Here's an engaging, meaningful, and clever lesson on map skills for elementary schoolers. Pupils combine story writing with mapping skills to create an original piece of work. They utilize a worksheet embedded in the plan to guide them...

Introduce your class to map projections and coordinates, the basics for the work done in a GIS, with an activity that uses Google Earth to challenge learners to think about the earth's shape. 

Third graders explore coordinate pairs and coordinate grids. They use a grid on which each letter of the alphabet is assigned a coordinate pair, 3rd graders decipher a coded message. Pupils compare coordinate pairs on a coordinate grid...

When is the distance formula not accurate? Referencing a map of the school, pairs determine the walking distance between two locations. Creating coordinates for each location, pupils determine the distance between the two points and...

Middle schoolers examine how archaeologists preserve context of sites through use of rectangular grid or Cartesian coordinate system, and develop sense of distance by pacing off and estimating distances.

Fifth graders explore places visited by Lewis and Clark. In this geographical concepts lesson plan, 5th graders plot places on a map and put events in chronological order. Students find locations on a map using longitude and latitude....

Third graders review cardinal directions, moving around the room so that they are standing in the part of the room that is nearest the north, south, east and west. They are asked what would you do if they are lost? Pupils work as a...

Use the coordinate plane to show two figures are similar. The instructional activity incorporates congruence transformations and dilations to move a figure on to another figure. Pupils determine that if a similarity...

Young environmentalists learn how to craft a persuasive essay about an environmental issue they consider important. After studying the components of a persuasive essay and examining a student model, writers brainstorm possible topics and...

Students play a bingo-type game to locate cities by coordinates. They explain the use of orientation on a map and identify cities in the western hemisphere. They compare road maps, shutttle images, and a CIR image and obtain an...

Musicals have been adapted from stage plays, novels, and movies. With The Lion King, Disney transforms its animated film into show-stopping, live-action musical theatre. The guide Disney provides to accompany a study...

A 10-lesson unit explores the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. Over the course of two weeks, scholars read nonfiction excerpts, discuss their findings, and complete activities. An assessment equipped with multiple choice and matching...

This resource provides two ways to engage learners in using latitude, longitude, and research skills. In pairs, or on their own, learners will locate several Antarctic regions on a map. They will write the name of the place and a few key...

Youngsters work in groups to solve clues involving latitude and longitude coordinates in order to decipher mystery animals in this fun learning experience!

Here’s a clever way to combine language arts and social studies. Shakespeare’s The Tempest is believed to have been inspired by the wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda in 1609. The class views a brief scene from Castaway in which Tom...

Young geographers discover not only how to read and recognize coordinates on a map, but also gain a deeper understanding of latitude and longitude and how climate changes can vary significantly across latitudes.

A lesson involving mapping, the use of a compass, writing and following directions, and exploring the first two themes of geography is here for you. Learners create original maps that show the routes they take through their own...

Students analyze Columbus' rationale for sailing west, and find the latitude and longitude of modern and ancient place names.

Students research the climate patterns of various locations and make predictions based on their findings. They determine the importance of latitude and longitude in weather and climate. Students create graphs displaying their collected...

Challenge the class to prove that the dilation properties always hold. The lesson develops an informal proof of the properties of dilations through a discussion. Two of the proofs are verified with each class member performing the...

Paul Langan's novel The Bully is the core text in a six-session unit plan that engages high schoolers in an in-depth examination of bullying and its effects on bullies, victims, and bystanders. The richly textured and carefully...

Young scholars are shown the very basics of navigation. The concepts of relative and absolute location, latitude, longitude and cardinal directions are discussed, as well as the use and principles of a map and compass.

Tenth graders investigate the carbon monoxide level at a fixed latitude to determine if there is a relationship to population density. They download data sets and generate a graph, and find locations using the Earth's coordinate system....

Translating complex numbers is as simple as adding 1, 2, 3. In the ninth lesson in a 32-part series, the class takes a deeper look at the geometric effect of adding and subtracting complex numbers. The resource leads pupils into what it...