A GIS Day Activity for Caroline County Middle School Students

Activity Time: 40 minutes

Resources

This Activity requires the following resources:

• A computer for each pair of students.
• Internet connection for each computer.
• Web browser
• This Activity sheet.
• RiverGuide Activity Key and suggestions for teachers.

Student Activities

Use the Choptank and Tuckahoe RiverGuide to answer these questions:

1. Who created the Choptank and Tuckahoe RiverGuide?  Why was it created? 

• Go to www.riverheritage.org and click on the "Choptank and Tuckahoe RiverGuide" link.  (If you have a small monitor, go to www.riverheritage.org/riverguide/macstart.html .)
   
• Read the information at the beginning of the start page.
   
• Answers:
  
  _______________________________________ _____
  _______________________________________ _____
  _______________________________________ _____

2. How does the Choptank and Tuckahoe Water Trail serve as a Chesapeake Bay Gateway?

• Click the Chesapeake Gateway link on the start page.  Read about the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network.
   
• Look through the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network brochure and the Choptank and Tuckahoe Rivers Water Trail brochure.
   
• Answers:
  
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________

3. What information and help does the RiverGuide offer?

• Click each of the icons on the Navigation Bar on the left side of the start page.  (Or use the pulldown menu on the start page for small monitors.)
   
• Answers:
  
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________

4. How is information about Historic Sites organized? In what order do the historic sites appear?

• Click on the Historic Sites icon (or pulldown menu).
   
• Click on the “Upper Choptank” link.
   
• Click on any Historic Site name, then click the “upriver” and “downriver” links. Watch the Locator Map change for each site.
   
• Answers:
  
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________

5. How many historic sites are older than 1699?

• Use the Historic Sites Finder. Choose “1699” in the Date box.
   
• Answers:
  
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________

6. How many historic sites had ferry for crossing the rivers before bridges were built?  What is the oldest ferry landing site?

• Use the Historic Sties Finder. Choose “Ferries” in the Activities box.
   
• Answers:
  
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________

7. How much would it cost a mule to cross the Denton Bridge in 1818?  What did the 1875 Denton Bridge look like?

• Use the Historic Sites Finder. Type “denton bridge” in the Keywords box.
   
• Click the “Denton Bridges” link and read about the bridges built in 1811, 1875, and 1913.
   
• Click the photo icons in the lower left panel to pop up photos of the 1875 and 1913 bridges.
   
• Answers:
  
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________

8. Plan a canoe trip to the birthplace of a famous African-American.  What two famous African-Americans were born near the Tuckahoe River?

• Click the “Trip Planner” icon (or select from the pulldown menu.)
   
• Use the Trip Finder. Choose “African-American History” from the Themes box.
   
• Read the descriptions of the two “pilgrimages”.
   
• Answers:
  
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________

9. Take an imaginary steamboat trip from the Joppa Steamboat Wharf in West Denton. What would be your destination?  Plan a real camping trip from the reconstructed Joppa Wharf.  Where will you launch your canoe? How far downriver to the nearest campground?

• Click the “Trip Planner” icon (or select from the pulldown menu.)
   
• Click the “Joppa Overnight Run” link.
   
• Click the link to “Read the Story”.
   
• At the bottom of the “Joppa Story” pages, click the link to “Take an Imaginary 1880s Trip”.
   
• Click through the “Joppa Story” pages and read about camping at Martinak Park
   
• Answers:
  
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________
  ____________________________________________