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Chris:
I find that kids love globes - and the more globes the better.
Some teachers also get real excited over using maps to develop
orienteering courses at local parks, etc., as it can combine several SOL
("standards of learning") such as geography, math in one lesson or
homework assignment.
Ed Redmond
Reference Specialist
Geography and Map Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20540-4650
(202) 707-8548
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Hello,
Depending on the age-- in areas with interesting relief, I've found plastic
3-D relief models (e.g. the 1:250,000 series) a big hit with elementary
(especially primary) school kids, best if you can mosaic a few together so
everyone can see and touch. It helps them connect the map with the idea of
height, is fairly tactile, and they just have fun figuring out what's
highest, and what they can see, from where. One grade 2 class went back to
school and made plasticine models, and I heard from the teacher about how
they decided to use colors that corresponded with the topographic maps,
including white on top for mountains! --Lori
Lori Sugden, Map Library, UVic
[log in to unmask], phone (250) 721-7356
http://gateway.uvic.ca/dept/map/map.html
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Hi Chris
You have probably already spoken to the teacher to see what map or geography
project they have done or will be doing. If you haven't than I would to see
if you have another map of the same area for them for comparison. The
students that have visited UF Map & Imagery Library have already done the
"mental map" from their house to school. A street map and enlarged aerial
photo of the same area is usually a hit as is the Terraserver site compared
to the topographic map of their school or some well known site e.g the UF
Football Stadium.
Do you have the biking map for Golden area? Isn't there something called
the Hell of the West race? I would think most kids in your area would have
heard about that. For our students its the closest beach or hiking trail.
Another thing is to find out what is the popular fiction this level is
reading. The Harry Potter series and the Railroad Children series led to us
putting out the London railroad map and the railroad maps for Great Britain.
We used these maps as well as the Hobbit maps to talk about how you can map
both things you can see and things you can imagine. I have also used the
3-D raised relief version of the Smoky Mts. National Park next to the paper
1:250,000 version to help them understand contour lines. We had an exhibit
on Sunken ships and treasure maps that went from the NGS map of the Outer
Banks to a detailed nautical chart of the Florida Keys where a treasure ship
was found. The students enjoyed that. The teachers knew about it ahead of
time so they put in comments about Florida History which did not come across
as a lecture. The Mt. St. Helen's eruption images and maps are also popular
items when there has been a recent eruption. If Survivor is watched by the
class than where the latest island is located in the middle of the Pacific
would be put out and then I would print out the close ups that usually are
on the screen. I can't believe how young some of the children are watching
this show!
Additional materials I have used for cultural maps are the Cultural Atlas
series and population or economic maps that use proportional circles
technique but something like big cows and small cows. If they are old
enough than I show them farming distribution maps. Any maps with flags of
the World can set up a question/answer session. If it is near a holiday we
try to incorporate a map, ie. Halloween--Death Valley, Sleepy Hollow, map
of the ghosts towns of Alabama and the very colorful Monsters of the World
map( I was surprised to see Unicorns included as monsters!).
Right now everyone knows about Iraq so we show maps where it is located, a
map of Baghdad, and an aerial photo of the city. Because of the background
of many of our students, we try to have at least one African-American map,
Cuba, Haiti or Dominican Republic on display if not part of the actual
presentation. Of course there is always a big Disney Map on display
One of the best liked items in the collection is a talking globe. The
websites we show other than Terraserver, NOAA-Hurricanes, CIA maps (both
on-line and paper for comparison), USGS Remote Sensing Galley--has
everything from Iraq image to detailed aerial photos of everyone of the
NASCAR tracks. We also demonstrate the 3 databases of scanned images that UF
has on the Internet.
We may not talk about everything that is out but find that each time
questions are generated by students seeing them. Because of the increased
research use of the UF collections we do not have as many student classes
visiting as there used to be. However, many of the items we would show are
available on-line so the teachers work with us to use the databases in their
classrooms. I miss the younger students enthusiasm but I have found that
many of our undergrads really liked the exhibits we did for the students.
