Josh Zettel

Final Project
4/13/16
What I learned doing my final project.
When I first started my final project I really had no idea what I was getting
into. I had this idea of doing a project that included addresses, street views and
google map earth views. I wanted to create a map that had every bar and Liquor
store throughout Utah. Yet I decided that it was a little too much to take on for an
intro class. Therefore, after talking with my professor and learning about how to
piece a map together and what websites would be helpful. I decided to narrow it
down to include only Liquor stores across all of Utah and include certain cities such
as Salt Lake City and other cities that included Cedar City, St. George and Ogden.
Once I narrowed down my point of interest I went on to learn what a dataset
is and what information it obtained. For example a dataset is a collection of related
sets of information that is composed of separate elements but can be manipulated
as a unit by a computer. Which is something I learned working on this project.
Before taking the class I had no idea how to define a data set or what it was. Yet
once I started browsing the website that was recommended by my teacher. The
Utah AGRC website, I learned what a data set was and what kind of information is
included, such as Parcels of land, Aerial photos, Addresses, Base Imagery maps,
Archaeological sites and other information that is obtained in Datasets. And after
learning about datasets and browsing I learned that AGRC contained all of the
information I was looking for. AGRC had all of the state liquor stores and even more.
I discovered with the software that it was very informative and that it was not
as complicated as it looks or appeared. I learned that I was able to download the
dataset from AGRC and just overlay that information onto a blank map by using the
techniques that I learned by using the ESRI software and by doing all of the
assignments in the ArcGIS class. For example from the ESRI course and other
assignments such as the project I had to learn how to insert legends, north arrows,
scale bars and streets etc. and by using all of those techniques, I was able to do
that with my map.
As far as the project turned out. I learned a lot about map making and the
software that makes map making possible. I am happy with the way it turned out. I
learned a lot about organization of maps, such as legends and scale bars. I learned
what a dataset is and how to overlay it on a map. I learned with my final project that
I could have done everything that I originally wanted but its important to start
small and build from there. Therefore Im glad that I decided to go with a more basic
map then what I originally proposed because now I know how to start small and
build up on top of it. And I also learned what is possible.