Grades 3-5 Lesson Plan - Same Place/Different Maps

Map 2 Main Page

Core Map: "A Map Describing the Situation of the Several Nations of Indians between South Carolina and the Mississippi River". In Archer Butler Hulbert, The Crown Collection of Photographs of American Maps (Washington, 1873), series 3, volume 1, plates 7-8. Newberry Library call number: Ayer 136 H91 1914, vol. 1 (Printable PDF version of the Core Map)

Overview
In this lesson students compare the aspects of a historical map drawn in about 1721 by a Native American for presentation to the British governor of South Carolina to a European map of the same period.

Objectives
By the end of this lesson students are expected to:

1. compare qualities of European and Native American mapping.
2. understand how relationships are shown on a historic map.
3. represent relationships of their own on a map.
4. draw conclusions about a maps' purpose.

Materials
Computer image or overhead of the core map, copies of the core map for students, grade level map of your community or other familiar area, Popple map, 1733 or Senex map, 1719.

Time
One hour

Getting Started

1. Ask students to think about the first time they went to a place that was new to them.

2. Have them write down five "where" questions they had about that place that before they went there. Encourage students to write the types of questions that result in answers that would have helped them figure out the physical relationships of locations or buildings in the new place.

3. Have students take turns sharing some of these questions with the class.

1. Tell them that you are going to show them a map that was drawn to answer the questions asked by people who were coming to live in a new land. Present the core map on the computer, in printed form, or on an overhead transparency. If you are not using the core map on the computer, have the contemporary spelling of the names on the maps ready for you to use.

2. Ask them to study the map and guess who was new to the location shown and who was living there already. Present them with some of the background of the creation of this map. You may want to read to them some of the paragraph that tells the map's purpose.

3. Give them time to explore the map. Ask them to write one question that can be answered by studying the map. Have them share this with the class. On the board or an overhead projector, keep track of the questions that the students propose. If the class has not yet discussed the lines drawn to show relationships, do so now. Also discuss the different sizes of the circles. Tell them that this part of the map was drawn to answer questions about relationships. See the curator's notes for specific explanations of the map symbols.

4. Drawing on the list of questions that students proposed in #3, ask the class how many types of information can be obtained by studying this map. For example who made this map, who lives in the places shown on this map, and who is this map for, all employ the question word 'who' but provide different types of information.

5. Tell them that they are now going to look at a European style map from the colonial period. Show them the Popple map, 1733 or the Senex map, 1719.

6. Have them explore this map to become familiar with it. Ask them how many of their questions from #3 could be answered by this map.

7. Tell students that each kind of map tells the person who is new to the location different things about that new location.

8. Have students create two columns on a piece of paper. Headings should be "Map 1" for the core map and "Map 2" for the European style map. Have students list two or more things that each map tells us about the area and its inhabitants. Have the students share their lists. On the other side of the paper, have students explain at least two things that the core map does better than the European style map and two things that the European style map does better than the core map.

For 3 points, the student lists at least a total of three advantages to using each kind of map for a person unfamiliar with a location.

For 2 points, the student lists at least a total of two advantages to using each kind of map for a person unfamiliar with a location.

For 1 point, the student lists at least a total of one advantage to using each kind of map for a person unfamiliar with a location.

Extensions

1. Have students create a map of some of the relationships of their community with the world outside, for example, survey a section of a grocery store and map where products came from.
2. Map the production of a candy bar, tracing ingredients to a factory to your community.
3. Many kinds of encounters and explorations can be mapped this way, consider having students map internet searches, the path they take to accomplish a task you have assigned, etc.
4. Analyze other ways of representing information, such as pie graphs, bar graphs, etc. This could be very powerful if students are proficient in a computer program that gives the user options for graphic data representation once data has been entered in a spreadsheet.