As my Geographic Information Systems class comes to an end, I’d like to reflect on the things I’ve learned, particularly using ArcGIS.

First, I was able, by the end of the class, to independently find datasets online, download them, and then export them into ArcGIS and then manipulate them for my own maps. I have used a variety of different sources to find data including the Government of Canada’s website, BC’s data library and the UBC data library.

Second, I now feel comfortable with a variety of ArcToolbox tools. The one that I feel most comfortable with and am glad that I can use is the split tool, which allows you to trim layers based on the boundary of another layer. This is very convenient when comparing something with different datasets and you can trim the features you do not need anymore

Third, I am comfortable and knowledgeable in changing and using different classification methods to display data. I believe it is important to see how different classification methods will project your data, and all cartographers should be comfortable and skilled in choosing the “correct” one to be most accurate or truthful.