Viatouch
Teacher Articles
Teacher Created Materials
Mapping Statistics
by Megan Crossin
Subject:
Social Studies/Any
Grade Level:
Any level, any topic. Use the method to create your own custom mapping activity.
Objective:
To raise student awareness of the topic through visual impact.
Time needed:
One lesson/part-lesson.
Materials:
World Map/Regional Map/Country map (depending on specific requirements)
Graph paper
Statistics you wish to represent
Instructions:
Students often learn or read figures without getting the full impact of their value or meaning, either because they cannot conceptualise the figure or because they have no frame of reference. By using maps as a frame of reference, you can create a visual impact that can have a large effect on their understanding of any type of comparative data.
-
Create a grid map by photocopying a sheet of graph paper over the map you
wish to use. Try to ensure that the grid squares are of adequate size. The Math Department may be able to help with different sizes of graph paper.
-
Using your statistics as a reference, decide on a scale for each box. Each of the grid boxes must represent a certain value for your exercise. For world population, for example, each box could represent one million people.
-
Distribute a grid map to each of the students. Using the scale and the statistics, ask each student to color the appropriate number of boxes for each country's or region's statistics. Taking the example of world population again, Australia would have 20 of the boxes over the outline of Australia colored in.
-
The result is a map that shows the relative statistics for each country or region in the area of study. This can have a large impact on the students' conception of the figures. For example, if comparing the population of Australia, United Kingdom, United States, and China, by coloring in the appropriate boxes for each region students can see not only the relative population sizes, but also the size in relation to the size of the country.
Examples of possible use:
