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Maps tell stories about natural and human geography and geopolitics, whether by displaying the shapes of landforms and locations of cities or by highlighting global fashion trends or the routes of explorers.
But many students get overwhelmed by their own unfamiliarity with geography or by what might seem like an overload of information. Just like any other kind of visual thinking, learning to read maps accurately and with confidence takes practice. The authors of these lessons provide strategies to help students gain that confidence so they can interpret even the most complex historical or current maps. They also suggest ways for using current events maps as a tool to better understand both history and what’s going on in the world today.
Via Leonardo Wild
The NY Times learning blog really has some interesting, insightful lessons. This one looks at using maps to understand culture and history, and how it affects today.
Many of the more fortunate students (access to portable electronic devices, multi-car families with parents who drive them around, etc.) are actually worse off in map reading skills in part because they have never needed to develop a mental map and are not adept at navigating their neighborhoods (in the last few generations most and the range that part). When these children become drivers, they are unable to navigate without GPS devices, but they still need to learn map reading skills. They are convinced that their apps can do all the work and that an old fashioned paper map is outdated technology, but their spatial thinking skills become atrophied. Spatial skills are crucial for understanding the world as a global citizen, to understand your local environs and for making scientific discoveries. So teach a kid how to read a map...the sooner the better.
Tags: mapping, K12, scale, location.