It's important for students to learn how maps can be used to provide information about a variety of activities, distributions, and earth and ocean features. For example, marine maps can show areas of fishing activity, climate variation, fish distribution, and currents. Comparing maps with all of these features tells us something valuable about the relationship between these variables and the overall geographic area that has been mapped. This type of comparison is one of the fundamental advantages of GIS, or geographic information systems. Students will create their own maps—first of their state and then of a part of the ocean—and compare the data they've mapped to explain some of the things the maps show.

The first part of the Development section has students create maps of their states showing areas of corn or wheat production. The purpose of this activity is to teach students how maps can show specific distributions, such as those of human activities or animal populations. They will then transfer what they've learned to an exercise in mapping the ocean. If you feel that the state mapping activity is too time-consuming or computer-intensive, you can make the state map yourself and print it to show the class. Just click on the "print map" icon next to the map. The important thing is that students understand the main concepts illustrated by the map; it's not essential for them to make their own maps, although most children love working on computers!

Geography

Standard 1: "How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective"
Standard 3: "How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth's surface"
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"

Two to three hours

• Computer with Internet access
• A handout with a drawing of a fictitious stretch of coastline—sketch it in this way: draw a stretch of coastline along the right-hand side of the paper, with an island in the upper left (each student will need one copy of this handout) [Note: If you are lucky enough to have extra money(!), copy these maps onto transparencies rather than paper; that way, students will be able to compare them in real layers on top of one another rather than side by side
• Instruction sheets (each student will get one of these sheets, to be distributed evenly throughout the class):
  • Instruction sheet 1: Use three different shades of blue to show different temperatures. Shade the areas closest to the coast and the island light blue (warmest) and the area farthest away from land dark blue (coldest); the middle shade goes in the middle.
  • Instruction sheet 2: Draw a kelp forest (long, green, leafy plants attached to the ocean floor) near some of the coastline and island coast.
  • Instruction sheet 3: Draw some garibaldi fish (bright orange or red) near the coast and island.
  • Instruction sheet 4: Draw some blue rockfish (blue) near the coast, and draw some more in the open water.

Students will

• examine ocean maps and discuss what the maps show;
• make maps of their state's corn or wheat production and discuss what the maps reveal about agricultural patterns in their state; and
• create maps of fictitious ocean areas and compare the maps to determine some of the patterns they show.

Have students look at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean page. On this page, they will see several different maps of the ocean.

Explain that each of the maps on this page shows different things about the ocean. One shows recent seismic (earthquake) activity in the ocean, while another shows different colors representing different temperatures at the ocean's surface.

Ask students how they think maps such as these can help them learn about the ocean. Why is it useful to create maps? Why is it good to have maps that show information other than just showing us north and south or the locations of cities?

Tell the class that, in order to help answer the above questions, they're going to make some maps of their own. They will be making ocean maps a little later, but they will start by creating some maps of their state.

Have students go to the National Atlas. Ask them to click where it says "Click Here to Make Maps."

Ask students to look for the button that says "Zoom to State;" it's located to the right of the map. Have them click on this button and select their state from the drop-down menu. The atlas will draw a map of their state. (If you live in Alaska, Hawaii, or Maine, have your students skip this step and look at the map of the entire country. Otherwise, no data will be generated in the steps below because these states produce negligible amounts of corn and wheat).

Ask students to click the boxes next to "Cities and Towns" and "Streams and Waterbodies" under "Map Layers." Then have them click "Redraw" to the right of the map. This will redraw a map of their state with major cities and rivers.

Have students click the plus sign next to "Agriculture." A new set of options will appear in the right-hand frame. Ask them to click on the drop-down menu next to "Crops" and select "Corn for Grain or Seed" or "Wheat for Grain," depending on which crop your state is most likely to produce (far western states such as Nevada will show no corn production but some wheat production). Have students click on "Redraw" to create a map showing the distribution of corn or wheat production in their state.

Explain that, except for the gray areas where no crops are grown, the darker the color, the more corn or wheat is produced in that area of the map. Ask students to look carefully at their maps and describe the patterns they show. Where in their state is the most corn or wheat produced? Is this pattern related to the locations of rivers or cities? Do they know other things about their state's landscape (e.g., mountains) that might influence this pattern?

Explain to the class that, as they've seen in this example, maps can be very useful in showing us where things happen and helping us understand why. Ask them what additional information they'd have if the map showed the locations of railroads or major highways. What if the map showed the distribution of a pest that loves to eat corn or wheat?

Ask students to imagine a map of the ocean that shows some things they might find there and some activities that are done there. Can they think of things related to the ocean that would be interesting to map in a way similar to the way they mapped their state?

Tell the class that they're now going to create their own maps on paper. This time, they'll map a small part of the ocean. Ask them to imagine that they're divers or ocean explorers who have just returned from an expedition to study an area of the ocean along the coast of Southern California. Each of them has observed something different: some people have looked at fish, and others have measured the water temperature. They'll map their findings, and then compare their maps to learn more about the area they've studied.

Divide the class into groups of four. If this isn't possible, it's OK to have one or two groups of three or five along with the groups of four.

Give each student a copy of the coastline map you've created (see the Materials section above).

Give each student one instruction sheet. Each group must have one copy of each instruction sheet to make a complete set. It's very important that each group make four different maps. If a group has three students, have each student make one map and then ask the entire group to collaborate on the fourth map. If a group has five students, two students can draw the same map, or two can pair up to make the temperature or the blue rockfish maps.

Have students follow the instructions to draw pictures on their maps.

Ask group members to place their maps side by side so they can see all of them at the same time. Ask them to think about what they've done: they've each made a map, and now they're combining them into a set of maps that will give them more information about the part of the ocean they've observed. Discuss the things that students notice upon their initial examination of the side-by-side maps. Can they tell anything about the fish and their habitats just by glancing at the maps?

Have students answer questions about what the maps show. They will have to compare their maps to get the information necessary to answer the questions. Depending on your students' grade and ability level, they can either answer these questions as a class and write their answers on paper, or each group can write its own answers after examining its maps. These are the questions they should address:

• Which fish prefers cooler water?
• Which prefers warmer water?
• Which fish most like the kelp forest?
• Blue rockfish like to eat jellyfish. Where would you expect to find plenty of jellyfish?
• Garibaldi like to eat sponges, among other things. Where might you be more likely to find sponges?

Have students work in groups to create layered maps of their school or town, using transparencies for the different layers. For example, a third grade class might have one layer showing the distribution of third grade classrooms, another layer showing the best places on the playground to hang out during recess, and another showing the girls' and boys' bathrooms. Ask groups to use the overhead projector to share their map compilations with the class, describing what each layer helps them to understand about the place they've mapped. This lesson is made possible by a generous grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Sanctuary Program.

National Atlas
National Geographic: Xpeditions Hall—World Viewer
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Ocean in the Spotlight