Critical Thinking and Maps

The following activities were from the fall. They were designed to encourage learners to think about and discuss maps.  The point with all of these activities is to have students draw their own conclusions.

Activity 1:  Use a non Euro/North Americancentric map to identify continents and major lines. 

This led to a discussion on why maps are representations of human understanding of the world and that the way they are constructed cause us to think in certain ways about the world.

 Activity 2: This activity was also designed to encourage discussion. If maps are representations of human understanding of the world, what does a map reveal about how people view the world at different points in time?

Activity 3:  This activity was fun. Many students have never been exposed to paper road maps. Groups were given the task of finding distances between locations on different sides of the map. It was fun to watch them problem solve and teach themselves how to use the various features of the map.