Reflection 2

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Chapter 11

Exploring Our Geographic World

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Distance

  • Time and distance are very important concepts in the social studies curriculum.
  • Children’s sense of time develops gradually.
  • Maps and globes help children understand distance, direction, and location.


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Maps

  • Maps show portions of the earth, which is a sphere, on a flat surface.
  • Maps must compromise size, distance, and proportion.
  • Maps are abstract representations of reality.
  • Maps do not show everything, but only what is important to a researcher.
  • Maps are resources used to communicate reality in a selective way.

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Experiential Approaches to Teaching

  • Traditional textbook approaches are less effective than experiential approaches.
  • Hands on experiences are very important for young children to make connections between the landscape and its graphic representation.
  • Children begin making maps at a very young age when they draw pictures.

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The Five Themes of Geography

  • The five themes of geography can provide points of reference for activities related to geography and include:

Location

Place

Interaction

Movement

Region

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Location & Place

  • Teachers can introduce the concept of location by discussing absolute location.
  • The absolute location is at a particular intersect of longitude and latitude or the address that locates a place within a city or town.
  • Relative location involves how near or far a place is to other places.
  • A place has certain characteristics such as whether it is cold, dry, humid, flat or hilly.

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Interaction, Movement & Region

  • The concept of interaction focuses on the way people change and use their environment.
  • Movement is a concept which explains the way people move from location to location. For example, children go to school each morning and leave in the afternoon.
  • A region describes aspects such as suburban, rural, middle class, and so forth.

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Helping Students Learn to Make and Read Maps

  • Students need to observe and record in order to make maps.
  • Teachers can help students develop these skills by including a number of activities.
  • An ideal starting point is the school.

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Mental Maps

  • A mental map refers to images of places in our heads.
  • All of us have been to many places and can also imagine images of places we have never been to.
  • Mental maps are useful because people like to think about places they have been to and places they’ve never visited.
  • Mental maps are not necessarily accurate.

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Traverse Maps

  • A traverse map represents a line through an area such as a river, street or boundary.
  • Children can make such a map by walking through a block and observing and recording what is on the two sides of the street.
  • When children do observe and record to gather information, they are doing fieldwork.

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Visualizing Space

  • Visualizing space involves the ability to give directions from familiar places such as how to go home from school.
  • Children also tend to enjoy this process and teachers can take advantage of this by offering students activities that allow them to this.
  • An example of such an activity is to assign students to map places mentioned in a story they read.

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Aerial Maps & Photographs

  • The physical perspective of a map maker is often referred to as a bird’s-eye view.
  • To help students understand this perspective teachers can have them photograph blocks that are laid out that represent a village.
  • Aerial photographs are widely available and can help students make their own maps.

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Changing the Scale of a Map

  • 3 techniques are typically used to change the scale of a map:

  • The mechanical method
  • The optical method
  • The mathematical method

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The mechanical method

  • The mechanical method utilizes a pantograph.
  • This is an instrument which has the shape of a parallelogram which can be set to different scales allowing students to enlarge or reduce a map accurately.
  • This instrument is inexpensive and can be ordered from school supply stores.

A pantograph

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The Optical Method

  • Teachers who use this method often use an opaque projector to project a map on a wall and have students trace an enlarged map from the wall.
  • This is a very popular method but very often leads to problems.

Students cannot reduce a map.

Students do not know the change of scale.

Distortions can occur if a book page is not lying flat on the projector.

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The Mathematical Method

  • This method is also referred to as the method of similar squares and can be used to enlarge and reduce.
  • Students use a grid which is larger or smaller than the grid on an existing map and then connect points on a line to construct a new line.

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Key Map Terms

  • Absolute and relative location
  • Symbols
  • Projection
  • Scale
  • Direction
  • Lines and space
  • Elevation
  • Areal association

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Symbols

  • Symbols allow map makers to display natural and man made features.
  • Maps are likely to have a key which explains what each symbol represents.

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Projection

  • Projection refers to representing the earth’s surface on a flat map.
  • When this happens distortions occur.
  • Many people think Greenland is larger than it really is for this reason.

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Scale

  • Scale is what determines the size of a map and also the distance from place to place.
  • Large scale maps represent areas like a neighborhood close up, and small scale maps often show the entire earth.
  • A map’s key indicates a scale in miles, kilometers and so forth.
  • The scale allows students to determine distances from place to place.

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Direction

  • Map directions are usually set according to the points of the compass.
  • The cardinal directions of the compass are north, south, east, and west.
  • A compass rose is the map symbol that shows direction and can indicate as many as 32 direction

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Lines and Space

  • Lines on a map are used to represent the boundaries of space.
  • They are political and physical boundaries.
  • Rivers can form political and physical boundaries.

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Elevation

  • Elevation refers to how high or low a particular place is.
  • Nepal is where the world’s highest mountains are located.
  • Elevation is usually shown by color gradations or shading.

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Areal Association

  • Areal association refers to the relationship between one area and another.
  • An example is that cities are often located on major rivers and harbors.
  • It can refer to both manmade natural associations.

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Understanding Map Projections and Globes

  • Ellis (2007) believes that it is difficult for children to comprehend that maps are projections of the earth’s surface.
  • This is why the constructivity principle is so important.
  • This principle states that activity must precede analysis, and students should draw maps before studying maps.

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Three Common Projections of Round Earth

  • The most common projections of the round earth are:

The cylindrical projection

The conic projection

The plane surface projection

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Helping Students Learn to Use Maps

  • Children learn from educational games in which they have to go from point to another.
  • Teachers can give students maps and ask them to explain how to go from one point to another.

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Mapping Directions

  • Helping students to spatially visualize oral or written information is important.
  • One way teachers can do this is to read students stories involving details about places and directions and have them draw maps of places described.

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Mapping Variables

  • Students can also do map work involving problem solving skills.
  • They can find different routes between two points.
  • For example, they can pick the most scenic route, the fastest route, and the safest route.
  • This type of activity not only encourages careful observation but also promotes critical thinking.

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Studying Changes in Land Use

  • Maps and photographs can help students to see changes that people and nature have made over time.
  • In the photographs on the right, the two pictures taken about 130 years apart show the effects of global warming.

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Using Food to Teach Geography

  • A motivating way to teach students geography is to give the ingredients of a food they might eat such as a chocolate bar and to ask them where in the world they could find its ingredients.
  • A chocolate bar contains some ingredients that do not come from the U.S.

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Understanding Perspective

  • Students need to understand how things appear from above the way a bird would see something.
  • Teachers can ask students what a bird would see and then request students to draw a map using a bird’s eye view.
  • This can be done by asking students to make a village using construction paper and then placing it on the floor so they can look directly down on it.
  • Students can then sketch what they see.

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Four-Color Mapping Theory

  • Four-color map theory emphasizes the use of four colors without using the same colors along any given border.
  • Teachers can ask students to color a map of the U.S. using this theory.
  • This will not only engage students; it will help them understand the concepts of space and place.

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Estimating Distances

  • There are some activities that develop student ability to estimate distances.
  • Teachers can set two objects a certain distance apart and ask students to estimate the distance between them.
  • Students can then measure the distance between them.
  • The more students practice estimating and measuring the more skilled they will become.

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Questions

  • What can teachers do to make geography motivating and relevant to students’ lives?

  • Explain why maps can cause distortions?

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