Part 1—Download Software and Data

Step 1 – Download and Install My World GIS Software

Note: (2018) My World GIS is now unavailable

Note: (August 2015) A 45-day free trial of My World is available through PASCO scientific.
  1. Open the PASCO My World homepage. Scroll down the page, and click the Free Trial tab.

  2. Select the version of software for your type of operating system or platform (Windows or Mac OS X).
  3. Click the word Download to begin downloading the installer to your computer.
  4. A My World GIS™ version 5.0 Trial Version Installer will download to your computer.
  5. Double click the installer app and follow the onscreen instructions to install My World GIS on your computer.
Note: You may want to return to the My World GIS website later and explore its resources.

Step 2 – Download the Urban Heat Island Project File

  1. Right-click (PC) or control-click (Mac) the link below to download the project file to your computer. Choose the option that will download the file to your computer. "Download Linked File..." "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As..." are common browser commands to accomplish this task. This is a large data file, so it may take several minutes to download.
    Urban_Heat_Island.m3vz ( 3.4MB May16 10)
  2. Save this file in a place where you can easily locate it. If possible, store it in the Projects folder of the My World folders. The pathway to the folder is:
    Applications (or Programs) > My World GIS 4.x > data > Projects.
My World GIS can open a project file wherever it is on your computer. However, to make it available through the Data Library, you must place it inside the My World GIS 4.x > data > Projects folder. The default location for My World GIS software is in the Applications or Programs folder.

Step 3 – Download GLOBE Surface Temperature Data

Download GLOBE Surface Temperature data from December 3, 2008 to use in this project.

  1. Open the GLOBE website in a new window and select For Students > Finding Data > Data Access in the top menu bar.
    5 data
  2. In the window that opens, select the data to export.
    • By default, when the Data Access window opens, the Atmosphere investigation is selected with the radio button and the Air Temperature protocol is selected with a check box. Keep the selection on the Atmosphere investigation, but select the Surface Temperature protocol instead.
    • Set the date to December 3, 2008 and click the Get the data now! button.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter "2008-12-03" for both the Start date and End dates. Keep the Output format at the default setting of "View results in browser". Then click on the Get the data now! button.
    7 get data now
  4. The results of the search are displayed as text in a new browser window. Scroll down below the text to add specific fields to the request. Under Time and Location check the box for School name to add it to the fields already selected.
    8 time and location
  5. Under Surface Temperature check the box for Surface Cover to add it to the fields already selected.
    9 surface temperature
  6. Continue scrolling down the page. Under Output format click on the More Options button.
    9.5 more options
  7. When the page refreshes, return to the same selection dialog box and select the Download shapefile (zipped) as the Output format and choose YYYY-MM-DD as the Date format. Then click on Get the data now!
    10 date with hyphens
  8. The data will begin to download. When the download is complete, save the file to your desktop or downloads folder. If the file does not automatically unzip, it may be necessary to start the process by right clicking (PC) or ctrl-clicking (Mac) on the file. Move the unzipped file to a place where you can easily locate it.
If you have difficulty downloading the data, use this file instead.
globe_surface_temperature_data.zip (Zip Archive 6kB May16 10)
Right-click (PC) or control-click (Mac) the link above and download it to your desktop or downloads folder. Note: This file must be unzipped before it can be imported into My World GIS.