1. Right click on Temporary Places and select Add>Folder from the menu. Name the folder
FinalProject_YourLastName.
2. Right Click on the FinalProject folder you just created and create any subfolders that will help
with the organization of your project content.
3. Create placemarks within the FinalProject folder or any of its subfolders.
4. Remember that it is possible to drag and drop placemarks and data into their appropriate
folders.
5. Right click on the FinalProject folder again, and select Save Place As… to save the KMZ to
your computer. Suggestions for a Successful Project
• Keep the focus narrow, such as the Bonneville Salt Flats. Don’t try and cover hurricanes,
volcanoes, and earthquakes all in one project.
• Try focusing on a single event, such as impacts and recovery from the eruption of Mount
Saint Helens.
• Your project needs to contain direct observations of your dataset(s).
• We will make a lot of connections to climate change in this course; note that 30 years of data
are needed for valid observations of climate change impacts on Earth systems. It is unlikely
that a dataset with a long enough history to make conclusive statements about climate (30
years) will be found in a KML format (there are a some, but not many).
• Depending on your data and observations, it may be difficult to make valid statements that
your observations are the effect of one or more causes. Rather than trying to determine what
is driving the change you observe, try to analyze the impacts of the change on the
environment and humans.
• All science has limitations. Do not present conclusions that overreach your observation and
analysis.
• Conduct all your writing in a document outside Google Earth. That way, if your placemarks
are mismanaged and your work in Google Earth is not saved, you will not have lost your
entire project.
• Do not select a KML/KMZ dataset that already has a lot of writing in the pop-up balloons.
You cannot use what is essentially a completed project as the dataset for your project.
o KML Files created by David Tryse cannot be used for the project.
• Maintain good placemark management.
• Provide detailed directions on how to navigate your project (See the Lab 2 kml for an
example.)
• In the first couple of weeks of the course we discussed editing kmls and the use of kml/html
tags. Using the tag
in the Description box of the pop-up balloon editor will allow you to
insert spaces between the paragraphs.
• Save the project as a KMZ. If the project is saved as a KML images in the pop-up balloons
will not be saved with the project.
• You are expected to generate your own original writing for the Final Project, and cite
quotations from other sources in the respective pop-up balloon where the information is
presented.