Forest Activity: Land Survey

Describe Your Schoolyard

Illinois State Web Module used: Forest module section on explorersí surveys and journals.

https://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/forest/htmls/re_reset.html

Purpose: to help students understand the importance and mechanics of making a land survey

grid by measuring, marking, and note taking.

Objective: students will be able to draw an approximate map of the land they surveyed after

measuring the land of their school yard with given materials and making notes of landmarks

and measurements.

Grade Levels: elementary and junior high

Time Required: one-hour period or two shorter ones (perhaps in coordination with math

teacher)

Materials for each group of three students:

A rope 12 feet long

Duct tape

Markers for corners of grid: bricks, milk cartons filled with sand, stones, etc.

Notebook

Pencil

Graph paper

Optional colored pencils

Motivation: Class discussion of Web page on land surveys and other materials on the subject.

Topics include careers, skills involved, importance for land purchasers, hardships of the job,

tools used, and comparisons to today.

Procedure: Choose ahead of time what the students will be surveying; size of whole grid; how

many sections will be needed (how many groups of three). Each groupís grid will be 12 feet by

12 feet. Grid sections will be contiguous.

24 by 48 grid

8 sections

Preparing students: Cut î piece of duct tape to wrap around the rope at 12î intervals. These

will allow them to pinpoint where objects are on the ground on their grid lines.

Two students of each group will be measuring their grid by laying out the rope, placing corner

markers, and counting feet to mark objects. The third member will take notes on what objects

are found and where they are. Students should be encouraged to make sketch maps showing

the locations of objects.