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Layers with Lines
Learners examine topographical maps and the challenges faced by cartographers when drawing the maps. While creating collages, they use contour lines to add dimension much in the same way they are used on maps to show elevation.
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Contour Maps
Students review various contour maps, including local ones, to identify landforms such as mountains and plains. They create a 3-D contour map of an imaginary location that shows at least 10 changes in elevation. Afterward, they write a...
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What do Maps Show: How to Read a Topographic Map
Students identify the characteristics of topographical maps. Using examples, they practice reading them and describing the information they gather from them. They also discover how to use the website from the U.S. Geological Survey.
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Treasure Map
Students study and recognize topographical symbols on maps. They create their own topographical Treasure Maps using symbols they learned or invent new ones. They create a bird's-eye view and include landscape details such as mountains...
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Let Me Tell You About...
Young scholars comprehend the differences between flat maps and relief or topographical maps. They recognize how forces such as earthquakes, volcanoes, water, and wind-as well as human actions--have altered the Earth's surface. Students...
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Orienteering Lessons - Overview
Welcome to the Orienteering lesson plans page. There is a short introduction to the topic and links to the ten lessons in this unit. There is also a linkto the unit home page. This orienteering unit is worth taking a look at.
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Orienteering - Lesson 2 - Topographical Maps
One of the most important skills in orienteering is being able to read a topographical map. Understanding the contour lines and symbols and the scale of the map will make planning your route so much better. In this lesson, partners get...
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Orienteering - Lesson 4 - Distance and Height
Pretend that you've been dropped onto a mountain, in the middle of nowhere, Â and all you have to find your way is a topographical map and a compass. Could you find your way to the nearest town? Orienteering teaches the skills of map...
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Principles of Flight: Where are We?
Students explore the concept of topographical maps. In this topographical map lesson, students discuss how airplanes know where to fly. Students use topographical maps to simulate a field trip on the computer.Â
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From Maps to Models
Students explore watersheds through the use of a topographic map. They observe topographical maps and discuss their characteristics. In groups, students create a model clay island and make a topographical map of it. Afterward, groups...
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Planning A Railroad
Students use topographical maps students explain the challenges involved in building the railroad in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
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Planning A Railroad Online Lesson
Students plan a route across Donner Summit using topographical maps in order to understand the challenges involved in constructing the railroad in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In this history lesson, students first discover how to read...
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Using Maps to Learn About Antarctic Topography
Pupils explore maps and familiarize themselves with features of Antarctica. They utilize a topographical map to create a three-dimensional model of Antarctica. They identify and describe the different regions of Antarctic ice.
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Watershed Investigations
Students explore the components of a watershed and the factors that affect it. They read a topographical map and use geometry to determine the area of a watershed. Students estimate the volume of a body of water and perform runoff...
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Understanding Topographic Maps
Students are introduced to the characteristics and uses of topographical maps. Using a worksheet, they examine the use of specific terminology and use cutouts to create their own topographical map of an area. They answer discussion...
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Listen to the Land
Students discover how we use land. They gain insight into the way we use the land, both for benefit and consequence. Students explore how to 'listen to the land' as they make decisions on how it should be used and the consequences of...
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Describing a Landscape
Middle schoolers identify the geographical features and find them on a map. They describe the continuities and changes in a landscape between 1846 and the present.
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Edible Maps
First graders, in groups, identify major geographical features of Texas. They form a topographical map of Texas using edible dough, candy, etc. They present and then eat their maps.
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Introduction To Topographic Map Activities
Students discuss different types of maps, their similarities and differences. Using a Topographical Maps CD-rom program students create their own map.
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Is Urban Sprawl Causing Us To Lose More Than Ground?
Young scholars map the changes that occur in the land as a result of urban sprawl. They explore the problems that paving and building have on the watershed and the habitats on the Northshore.
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Beyond the Tap
Students explain the basic properties of a watershed including how water flows from higher to lower elevations and how watersheds are interconnected. They comprehend how the placement of buildings, roads, and parking lots can be...
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Planning a Railroad
Students use a topographical map to plan a route from Doknner Summit to Truckee, then compare it to the route selected by Theodore Judah.