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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Mapping the past

http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=328

A lesson plan for Grades 7–8 Social Studies

Provider: National Endowment for the Humanities

About this resource

Appropriate grades
7–8
Provider
National Endowment for the Humanities

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This lesson provides students with experience in working with historical maps as cultural artifacts that reflect the views of particular times and places.

Students begin by examining European world maps from three eras—the Middle Ages, the Age of Discovery, and the period of New World exploration—in order to discover how people of those times understood their world and interacted with it. Then students look at maps that record the early exploration of the American West, noting how mapmakers kept alive hopes of finding a Northwest Passage and how this hope is reflected in what Lewis and Clark marked as significant on the map produced by their expedition. Finally, students collect present-day maps, using library and/or Internet resources, to investigate the range of perspectives we adopt toward our world and the how our maps reflect our own cultural concerns and aspirations.

The goals of this lesson plan are to:

  • examine historical maps as cultural artifacts that reflect the views of particular times and places
  • trace the evolving world view from medieval times through the Renaissance as recorded in maps of those eras
  • investigate how cultural assumptions influenced the process of mapping the American West
  • discover what present-day maps can tell us about our world view and cultural aspirations

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 7

  • Goal 1: The learner will use the five themes of geography and geographic tools to answer geographic questions and analyze geographic concepts.
    • Objective 1.01: Create maps, charts, graphs, databases, and models as tools to illustrate information about different people, places and regions in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
    • Objective 1.02: Generate, interpret, and manipulate information from tools such as maps, globes, charts, graphs, databases, and models to pose and answer questions about space and place, environment and society, and spatial dynamics and connections.
    • Objective 1.03: Use tools such as maps, globes, graphs, charts, databases, models, and artifacts to compare data on different countries of Africa, Asia, and Australia and to identify patterns as well as similarities and differences.
  • Goal 2: The learner will assess the relationship between physical environment and cultural characteristics of selected societies and regions of Africa, Asia, and Australia.
    • Objective 2.01: Identify key physical characteristics such as landforms, water forms, and climate and evaluate their influence on the development of cultures in selected African, Asian and Australian regions.
  • Goal 5: The learner will evaluate the varied ways people of Africa, Asia, and Australia make decisions about the allocation and use of economic resources.
    • Objective 5.01: Describe the relationship between the location of natural resources, and economic development, and analyze the impact on selected cultures, countries, and regions in Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will analyze important geographic, political, economic, and social aspects of life in the region prior to the Revolutionary Period.
    • Objective 1.04: Evaluate the impact of the Columbian Exchange on the cultures of American Indians, Europeans, and Africans.