Musings on Why Maps Should have a Larger Place in the School Library

FreePik

I don’t know what it is about maps, but they excite me. Maybe it's a throwback to my road tripping days, or the knowledge that maps spell adventure, or the reminder that there is so much more out there than the few quiet streets that make up my daily commute. Maps represent excitement, fear, the unknown made known, the possibility of something new on the horizon. As a social studies teacher, an avid kayaker, hiker, and a travel fanatic, maps play such an important role in my life. They tell a story about how things were, answer questions about how things are, guide us to safety, and allow for more questions to be asked. A multitude of careers and activities require mapping skills that go beyond the digital maps on our smartphones. “Hikers, campers, snow skiers, city and county planners, the Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, miners, loggers, highway planners and construction workers, travelers, surveyors, geologists, engineers, and scientists are just a few of the people who use topographic maps” (Moak, 2019). This, of course, is just the beginning, as there are so many more types of maps and so many fields of work unidentified in this list. So why don’t maps play a larger part in school libraries? Kerski (2008), in his article entitled “Developing Spatial Thinking Skills in Education and Society”, defined spatial thinking as the “recognition, consideration, and appreciation of the interconnected processes and characteristics among the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, anthrosphere (human impact), and biosphere at a scale and time period appropriate to the phenomena under study.” Essentially, all of the aspects of the world can be coded in the form of a map and it is of great value to teach these skills to our students. Kerski goes on to describe important spatial literacy skills that maps and mapping can promote.

• One must be able to translate from one dimension to another, as in creating a two-dimensional map from a 3D earth.
• One must understand the differences between distance properties such as adjacency, proximity, similarity, nearest neighbor, crow-fly distance, and "over-the-road" distance.
• One must comprehend orientation and direction including compass bearings, angular bearings, and clockface ("the tower is at two o'clock from our trail's heading") directions. Kerski (2008)

Leigh Hodgkinson illustrates these skills beautifully in her book “Martha Maps it Out”.

If there were ever a more multidimensional reason to have a well stocked map section in your library, imagine the possibilities beyond teaching students to read maps.  Imagine teaching them to create their own!! Here is Leigh Hodgkinson herself with a town map activity.  This can either be realistic or imaginary (as she demonstrates here). 

Just to finish up, and not to overwhelm anyone with the list of exciting ideas that are running through my head right now, National Geographic has put together a wonderful collection of mapping activities for kids of various ages, from kindergarten to grade 6. 

National Geographic Society Mapping Activities

Final pitch: Get kids outside, get them moving, get them thinking about their place in the world around them and get their creative juices flowing!!  Build a map section in your library and use it; you won’t regret it!

Sources:

Ellis, director. MARTHA MAPS IT OUT : Leigh Hodgkinson | Read Aloud. YouTube, Love2Read With Miss Ellis, 1 Nov. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fIeLZprZcM. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

“Fun For Children: How to Make a Town Map.” Performance by Leigh Hodgkinson, YouTube, Book Trust, 11 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1uewgx13nY. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

“Hand Drawn Kids Map Illustration.” FreePik, Image by Freepik. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

Kerski, Joseph J. “Developing Spatial Thinking Skills in Education and Society.” Esri ArcWatch January 2008, ESRI, Jan. 2008, https://www.esri.com/news/arcwatch/0108/spatial-thinking.html.

“Map Skills for Elementary Students.” National Geographic Society, National Geographic Society, https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/map-skills-elementary-students/.

Moak, Rebecca. “Resource Cards.” Pacific Norwest National Laboratory: Stem Education and Work-Based Learning, National Department of Energy, 1 Oct. 2019, https://workbasedlearning.pnnl.gov/pals/resource/cards/topography.stm#:~:text=Hikers%2C%20campers%2C%20snow%20skiers%2C,people%20who%20use%20topographic%20maps.