Curated OER
What do Maps Show: How to Read a Topographic Map
Middle schoolers identify the characteristics of topographical maps. Using examples, they practice reading them and describing the information they gather from them. They also discover how to use the website from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Curated OER
What Do Maps Show?: Lesson 4 How to Read a Topographic Map
Students examine the use of topographic maps as two dimensional representations that show elevations and slopes with contour lines. They read maps of the Salt Lake City, Utah area and complete the associated worksheets that show map...
Curated OER
Orienteering - Lesson 2 - Topographical Maps
One of the most important skills in orienteering is being able to read a topographical map. Understanding the contour lines and symbols and the scale of the map will make planning your route so much better. In this lesson, partners get...
Curated OER
"Potato Mountain": Reading/Understanding Topographic Maps
Students investigate how to read topographic maps. In this map reading lesson students complete a topographic map activity.
Curated OER
Introduction To Topographic Map Activities
Students discuss different types of maps, their similarities and differences. Using a Topographical Maps CD-rom program students create their own map.
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels (Part II), The Geology of Oil
More of a mini-unit than a lesson, these activities lead inquisitors through a survey of oil deposits. In the first part, they read about and view diagrams of sedimentary rock layers that trap oil. Next, they test porosity and...
Curated OER
Topo Map Mania!
Students read and use topographical maps. They also use a compass to find bearing to an object on a map and in the classroom. Ask your students how they might travel to somewhere they have never been to befo
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Understanding Topographic Maps
Underclassmen create a cone-shaped landform and then draw a contour map for it. Then they examine a quadrangle (which was easily located with an online search), and relate it to what they experienced. The accompanying worksheet is...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Sea Levels Rising
Begin by showing a six-minute video, Changing Planet: Rising Sea Level as an anticipatory set. Pupils draw a topographic map of a potato continent. Finally, they will visit NOAA's sea levels online map and NASA's carbon dioxide...
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Slope and Topographic Maps
Students investigate slopes as they study topographic maps. In this algebra instructional activity, students discuss and apply the concept of slopes to graphing and analyzing data.
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Watershed Investigations
Students explore the components of a watershed and the factors that affect it. They read a topographical map and use geometry to determine the area of a watershed. Students estimate the volume of a body of water and perform runoff...
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Map Lesson Plan
Fourth graders locate and label major sites related to the Revolutionary War in the Hudson River Valley. They examine topographical features of each site and list a few of these features and list two advantages of each military site.
NOAA
Into the Deep
Take young scientists into the depths of the world's ocean with the second lesson of this three-part earth science series. After first drawing pictures representing how they imagine the bottom of the ocean to appear, students...
Alabama Learning Exchange
WATER You Doing to Help?
Auntie Litter is here to educate young scholars about water pollution and environmental stewardship! Although the 15-minute video clip is cheesy, it's an engaging look at the water cycle and conservation. Learners start by illustrating...
Curated OER
Tracing Highs and Lows in San Francisco
On a topographic map, students identify the scale bar, north arrow, and contour interval. They then locate a hill on the map and make note of the contour lines. Students then locate other places with similar contour line patterns....
Curated OER
Continents and Oceans on the Move
Young scholars create an awareness of the vast percentage of water covering the earth. They relate similarities/differences between topographical maps and other maps of various time periods. Students examine how to use a topographical map.
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Tracking Pollution - A Hazardous Whodunit
Students read a story problem about the issue of hazardous waste and pollution in a fictional town. In groups, they create a topographical map and predict how the water might flow and determine the place of contamination. To end the...
Curated OER
Analyzing the Relationship between Snowpack and River Flow
Students use the Internet to research current and past snowpack levels and river gauging station readings. They determine the relationship between snowpack and river flow. They predict future river flow.
Curated OER
PA Watersheds, Many Ways to the Sea
Students examine the water cycle and the factors that interact with watersheds. In this watersheds activity students describe the purification process, trace the flow of infiltrate water through aquifers, and research the Internet...
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Backwards Goes It Does
Students create a three-dimensional model of the Chicago river watershed to determine the flow of the river at its mouth. They use prepared clear gelatin and topographic maps to discover that the building of canals actually reversed the...
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Landforms
Young scholars begin their examination of landforms. Using a map, they locate and identify the major landforms on Earth. They discuss how landforms affect the lifestyle of the community and determine which goods and services the...
Curated OER
Comparison of Snow Cover on Different Continents
Students use the Live Access Server (LAS) to form maps and a numerical text file of snow cover for each continent on a particular date. They analyze the data for each map and corresponding text file to determine an estimate of snow cover...
Curated OER
Explore Your World--Geography Takes You Places
Students examine how the world around them is constantly changing. In groups, they travel between centers in their classroom to role play the role of explorers in Washington D.C. They share their experiences with their classmates and...
Curated OER
Car Wash
Students determine the most appropriate site for a car wash, based on each site's soil characteristics (chemical, physical) and topographic features. They perform an experiment to determine the changes to three different soil types when...