It's all in the map

The resources Joann featured this week are fun examples of how to include interactive maps in your classroom. If you haven’t checked them out yet, you should. Really…who hasn’t wondered where they would end up if they tunneled through the earth? All three resources would be great for a geography classroom, and an interactive piracy map could tie in well in a history class or even an English class if you are reading about pirates.

After the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in The Gulf of Mexico, I discussed a tool created for Google Earth to compare the size of the spill to metropolitan areas. This creative use of Google Earth helped put context to the actual size of the disaster. Most of us are pretty familiar with the areas where we live, work, and play; but not all of us have been out in the ocean off the coast of Louisiana, where this tragedy unfolded.

Another interesting use of Google Earth is a project by Thomas J. Petra called Real-World Math. He has a whole collection of lessons and group projects that use Google Earth to help introduce and clarify many traditional and non-traditional math topics. For example, check out Community Building, where students use Google SketchUp to create models of buildings to upload to Google Earth. How’s that for using math in the real world? Another Real-World Math lesson, Iditarod Challenge allows students to practice time and distance calculations and conversions while they are having way more fun than filling in a worksheet. It’s neat to use a topic like architecture or the Iditarod in a math class and these lessons help students see how math could be used in the real world. (Although I still believe the classroom is part of the “real world,” some of my students are still not convinced!)

Many of the resources that I found in my Gateway search on maps focused on pure geography, like map puzzles from Owl and Mouse Software. These puzzles allow students to manipulate maps, making the concepts seem a little more real to students. Be sure to explore all of the map puzzle resources on the right bar of the Gateway in the “more like this” section.

Maps truly are tools for adventure. Many students today see maps daily on GPS-enabled devices. Many of them, however, do not have much experience looking at and navigating with a physical map. National Geographic Xpeditions aims to give a better grasp of maps and how they are important in their series of lessons beginning with Welcome to Your New School: Using a Geographic Perspective, students learn how to use maps and they connect this learning to the world immediately around them. Again, be sure to look at the related resources in the sidebar on the right side of the Gateway to find resources that might fit right into your classroom. One of them challenges students to use their knowledge of maps to plan a class field trip. I thought this was a great example of connecting learning to that “real world.”

National Geographic has created some fun games to help students hone their map skills. Check out the games here and here. One fellow Twitter user, @blairteach brought one fun game to my attention. This game tests your knowledge of European cities by challenging you to land a plane as close as possible to that city. Try it for yourself to see how much European geography you know. Let’s just say that I could use a little work! Maybe a trip to Europe is in order.

Since the study of maps is generally limited to geography, it was refreshing to see some resources that combined the study of maps with other subjects. I found some on The Gateway that could easily be implemented into a history or science classroom.

History is often intertwined with the geography in which it takes place. The following two tools take advantage of that fact to bring interactive mapping into the history classroom. This interactive conflict map allows you to view all the conflicts and Nobel peace prize nominations during the 20th century. Shipwreck Central allows students to search for shipwrecks around the world and to view video clips of some of the world's most famous shipwreck sites.

If you are a science teacher, there are plenty of ways you can work in interactive maps and tracking tools to your lessons. A multimedia presentation from National Geographic and iExplore about the Galapagos Islands is a very good introduction to an ecology or evolution unit. Google Earth also offers some different animal tracking tools that are a good addition to a biology classroom. I know one class that has been tracking falcons and owls all year with a nest cam. The kids have a great time learning what the birds do on a day-to-day basis, and it can relate even more to geography if students are given time to map the nest locations and the places the birds might go throughout their lives. There are all different types of live cameras you might be able to use in a lesson, such as the cameras on the International Space Station. These are all easy ways to bring real-world context to things you are teaching in class.

I hope that these suggestions will help you find a way to include interactive maps in your classroom. Good luck, and we would love to hear about tools and lessons that have worked for you.