So now we are having both educational and fun topic map exhibits during the
year.
Obviously we did not put all of these items out at one time but I wanted to
give you a feeling for the cross section of cartographic materials that we
have used. I am looking forward to reading about what other people are
doing.
Helen
HelenJane Armstrong, PhD
Head, Map & Imagery Library
George A. Smathers Libraries
University of Florida
P.O. Box 117011
Gainesville, FL 32611-7011
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1] get a black & white planimetric map of their school neighborhood and
have them draw their paths from home to school on it, maybe marking their
favorite places [like the drugstore where they buy illicit candy, movie
theater, shopping mall, library, scary places, etc.]
2] Get an old, old map of the same area and have them talk to you about
what is different from today
3] Maybe have an aerial photo and see if they can use landmarks to find
their school. How is the aerial photo different from a map? Have them tell
you!
4] Have newsprint for each, and have them all draw a map with say, four
elements [you choose] on it, and then have them compare and contrast their
maps. How do the children use color differently? Size of the school vs.
size of their houses or the shopping center, whatever. What shows up on all
their maps, why? What is unique to any one map, why? Have them tell you.
5] Have a little GIS map already set up on a workstation, and 80% drawn,
and have the kids put in the last two or three elements, then print it out
and let them take it to school for their classroom.
6] Go to the local map store to supplement your collection, with anything
new and neat for Golden, or whichever community the kids come from. Either
add the maps to your collection, or if out of scope, donate them to the
teacher for the classroom.
Turn 'em on to maps!
Alice C. Hudson
Chief, Map Division
The Humanities and Social Sciences Library
The New York Public Library
5th Avenue & 42nd Street, Room 117
New York, NY 10018-2788
[log in to unmask]; 212-930-0589; fax 212-930-0027
http://nypl.org/research/chss/map/map.html
The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson
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Chris,
You might try searching in DLESE (Digital Library for Earth Systems
Education). You can limit by grade level and select resources such as lesson
plan or classroom activity to narrow things down. I did a quick sample
search and found a lot of possible activities, some more complicated than
others.
-Katie
Katie Lage
Map Librarian
University of Colorado at Boulder
Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library
184 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
Phone: 303-735-4917 FAX: 303-735-4879
http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/map/
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Chris,
In my office I have a special issue of National Geographic
Kids dealing exclusively with maps and teaching about them
to the k-12 audience. Next trip in, probably tomorrow, I'll
send you a full citation. If you cannot get a copy of this
or want to borrow mine I'll gladly send it to you next day
or 2-day mail. Let me know...
Paige
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Hey Chris,
I've been doing a lot of "outreach" for younger school age groups here
at the AGSL. One thing to consider is their age. 3rd grade and up will
be fairly capable of understanding some degree of detail, but younger
kids are like bouncy balls - their brains are all over the place.
Cover the basics like contours, simple scale discussion, colors used on
maps and perhaps map indexes. Kids are always interested in finding
their homes or school on maps, so use different kinds of maps for the
same location. If possible find maps showing weather, soils, land use
or whatever for their home or their school.
Another quick suggestion for your instruction session ... I like to
bring in a 1:18 scale diecast model car (corvette or equally cool car)
and a Breyer model horse to further reinforce the concept of scale.
Perhaps a discussion of the history of mapping and how originally the
world was unknown to cartographers and they got it wrong a lot whereas
today, great detail and accuracy can be found on maps.
These are just a few obvious suggestions! Good luck. Have fun!
Angie
ANGELA R. COPE, Academic Map Librarian
American Geographical Society Library
UW Milwaukee Libraries
2311 E. Hartford Avenue
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211
http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/AGSL/index.html
Hours: 8:00am-4:30pm
[log in to unmask]
(414) 229-6282
(800) 558-8993 (US TOLL FREE)
(414) 229-3624 (FAX)
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They think aerial photos are really cool! You can show them their
school, and track it back over time. - Cynthia
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