! Welcome to the Hyperspace Gateway !

Hello!  Everyone, I am Dr. GIS.   This web site is designed for the students  (6th grade) at Freese Elementary, San Diego.  This page will introduce the basics of Internet GIS and geospatial information technologies (GPS, remote sensing, virtual reality, etc.) with some interesting maps.

First of all, let's think about this question:

"What is the Internet ?" (click here to see the history of the "Internet")

Are you ready for the HyperSpace JUMP now?

Let's start from our home town, San Diego:

Click on this link to open [San GIS Interactive Map]. http://www.sangis.org/SangisInteractive/viewer/viewer.asp 

Now you will see the map of San Diego County.  What's the Zip code for Freese Elementary? (92114)

Can you find out where it is?  (You will need to use "Zoom In" tool). Drag a box on the map to zoom.

Now look at the [Map Type], remember what we said about GIS? 

GIS are Magic Sandwiches!

A yummy sandwich should have many "layers", so do GIS! 

How many layers are shown in your map now? (Transportation, Water Features, Political, and Schools).

Now click on the "school layers", then check out the "Unified School Dist" Box.  The color of map will change now to display the different unified school districts.

Can you tell which color the 92114 Zip code is in ?

Which school district does Freese Elementary belong to?

Wow, that's great!  You just finished your first Internet GIS project! 

Now play around with the maps for 5 more minutes, then close the map window.

Are your ready for our next stop? Let's jump to FRANCE!

The Second Stop: France

Now click on http://212.95.67.44/website/PARC/viewer.htm

(Note: If this waiting is too long, you can jump to the next stop)

You will see another map viewer open like the following picture.  NOW it is a challenging one.  Can you read French? We might not be able to recognize what these letters mean, but we can understand the map! 

Yes, it is a map of a natural park called "du Nord des Vosges Regional Nature Park"

Now, check the first box of layers [Vues du ciel] (aerial photos), then click on the "Refresh" button (the lower-right corner).

After the map refreshes, drag a box inside the map to zoom in.  You will see the aerial photos of the parks.  Isn't that a cool picture!

Play around this view for 5 minutes.

Then click on this link to view a 3D panaromanic view! http://www.parc-vosges-nord.fr/html/telechargement/photos.htm     (you can choose either quick-time or flash format, you might need to get the quick-time viewer to see these pictures).

Additional resource: France  http://www.parc-vosges-nord.fr/

O.K. I think that we have had a pretty good time with the "virtual tour" in France.  Now let's go to the Big Apple City, New York!

The Big Apple! New York City !

Now, click on this link http://www.oasisnyc.net/  This is the web site for NYC Open Space Mapping Services.  Now Click on the [Maps] button.  You will see the following window.

Step 1 is to pick up a Map Theme, let's select the [aerial photo] first.  Step 2 is to select the [Neighborhood] with [Manhattan Beach].  Now click on [Go to the Map].

Wow!  That's a Cool map! Please play around with this map for another 5 minutes. Then we will jump to MARS! 

The RED planet!  Mars !!!

Click on the link here. http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/ngs.html 

  Wow, this is a map of Mars. Can you tell why there are some white items on the top and the bottom of the map? What are they?  Someday, you might be able to travel to Mars with a newly updated map. Where will you visit first on Mars?

O.K. Let's go to the final STOP, Freese Elementary School!

Freese Elementary !

click on the link here http://map.sdsu.edu/website/freese/

A map viewer will open like this.

Now you have one final assignment.  You just got a message from the NASA headquarter . A space helicopter will land in your school for a surprise visit.  But the NASA staffs need to find out a safe area to land the space helicopter.  This aircraft will need at lease 150 feet X 150 feet square to land.  Can you identify what the length of your school's play ground is? 

 Now Zoom in to the school first. (like this picture)

Then click on the measurement tool to measure the distance in the ground field.

So, what are your measurement results?  Can the space helicopter land on Freese School safely?

You did Great Work!  There are some additional web sites you can explore:

Now enjoy your own journey!

Good Bye !