Maps provide opportunities to look into the experiences of other people and consider what life may be like in other places. They are unique windows onto the rest of the world’s stories. I use Map Talks in my classroom to help my students read the stories that maps offer us and allow them to draw conclusions based on clues from the maps. Continue reading Strategy Share: Employing Map Talks in the Classroom
Elizabeth Ault-Cook incorporated her student’s interests in dance and poetry into an introduction to map vocabulary. She then led her student in a map-reading activity that involved plotting and comparing the locations of sports teams. Continue reading Educator Spotlight: Making Mapping Relevant
Tory Watanabe’s seventh-grade students researched their ancestral lands. As part of the interdisciplinary project, students made artistic maps accompanied by creative writing pieces. Continue reading Educator Spotlight: Uncovering the Importance of Place
Amy Kennedy led her sixth-grade students in evaluating map projections based on accuracy and bias. Students wrote letters to the U.S. Secretary of Education explaining which map projection they think should be used in schools. Continue reading Educator Spotlight: Evaluating Map Projections
Kevin Rohn’s sixth-graders applied the scientific process to investigate and compare locations around the world. Each student used an interactive world biome map to select two locations, develop a question about them, and answer the question based on data from the map. Students then shared their findings by designing infographics. Continue reading Educator Spotlight: Comparing Global Biomes
