History of Mapping
Today we are starting the Unit on History of Map Making, Latitude and Longitude as well as European Exploration
Introduction to the Unit
We are beginning our Unit on History of Map Making, Latitude/Longitude, Time zones and the History of Exploration. In this unit, students will learn about the challenges early mapmakers had in representing an accurate picture of their surroundings. Many early mapmakers 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 outcomes as well as new found places, people and plant life. 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 an 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 an 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 student's 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? |
In this activity, each student will play the role of a mapmaker (Cartographer) as well as an explorer who visits uncharted lands.
When this activity is finished we will introduce you to the idea of Latitude and Longitude through a detailed presentation
Once the Activity sheets have been finished we will start on the Time Zone Assignment.
After the Mapping activity, we will go over Latitude and Longitude and Seasons and do a scavenger - Lat Long Scavenger Hunt
When we finish with the
Early MapMaking Article
Early MapMaking Student response form
