Everyone has "mental maps" that they use to store and recover information, not only about the world, but about their daily lives as well. It is important to understand that some places on these maps are more important to us than others, and that some places are important to many people while others are important only to a few. It is important for students to understand this concept, in order to avoid egocentric and ethnocentric stereotyping, and to appreciate and respect the values of others in a multicultural environment. This lesson introduces this concept by exploring the differences among students in terms of the value they place on different sites within their communities.

Geography, social studies, art

Standard 1: "How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective"
Standard 2: "How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments in a spatial context"
Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Standard 6: "How culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions"

Two hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Brochure maps of a large local shopping center
• Wall map of the United States
• Colored, removable stickers
• Blank Xpeditions outline maps of the United States, one for each student (optional)
• Writing and drawing materials

Students will

• discuss a shopping center map, recognizing various symbols and estimating distances between places;
• identify as a group the places on a map of the United States that they all agree are important to them (e.g., their hometown, big cities, or popular vacation spots), and indicate these on a class map;
• identify additional places on the map that are specifically important to them as individuals, and discuss why those places are special (e.g., "where my grandpa lives," "where we used to live," or "where I was born"); and
• appreciate that people give varying importance to different places because of their personal experiences.

Ask students if they have ever been to a shopping center, and what kinds of shops and services they found there. Give each student a brochure map from a large shopping center, preferably one with which they are familiar. [Note: If you don't have local brochures, you can print one from an online source. For example, the Mall of America includes a floorplan and a complete list of stores on its site.]

Show students how to use the map's key to find such places as restrooms, ATMs, restaurants, and pay phones, and have them find those symbols on their maps. Ask them (or tell them) how long it would take to walk from one anchor store (usually a large department store, such as Nordstrom or Sears) to another, so that they have a sense of distance. Using one anchor store as a reference point, ask them if various stores and facilities are close to it or far away. Would it take a long time to walk there, or just a little time? Why is it important for the shopping mall to provide maps?

Ask students to name businesses or services they might look for if they went to a shopping center, and see if the class (or teacher) can find them on the index. Ask them why those places are important to them. Would their parents be likely to look for the same business or service, or a different one? Do students sometimes have to go into stores with their parents that they don't want to go to?

Ask students to think about places that are important to them and to other people in their community. If you have an Internet connection, showing them pictures from the following Web sites might help them think about such places:

Holy Philadelphia (includes photographs of churches, temples, and mosques)
Museums Around the World
National Park Service

You might also want to use Google or Yahoo! to look for Web sites for your school, local airport, zoo, etc.

Show students a wall map of the United States and ask them to identify places that they think are important. [Note: If you haved students who are from, or who have traveled or lived outside the United States, you might want to use a world map instead, or in addition to, the United States map.] Ask a student to come to the map and name and point to a place on the map, explaining why he or she thinks it is an important place. (You may need to assist younger students in locating the place.) Ask the other students if the site is important to them, too, and have the class discuss why it is or is not important to all of them.

Using one color of your colored stickers, mark places students agree are important to all of them on the map. Use different-colored stickers to mark places that are special to only one or some of the students.

Encourage students to recognize that some places are important to many members of the class (e.g., the city where they live or an amusement park that many of them enjoy), while some may be important to only one (e.g., "the place I was born," or "the city where Grandma lives").

You might wish to have older students use a blank outline map of the United States to create their own personal maps of places that are important to them. They can then share these maps with a partner and explain what is special about the place.

Ask students to think about how they might feel if they were to travel to a place that they now know is special to one of their classmates. Would it be more special to them now than it would have been before? Would they like a classmate to visit a place that is special to them? How would they feel if the classmate sent them a postcard and expressed pleasure at having been there?

Ask the students to draw a picture of a place that they learned is special to another student. Have students write a paragraph or two about the place (if they are old enough to write) and then have them share with a partner why they would now like to visit that place.

• Arrange a class field trip or ask parents to take their children to the shopping center studied in class. Have the students use the maps to navigate the space and find certain landmarks.
  
  
• Ask students to repeat the class exercise using individual maps of a smaller region, such as the school's neighborhood, the town or city, or the state. When the maps are marked and colored, ask them to share their sites and symbols with their class or small group.

Holy Philadelphia
Museums of the World
National Geographic: Cultural Photography
National Geographic: Xpeditions Atlas
National Park Service