As school begins for most students across the country, it is important for students and their parents to remember that opportunities to learn are all around us. Just because most are now going back to school, which is a designated place of learning, it does not negate the fact that we should embrace the joy of learning every day.
With this in mind, I have decided to post additional information regarding maps and how to use them. Years ago when I first began teaching Math to elementary school students, I was advised to always develop my lessons so that I taught the children by including real-world examples. Learning how to use a map is something that students learn in school that can be applied to what they experience when riding in a car with their parents on the highway. Their sense of direction and knowledge of distances of different locations in mileage can allow them to use what they learn to help find new places. This knowledge will also make it so that they will not be afraid of getting lost.
Cartography is the study and practice of making and using maps. It is based on the understanding that things in real life can be drawn on paper and displayed graphically to communicate and provide information. Maps are representations of real objects such as roads, highways, and landforms such as mountains, rivers, and man-made landmarks and buildings. They are created to provide information to their users such as direction and distance. For example, most people know that maps are usually made such that the top of the map is North and the bottom is South. However, they do not all know that what is placed at the top of a map of an area REPRESENTS what is North of what is placed elsewhere on the map. This is one reason that learning how to read a map is a skill that is taught to students in school.
Educational curriculum standards include skills about reading and creating maps and globes. Some of the skills are as follows:
- how to use a compass rose to identify cardinal directions,
- how to use a grid system to determine location,
- how to use graphic scales to determine distances,
- how to use a map key/legend to gather information, and
- how to draw conclusions and make generalizations based on information from maps.
Nowadays, we just type an address into the GPS app on our cellphones and listen to Alexa, Siri or some other “voice” to tell us where to go when we are looking for a new place or if we are traveling in an unfamiliar area. But even the Global Positioning System (GPS) had to be developed by people who knew how to make and read a map. Learning to make and read a map may seem very analogish to young learners but these skills will always be necessary.
The following hypothetical (made-up, fake) scenario, you will see how knowledge of how to use a map is important.
In this scenario, we are planning to go to an outdoor gathering that will take place at Trammell Crow Park in Fulton County, Georgia. We look online and find out that the park is located at 4980 Cascade Road. It is about 12 miles outside downtown Atlanta. We do not know why this park was chosen for this event but that is not necessary for us to know. Those who have planned this event sent us a photo of the park to help us just in case we get lost.
We are not completely sure exactly how this picture is supposed to help us if we get lost but we keep it with us. We also look up a map online of the area to get a general understanding of where we will be going.
Even though we may not completely know how to use this map, we think it just might also be helpful to us.
We begin driving/riding to the park and we know that we will have to take I-285. This is us as we ride along the highway on our way to our destination. We have our map and our cellphone with the address entered in GPS so that we will not get lost.
We then notice the signs that let us know about the exits for Interstate 20. The sign shows that we will need to exit one way to go I-20 East and the other way for I-20 West. The sign below is the one that we might see if we are traveling along I-285 South. You can tell the difference based on which direction indicates east and west to I-20. IN THIS SITUATION, for THESE signs, and IN THIS SCENARIO, since the arrow that indicates that I-20 East is pointing to the left and the arrow that indicates that I-20 West is pointing to the right, then we know we are traveling south. The additional information on the sign will also let you know which way you are going. If you know that Atlanta and the downtown area is to the left of you (East) and that Birmingham is towards the right (West), then you must be traveling south.
The sign below is the one that we might see if we are traveling along I-285 North. Again, IN THIS SITUATION, for THESE signs, and IN THIS SCENARIO since the arrow that indicates that I-20 East is pointing to the right and the arrow that indicates that I-20 West is pointing to the left, then we know we are traveling north.
Trammell Crow Park is just south of I-20 off I-285. Based on the map that we have, if we are traveling along I-285 North and come to I-20, we have gone too far and possibly missed our exit to be able to get off and go to the park on Cascade Road.
My advice to you is to always prepare in advance when you are traveling somewhere for the first time, going to a new place, or visiting an unfamiliar area. Make sure you have the correct address to your location. Look up the address on a map online, if you can, and put the address into your GPS before you leave home. Get a phone number of someone who knows you are on your way or someone who knows about the location where you are going. Put that person’s number in your phone and/or write it down to keep with you. That way, if you get mixed up, you can call someone for assistance. Try to only go to new places during the day (not at night) and don’t go exploring during rush hours.