Workshop on Maps and Mapping

The workshop was held in Nonakuppam and Mudaliarpet Education Resource Centres on 4th August and 1st September, 2018 respectively between 10 AM and 01 PM.

Objectives:

1. To have a deeper understanding of maps and mapping and how they can be introduced in class.

2. To use maps as an effective resource by relating it to various themes like: travel, food, water, animals, plants, etc.

Identifying directions

The session began with understanding directions and how to identify them. Using ‘left of me’ and ‘right of me’ might not be a common representation of directions since it might vary depending upon the position and alignment. Using directions like West, East, North and South are essential. We spoke about identifying East and West with respect to the direction of sun from which North and South can also be identified. In a remote place where we cannot rely on sunrise or sunset, we can use tools like magnetic compass. A compass is a tool in which a small magnetic needle aligns its red mark towards the North. The teachers expressed that the students in rural areas are somewhat aware of directions since they use it in their daily conversations, particularly the students from coastal areas. Some streets in Pondicherry are also named with directions on it. While discussing in the classroom about directions and mapping, the students were not able to relate it with their prior knowledge.

Figure 1: Teachers hunting for clues

Treasure Hunt: The teachers were grouped into three teams and went on a Treasure Hunt. The teams had to find hidden clues using the chits given to them. The clues included various structures inside the school like trees, gate, goal post, badminton court etc. mentioned with respect to their directions. The clues helped them to move towards the East, North-East, South-East, West, South-West and North-West sides of the ground and around the building. After the last clue was found they had to put all of them together to see what it depicted. The clues sheets had parts of a map behind it and each group arranged it to show Tamil Nadu, India and Pondicherry maps. Teachers described the experience as adventurous and fun but also confusing, as it involved structures and directions. After the activity they had become comfortable with directions in the school.    

Map making on clay: Three trays of clay were made available to the teachers. They were split into 3 groups and were asked to make the school campus map. The map could be a 2D or 3D structure. They discussed on symbols for building, gate, playground, tree, toilet, stage, etc. called the legend of the map.  They fixed the directional alignment that had a rough scale of the school campus and started making maps. The teachers went out of the room to clarify some specific locations and made the map. After creating a 2D layout in the clay using match sticks, they improved it by forming 3D structures of buildings, stage, flag post, trees and compound walls. This activity could be fun for students and also expose them to ideas on how to depict a large area into a scaled down version.

Figure 2: Teachers involved in map making    

Figure 3: A completed model

Discussion on geographical maps and using them in class

A simple political map was used to discuss on how to read a map, beginning from reading the legend (a list of symbols to be used), looking at the scale and identifying locations or features.

The EVS lesson ‘Omana’s journey’ in class 4 was taken up for discussion and how to use maps in teaching that lesson. Omana’s journey in the lesson begins from Ahmedabad, and goes via Surat, Goa, and Mangalore reaching Kozhikode in Kerala. The students can be asked to trace and mark the important places on the route. The teachers acknowledged that this idea could be used in many lessons as they involve geography to denote other places or states. They also explored how maps could be used to calculate time and determined the current time in England and United States using longitudinal lines. They also spotted different places.

The states can be mapped for food and other cultural aspects like dresses and festivals in which a picture or a drawing related to various themes can be pasted on the map. For example, marking Bihu festival in Assam, Langar feasting in Amritsar during food themed lesson, Stepwells in Rajasthan and marking other water structures during water themed lessons. It would be easier if we could create a large map in the chart and paste it in the classroom. This could be made through tracing or splitting the small map into squares, multiplying the scale as necessary and then hand drawing each square to make a complete larger map.

Exploring the world map

The teachers were asked to observe the globe. After the observation, they were told to imagine and explain how a sphere could be represented on a flat 2D paper. To demonstrate this, an orange was used. Teachers peeled the skin of the orange in long pieces and tried to represent the peeled skin on a rectangular flat surface. After placing the oranges in a flat rectangle there were triangular missing portions between all pieces. This had resulted in enlarging the areas closer to the North and South Poles.    

This was done by comparing the size of Greenland in both the forms of map. Greenland is closer to the size of Africa in the 2D rectangular map while it is not even 1/4th in the spherical globe. Hence the rectangular 2D map is just a representation of position of countries and continents while it is not an exact representation of sizes (at least in the poles). We have to be cautious with this aspect of maps.

We discussed about latitudes and longitudes which are imaginary horizontal and vertical lines and how to represent a place using co-ordinates. This was done by finding the co-ordinate 11.90 North, 79.80 East which is roughly Pondicherry. The discussion continued on how Northern and Southern hemispheres are split by the Equator, the significance of longitudes and latitudes in finding time and in determining the climate respectively. We found the time difference between India, UK and USA using longitudes and then confirmed it to be correct.