National Endowment for the Humanities
On This Day With Lewis and Clark
Walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark as they discover the wonders, beauty, and dangers of the American frontier. After gaining background knowledge about Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, young explorers use primary...
Curated OER
Topographic Maps
Your choice of hands-on topographic mapping tasks is provided in this resource. From actual map-making to viewing and interpreting stereographic photos, the activities are sure to succeed. To make the most of this lesson, you will need...
Curated OER
Land Plan Challenge
Students use maps to plan towns, being conscious of water resources. In this geography and land planning lesson plan, students create collaboratively in small groups towns using maps. At the conclusion of the activity, students build...
Curated OER
Where Am I: How to Read a Map
Third graders develop an understanding of maps. They explore what a map is, who uses maps, and how to use maps. Students investigate the compas rose. They create a compose rose which illustrates the cardinal directions. Students practice...
Curated OER
When You Were My Age, What Was This Place Like?
Students discover how land use in their community has changed. In this community and ecology lesson, students scan old newspapers to find articles about the development of community land. Students discuss and predict how land use has...
Public Schools of North Carolina
Democratic Republic of Congo - Map Skills
Work on your map skills with a packet of activities about the river basins in the Democratic Republic on Congo. Learners study the maps provided before answering the geography questions and writing an acrostic poem about the region.
Curated OER
This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land
Students review and evaluate the ways land is covered and used in their local community. They consider the environmental effects of the different types of land use. Students act as community planning engineers to determine where to place...
Curated OER
Fantasy / Art Maps
Ninth graders analyze a fantasy art map by Jeremy Anderson, paying careful attention to the way the topographic features of the land are represented. They create a similar map of Sacramento that includes topographical features as well as...
Curated OER
Land Plan Challenge
Links to two different versions of this mapping activity are available. In "The Small Version," youngsters design a town, keeping the water supply in mind. In "The Large Version," they also design a town, but they consider services and...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Homestead Act Signed: The Challenges of The Plains
Start a whole new life in a land known as the Wild Wild West! Learners analyze maps, personal accounts, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, songs, and video clips to uncover life under the Homestead Act. Using their new skills, class members role...
Curated OER
Land Use Change Over Time
Learners use historical aerial photographs and current aerial photographs to compare the change over time to the land. For this land changing lesson plan, students analyze, compare, contrast, and list the land change in their own community.
Curated OER
Using Different Kinds of Maps
Third graders explore the landforms and population diversity. They read maps and examine geographic terms. Students create their own map of the United States and answer questions about the location of people. After exploring the map, 3rd...
Big History Project
Human Migration Patterns II
While humans have always been on the move, the period between 1400 and 1800 saw vast migrations of people between the East and the West. These migrations—whether through slavery or a desire to colonize new lands—shaped the modern world....
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 2
The second instructional activity in a unit about how writers develop their central ideas and use evidence to support their arguments focuses on the role that scholars at Jundi Shapur, "The World's First True University," played in the...
Edgate
Why Map a Map?
After brainstorming reasons why Native Americans mapped their lands, your young critical thinkers will work together to review their ideas and determine the definition of a map. With today's extensive use of mapping technology and GPS...
Curated OER
LAND USE DEBATE / TOWN MEETING
Ninth graders research, analyze, and orally defend an issue related to the use of geologic resources. They defend their position in written form by composing a letter to an appropriate source.
Curated OER
Maps and the Pictures in Our Heads
Geographers of all ages examine different types of maps. They draw maps of their environment, utilizing both three-dimensional and picture maps. They interpret map information, noting how it can sometimes be misleading. Some good...
Curated OER
This Land is Your Land - Travel Posters
Eleventh graders compile a list of places in the United States where they have either traveled or where their relatives or friends live. They collect travel posters, brochures, postcards, and maps from their region of the United States.
Curated OER
Comparing the Impact of Multiple Uses
Students study multiple land uses and their effects on one another. They assess multiple land uses in National Forests and Grasslands and evaluate the effects of each use on all other uses. They develop a comprehensive list of human...
Ms. Catsos
Ancient Rome Map Worksheet
It wasn't just the great leaders of ancient Rome that shaped their civilization—the geography of the region played a major role as well. After first identifying major land masses, bodies of water, and city states on a map of Europe,...
Curated OER
Physical Features
Students draw physical land features using ClarisWorks or Kid Pix, write their definitions, create slideshow, and create class geography book.
Curated OER
Maps and Globes: Where in the World are We?
Students explore maps and globes. In this introduction to map and globe concepts lesson, students identify features of physical maps, political maps, and globes. Students locate land and water, and recite a poem about the names of the...
Institute for Geophysics
Understanding Maps of Earth
Here is your go-to student resource on primary geography concepts, including facts about the surface of the earth and its hemispheres, latitude and longitude, globes, types of maps, and identifying continents and oceans.
Seterra
Northern Europe: Countries - Map Quiz Game
Remembering geography is a tiring and tedious task to many scholars. Change it up by assigning the map quiz game. Elementary and middle schoolers alike test their knowledge and compete with the clock to match as many countries as...