Maps and Mapmaking

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 07.03.04

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Map Beginnings
  2. Mappae Mundi
  3. Ptolemy
  4. Portolan Maps
  5. Terra Incognita, Sea Monsters and Mythical Symbolism
  6. Mapping the Course
  7. Rationale
  8. Houston District School Objectives
  9. Preliminary Vocabulary
  10. Lesson 1: Learning the Basics
  11. Lesson 2: History of Maps and Mapping
  12. Lesson 3: Creating a map from a Painting
  13. Appendix I: Worksheets
  14. Appendix II Lesson 1 - Instructions for mapping land: check-off list for each step
  15. Appendix III
  16. Appendix IV
  17. Notes
  18. Cited Reference
  19. Annotated Bibliography
  20. Websites

The Beautiful Art of Map Making

Mayra Muller-Schmidt

Published September 2007

Tools for this Unit:

Appendix II Lesson 1 - Instructions for mapping land: check-off list for each step

Holding the Compass

__Place the compass in the middle of your hand and hold it steady

You will see that in the center of the compass there is an arrow that points red and the arrow continues to the opposite side (white). The red confirms magnetic north.

__Let the arrow become stable in your hand (arrow length doesn't move)

Focus on the (red) part of the arrow and move the azimuth ring to N (for north) to place it to directly fitting along with the red arrow. Now you are ready to stride

Striding

__Decide what your landmark will be (where you will stop and return)

__Holding your compass (watching that you are keeping the needle north at all times)

Start your stride counting all the way to the landmark, turn around and stride count

all the way back to the start of your first stride

__Report to the person recording the strides how many strides did it take total to and

from the landmark

__Someone in the group record; the others help measure with a long tape measure

the length of your paced area.

Math time!

__Collect (from your teammates) all the totals strides and add them.

__Divide strides into the amount of teammate's strides to get the average.

__Divide the average into the length of the set area measured (by measuring tape)

to get how many feet per stride.

__ Multiply feet per stride by 12 (12"= 1 foot) to get inches per stride.

__Now you have how long each inch in your map will equal to

Graphing the strides (Mapping)

__You and your team are given a place to map (from your instructor)

__Have 2 team members measure each length with measuring tape

__Start at place that looks like the straightest length (to start) and then look for true

North from it, (Write down the variance of degrees difference from north each time)

__Start striding and collecting the information from your team, and average it,

divide it by the measured tape information and multiply it by 12.

The answer that you get will be the number of inches per stride

__Collect the average from each team, add them and get the overall average of the teams

__Now you have the scale for your map (sample answer: 4 graph squares = every 10 feet)

__Designate 1 or 2 people to draw the information on graph paper

Comments:

Add a Comment

Characters Left: 500

Unit Survey

Feedback