CK-12 Foundation
Position and Displacement Simulation
How can we use vectors to determine a person's position when traveling? The simulation offers guided practice at determining the coordinates and the distance between coordinates on a map grid. It reinforces the importance of positive...
Curated OER
Grid Frame Mapping
Students map and describe small area of the schoolyard and discuss habitats.
K-State Research and Extensions
Water
How are maps like fish? They both have scales. The chapter includes six different activities at three different levels. Scholars complete activities using natural resources, learn how to read a map, see how to make a compass rosette,...
Curated OER
Plotting Earthquakes
Students plot earthquakes on a map. In this instructional activity on earthquakes, students will explore recent earthquake activity in California and Nevada. Students will plot fault lines and earthquake occurrences on a map.
Curated OER
Mapping the Bone Field: An Area and Scale Exercise
Here is an excellent cross-curricular lesson. Learners relate multiplication to area by making a grid on graph paper, and then creating the same grid in real space outside in the school yard.
Curated OER
Hide and Seek with Bones: A Mapping and Scaling Comparison
Students examine and simulate how paleontologists map objects. They hide and find objects using a grid to map the objects' placements.
National Wildlife Federation
Quantifying Land Changes Over Time Using Landsat
"Humans have become a geologic agent comparable to erosion and [volcanic] eruptions ..." Paul J. Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist. Using Landsat imagery, scholars create a grid showing land use type, such as urban,...
Curated OER
Reading Contour Maps
Students examine contour maps and bathymetry maps and discover how to interpret a contour map of the East Pacific Rise. Students look at a map as a class and answer questions together before working independently on a map of the East...
Curated OER
Making Topographic Maps and Mountain Profiles
Learners study how to mark inclines and construct a mountain profile. In this topographic map activity students mark contour intervals and draw mountain profiles.
Curated OER
All About the Animals
Whose footprints are those? After reading Janet Halfmann's book, Little Skink's Tail, young scholars use footprints to determine where on a gridded map certain animals have been spotted. They use the map to answer 3 questions, one...
University of Southern California
What Is The Ocean?
Go on a tour of the ocean through the lens of a scientist. Learners read maps of the ocean floor, study tide behavior, examine wave motion, and analyze components of soil. Each lesson incorporates a hands-on component.
International Technology Education Association
Reinventing Time
Take a trip through time. A lesson resource provides instruction on the origin of current measurements for time. The text explains the different tools humans used throughout history to measure time as well as provides examples such as...
Curated OER
Cookie Mapping
Students study the components of a bedrock geology map through a hands-on activity involving a cookie and graph paper.
Curated OER
4-figure Grid Reference
Fourth graders study maps and grid lines. In this weather map lesson students complete an activity that allows them to understand grid lines on a map.
Curated OER
Introduction to WorldWatcher: Coloring Temperature Maps
Young scholars are introduced to the software program WorldWatcher. In groups, they discover the temperature variations throughout the world and color a map according to the temperatures. They also practice using visualization to...
Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)
Sonar Mapping of the Ocean Floor
Eighth graders participate in an experiment that emulates a sonar signal bouncing off the ocean floor. They determine how the ocean floor is measured by the length of time it takes for the sonar signal to return. They work with a wooden...
PBS
Inspector Detector
How do spacecraft detect magnetic fields? The fourth installment of a five-part unit has learners develop a device with magnets that allows for the detection of magnetic fields. They use a map of an imaginary planet to try out their...
California Academy of Science
Earthquakes and Tectonic Plates
Here is a comprehensive package in which middle schoolers learn about types of seismic waves, triangulation, and tectonic plate boundaries. Complete vocabulary, colorful maps, and a worksheet are included via links on the webpage. You...
Carnegie Mellon University
Renewables Workshop
Youngsters examine resource maps to find out which states are using solar and wind power and discuss as a class various other renewable energy sources. They use a provided data table to record pros and cons to each technology, build and...
Curated OER
TE Activity: Nidy-Gridy
Students make a grid and coordinate system map of their classroom as they investigate why it is important to have a common map making system. They look at how landmarks are used for navigating an area.
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Estimation, Sampling, and Beyond
Students examine an ISS EarthKAM image of farm land in Texas and New Mexico. They select sample region of image and count the number of fields in that region. They estimate how many fields are in the entire region.
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...