GEOG 103 Activity Session: Social Explorer Part 2
Last week you learned several things about Social Explorer including - how to access the site, how to
navigate the map, how to change the data, and how to change the symbology. This activity puts what you
learned to work. Here you will focus on specific areas and answer questions based on what you find on
the map. The first couple of questions are based on viewing the Binghamton area. For the last part, you
will be looking at some aspect of your hometown (i.e. you can choose whatever data you want to look at –
income, race, education, etc.).
You will place your answers on a Word document and upload it to your activity session’s assignment box
– the TA will be opening these boxes up for you to submit your work. This assignment must be complete
by Wednesday May 8th by 12 noon.
1. login and navigate to the Social Explorer site. Once on the main page, click on the “Explore” link.
2. When you have reached the mapping page, you will probably be confronted with an o er for a “Tour.”
You can take this tour – or you can just close the o er by clicking on the “X.”
3. After closing the o er, you will have access to the main map. The first thing you will notice is that the
initial view of the United States is based on the population density. Zoom in on the map to view
Binghamton, NY. As you learned last week, as you zoom in – the scale of the data will change. In our case,
it changed from the state level to county level down to the tract level which means the data you can
retrieve is based on that collected at the tract level. Your screen should look like the figure below. You will
be able to tell what type data you are looking at based in the information prompt… here you can see that
this is a map of the Population Density at the Tract level.
a) Hover the pointer over the darkest tracts (based on you symbology, these are the ones with the
highest density). Look at the information pop-ups as you hover. List the tract number of all the
tracts with a population density over 9000 persons per square mile.
b) Change the data by clicking on the Change Data button. Open the Age category and select
“Median Age” from the list. Return to your changed map and visually scan for the tracts that
indicate the youngest median age categories (from the legend, these would be the lightest color
categories). What is the median age of tract 14.01, tract 14.02, and tract 13. After writing down
those answers, look at the map again. Is there another tract in the area with a younger population
(you can zoom out a little bit to get a better view of the area)? If so, what is the tract number and
what is the name of the place?
c) Change the data again by clicking the Change Data button. Make sure your data year is set to
2023. Then scroll down and choose the Quality-of-Life option.
Scroll down the list of options for Quality of Life and choose the Burglary Index. Are the tracts you
have looked at so far higher or lower than the national average? Which tract comes closest to
being almost twice the national average?
d) For this last part, you will zoom to your hometown and pick any variable - from any time period - to
explore. Take a screenshot of your map and paste it to your WORD document and provide a
paragraph to explain what we are seeing in the map you chose to illustrate.
Save your Word document with the answers, the map, and the paragraph, and upload this to your
session’s assignment box. The due date is May 8th by 12 noon.