Maps and Globes
GIS which stands for geo-spatial informational technologies is among the most recent tools which enable students to synthesize physical, geopolitical and human-made artifacts and visualize the outcome with online mapping...
Links
Georgia)
http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/maps/index.html http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=1438
Google Maps includes satellite zooming in and out as part of its map service. Your students will get a kick out of finding their home and school. Look for new features, like traffic reports and street level views of selected cities.
For an interactive, highly detailed, 3-D look at the world, download Google Earth -- free from Google. Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips. Fly to your house. Just type in an address, click on Search, and you'll zoom right in. You can use Google Earth to illustrate lessons in history, science, and literature.
GIS which stands for geo-spatial informational technologies is a tool which enable students to synthesize physical, geopolitical and human-made artifacts and visualize the outcome with online mapping. These outcome maps are clear and appealing and can be shared worldwide interactively. As an added feature, these maps can be superimposed on a city map to show locations for summer jobs or cadres of mentors. ESRI offers GIS systems for schools. Mapmakers have used GIS to trace the path of the Lewis and Clark expedition, part of the celebration of its 200th anniversary.
Rare maps, such as early explorations in the US, can be viewed at the Hargrett Library.
The National Park Service offers curriculum in both geology and paleontology.
EarthCache teaches map reading and navigation for places not accessible in the real world. The Online World Atlas includes satellite images as well as the more traditional continents, regions, and countries.
Topographic maps offer good content for "scaffolding" geographical features and land use. They are an alternative to traditional visuals.
The Central Pacific Railroad Maps show the transcontinental phenomena of railroads, migration patterns, and transportation policies.
For a different view of the Earth, take a look at NASA's Visible Earth site, showing everything from The Big Blue Marble to recent fires. Earth's City Lights is remarkable, allowing one to identify major cities and roads just by their lights. It also graphically shows the difference between "have" and "have not" nations.
After that view The World Wide Panorama, a project originally sponsored by the Geography Computing Facility at the University of California Berkeley.
Annotation
The Internet offers special capabilities in this domain. Usually the maps are more up-to-date than those found in expensive atlases. Rather than a few copies per classroom or library each student can access one.
Interactive possibilities are intriguing and students with embryonic art skills can utilize design functions in the software to draw and illustrate their own maps. The resulting product projects professional quality. What are other possibilities?
