Secondary teachers should find these guidelines useful in helping students to become more map conscious and critical of maps. Various ways in which map elements can be manipulated to make maps persuasive and how such maps have been used are examined. Tips for identifying these maps are provided. (RM)

Discusses software that educators can use to teach about distortions associated with alternative map projections. Examines the Projection, MicroCAM, World, and Atlas-GIS software programs. Suggests using the software in either introductory or more advanced courses dealing with map design or thematic cartography. Explains how to obtain the…

Describes a series of geography activities for upper elementary students designed to develop comprehension of space-time relationships. Students collect data about their families' commuting patterns and construct regional maps showing distances and directional relationships. Then they modify the maps to incorporate the time dimension. (AM)

Discusses the geographic information system (GIS), a database that permits the integration, management, and analysis of diverse geographical information. Reports that the GIS has brought gains in cartography and remote sensing but also has brought problems. Identifies the need to balance instruction in technical developments and mainstream…

Having students make an everyday atlas, a collection of maps, generally of a small area, that illustrates features of particular local interest, is a good way to introduce them to the methods and materials of geography. How to make an atlas is discussed. Two examples are described. (RM)

Designates steps to be taken at all stages of the map production process from planning to printing. Pointers include making sure that the map is essential rather than purely decorative; considering the audience for whom the map is intended; determining the primary message that the map is intended to convey; and considering the dimensions of the…

Suggests basic elements of spatial education appropriate to geographic information system (GIS) course curricula. Describes the need for integration of GIS education and GIS training. Discusses hardware/software configurations, approaches to the creation of laboratory facilities, and approaches, rationales, and technical considerations in the…

Defines and describes the use of choropleth maps in geography instruction. Identifies the six basic steps for constructing choropleth maps and recommends their use in secondary classrooms. Includes five maps and two tables applying choropleth maps to Central American and Caribbean nations. (CFR)

Describes a cartographic exercise to help students in an introductory geography course on the college level understand the geography of world affairs. The activity involved students in creating a diagrammatic map commensurate with amount of news magazine coverage of various foreign countries. (Author/DB)

Using the U.S. Bureau of the Census's National Travel Survey as the primary data source, the exercises described will help high school or college level students develop basic geographic skills, including data interpretation, map construction, and spatial analysis. They will also familiarize students with broad patterns of recreation travel. (RM)

These learning activities involve secondary geography students in making a turf map, using map grids, solving problems dealing with map scale, and making a map scale. Complete teacher instructions are provided. (RM)

A two-week map skills unit for fourth and fifth graders is presented. Students learn about the nature of maps, map conventions that cartographers employ to aid map readers in using maps, and map symbols and orientation. They then apply knowledge and skills learned and make their own maps. (RM)

A geographical exercise becomes more meaningful and more fun if we feel we can contribute to it in some way. Three map exercises that get college students to participate in a beginning human geography course are presented. (SR)

Describes a college urban geography class project studying factors which determine the spacial distribution of the elderly in Baltimore, Maryland, and attributes of desirable housing sites for them. Students discussed problems and needs of the elderly, mapped their population distribution, and did field studies evaluating the adequacy of existing…

Presents a lesson plan that enables children to identify their community as a nodal region. Includes field trips, map tracing and comparison, discussion, and observation. Emphasizes children's analysis of the effect of rail transportation on their community. Suggests using the students' community as a geographic laboratory for hands-on experience.…