Today we’re investigating the role maps can play in the classroom, and not just in the geography classroom.

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Brittany 0:00

Hey, Ellie, have you ever looked at a map and wondered why it was drawn the way it was?

Ellie 0:27

Honestly, I'm not sure that I've ever wondered that. When I look at maps, I'm typically looking for information about a place or for directions to somewhere.

Brittany 0:37

I have always been fascinated with maps, even when I was little kid. I liked looking at them and questioning things. For example, the railroad follows the river until there, but then they split. Why did they do that? And then I would try to figure it out. But I also loved learning that all maps are different, and not all maps are like ours.

Ellie 1:01

What do you mean?

Brittany 1:02

Well, in the northern hemisphere, all our maps have north at the top, but that's not true everywhere. In many Middle Eastern countries, the East is very important to them, so the East is at the top of their maps.

Ellie 1:15

Okay.

Brittany 1:16

And in the southern hemisphere, the South is more important to them than the north, so they put the south at the top of their maps.

Ellie 1:23

Oh, that's interesting. I haven't really looked at other types of maps like that.

Brittany 1:28

Well, welcome to the teaching toolbox, a podcast for middle school teachers. Today, we're investigating the role that maps can play in the middle school classroom.

Ellie 1:39

Maps are a versatile tool for all classrooms and can be used in a multitude of ways. They promote a richer, more interconnected learning experience and have many benefits. For example, maps can help enhance spatial thinking. They help students develop their critical spatial thinking skills, which, frankly, I could have used a lot more development with, which are vital for understanding the world around them. By interpreting map symbols, scales, and legends, students learn to visualize spatial relationships. Maps allow students to grasp the geographical arrangement of places, helping them understand proximity, distance, size, and direction. Students also learn to analyze patterns and distributions with maps. They can observe and interpret patterns such as population density or climate zones, and that enhances their ability to analyze spatial data.

Brittany 2:34

You can also kind of see with your younger kids, and I know we mainly talk about middle school, but whether or not they are struggling with basic information, and whether or not they get basic information. For instance, if you have a symbol on your map for a hospital, and it's got a, you know, circle with an H in the middle, and you're like, you know, what does this symbol mean? And they're like, Oh, it's a McDonald's. Well, then they might be having troubles, you know, with visual seeing - they're somehow seeing an M out of that H, maybe, Or if they're just going, it's a baseball field, or it's a chuck e cheese or something, then you know that they're not making any connection between that letter and what is the symbol for. If they're saying, Oh, it's a helicopter pad, it's a it's a golf course, because maybe they're associating H for holes, you know golf holes, then you know that they're at least making some kind of connection. And I've even had it at sixth grade, whether kids have any kind of reasoning, like basic reasoning for those symbols and legends,

Ellie 3:58

Interesting. I hadn't thought about it that way.

Brittany 4:01

So maps also support our interdisciplinary learning and real world relevance, because they can be used in various ways throughout virtually every subject in the school building. So subjects become intermeshed or interwoven, and students see more real world applications and life skills, just by using maps.

Ellie 4:24

Using maps in the classroom encourages students to engage in critical thinking and problem solving activities, and that can be achieved by encouraging inquiry and exploration. Students can make up questions and conduct research based on map data, and that can lead to deeper understanding of complex issues. They can also promote decision making skills. Analyzing maps helps students weigh different factors and make informed decisions such as planning routes or evaluating land use.

Brittany 4:55

I would always have my kids have to give me a map to their house from school.

Ellie 5:00

Oh, yeah, we did that.

Brittany 5:02

So they would sit in the car and try to do it on the way home or something. And I'd be like, okay, you know? And then I would actually sit down with a map and chart where they told me to go,

Ellie 5:15

okay.

Brittany 5:16

And I'd be like, I ended up in a safe way, or I ended up in this grocery store or, you know, this park or this field, you know, I didn't end up at your house.

Ellie 5:29

That's great,

Brittany 5:31

But it was always good critical thinking skills for them to kind of, you know, mom, which way are we turning north or south?

Ellie 5:38

Because, how many times do people just drive in a car and they're kind of oblivious to what's happening outside. They're just like, Yeah, I got here,

Brittany 5:45

yeah.

Ellie 5:47

Or I did what Google Maps told me to do at this point in time, without really being aware of what's around them or even what direction they were going.

Brittany 5:55

Yes.

Ellie 5:56

So it's a good thing to have maybe students be the navigator when they're in the in the car with you and looking at the Google Maps, if you can see it on your display, so they're actually looking at what is happening, not just necessarily listening to which way to go.

Brittany 6:10

Another fun project you can do is you can have your students try to find a street or like a cul de sac or a lane or something named after them, either first, middle or last

Ellie 6:26

Yes.

Brittany 6:27

You know, we all have weird names,

Ellie 6:28

sure.

Brittany 6:29

But

Ellie 6:30

Do you have a street with your last name?

Brittany 6:32

Not with my last name? No, but I do have a Brittany, Brittany Avenue.

Ellie 6:39

Oh, nice. I don't think I've ever seen a street with my first name, but maybe there is one. Someone can let us know. I'm gonna find one there and Ellie, anything out there, or Ellen, we'll go with either.

Brittany 6:50

Maps also foster global awareness and cultural understanding by providing a whole new perspective. They let students see things globally and help them to appreciate the diversity and complexity of the world. This fosters cultural awareness, because by exploring maps that highlight ethnicity, language, cultural distributions, students can gain insights into the diversity of world cultures and the global interconnectedness we all share. Global Citizenship can also be fostered by using maps. Understanding geographic and cultural contexts, encourages students to think critically about global issues such as migration and climate change, preparing them to be informed global citizens.

