maps

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

one tool i have found extremely helpful are maps. in short i have my students draw the maps themselves then label it (rivers, bodies of water, mountains ect.) then explain how geography may have helped shape a society in regards to its safty (invasion), trade, technology, wealth, as well as food. although this may seem quite obvious, i dear say that the obvious can be overlooked and under used.

[Anonymous]

Have you or anyone else found a reliable and comprehensive map website?

[Anonymous]

The British Museum, has excellent activities for students, including geography. It doest not have detailed maps, but it does discuss the geographical features. The Ancient China page gives the students a story and some background information for the geography, then they play a chalege game. My students love this page. In fact many of them explore it at home too. it seems to help them to understand all the "why" questions. they can not succeed in the games with out understanding why the people did what they did with their land.

The other topics for china it covers are, crafts and artisans, time (timeline activities), tombs and ancestors, and writing.

http://www.ancientchina.co.uk/menu.html

The site also includes a lot of beautiful pictures with the information. the students love looking through them while they explore.

[Anonymous]

Believe it or not, AOL has an excellent list of links to geography games for kids. They have almost anything you can think of. Someone really spent a lot of time searching for internet geography games, that provide a lot of information to students. Another plus about this site, is most of the links are NOT block by LAUSD. lol 😀

Since I take my students to the computer lab a lot, it is nice to have access to so many games that are informative rather than wasteful.

Oops, I forgot to write down the site.

http;//members.aol.com/bowermanb/asiagames.html[Edit by="afitzpatrick on Jul 28, 9:27:38 AM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

In surfing around the web, I just discovered http://www.maps.com. If you go to the free stuff section, then map games, you can click on Asia map game. It will show a blank map of Asia. It will then prompt students to click on a specific country. It will not let them move on until they find the correct location. It's good "drill" practice. It does, however, show the amount of responces that were correct on the first try!

The site has other regions of the world as well.

[Anonymous]

Wow...that sounds like a great activity to use with students! I have been thinking about incorporating more map labeling activities in the beginning of the year during our geography and maps units. I tend to focus map work on the countries and regions of the time periods that we study throughout the year in my sixth and seventh grade history classes. I do have students use the maps in their history books to compare and contrast modern-day and historical boundaries. This year, however, I would like for my students to be able to identify more countries in the world today as well.

The website below compliments our seventh and eighth grade text books also has a map section and map links that may be useful.

http://www.classzone.com

I refer my students to this website often, and will sometimes have them explore the WebQuests and online activities it has as well. Many textbooks come with websites now, which I think encourages teachers to tune in more to their students' interest in technology.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the feedback, resources, and activities everyone. During my search for websites to review I stumbled upon World Atlas.Com The maps could be more detailed but they allow you to select a country and then you are not only given a map of that country, but also a description, facts and figures, and links pertaining to that country.

Check out the review on the web resources thread.

[Anonymous]

I just checked out the worldatlas.com. It does have good resources but I'm not sure I would use it in class. It has too many distractions.

[Anonymous]

There are pretty good maps right in our seminar book under resources. I looked through the National Geographic website for you, but had trouble trying to become a member;maybe you'll have better luck, but try our resource guide book first! Enjoy

[Anonymous]

I recently discovered Google earth. It’s really cool. You can take your students on a virtual field trip around the world. You can zoom in really close and explore landforms. You have to download the program so if you are using a school computer you might need permission.

[Author]

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