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Shimer College Analyses 2004 Map Project Tutorial
This section summarizes uses of software tools for Shimer College recruitment analyses.
See associated Web page
http://proximityone.com/shimer.htm
for a related narrative but not in the context of a tutorial.
The purpose of the tutorial is two-fold. First, it provides real data that can be used for self-guided
dynamic analyses of data pertaining to the recruitment process. By going through the tutorial,
other data views,
geography, and subject matter may be of interest to you can be pursued.
Second, by proceeding through a set of operational steps making use of the data, the processes and
potentials for using
geocoded address/student data, and matching these residential locations with small area geodemographics
for recruitment analyses, becomes clearer.
- Create a folder on your computer c:\sa2004.
- Expand the U.S. by County boundary file to c:\sa2004.
- Expand the U.S. by State boundary file to c:\sa2004.
- Expand the project zip file (sa2004.zip), provided separately, to c:\sa2004.
- Download and install the
map viewer software.
- Start the map viewer software and then click on new project (left graphic below).
From the next screen, add the shapefiles to the new project by choosing Add Themes to View (right graphic below).
- On the next panel, expand the c:\sa2004 folder which shows files that you downloaded.
Choose (click on holding down ctrl key) the 12 shapefiles as below above and click Add Themes.
What are these files and what is their role?.
| shimer.shp | Shimer College (point shapefile) |
| psatstd.shp | PSAT Student File (selected by Shimer from College Board (point shapefile) |
| shimstd.shp | Shimer Students (point shapefile) |
| bg172.shp | Illinois by Block Group Shapefile with DP2 subject matter (polygon shapefile) |
| bg173.shp | Illinois by Block Group Shapefile with DP3 subject matter (polygon shapefile) |
| bg174.shp | Illinois by Block Group Shapefile with DP4 subject matter (polygon shapefile) |
| m17097g2.shp | Lake County, IL by Block Group Shapefile with DP2 subject matter (polygon shapefile) |
| m17097g3.shp | Lake County, IL by Block Group Shapefile with DP3 subject matter (polygon shapefile) |
| m17097g4.shp | Lake County, IL by Block Group Shapefile with DP4 subject matter (polygon shapefile) |
| m17097r.shp | Lake County, IL Streets Shapefile |
| st99_d00.shp | U.S. by State (polygon shapefile) |
| co99_d00.shp | U.S. by County (polygon shapefile) |
Not essential to the demo, the files bg17*.* are available separately.
- Close the Add Themes window. Back at the map main screen click the checkbox beside the
layer/theme named "st99_d00". The map screen will now appear similar to the view shown below.
Click on Zoom tool (third row). Draw (drag to form box) a rubberband box around the contiguous 48
states and release mouse to zoom in.
The left column shows themes or layers that can be displayed/stacked in the map window in the right
portion of the screen. Each theme or layer corresponds to one of the shapefiles listed above. The
theme order in the left column is the order in which themes are displayed in the map. Your list/order
of themes might vary some from those shown in any given graphic on this page.
- Continue the zoom process until you have the following geographic orientation.
- The U.S. by state layer will appear shaded in some color in your view. Change the Theme Properties by
1) clicking the left column theme name st99_d00 (this process is referred to as making the theme
active), and 2) then clicking the Theme Properties button (see cursor in above view).
- The Theme Properties window appears. Change the settings to style "transparent fill"
with blue border. Click Apply. Click OK.
The map screen should now show the following view.
- Check the checkbox in the layers SHIMSTD (Shimer Students) and PSATSTD (PSAT Students).
One at a time, make each of these active and then set their theme properties.
Make both appear with a triangle marker, color the SHIMSTD blue, and color the SHIMPSAT red.
- The U.S. by county theme is now added to the map view. Click the checkbox
on the layer CO99_D00.
Modify the county boundary theme properties by making it transparent fill with
a black outline. Zoom in to the areas shown in the following map.
- Save the project and restarting. Use File>Save as> and save the project to c:\sa2004\sa2004.aep.
Do not resave this project using this file name or some parts of the tutorial will not work correctly.
At this point, everything is saved and you could exit the AE map software. When you do exit AE, you would
restart with the saved project by 1) starting AE again, 2) File>Open, and 3) entering the project
to open c:\sa2004\sa2004.aep. Try this process now to insure that you are familiar with the steps.
- Orient the view so that Lake County is dominant as shown below.
Click on the Shimer.shp (contains the single point corresponding to Shimer College) and slide the
theme (click left on theme box, hold down and slide) to immediately below the PSAT theme.
- Click on the Lake County streets (m17097r.shp). Change the line segment color to gray.
- Zoom once more to the following view and set the them display order as shown here.
- Click the streets off. Locate the theme m17097g2 and slide it to just below the Shimer.shp.
Click it on, make active, and click theme properties. Change the properties as shown below.
In this process, a thematic map will be developed. The thematic may will be percent population
25 years and over for Lake County, IL by block group.
- Zoom and pan the map view so the map appears as shown below.
It can be observed at a glance that the percent high school graduates are considerably less
to the south of Shimer College.
This map shows only one example of the way a thematic map can be used to view area patterns and see
how prospective students are distributed by type of demographic attribute (that might be of interest
in the recruitment process).
- Zoom in to this area:
- Click on the streets and the view appears as follows.
- Block Group Profile
- PSAT Student Profile
- Shimer Student Profile
- Street Profile
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