Hands On with Geospatial Technology
Create a Google Map for your 4-H Exhibit
Creating geospatial exhibits 5A
Requirements:
 Your local fair book is essential for exhibit guidelines!
o County and state exhibit requirements are listed in each county fair
book, which all members receive annually. Check for additional
county requirements.
o General Geospatial exhibit requirements are listed on “5A (General)
Creating 4-H County or State Exhibit” handout
 Exploring Spaces Going Places CD for geospatial projects – available
from local Extension office
 Geo-tools – may be a GPS receiver or an online geocoder
 Exhibit materials for display like poster board or cardboard
 Computer with internet capacity and printer
o http://maps.google.com/ site and permission to open a free
account. An email is needed for this.
o http://www.itouchmap.com/ put in an address, get coordinates.
Tips for Getting Started:
 This Google Map activity is to help beginners make their first community
map. Other mapping programs allow for more data entry and develop
enhanced mapping skills. Check out related 3C activities for AEJEE and
ArcMap, and also check out websites listed in the 5A general handout.
 As you gain skills, seek a mapping professional in your community to help
you advance in this exciting project.
In Illinois there are two options for 4-H geospatial exhibit at the
county or state fair. Both are based on activities from the
“Exploring Spaces Going Places” CD for geospatial projects.
The CD is available for youth enrolled in this project at
Extension offices.
1. “Take Me on a Tour” activity the CD as “Level 1 project.pdf” on pages
65 – 66.
2. “What are Geographical Tools?” on the CD as “Level 1 components
activity #2” on pages 25-29.
This activity relates to option #1, in which you create a tour map showing four to
six locations of interest in your community. This example shows a very easy way
to make a map using Google Maps. This map is simple, but can be used for a
level 1 beginners map.
ASK
I’m enrolled in the 4-H geospatial project.
I’ve never made a computer map and don’t have any computer software.
How do I create a map for my geospatial project, as part of my 4-H fair exhibit?
INVESTIGATE
Contact the Extension office for the 4-H project CD, “Exploring Spaces Going
Places”? See the “Take Me on a Tour” activity listed on the CD as “Level 1
project.pdf” on pages 65 – 66, which explains the activity.
CREATE
Follow the steps:
1. Read the directions for the “Take Me on a Tour” activity. You will need:
a. Information: Places of interest in your community, a geo-tool (for
this activity, a geocode web site is used to find coordinates from
addresses, or you may collect coordinates with a GPS receiver),
coordinate datum, and information about the sites. A table is a
good way to save and display this data.
b. Poster Board or a tri-fold cardboard display on which to display
your map and other information.
i. Neatness of displayed map and data is important.
ii. Your display will show community places of interest.
iii. Optional: Take a laptop to your judging to show your online
map and embedded information ONLY IF THERE IS
INTERNET CONNECTIVITY AT THE 4-H JUDGING OR IT
WILL NOT WORK! This option does not replace a display.
c. Your display will need a title and a topic for your community tour.
2. Choose your map topic
Think - What kinds of places do you want on your map?
What places or things in your community will interest visitors?
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3. List four to six places in your community you would like to feature on the
tour of your community. Be sure to include addresses.
Creating a table like the example below will help you to keep your data
organized, and will also be a part of your display. Your information table
will look different depending on your data, and that is fine. See “5A 4-H
Google Maps Exhibit Data Table” to customize and use if you wish.
Tour
Site
GeoTool
Used
Richland Geocoder
County
web site
Extension
Office
Exciting Richland County Sites
Latitude Longitude Address Information
(Y)
(X)
306 S. Fair
Olney,
Illinois
Come here to
join 4-H, or call
618-395-2191
4. When your table contains all sites and their addresses, the next step in
your investigation is to find the position coordinates.
5. Go to http://www.itouchmap.com/ to instantly convert a street address to a
latitude and longitude.
a. On the upper right side of the page, click on “lat/long”.
b. In the address window, fill in the address including city and state,
and “go”. Your latitude and longitude appear; record these on your
information table. A placemark appears showing you the exact
place on a map.
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c. Note the options at the upper right of the map; Map, Satellite,
Hybrid and Terrain. Click to show different types of maps.
d. More latitude and longitude information is shown below on this
page.
e. The “itouchmap” shows only one position at a time, so this won’t
make a good map. When all coordinate data is collected, go to
Google maps to create your exhibit map.
6. Go to http://maps.google.com/
a. Open an account – it costs nothing. An email address is needed.
b. Click -> My Maps
c. Click -> Create a New Map
d. Enter your map title, description, and indicate if it is to be available
to the public or just to people you select, marked as “unlisted”.
i. SAVE this information.
ii. Now you can enter data and save future points to this map.
You can also edit any entries you have made.
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e. To have a placemark appear on your map, add location
information in the “Search Maps” window. There is more than one
way to activate this feature.
i. Enter the street address, town and state of a site and “enter”.
A placemark will instantly appear on the map! OR
ii. Enter latitude and longitude coordinates instead of a street
address and click “enter”, OR
iii. Enter a well-known place in the window such as, “Olney
Public Library, Olney, Illinois”.
f. Be sure to click, “Save to my map” for each placemark and text
you want on your map.
g. You can change placemarks and add text and information in the
pop-up window by clicking on the placemark.
h. Check out other things you can do with your map – the “HELP”
button provides good instructions and some interesting tutorials for
many other options.
To share your map with others online, click “print”, “email” or “link”
on the upper right of the map. The link for the map above is:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=10952955292
7909386821.00046767d58bdaefe8a0d&ll=38.734837,88.081942&spn=0.018479,0.041242&z=15
i.
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For a nice printout of your map for your display, click on “print” on
the upper right of the map. This prints a nice sized map with your
informative comments for your display.
k. Optional: To add a tour route, add connected lines between sites.
i. Open your map
ii. Click Edit
iii. Click the “line” icon. Click at your starting point, and then at
each placemark. Don’t go too fast or it may lock up. A small
white box appears and a blue line connects it to the next
point. It will measure the distance for you, and you may
label this.
j.
7. A sample fair display is pictured below. Each exhibit of course will be
different, and of course that makes them interesting.
Title
Explanation –
What it
is about?
Position Data
(coordinates)
and
information
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DISCUSS
What was fun about this activity?
What was difficult?
What would you do differently next time?
REFLECT
How could you use a map like this in your real life?
Who would like to see your map?
Will you email the map link to someone?
Congratulations on creating an interesting community map containing information
for the Level I 4-H geospatial project display! When you have time, check out
some of the other features on Google Maps. The “help” feature provides you
with all kinds of information on how to get results. You can even add your own
icons and add photos.
With experience you will want to try more advanced mapping programs. There
are several hands-on activities in section 3C to help you with this. Finding a
mentor in your community who has professional mapping skills, such as an
engineer, the county assessor, or a surveyor, would help you to gain advanced
skills and knowledge in this field.
There are many careers in the geospatial field for people with Geographic
Information System (GIS) mapping skills! Have fun with your exhibit this year,
and we hope you will take this project again next year.
Author: Barb Roberts, University of Illinois Extension, youth development
educator Lawrence/Richland Unit, robertsb@illinois.edu
Date: April 14, 2009
University of Illinois  U.S. Department of Agriculture  Local Extension Councils Cooperating
University of Illinois Extension provides equal opportunities in programs and employment. If you need a reasonable accommodation to
participate in this program, please contact the county Extension office.
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