Analyzing Crop Development Patterns in Illinois

Learning Unit Description:

The Integrated Geospatial Education and Technology Training Project (iGETT) presents a series of Learning Units (LU) designed to incorporate federal land remote sensing data into Geographic Information System (GIS) instruction. The Analyzing Crop Development Patterns in Illinois LU, created by Mike Rudibaugh of Lake Land College, uses soil fertility (and soil type, slope, precipitation, temperature, and pest management practices) alongside remote sensing data to assess how regional climate shifts influence crop development calendars in the region.

The iGETT Learning Units amount to about three weeks of instruction and are designed for use both as “skills-based case studies and building blocks for new courses.” All LUs are intended for students with a basic understanding of GIS. Each LU includes three core documents, an instructor’s guide, a student guide, and a curriculum support document, as well as the remote sensing data needed to complete the unit. 

Upon completion of the lesson, students should be able to identify temporal and spatial trends of NDVI values within the study area; download remote sensing data for the geographic region by accessing appropriate websites; and manipulate the downloaded spatial data in image processing software.

For orientation purposes, viewers should begin with Rudibaugh_Thumbnail.pdf, which offers a description of the LU as well as an overview of topics covered, required software, and the intended audience.

Lesson Contents:

The attached files associated with this LU exist in a variety of formats and a variety of geospatial data file types.

Below is a list of the files contained within the .zip attachment. The size of each file is included in parenthesis.

LU_Rudi.zip

• Documents
  • Rudibaugh_SH_Final.pdf (2.9 MB)
  • GSA_Rudi.pdf (313 KB)
  • Rudibaugh_IG_Final.pdf (169 KB)
  • Rudibaugh_Thumbnail.pdf (150 KB)
  • ndviag_rudibaugh_CS_june2008.pdf (32 KB)
• Data
  • llc.shp (19 KB)
  • llc_.dbf (1 KB)
  • llc.dbf (1 KB)
  • llc.sbn (132 bytes)
  • llc.sbx (116 bytes)
  • llc.shx (108 bytes)