Using Maps to Teach Multiple Subject Areas

Dear Educator,

Summer is quickly approaching. That means you will receive our Summer of Where campaign, beginning in May. This summer, we are focused on helping you bridge the learning gap that comes with the summer break. Stay tuned for content links, tips, and suggestions to help your rising students get on track. 

Meanwhile, this week, let’s take a look at GeoInquiries—an activity developed by Esri that utilizes layered maps to teach multiple subject areas. GeoQuests are based on the same Esri platform as GeoInquiries, but they are focused on each state. Find your state and choose to examine topics in Earth science, state history, and human geography. Both GeoInquiries and GeoQuests include teacher editions as well as student versions. The provided links are for the student editions.

GeoInquiries were developed by Esri to show educators how layered maps can benefit every classroom. Our collection of GeoInquiries includes activities for advanced environmental science, American literature, Earth science, government, human geography, math, elementary education, U.S. history, world geography, and world history. 

VIEW ON CLASSIC

The learning objectives of this activity are for students to measure the area of a circle and apply their understanding of circles to determine the areas of various circle-based shapes. 

This activity explores the economic, environmental, and cultural influences in Steinbeck’s work. Students will analyze the impact of the drought on characters and analyze the agricultural and economic influences in the literature.

This activity asks students to analyze a map to further understand the key events in Texas’s history, including Native Americans in Texas, Spanish missions, independence from Mexico, the Compromise of 1850, and the oil industry.

The Geography, Climate, Land Use, and Resources State GeoQuests address each state’s geographic features and resources to determine how geography affects the population of the state.

This GeoQuest helps students understand the effects of population growth and migration on Maryland, and compare population and natural resources to discover economic patterns.

This is a small sample of the kind of content available to you with your Maps101 subscription. Every week, the editors at Maps101 will provide you with highlights from our extensive collection in this GeoJournal newsletter. We suggest you make a folder to store them for future reference. Expand your students’ world with Maps101!