Ellie 7:42

Maps also engage students with visual and interactive learning. We've talked about visual learning and interactivity being so important. Maps appeal to visual learners because it's something they can see, look at and engage with. They allow for tactile manipulation and create an interactive situation where students compare the legend to the map, examine the courses of rivers and railroads like Brittany, question things about those - they can find the roads themselves, they can find hidden treasures and long lost towns. These visual and interactive components are particularly beneficial, and they enhance visual literacy. Students learn to interpret and create maps, developing skills and visual literacy that are applicable across disciplines. And believe it or not, they can encourage creativity. Map based projects like designing fictional maps or creating thematic maps allow students to express creativity while reinforcing some academic concepts.

Brittany 8:44

And nowadays, maps allow students to engage with and learn about technology by using digital mapping tools like Google Maps, the GIS system, or apps like map box, students can explore interactive real time data. Incorporating maps into the middle school education system not only enriches the curriculum, but it also equips students with essential skills and knowledge, preparing them for future academic and personal success. So as we've said, maps are versatile educational tools that can enhance learning across a variety of subjects. Middle school teachers can incorporate maps into their classroom activities in so many ways, no matter what subject you're teaching. In geography, we can use maps to explore to teach students about different countries, continents, and geographic features. We can encourage students to research and present information about a specific location's culture, climate, or population. In history, we can integrate maps into the history lesson to help students visualize historical events or movements such as trade routes, battles, or the spread of empires. Maps can also illustrate changes in political boundaries over time.

In math class, we can use maps to teach concepts like scale, distance, and area. Students can calculate the distance between two points you know, as the crow flies, or compare the sizes of different regions using map scales. In language arts, you can have students create fictional maps as part of a creative writing assignment, they can develop a story set in their imagined world using the map to guide the plot and character journeys.

In science and ecology, you can use topographic maps or climate maps to study ecosystems, weather patterns, and environmental changes. Students can investigate how geography influences biodiversity and habitat distribution. And with cultural studies, you can introduce maps that highlight linguistic or ethnic distributions. This can help students understand cultural diversity and the factors that contribute to cultural identity in different regions.

And you can incorporate maps when you're studying current events. That encourages students to use maps to track current events like political elections, natural disasters, or global issues. And this can help students see the global impact of these events. We used to, when I was teaching language arts, we would have a current events assignment, and every day for certain weeks of the year, students would present their current events. And so now I'm thinking it would have been a great idea to have a map on the board where we could have also mapped those items. I think that would have been a fantastic idea.

And if you would have had, like, pins of different colors, so like green if it was environmental, red if it was a war item, blue if it was involving water or something, then you're making a map within a map, because you're making a thematic map within the world map.

Nice. I like that. I hope somebody can use that. You can also use maps with art and design lessons. You can inspire students to create artistic maps by incorporating elements of design and creativity, maybe designing their maps from different viewpoints, as Brittany talked about earlier.

And in physical education, you can incorporate maps into physical education by organizing orienteering activities. Students can learn to read and navigate maps while engaging in physical exercise, even if you had just made a map that showed what order they had to go around like an obstacle course in the gym that is a mapping exercise. And for economics and trade, use maps to examine global trade routes and economic relationships. Students can study how geography affects trade dynamics and resource distribution.

There are so many ways to use maps, and so these are just a few examples of things that you can think about. By incorporating maps into various subject areas, you can provide students with a multi dimensional understanding of the world, and foster skills in analysis, creativity, and critical thinking.

And maps don't have to be just paper and pencil anymore, either. Do you remember the big folded road maps from our childhood, how you were always trying to figure out how it refolded back down into a little four inch by nine inch packet?

Oh my gosh, yes. So frustrating. And I, to be honest, I think I still have some of those floating around just in case.

Or those giant atlases that were like 11 by 20 inches, and you have those giant books in the car.

Oh my gosh, yeah, good old days.

Maps can be so interactive now, made from multiple materials, made quickly or made painstakingly slowly, open your mind to the possibilities, and you can do amazing things with materials and maps. I would have my students practice drawing the United States in shaving cream on their desks. Then once they had that down, we would add the capital, or then we'd add the capital and Colorado, and then we'd add the capital Colorado and the state they were born in, or something like that. And so we would just add little bits by little bits, making it bigger and bigger and bigger, and they loved playing with shaving cream on their desk.

We made maps of Pennsylvania, way back out of cake and gumdrops and licorice and and then we ate them. But that was a lot of fun when we studied the state. Students can make a map of the environment using their environment. So they could glue down dirt where there's dirt and grass where there's grass. They could collect some leaves and sticks for paths and trees, markers, paint, or cellophane could be the water and the ideas are endless there. I'm sure you have a lot.

You could create a treasure map using a paper bag that's been crushed, torn, squeezed, battered,

ooh, yeah,

if there's an adult involved, you can lightly Burn the edges, just be very careful.

We are not promoting fire.

We are not promoting fire. You can find random objects like pipe cleaners and spools, buttons and straws, and builds a map about global impact with these found items.

And of course, you can always use the paint, chalk, crayons, colored pencils, markers and computer systems.

No matter what subject you teach, there are ways to incorporate maps and use them as part of your teaching toolbox.

Please reach out to us on social media or on our website and let us know what topics you'd like to hear more about. Talk to you soon.

Bye.