Our esteemed cartographic colleagues at National Geographic Maps have a new feature we hope will be as habitual as your morning cup of coffee, and a great go-to as you return to class. (For instructional supports, just scroll down!)
Map of the Day!
#MapOTD digs into the Society’s rich archives to explore the way we’ve seen the world:
The environment …
and the animals that live in it.
Politics …
and political consequences.
Exploration …
and the technologies that let us explore.
Culture,
science,
and even ourselves.
Map of the Day is a great way to blitz students with different mapping concepts!
- What map projection to use? (Watch this video to see how our cartographers grapple with this eternal question of how to display data.)
- What colors to incorporate? (Use this graphic to understand how color is important in displaying information.)
- What is the best way to display the data? (Use this map to evaluate different ways to display geographic data—maps, graphs, charts, etc.)
As you return to the classroom, let Map of the Day complement our own peerless collection of standards-aligned activities and lessons on mapping and cartography. From familiarizing elementary students with maps of land and water, to introducing concepts like latitude and longitude, to engaging in inquiry-based mental mapping and map projection projects, we’ve got you covered.
Tell Us: Check out Map of the Day fand tell us which one is your favorite so far!
What do you think about geography?
Geography is the road which I need for my trips.
Hi Tracey,
Thanks for calling attention to these technical errors with the “Map of the Day” site. We have followed up with the National Geographic web staff, and they attribute the malfunction to a recent relaunch of the server. They are scrambling to work out the kinks with the site. Hopefully everything will be up and running again soon. I certainly hope you will give this valuable resource another try soon!
Sarah
Sarah,
I would love to use this website on a daily basis if only I didn’t find it so hard to use and drill down to information. I am hoping that since I haven’t used it in awhile that some changes have been made, so am giving it another try.
I tried to pull up the Map of the Day (an idea I LOVE) but was not able to enlarge the page, nor scroll down to see the rest of the page! So, once again, I am thwarted in using the website. Any ideas?
Also, this was the first time I had received an email about MOTD, but I see that there is already an archive. Again, frustrating.
How can I see the full MOTD and scroll down? How can I enlarge it to full screen? I cannot think it is my own settings, because I have never had this problem before. I really look forward to using this feature daily!
Sarah,
I would love to use this website on a daily basis if only I didn’t find it so hard to use and drill down to information. I am hoping that since I haven’t used it in awhile that some changes have been made, so am giving it another try.
I tried to pull up the Map of the Day (an idea I LOVE) but was not able to enlarge the page, nor scroll down to see the rest of the page! So, once again, I am thwarted in using the website. Any ideas?
Also, this was the first time I had received an email about MOTD, but I see that there is already an archive. Again, frustrating.
How can I see the full MOTD and scroll down? How can I enlarge it to full screen? I cannot think it is my own settings, because I have never had this problem before. I really look forward to using this feature daily!
Jake,
I agree 100% with your intuitions. If you’ve visited the mywonderfulworld.org site, you may have seen the results of the 2006 Roper-National Geographic survey of geographic literacy which demonstrates, among other things, dismal place identification abilities among young Americans. Some have questioned the relevance of these map-based questions. I would argue that knowing the basics of where things are located is both reflective OF and important TO a deeper, ‘concrete’ understanding of world events, since spatial relationships MATTER in our global society. Maps, of course, come in handy to this end when moving beyond the basics to specific locations like towns in Kenya. Maps are just one of a number of ways that place is made concrete and put in context–my next post describes some other approaches in the Arts.
I like your suggestion though–maybe we’ll start a campaign petitioning news outlets to increase their utilization of maps.
Very cool site… I wish that major internet media outlets like CNN and MSNBC would use maps to accompany international and other relevant news stories. Having a sense of exactly where events are occurring increases your level of understanding, and in my opinion also makes it a lot more interesting. For example, while reading about some of the recent events in Kenya this morning, I pulled up the region on Google maps in another window, to get an idea of where some of the towns I had never heard of were, and where they were located relative to areas that I was familiar with.
Maybe the apathetic attitudes that some people take towards events happening outside of their own “bubble” has something to do with the fact that if you can’t pinpoint exactly where places are, they seem abstract, and therefore… not so important? Just an thought…