Curated OER
Mapping Potato Island
Students create their own topographical map using a potato. For this hands on lesson students construct a topographical map and explain what contour lines are using a potato.
Curated OER
Coordinate Grid: Mapping Archeological Sites
Fourth graders discover how to apply the Cartesian coordinate system by figuring out the length and width of their school playground. They determine that pacing is an important tool for the initial mapping of a site. Students conduct a...
Curated OER
Quick-Sketch Artist Tips on Mind Mapping the Urban Landscape
Students interpret maps. They also create mental maps of regions in which they are studying. Students then explain the historical or cultural significance of map features orally or in written form. Students take a walking field trip...
Curated OER
Tactile Maps
Students make a map of an assigned area (state, country, etc.) using a 3-D pictorial-tactile representation of the features to be included. They also learn to create a pictorial- tactile representation of their knowledge of a region, and...
Curated OER
Making a Map of the Classroom
Students create a map of the classroom using the computer programs AppleWorks and iChat in this math-based technology lesson. Lesson extension ideas include a scavenger hunt and maps of other school buildings.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Climate Change Around the World
Look at climate change around the world using graphical representations and a hands-on learning simulation specified to particular cities around the world. Using an interactive website, young scientists follow the provided...
Curated OER
FINDING A RESOLUTION
Students examine detailed Moon and Earth views provided by the NASA-sponsored "World Wind" computer program. They work in groups to create maps of different scales using landmarks of their choice, and challenge their classmates to...
Curated OER
Schoolyard Geology
Discover that maps show information about an area and that they have common features like scales and legends. View an aerial map of your school and find features on the map such as the playground, roads, and trees. Trace the outline of...
Curated OER
Your Galactic Address
Young scholars discover their place in the universe. For this astronomy lesson, students identify their location on various maps that have increasingly larger scales. In the end, the young scholars write their address in...
Curated OER
Design an Island
Students explore islands. They create a two- or three-dimensional map of an island. They explain how the topography of an area influences the location of water sources, ecosystems, and human settlements. Lesson includes adaptations for...
Curated OER
Mush! Tracking Travelers on the Trail
Students get to know Alaska and the Iditarod route that is run by dogs as they track the mushers' progress on a map that they create specifically for the race. They learn about latitude, longitude, plotting on a map, checkpoints, and...
Curated OER
Park Brochures
Sixth graders investigate natural environments by researching national parks. In this brochure making lesson, 6th graders explore a specific national park and research it's information by utilizing the web. Students create travel...
Curated OER
The Pilgrims
Learners use distance measuring tools to follow directions and chart the path the pilgrims made from Plymouth, England to Boston, Massachusetts. In this Pilgrim voyage lesson, students use a map to chart the distance traveled by the...
Curated OER
Salad Tray 3D Topographic Model
Students explore the characteristics of topographical maps. They examine the relationship of contour lines and vertical elevation. Students create a three-dimensional model of a landscape represented by a topographic contour map.
Curated OER
Vocabulary Review and Map Skills
Students, when given the name of a community, identify a food, a craft, a custom, language and music, unique to that community 100% of the time. They find similarities and differences between this community and their own in four...
Physics Classroom
As the Crow Flies Lab
A simple, yet memorable, way of practicing with displacement vectors is described here. Divide your class into groups and assign each a different landmark on campus. They measure smaller legs of the path from the classroom to their...
Curated OER
Colonial Vacation Planner
Looking for a good lesson on the Colonial Period for your upper-elementary class? Then, this lesson is for you! They use website designs, U.S. travel publications, and maps to plan a family vacation to states which were part of the...
Curated OER
Emphasizing Scale When Creating a Site-Specific Work of Art
Students study art by Matthew Ritchie. Students view pictures of the artist and discuss art that is created specifically for a designated area. Students create pen and ink drawings on letter size paper. Using an overhead, students...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce’s short story, is used to model how structural moves, the decisions an author makes about setting, point of view, time order, etc., can be examined to reveal an author’s purpose. Groups...
Carnegie Mellon University
International Perspectives to Climate Change 1
After a lecture about how the first industrial revolution triggered the path to climate change, your environmental studies class discusses what the impacts are. In a culminating activity, they get into groups and identify countries on a...
Curated OER
Lesson on GPS
Students investigate global positioning systems. In this technology and mapping lesson, students view a PowerPoint presentation in which they identify the features of a GPS, state its uses, and follow steps to find a waypoint.
Curated OER
COME INTO MY PARLOR
Students interpret a map scale to measure the space in a milking parlor. They reveiw the process of using a map scale to calculate distances. Students are given worksheets, they read the information in the box together. They draw an...
Science Matters
Earth Shaking Events
The world's largest measured earthquake happened in 1960 in Chile, reaching a terrifying 9.5 magnitude on the Richter Scale. The second lesson in the 20-part series introduces earthquakes and fault lines. Scholars map where previous...
Curated OER
Plant Life of the Rainforest
Young scholars study pictures of tropical rainforests and discuss its stratified character. Students then work with a partner to make a scale drawing of the rainforest strata.