Tuesday and Wednesday Oct 11 & 12 Days 34 & 35

History of Mapping 

Today we are starting the Unit on Latitude and Longitude as well as European Exploration

Introduction to the Unit

We are beginning our Unit on Latitude/Longitude  Time zones and the History of Cartography (map making). In this unit students will learn about the challenges early map makers had in representing an accurate picture of their surroundings. Many early map makers had limited to no technology at their disposal and had to develop a way to represent various land features, coastlines, mountains, etc. This led to many early maps being incredibly limited and inaccurate. These inaccuracies led many expeditions to unknown parts of the world and resulted in some very destructive behaviors as well as new found places and people. This unit will cover various explorers, and the lands they mapped-out for future exploration.

Objectives- 
*Given a blank piece of paper, the student will experience the challenges of a cartographer in producing and accurate map based solely on verbal instructions.
*Given a fictitious land mass to view, students will use only cardinal direction in describing the details to a amateur cartographer in producing a map.
*Given a description of a fictitious island, students will use recently acquired mapping skills to produce an accurate replication of the described land.
* Given a blank piece of paper students will be able to draw a relatively accurate map of a familiar place they know very well.

Rationale:-  Understanding the challenges with making accurate maps will teach the students the reasons why early explorers were usually dumbfounded when venturing off into unchartered waters

Evidence:- Students will be able to use an atlas and latitude/longitude coordinates to locate various places within the world as part of a scavenger hunt

Does this look very accurate?

Today you will get a chance to experience what being an ancient cartographer was like...
In this activity each student will play the role of a mapmaker (Cartographer) as well as an explorer who visits uncharted lands.

After the Mapping activity, we will go over Latitude and Longitude and Seasons and do a scavenger hunt as well as a Latitude and Longitude Packet - Lat Long Scavenger Hunt

Once the presentation is finished I will post a pdf version of the presentation for students to have.

Lastly (if time permits), we will go over time zones and their history, as well as introducing the Early Map Making article which we will summarize/annotate using a google doc with tables.