Using Mapping Skills in Multiple Disciplines

Dear Educator,

Maps101 includes interactive lessons with teacher editions, called GeoInquiries. Using a map as the foundation for a GeoInquiry lesson, you can teach a variety of subjects, even math! Let’s take a look at some of the subject areas that GeoInquiries cover. With this GeoJournal newsletter, you can discover what Maps101 includes, such as GeoInquiries. We think you and your students will benefit from including these unique lessons in YOUR classroom.

As we love to say at Maps101, “Geography is everywhere!” This includes in mathematics. The GeoInquiries in the Math collection feature topics such as: Area and Perimeter at the Mall, Centers of Triangles, D=R x T, Measuring Crop Circles, Perpendicular Bisectors, and many more.

Collection Link:
https://ng.maps101.com/resource/collection/egi-mathematics

Example: Volume of Pyramids

The example below is about the volume of the pyramids in Egypt. The learning objectives include: 

• Students will find the volume of a pyramid.
• Students will consider how environmental factors may affect the volume of the pyramid over time.

Students can zoom in and out on the satellite imagery and use the built-in tools to follow the lesson. The teacher edition provides you with the answers you need, to accompany this lesson. With this activity, students will apply a mathematical principle to a real-world place—the Pyramids of Giza. Students often have a difficult time understanding how to apply math to the world around them. This is an excellent example of doing just that!

It is no surprise to teachers of English Language Arts that mapping is essential to studying American Literature in order to identify places. Mapping skills help students relate what they are reading to the location and characteristics of the region in which the story takes place. The GeoInquiries American Literature collection includes topics like: Beyond Religion: Scarlet Letter; Depression, Dust, & Steinbeck; Gatsby: Then and Now; Poe and the Red Death, and many more.

Collection link:
https://ng.maps101.com/resource/collection/egi-american-literature

Example: Our Town, Your Town

The GeoInquiry asks students to explore the essential services in a small American town in the 1900s, and then the activity has them compare these services with what is offered in students’ communities today. 

There are too many subject areas to highlight, but there are GeoInquiry collections of activities for Environmental Science, Human Geography, Government, U.S. History, Upper Elementary, World Geography, and World History, in addition to those highlighted in the newsletter. With GeoInquiries, you have numerous opportunities to help your students learn not just about a topic but also how to apply mapping skills to connect the content to the world.