CHS World Studies Hybrid 2014-15

Spatial Interaction (Movement & Migration)

1. Activity Space Map Analysis
a. Draw boundaries or radii (miles from home) that show the
outer limits of your weekly activity space.

b. Discuss how the three variables affecting activity space affect

you and your familys trips.
i. Stage in life
In high school, I drive 5 days a week to school, go to work, friends, and
run errands for my family but stay within a pretty small radius. My
mom stays within the boundaries of Chanhassen/Chaska/Victoria
running errands and driving my brother and sister places. My dad
being a working adult with a job has a larger activity space as he
travels 30 minutes away every day for work.
ii. Mobility ability to travel
Having my drivers license and car makes availability to travel easier.
While my brother and sister do not have either so they rely on my
parents for travel. My mom and dad both have cars and are able to
travel whenever they want.
iii. Awareness space knowledge of opportunities
For the three kids in the family, when the opportunity, for example a
better sports team, shows itself the family discusses whether or not it
is a good investment to travel farther. My dad if he finds a new job in
the future and sees it as a better opportunity his space may be
affected. If our family decides to move in a couple years, the activity
space would completely change for all of us.

CHS World Studies Hybrid 2014-15

Spatial Interaction (Movement & Migration)
c. After examining your total activity space, discuss the merits of
increasing or decreasing activity space.
If I take a different summer job my activity space could increase or
decrease depending on where the job is located. When I am in college
next fall, my space will decrease as I will have smaller means of
transportation and mainly confined to a college campus. The activity
space may vary as well depending on who I decide to hang out with and
spend time with.
2. Choose a local business and issue a brief report addressing the
probability of spatial interaction.
a. Illustrate and describe the distance decay curve that would be
most appropriate.

Since Subzero is a relatively smaller business, their distance decay curve

would be smaller. Also, with the competition of another Subzero located in EP
mall, that takes out potential customers in Eden Prairie. Towards the edges of
the circle, there are fewer and fewer people that they serve. Their main
service would be towards people living in Chanhassen. Especially as there is
plenty of competition nearby such as Freeziac in Eden Prairie and Adeles in
Excelsior. Their main special interaction would most likely be a 3 mile radius
from the store.
b. Explain the gravity model and Reillys law of Retail Gravitation.
Discuss their applicability to the business.
The gravity model can be used to estimate:

CHS World Studies Hybrid 2014-15

Spatial Interaction (Movement & Migration)

Migration between two areas

Traffic Flow

The number of people likely to use one central place

Reillys law of Retail Gravitation is a theory around the attractiveness of a retail

center and the willingness of people to travel to it.
These both can be applied to the business as the gravity model can estimate the
number of people likely to use Subzero as their preferred ice cream. While the
law of retail gravitation can determine the willingness of people to travel for it. I
personally would say that there is a sufficient amount of people that go to
Subzero but outside their radius, the number due to distance decay decreases. It
is not like the Chanhassen dinner theater where people are willing to travel for
that.
c. Give examples of movement biases that may flow contrary to
modeled predictions.
It is possible the some people are willing to travel for Subzero outside of their
radius as Subzero is a pretty unique ice cream place.
3. Place perception stereotype or reality?
a. Think of a place (city, state, country, region) that you would
not want to live for a specific reason(s).
Russia, because their government is pretty unstable right now. It is also
really cold.
b. Investigate and find statistics and/or evidence to substantiate
or disprove your perception. Was your initial perception a
stereotype or reality or somewhere in between? Explain.
I was right about their government stability, they are currently dealing
with affairs with Ukraine which are causing them spend lots of money.
But they do have a beautiful landscape that I would be able to live in
like the mountains and lakes. Also, they have similar weather to
Minnesota in that they have warm summers and cold winters, but their
winters can sometimes be colder than Minnesota and I dont like
winter.
4. Watch one episode (jobs, refugees or enforcement) of Homeland:
Immigration in America.
a. Be able to describe the challenges immigrants face in one of
those areas in class.