We would be lost without maps! How are they made? Introduce junior topographers to LIDAR technology with a fascinating activity. Set up a mock city, then have learners operate a laser measure to determine the shape of the landscape using...

Class members are transformed into explorers as they work in groups to locate hidden items and map their journey along the way. They then leave clues for other groups of students to follow, and ultimately discover how past explorations...

Put your students' map skills to the test with this engaging cross-curricular project. Given the task of developing new hiking trails for their local community, young cartographers must map out beginner and intermediate...

To gain insight into the many different types of habitats, individuals must first get to know their own. Here, scholars explore their school environment, draw a map, compare and contrast their surroundings to larger ones. They then...

Working with a map that does not have a coordinate system on it, small, collaborative teams must come up with a coordinate system for their map. Groups then explain their coordinate structure to the class.

It's important to know the final destination. Scholars first measure distances in a region of interest using a standard measuring device or by counting steps. They then use an appropriate scale and graph paper to create a map of the...

With the stroke of a pen, Thomas Jefferson roughly doubled the size of the United States. The Louisiana Purchase not only grew the new country, but also it gave rise to the legends surrounding westward expansion and accelerated the...

From Pythagorean triples to the unit circle. Learners use the Pythagorean Theorem to find Pythagorean triples and then relate their work to the unit circle in a fun algebra project. Their discovery that x^2+y^2 is always equal to one on...

This resource is the portal to all the resources National Geographic provides for celebrating Geography Awareness Week, which occurs the third week of November. Find the toolkit, archives of previous celebrations, videos, and mapmaking...

In this activity, students explore map making. Students' read a story, identify the locations of different places in the story, decide the distance between each set of places in the story, and create a map with a legend.

A collection of latitude and longitude mapping activities ranging from pin-pointing exact locations on the globe to researching the history behind this basic geography concept.

Normally we find things using landmark navigation. When you move to a new place, it may take you awhile to explore the new streets and buildings, but eventually you recognize enough landmarks and remember where they are in relation to...

This site from the Valparaiso University provides information on Carl Ritter and Alexander von Humboldt, two famous geographers.

This imaginative lesson uses food products to demonstrate the physical characteristics of maps.