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Students Become Mapmakers
Students practice making a map of a continent and correctly plotting five cities on that map. They place latitude and longitude lines on a map, determine the need for various map projections and explain why map scales are necessary.
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Get Ready for the Great Outdoors!
Students discuss what is a map and what they already know about maps. They brainstorm together to compile a list of responses for the board and observe a map of the United States, including states, capitals, and some of the National Parks.
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Eye From the Sky
Students are introduced to the concept of aerial perspective and scale. Students will use satellite technology to view their neighborhoods and sketch the area surrounding their schools. They will take part in a neighborhood walk to view...
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Possible Locations
Learners create maps with cutout pieces of paper that represent caverns. They develop a scale for their map and decide where the best location is to live. They discover the importance of map reading skills.
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If You Build It, Will They Come?
Students examine the city of Duluth, Minnesota. In groups, they use the internet to discover its current state of urban geography. After their research, they create and plan their own redeveloping of the city. They share their results...
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Can You Dig It?
Students investigate a fossil site and diagram a site map. They role play as paleontologists.
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Stream Gages and GIS
students interpret recent regional-scale climate events based on current stream flow, monitor changes in time, and to consider additional interpretations that could be derived if other data were in map form.
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What Are The Characteristics of Your Neighborhood?
Students make a mental map of their neighborhood. Using a software program, they make an aerial and digital map of their school and locate their school on given maps. In groups, they calculate the distances to various locations and...
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Ridgerunner
Students jog for three minutes at the beginning of the class, increasing one minute per week for ten weeks. They count each lap as one mile on the Appalachian Trail, computing the class average and plotting their progress on a class map.
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Researching the World's Oceans
Students research and compare important features of the oceans based on current data. They examine the globe or map, determine the major oceans of the world, and record their names on the data sheet.
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An American Spy with Money To Spend
Sixth graders use their imagination, math, reading, computer, geography, and social studies skills in this unique, innovative, and fun instructional activity where students pretend to be international spies!
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It's Happening, Where? Find the Absolute and Relative Location of News Articles
Young scholars read newspaper articles. In this social studies activity, students locate the latitude and longitude of the location where the news article takes place. Young scholars write a summary of the news article.
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Globe Skills Lesson 2: Paving the Way for Columbus
Students explore the expedition of Christopher Columbus. In this geography skills instructional activity, students consider the technological advances that made Columbus's expedition possible as they complete a latitude and longitude...
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How Much Further Is It?
Fifth graders use estimation to solve problems and assess the reasonableness of their answers. They may use an odometer, a map with a legend, MapQuest, or a map without a legen. They estimate 4 to 5 different scenarios.
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From Home to School, GPS Style
Young scholars are introduced and increase proficiency in the use of the hand held GPS system. They explore the meaning of longitude and latitude lines, then identify the parts of the map.
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Where Is Hoku?
Students are introduced to map making and reading. Using maps, they identify the cardinal directions and discuss the importance of a legend. They analyze the human characteristics of the classroom and create overhead view maps of the...
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Big Apple, Here We Come
Students role play the role of immigrants coming to America for the first time. They complete an imaginary trip with their family and must rent a car and make seven stops along the way. They calculate distances and use maps to...
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Astronomy Teamwork
Students work together in groups to complete an astronomy project. In the classroom, they find real objects to represent various objects in the solar system. After going outside, they practice using a distance scale and use their...
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Gridding a Site
Students make observations of effigy mounds and record them in a notebook. In groups, they must determine the scale of measurement and create their own grid to scale part of the Effigy Mounds National Monument. They also practice using...
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America the Beautiful
Students listen to a read-aloud discussing the landmarks of the United States. In pairs, they use the internet to research a landmark of their choice. They create a visual aid to be given with a presentation sharing the information...
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What Does a Quarter Weigh?
Students study the historical figures and symbols of U.S.
patriotism depicted on the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter coins. They
create a balance scale from common materials to measure the approximate weight
of a quarter.
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Possible Causes
Young scholars review any materials from two previous lessons on emissions. As a class, they use a graphic organizer to review their stakeholder's hypothesis. They identify possible causes of global warming and discover how to solve this...
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Snow Cover By Latitude
Learners examine computerized data maps in order to create graphs of the amount of snowfall found at certain latitudes by date. Then they compare the graphs and the data they represent. Students present an analysis of the graphs.