Welcome to location games and spatial thinking! Emma and David find a chain and padlock across the local playground entrance. Where can they play? With help from neighbor Kayla and her dog Blazer, Emma and David set out to find a new place to play. But how will they know where a good location is? Kayla shows them how they can use basic mapping, distance, direction, spatial pattern analysis, and overlay skills to find the perfection location. And just when they do, they encounter more obstacles-all of them have to work together quickly to solve their playground problem! Using a colorful, easy-to-follow comic book-style story with fun in-book activities, The Playground Problem takes readers along to see how to overcome problems and find the perfect solution. Large pages brightly illustrate the adventure as readers learn about maps and use basic spatial thinking. Written by geographic information systems (GIS) expert Dr. Lauren Scott Griffin and illustrated by artist Fred Folger, this hybrid graphic novel/activity book teaches young readers introductory mapping, zeroing in on distance, direction, basic spatial analysis, and other skills. Solving interesting puzzles and learning to "think spatially" not only helps kids with their math skills for higher grades, but also gives them a head start in exciting careers. Research shows exercising spatial reasoning skills at an early age accelerates children's competence in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Mapping for kids has never been this much fun! For grades 1-5. Includes a glossary.

Learn how to get better answers in map analysis when you use spatial measurements and statistics. Spatial measurements and statistics give you a powerful way to analyze geospatial data, but you don't need to understand complex mathematical theories to apply statistical tools and get meaningful results in your projects. The Esri Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 2: Spatial Measurements and Statistics, second edition, builds on Volume 1 by taking you to the next step of GIS analysis. Learn to answer such questions as, how are features distributed? What is the pattern created by a set of features? Where can clusters be found? This book introduces readers to basic statistical concepts and some of the most common spatial statistics tasks: measuring distributions, identifying patterns and clusters, and analyzing relationships. Updated with the latest and most useful software tools and revised explanations, each chapter in The Esri Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 2 is organized to answer basic questions about the topic. Explore how spatial statistical tools can be applied in a range of disciplines, from public health to habitat conservation. Learn how to quantify patterns beyond visualizing them in maps. Examine spatial clusters through an updated chapter on identifying clusters. Use The Esri Guide to GIS Analysis, Volume 2, second edition, to understand the statistical methods and tools that can move your work past mapping and visualization to more quantitative statistical assessment.