With our current technology wants/needs and endless electronic devices, will road maps become a thing of the past? When I was reviewing information on proportions and scale drawings I became more interested in this age old concept of how to determine “are we there yet?” that every child will probably ask at some point this summer. Sure, it is easy to look at our Garmin, Tom-Tom or iPhone and read what it has to say, but does that really cause us to think about how far it is?
I can remember as a child opening up the dusty 2 foot high atlas with all of the states listed in alphabetical order and find it quite interesting to see different points within our state, and other states I dreamed about visiting. I’m sure that most elementary students would not know what the little legend words and symbols mean and how to transfer that 1 inch equals 50 miles, for example. Would they know what the list of cities and numbers also means? I loved looking at how many miles Minneapolis was from Brainerd and thinking about how far it really meant by comparing to the miles between St. Cloud and Brainerd.
I don’t remember how we ever got so interested or consumed in just dreaming of things within that atlas, but with 4 kids in the family, there were many times we were fighting over this neat treasure. I hope to continue this with my own children and within the classroom. I think that a teacher would need to adjust things to the age level information that they can follow. For instance, when we drive to Montana next year to see my sister, I will place a big cow on the map near New Salem, North Dakota so they can see it on the map and on the horizon!
Fractions and proportions might seem scary to most of us, but when you look at the relevance it has to our every day life it should seem worth the effort to learn it before reaching for an electronic toy to solve our problems!
Here is a good website that walks through the age appropriate levels with using a map.
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