11.188/11.520 Lab #2 - Sept. 21, 2009

LAB #2: Mostly more thematic mapping + Windows issues and Coordinate Systems
  (0) Navigating and 'binding' Windows and AFS file system directory trees
      - that is, Drives Z; and M:
  (1) Exploratory map - comparing population of Cambridge blockgroups 
      with and without normalizing by block group area,
  (2) Explanatory map - examining spatial relationship between land use 
      and housing prices,
  (3) Comparison of Cambridge land use map in Mass State Plane and 
      Geographic (lat/lon) coordinates
  (4) Creating maps as PDF files
  (5) Getting more comfortable with ArcMap: symbology, legend options, 
      scale bar, north arrow, annotation, ...

Lab #2 presentation:
  -- Review Windows and AFS navigation and 'attach' issues in 37-312 and 
     other WinAthena sites
  -- Using the 'Source' tab in the ArcMap TOC and correcting saved MSD 
     documents. 
  -- How to reset the data source when shapefiles have been moved 
     (or Drive M is changed).  
  -- Highlight key parts of ArcMap that we will use: 
     layer properties - symbology, labeling, ...; 
  -- Recognize that map annotations using simple graphic tools 
     are not registered with coordinates.
  -- Workarounds when shapefiles are big and slow down the machine a lot 
     (turn off some of the features; save a smaller portion of the 
     shapefile; copy the file to a local drive; etc.)

Optional Lab, Friday, 11:30 - 1:30 in Room 37-312
New TA: Diana Jue (MCP and past undergrad, dmjue@mit.edu) 
will be helping out with labs sessions.