Apple Orchards in Androscoggin County, Maine

Teacher Preparation-- The teacher needs basic knowledge of working with a GIS before doing this lesson.
Before class the teacher needs to download a map of the Androscoggin County and a map of towns in Maine to place it in a data folder. These should be available from the state GIS office. The teacher also needs to provide a list of apple orchards for Androscoggin County.

1. Open Arcview (or similar GIS program) on the computer. Start as a new project with a new view.
2. Add a theme by navigating to the stored county file that was downloaded before class. Each shape on the map will represent a different town in Androscoggin County.
3. Discover the names of the towns by adding another theme for townships. Drag this theme above the county theme so the names of the towns display on top of the shapes.
4. Under "View" choose "new theme." Select "point" as the "feature type." (Points are usually used in a GIS to represent discrete locations.) Name this theme "orchards."
5. Right now the "orchards" theme is empty. Use the drawing tool palette and the point tool in the drop down list. Add points to the correct places on the map for each orchard in the list. (You may need to approximate some locations if the streets are not shown on the map.)
6. Save changes that are made to the map.
7. Create a layout, export the finished map to the desktop and print it if you wish.