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  1. synergy:
  2. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
  3. Cooperative interaction that creates an enhanced combined effect.
  1. field:
  2. A wide unbroken expanse.
  3. An area of human activity or interest.
  4. A region of space characterized by a physical property, such as gravitational or electromagnetic force or fluid pressure, having a determinable value at every point in the region.

Exploring Maps

When my parents took the family on a car trip across the country in my 8th summer, I became a map reader. Back then it was legal to ride in the trailer through some states, and when it was just my mom and I in the car, she relied on me to read the map as she drove. The immediate, real-life need for map skills--coupled with my mother's anger after I had a "learning moment" that sent her off course--gave me incentive to polish my skill quickly. What I learned on that trip stuck with me, and I took pride in my newfound ability.

Now my older daughter is interested in maps, as a result of my husband's taking her and her sister on a trip to South Carolina to visit their grandparents, an 8-hour drive away. The 3 of them planned a side trip to hike at Raven Cliff Falls, and Caitlin began to study the map. That helped to prepare her for becoming the navigator for the trip. Her curiosity raised a lot of questions for her, and the answers she found broadened her horizons. Cait learned about map scales, discovered how to tell if a lake was natural or created, found out how the highway numbering system works, learned a lot about South Carolina's natural features, and much more.

Since the trip, Cait has picked up and studied other maps, learning about native words, highway systems, how to use the mileage chart, the significance of natural boundaries, topography, and on and on!

Here are some fun and interesting mapping sites that I hope you and your children will enjoy.


-Shay

Just for Fun Map Game
Drag and drop the names of Middle Eastern countries into their proper places on the map.

Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map
Fuller started with the data for the spherical Earth surface. He projected the data from the sphere onto an icosahedron -- the twenty- sided Platonic solid -- and then unfolded that icosahedron out flat. There is no wrong way to look at his map! There is no "upside down." Fuller said "there is no up or down in Universe, only in and out."

Online Map Creation
Construct your own map: choose coordinates for boundaries, kind of projection, and types of data.

Maps That Teach
Learn the countries of different continents and their capitals with these fun and educational map puzzle games.

National Atlas of the United States
This digital online atlas offers easy to use, map-like views of America's natural and sociocultural landscapes. It contributes to our knowledge of the environmental, resource, demographic, economic, social, political, and historical dimensions of American life.

Earth and Moon Viewer
Viewing the Earth: You can view either a map of the Earth showing the day and night regions at this moment, or view the Earth from the Sun, the Moon, the night side of the Earth, above any location on the planet specified by latitude, longitude and altitude, from a satellite in Earth orbit, or above various cities around the globe. You can view maps of the moon, too.

Zoom Into Maps!
Using historic maps from the Library of Congress, help students discover the stories that maps can tell us. Site introduces historical maps from the American Memory collections. Categories include: Exploration and Discovery, Migration and Settlement, Travel and Transportation, Military, Pictorial Maps, Unusual Maps, and more.

National Geographic's Map Machine
Examine world themes, US themes, atlases, historical maps, flags and facts.

Mapping a Park Trip Lesson Plan (Grades 4-6)
Students map routes to several National Parks they would like to visit.

Mapping My Spot in History Lesson Plan (Grades 6-8)
Visitors create their town's history for coming generations and place themselves on the map in a literal as well as figurative sense, by producing portions of an updated version of an early twentieth century panoramic map from the American Memory collections. To complete this project, they gather information from a variety of primary sources, including the early twentieth century map, photographs, drawings, and site visits. Each student contributes to the revised map by creating a contemporary map of her or his block.

GEODE
Maps display a range of data: population, transportation, political boundaries, oil, water, other natural resources, & more. Students can explore geographic relationships by combining & co-displaying these data on maps of Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and other parts of the world. Best with high-speed connection; it didn't work well with my 56K dialup modem.



(c) Shay Seaborne, 2003, 2005. Originally published in the December 2003 issue of HEM's Online Newsletter