This document outlines an activity to teach students about maps and mapping. It begins with definitions of key map terms like map, globe, and atlas. Students are then shown different types of maps like park, museum, and subway maps and asked to identify map elements. Next, students draw their own "mental maps" of familiar places. They then work in groups to map their classroom. Finally, the activity shows students maps at increasing scales from the classroom to Indiana to the US to demonstrate how smaller areas are part of larger maps. The goal is for students to understand the relationships between different types of maps.
2. Social Studies Standard 3: Civics and Government Indicator 1.2.5 Roles of Citizens: Define what a citizen is and describe the characteristics of good citizenship. Taken From: http://dc.doe.in.gov/Standards/AcademicStandards/StandardSearch.aspx Link to Activity: http://www.indianastandardsresources.org/files/soc/ss_1_5_4.pdf
3. Definitions Map - a representation, usually on a flat surface, as of the features of an area of the earth or a portion of the heavens, showing them in their respective forms, sizes, and relationships according to some convention of representation: a map of Canada. Globe – a sphere on which is depicted a map of the earth Atlas – a bound collection of maps Taken From: www.dictionary.com
4. Background Information “The first appearance of a map of America is a Ptolemy atlas occurred in the 1513 Strasbourg edition, which included a series of new maps, based on findings from recent European explorations. Martin Waldseemuller of St. Die began work on this new edition of Ptolemy about 1505 and compiled the maps. In this work, America remains named Terra Incognita and Columbus is credited with informing Fernando and Isabel of its existence.” Taken from: http://www.1worldglobes.com/History/historyofmaps.htm
5. What is a Map? Opening Questions First ask the students a series of questions for a sense of previous knowledge: What are maps? And how are they used? What are the purposes of different kinds of maps?
6. Different Maps Divide the students into groups of 3-5. Distribute different kinds of maps such as the following: Park maps Museum maps Subway maps Road maps Have students look at the maps and pick out a few details of the maps such as the following: Symbols Map key Have the students present their maps to the class and the few things that they noticed or did not notice on their maps.
7. Mental Maps Show students the picture of a “Child’s – Eye – View” of a kitchen. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/hall/1/x2/c-room.html Talk about the picture with the students. Ask why this student may have picked the cookie jar to draw or the cereal cabinet. Then have students draw their own “mental map” of their favorite room. Students will then present their “mental maps” to the class.
8. Classroom Maps Students will then divide into groups of 4-5 to create a map of the classroom. One group will be in charge of mapping the entire classroom, while each of the other groups will be assigned certain parts of the room. Put together, they should equal the entire classroom.
9. Part to Whole After the students have created their classroom maps, the teacher will illustrate how those maps relate to actual maps. First, students will be shown a map of Indiana. Have the students find different cities on the map. Second, a map of the United States is shown. Have the students find Indiana on the map. Third, a map of North America. Have the students find the United States on the map. And finally, a World map is shown. Have the students find North America and even the United States.
10. Part to Whole For each part of the World Map have the students decide what is different from the shown map to the previous map. Show the relationship of each map to each other. This activity is supposed to go from small to large, but it could easily go from large to small. It could be even taken into county and city.
11. Activity Conclusion End the activity by having students identify maps they have looked at throughout this activity. Including small maps of their home environment to large geographical maps. Students could also look through several books on maps and drawing maps. Such as Maps and Plans by Pam Robson.
