Convert a fiction or nonfiction narrative into a map!
A map of places characters visit can be scaled, designed, and decorated as an extension of the narrative (a bildungsroman roadtrip will yield a very different map than a gothic novel set exclusively in a broody house). A character's internal map or a map of the narrative's structure itself will be more different still.
Use a map as the basis for creative writing or other creative work (e.g. music composition, performance, art piece, etc.).
Maps connect strongly to themes of space/place, time, journey, perspective, discovery, boundary (crossings), and more!
Maps as primary sources!
Students' investigations of historical maps as primary sources often lead to interrogations of a map's content, perspective, purpose, and more that students can research further. Check out the Teachers Guide to Analyzing Maps (Library of Congress) for suggestions.
Use map comparisons to research Indigenous histories.
Comparing modern and historical maps of an area or region to Native- or Indigenous-created maps or map-like objects can not only provide insight into Indigenous cultures and map-making but also illuminate the ways settler perspectives and settler colonialism have literally shaped our understanding of the land. Chat with your librarians for help with Indigenous map collections.
Deep dives into maps!
Researching the history of a specific map or set of maps helps make the implicit explicit. Why was a map created and for whom? Who's doing the mapmaking and what are their goals/priorities making the map?How does the history of the place a map represents or of its mapmaker shape the map and what the map communicates?
Mind-blowing Maps!
Embolden students' critical thinking by challenging them to create a map that disrupts dominant ideas of what a map is and does. Is there anything that can't be mapped? Is there anything that can't be a map?
Traditional printing in the Makerspace!
Enrich lessons and enhance students' engagement with maps and mapping with the two-century-old arts of relief printing (printing from a raised surface) and intaglio printing (printing from an etching or engraving) in the Nest. Students can make their own individual maps, collaborate in groups, or make a collective class map together.
3D Maps
Historical maps + topographical data + 3d printers. Need we say more?
