Japanese population in 1930 and generally how was the population distributed? Are they distributed evenly or are there clusters of high and low populations?

Q16) Diffusion: How did the patterns shift between 1930 through 1940 and into 1950?

Did the percent of the Japanese population increase or decrease during this 30year period?

How did the populations of Japanese-Americans in California change between 1940 and 1950? Why do you think they changed in this way?

Make “Internment Camps” visible and active Zoom out to the national scale

Make “military bases” visible and active – Refresh the map.

Q17) Association: Comparing the military bases and the internment camps, do they tend to appear together in the same places or does one never appear close to the other?

Q18) Exceptions: Where are the places that do not seem to follow an observed rule?

GEOSTAC NSF-ATE # 0903330 4 Make “Relocation Centers” visible and active – Refresh the map

Q19) What pattern can you see in the relocation centers? What region are they located in? Why might this be the case?

Q20) Spatial Model: In this case, what processes allow events in one place to affect other far away places? Why do you think military planners wanted to remove Japanese-Americans from California?

Career Connections: In this lesson, GIS was used to look at an historical event. However, GIS is not only used by historians. List 5 professions you think may use GIS.

Career Extension Go to the website http://esri.com/industries.html

Find a career from the list that is of interest to you. For example: In the Natural Resources list, there is a link to forestry. In the forestry link, there are several job descriptions.

List four ways GIS is used in the career you choose.

Conduct an internet search to find information about salary ranges and possible job locations.

GEOSTAC NSF-ATE # 0903330 5