Worksheet
Curated OER

Contour Map Worksheet #3

For Students 6th - 9th
Earth scientists answer five multiple choice questions about the topographical map atop the learning exercise. Use this as a quick assessment of understanding after having taught how to read contour lines and topographic maps. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How to Read a Topographic Map

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students investigate the use of topographic maps.
Unit Plan
Association of American Geographers

Project GeoSTART

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Investigate the fascinating, yet terrifying phenomenon of hurricanes from the safety of your classroom using this earth science unit. Focusing on developing young scientists' spacial thinking skills, these lessons engage...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

3-D Topographic Maps

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students create a 3-D topographic map.  In this map building lesson plan, students use cardboard to create a topographic map of the Catskills mountain region.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cookie Topography

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students construct a cross section diagram showing elevation changes on a "cookie island." Using a chocolate chip cookie for an island, they locate the highest point in centimeters on the cookie and create a scale in feet. After tracing...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ehhh...What'd you say?

For Teachers K - 1st
Practice pronouncing and spelling words with the /e/ sound with spellers. They blend phonemes with spelling maps to master important representation and letter symbol of the short vowel /e/. They also make sock puppets and study the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Volcano Contour Models Activity and Tracing the Highs and Lows in San Francisco

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students investigate how to draw topographic contours and read topographic maps.They examine the topography of San Francisco and contrast the elevation of different points within San Francisco.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

United States Map- Land Elevation

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Students explore a physical map. In this map skills lesson, students discuss examples of elevation and investigate the symbols used to identify elevation on a map. Students use the map to identify various land elevations.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Topographic Maps and Mountain Profiles

For Teachers 7th - 11th
Young scholars study how to mark inclines and construct a mountain profile.  In this topographic map lesson students mark contour intervals and draw mountain profiles. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Red Gets Fed

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students practice with the strategy that letters represent phonemes and spellings map out phonemes in spoken words. They work on the phoneme sounds of /a/ and e=/e/ in correspondences with reading. Each student also recites the tongue...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

MAPS AND TOPOGRAPHY

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students analyze the details of a topographic map and create one of their own by utilyzing a map of elevations.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mapping It Out

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders examine various aspects of the environment of Utah. In groups, they create four maps of Utah, based on temperature, precipitation and elevation. To end the lesson, they are asked a question as a group and use their maps...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Latin American Relief Map

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students, in groups, research, design and construct a relief map of a section of Latin America using papier-mache. They show major landforms, elevations and notable bodies of water. They present their maps to the class.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Topography: Know the topography of your neighborhood

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students read and identify features on a topography map. In this topography lesson plan, students learn how to read a topography map, and then go out and take pictures of their own and discuss the topography pictures they took.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Viewing Earth and Sky

For Students 7th - 12th
In this earth and sky learning exercise, students review terms associated with map reading. Students also review topographic maps and how contour lines represent elevation. This learning exercise has 5 matching, 5 true or false, 5 fill...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Planning A Railroad Online Lesson

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students plan a route across Donner Summit using topographical maps in order to understand the challenges involved in constructing the railroad in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In this history lesson plan, students first discover how to...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Globe Skills Lesson 5

For Students 6th - 11th
In this map skills worksheet, students read a text selection about locations during the American Revolution and then respond to 8 fill in the blank questions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Globe Skills Lesson 1 Some Early American Cultures

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners apply their knowledge of geography. In this geography skills lesson plan, students read brief selections regarding early Americans. Learners respond to the questions included in the self-guided map skills lesson plan.
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Getting to the Core of World and State Geography

For Teachers 4th
Students create topography relief maps. In this geography skills lesson, students review geography core knowledge skills, design and make a state relief map, and compile a student atlas.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Geography Skills

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils practice their geography skills. In this geography skills lesson, students locate, plot, and label places on maps and globes.
Lesson Plan
Cornell University

Constructing and Visualizing Topographic Profiles

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Militaries throughout history have used topography information to plan strategies, yet many pupils today don't understand it. Scholars use Legos and a contour gauge to understand how to construct and visualize topographic profiles. This...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Common Themes

For Teachers 10th
Tenth graders test usefulness of a model Earth by comparing its predictions to observations in the real world.  In this landforms lesson students construct an island from a contour map using model clay then analyze the landscape...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Volcano Contour Models Activity

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students experiment with water levels and plastic topographic volcano models to determine the contour lines that would be used to create a topograpohic map of a volcano. They use the traced lines to actually develop the map.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oregon Rainshadows

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students brainstorm list of possible highest locations in Oregon, identify and label places from list on map using color code, and discuss and identify causes of a rain shadow.