Geosystems: The Map Room

By: Judy Carnine; 6/15/1997, Indianapolis, IN

Site address: http://www.geosys.com/cgi-bin/genobject/maproom/tigdd27

Theme: developing map skills

Grade Level(s): upper elementary and middle school 

Annotation of Site:

The above web site includes a short description about the history of cartography, map skills interactive sessions, maps and map-fact of the week. The history of cartography is a brief timeline of early innovations in mapmaking. Map skills sessions can be utilized for instruction and review of basic map skills, such as, latitude, longitude, interpretation of map projections, and map scales. Feature maps focus on particular global regions or states using latitude and longitude to locate major cities. A map scale is used for each map, and major physical feature are labeled. Feature map of the week projects numerous, global place maps and lists various facts about the place in poetry form.

Geography Standards addressed:

• #1) How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
• #2) How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places and environments in a spatial context.

Indiana Social Studies Proficiency Guidelines addressed:

Geographic Relationships:

• a) Explain the relationship between physical and cultural features on the Earth’s surface.
• b) Hypothesize about the natural environment of places in relation to their absolute and relative locations.
• c) Identify the physical features (and water forms, climate, natural vegetation,...) that influence cultural development in the regions of the world.