Curated OER
Building a Topographic Model
Students explore Mount Shasta and various locations on Mars to examine ways geographical data can be represented. They study topographic maps and translating data from 2-Dimensions to 3-Dimensions.
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You Are Here
Students map local places and learn to use scale and distance. In this mapping instructional activity, students map their school and a favorite place. Students recreate their maps showing distance and scale sizes. Students...
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River Study
Pupils explore a stream in their area and show the class the topographic map of the stream. They locate the topographic map and name the streams, lakes and ponds in their watershed. They write a paragraph about their stream and complete...
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Mapping the Sea Floor
Students review their prior knowledge on topographical maps. Using a map, they examine the sea floor off the coast of San Diego, California. With a partner, they chart the sea floor of an area and use cutouts to create a visual...
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Design an Island
Students make a map of an imaginary island using the topographic symbols provided from a worksheet. Students place lakes, dwellins, reefs, etc. in areas where they would logically be located from understanding how the topography of an...
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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...
Global Change
Impact of Climate Change on the Desert Pupfish
A fish that lives in the desert? You and your class can meet the desert pupfish as they examine its habitat, the role humans play in diminishing water supplies, and how climate change might impact this fishy friend. There are four short...
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Welcome to My World!
Students use maps to locate information. They read the story, "It Looked Like Spilt Milk", view images of the continents and discuss the various continents. Afterward, they make their own Atlas to record information that they can later...
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From Maps to Models
Fourth graders study topography maps and learn the importance of their contour lines. In this map lesson students create their own topography map.
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Introduction of the Lunar Relief Map Project
Students investigate the geographic features of the surface of the moon. In this lunar relief map lesson plan, students watch and discuss the Apollo II Moon landing and make preliminary plans for their lunar maps.
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Volcanoes!: Forecasting the Path of Mudflows
Learners construct a mockup of a volcano by crumbling up newspapers and piling them into the shape of a volcano. They place a tarp over the newspapers making sure the tarp is large enough to simulate a flat area at the volcano's base....
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Tracing Highs and Lows in San Francisco
On a topographic map, learners 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....
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Italy: The Landscape
Students work in small groups to create a topographic map of Italy. They must include labeled line drawings of bordering countries and bodies of water. Students use salt and flour clay to make Italy three dimensional, showing the many...
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The Delicate Balance - Iowa's Natural Resources
Discover the natural resources in Iowa by studying it's history. In this environmental instructional activity, your students will observe a topographical map of Iowa and identify where its most valuable resources are. They complete an...
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Forcasting the Path of Mudflows
Students visualize consistency of mudflows and how they move down stream valleys away from a volcano's summit. They use topographic maps of Mount St. Helens before the 1980 eruptions to forecast the path mudflows might take during an...
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Understanding a Geological Map
Students identify different types of maps and observe a geological map. In this geology lesson students create a replica map of a geological area that includes a key.
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Geologic Mapping I
Students create a geologic map and cross-section of an area of horizontal sedimentary rocks, exposed in several locations. Map must include a complete key or legend with rock descriptions of the various formations.
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MAPPING THE TOPOGRAPHY OF UNKNOWN SURFACES
Students describe in words and graphic displays the elevation or depression profile of sections of Mars' Olympus Mons and/or Valles Marineris. They explain how orbiting spacecraft build up global maps one data slice at a time.
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Surveying the Land
Students explore the different kinds of maps and the purpose of each. For this Geography lesson, students work in small groups to create a map which includes the use of a map key.
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Map It!
Fourth graders collect and explore different maps and their uses before using the program Pixie to create maps of geographic features, political features, and economic information for the state in which they live.
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Lesson 8: Changes in Deerfield, Massachusetts Shown in Maps
Eighth graders study maps of the same area from different time periods which show the ways in which the land stayed the same, and the ways this New England village changed over the years.
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Continents and Oceans on the Move
Students 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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Waldseemuller's Map: World 1507
Seventh graders analyze various maps. In this Geography lesson, 7th graders create a large map as a whole class. Students write a letter to Mr. Waldseemuller.
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Topographic Connections: Earth's Surface Shapes Streams; Streams Sculpt the Earth
Students identify physical characteristics of developing streams and infer changes in the landscape by creating a river model.