Weekly, monthly, or annually the students also submit data on the hydrology, soil, and land cover at their local study sites. The tools map the data, allowing students to examine geographic patterns. By exploring the patterns, students gain insight to the relationships among environmental variables. The color of the dot indicates the value of the measurement . For example, a temperature dot map uses different colors to indicate different temperature readings.
Students can identify the temperature at any site by comparing the dot color to a key.
Dot maps are a relatively simple visualization, but important because students can see each individual observation. In making meaning of the data, students can see whether the dots fall into patterns. They also can look for dots that seem to be anomalies in the general pattern and then investigate what may account for the anomaly. Contour maps display bands of color that represent the average value of a measurement within a geographic region. They are quite similar to the weather maps that appear in daily newspapers.