1. always tell someone where you're going
2. get permission if you plan to enter private property
3. if working alongside a road be careful of traffic; wear brightly colored clothing
4. if you are collecting, wear gloves to protect your hands
5. wear sturdy shoes or boots for hiking or climbing

Tips for field work

1. bring a journal and pencil to take notes and create drawings
2. bring a map so you can mark where each sample is collected

Rock Identification

It is best not to collect your rocks from a streambed. These rocks have been rounded and polished. Of course, some of the prettiest rocks can be found in streambeds or at the beach. Just remember that these rounded rocks probably come from rock formations that outcrop far upstream.

The best place to collect your rocks is from outcrops. Outcrops are the visible parts of the rock formation that makes up an area. For instance, a rock that is not attached to the underlying rock formation is not an outcrop. A boulder is not an outcrop. A cliff face is an outcrop. Rock formations exposed by an excavation are outcrops.

Make sure rocks are collected "in place". Don't collect gravel from a driveway . . .

If you have a rock hammer you can use it to break a small piece off a larger in-place boulder. This is the best way to ensure that it's in place.

Reading and Understanding Maps

Topographic Maps

What is a topographic map? A topographic map (also called a topo map or a contour map) describes the landscape in a particular area. A topo map shows hills, valleys, plains, mountains, cliffs, and streams. From a topo map you can determine how tall a mountain is, how steep a cliff is, and how long a river is. Topo maps are extremely important when you are out in the field (especially if you don't really know exactly where you are).

Exercise for understanding topographic maps

1. Find a topographic map of an area that is very familiar to you. It is best to choose an area that has very obvious land features, for instance, a deep river gorge, a mountain, or rolling hills. This could be near where you live, or an interesting place you've been. (It's best not to begin with a topographic map of a city because the buildings make the landscape difficult to see.)

2. Take the topographic map and just look at it. At first it may seem confusing, but don't worry, just look at it for a while.

3. Find the legend (or key) to the map. This will tell you how different features are marked on the map: roads, rivers, lakes, mountain peaks. Many topo maps even have buildings (possibly your house!) marked on them. If you see a symbol or abbreviation that doesn't make sense, look at the legend. Find some familiar places or landforms on the map in order to orient yourself.

4. Look at the scalebar on the map. The scalebar tells you how large an area the map covers. Use the scalebar to find the distance between two landmarks on your map. A handy tool to have is a cardboard or plastic scale. Take a piece of cardboard and cut a length of it, as if you were making a ruler. Now put it next to the scalebar on the map and mark off the map distances. Use this to measure distances on your map.

5. How many square miles does your map cover (multiply the distance from the right and left sides of the map by the distance between the top and bottom ends of the map area)?

6. Look on the legend and find the symbol for contours. The contour lines are usually the brown curvy lines all over the map. A contour line follows a particular elevation. So if you were to walk along a contour line, you would stay at the same elevation, you wouldn't walk uphill and you wouldn't walk downhill.

Some contour lines have numbers along them. These numbers tell you the elevation above sea level (usually in feet, but make sure, it could be in meters). If you are walking along a line that says 3200, you are walking at 3200 feet above sea level.

7. Somewhere near the legend and the scale bar should be a note that tells you what the contour interval is. The contour interval is the elevation difference between two adjacent contour lines. If the contour interval is 80 feet, then the contour lines on either side of the 3200 foot contour will represent 3120 feet and 3280 feet. If you walk across contour lines, you are walking uphill or downhill.

8. Notice how in some places the lines are close together and in other places they are far apart. What does the land look like when the contours are close together? What does it look like when they are far apart?

9. Use the topographic map to find the easiest route from one point to another (the route that is the most level, the one that requires the least up and downhill travel) . Is this the same as the shortest route? Why do roads curve so much in mountainous areas?

*Remember:

- The landscape is steep where contour lines are close together.
(Think about it: If contour lines are close together it means that you don't have to walk very far to experience a change in elevation.)

- The land is flat or gently rolling where the countour lines are far apart.

Click here for more activities about MAPS.