-------- Original Message --------
Subject: for Maps-L; more on thread for Creative ideas for superseded
map disposal
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 12:19:08 -0500
From: Kent Lee <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Eastview Inc.


Dear Maps-L:

A bit of a tardy submission on the subject of map disposal, superseded
or otherwise, with special regard to kids and maps:

1. Get a bunch of US military small-scale, quadrangle maps (superseded,
dupes, etc.); main thing is that they should completey cover your
country or area of interest (Russian maps look much prettier, also they
offer global coverage, but alas are usually not available for free).  I
usually think in terms of entire countries, because an elementary
school's geographic curriculum is typically oriented towards a specific
country for a given grade.  But the concept applies to any geographic
unit, map publisher, and map scale (e.g., Your State, USGS, 250k scale
quads).

2. Have kids help you cut off the map marginalia with scissors (all kids
love scissors and cutting); this allows the maps to be mosaicked
together.  Hint:  only need to cut marginalia on two sides, as adjacent
maps can be overlaid.  And some US maps are in fact designed this way
for precisely this reason.

3. Tape map sheets together (carefully!!!--requires some degree of
patience in lining up roads and borders).  Another hint:  tape NIMA maps
in long rows; tape Russian maps in long columns; because of projection
differences it works easier this way.

4. Of course this whole thing needs to be done on a floor of sufficient
size (and cleanliness!) to accommodate the big map you are making. I
have used large classrooms, lunchrooms (_before_ lunch is much better),
and gymnasiums; once I even used a squash court.

5. Then have fun! What you now have before you is a very, very large
map--it will be the envy of any Pentagon war planner, by the way. Some
suggestions--have kids take off their shoes (stocking feet are much
easier on your new super-map) and run around dropping beanbags or labels
or some such things on the location of major cities or geographic
features. It's a great and fun and cheap way to build geographic
literacy.

I'd be happy to send off-line some photos of an exercise I did at one of
my kids' schools--I think it was fourth grade. In our case we studied
China, and we built two huge maps, each one ca. 15x20 feet, out of
1:1,000,000 scale US and Russian maps, respectively.  So the kids also
got a lesson in comparative cartography. I've also done this for Kenya
and Afghanistan. Everyone loves it, and of course we just give the
teachers the maps when it is over.

My dream:  Have a team of kids Velcro-attach 1:500k maps (TPCs or
Russian topos) to a large sphere of gov't-surplus parachute-type
material, and pump it up with air, kind of like a "moonwalk" you see at
school carnivals or county fairs.  At 1:500k, the sphere would have to
be about 83 feet in diameter.  You'd have to do this at a school
football stadium, otherwise such a creation might get swept away by a
big gust of wind (imagine the Earth rolling out of control over the
countryside--it'd be like something out of an early Woody Allen movie!)
Anyway, whoever does it first will make the world's biggest globe!
David DeLorme--are you reading this?!?

Kent



Kent D. Lee
President/CEO

East View Cartographic, Inc.
3020 Harbor Lane N.
Minneapolis, MN 55447  USA

Tel: 763-550-0961
Fax: 763-559-2931
Email: [log in to unmask]
URL:  www.eastview.com, www.cartographic.com