Maps Library Visit and Game Making Activity

On Wednesday, May 30th, our ECE class traveled to the library again. Today we explored the Maps Library. At first, we were shown a powerpoint on all different types of maps, how they can be used, and resources to use maps in our classroom. The librarian (Mrs. Bidney) was extremely helpful in giving us a great deal of information in such a short time. We discussed common maps like thematic maps and road maps. The librarian showed us how we can use old maps to discover history, exploration, and animal distinctions. She also showed us the difference between aerial and satellite maps. Arial has a static scale where as satellite can zoom in and out and is more detailed. Mrs. Bidney then began to show us Quasi Maps which are known as challenging maps. They are known as challenging maps because they are challenging the real meaning of a map, the Quasi maps are much different than a road map for instance. Our group found the Quasi maps to be extremely interesting as they were different than any type of map we have ever seen. We especially found the Contiguous Cartogram interesting. The map displayed the billionaires in each state in the U.S. The more billionaires the bigger the representation of that state.

After learning in more detail about the Maps Library and maps in general we as a class started discussing how to incorporate maps in our early childhood classroom. Here were some of our ideas....

1. Map making- draw map of the classroom or even the school. This allows students not only to practice map making but it allows each student to show how they interpret the space around them. This is also a bit of learning through art that we have discussed greatly in Dr. Joe's class!

2. Concept Map- this can be used after reading a book with students or even if students want to create their own book they can use this to organize their ideas (characters, plot, setting, climax, etc.). This allows students to realize maps can be used in several different ways, including organizing your thinking.

3. Dream world map- students could create a map of a world or place they would love to discover/explore. Again, the students are not only working with maps, but are using their imaginations to create a world of their own.

4. Map of State College- the students could point out where each of them live on the map. Building off that idea- my group thought that this could be incorporated into math as well because students could figure out how far one student lives from another. They could practice with the scales on the map which in turn is practicing some math and measurement as well.

5. Mrs. Bidney gave us the idea of exploring the national geographic website for some map lesson options.

6. An idea I thought of from a past experience was when I was in third grade my class travelled to Harpers Ferry, WV. Before we left, our teacher split us into groups with a chaperone each. The whole group was given a map and as a group we had to collaborate on what sites we wanted to visit for the day, where in Harpers Ferry our small group wanted to eat lunch, and which route was best to get to those places so we were not wasting time. As a small group, we planned our day and used the map to trace our trip. We then took the map with us and used it as we were walking around Harpers Ferry to find the places we wanted to go that day. It was a great experience because not only did we get to plan out our day, but we could see on the map where we were going and how to get there. We became reliant on the map and therefore, learned quickly how to use it.

7. Google Earth- a fantastic tool that could be used in several ways in the classroom. We could easily just leave the program up on a computer in the classroom for students to explore on their own. Or as teachers, we could plan a more structured lesson around Google Earth where the students have to find volcanoes on google earth, or where earthquakes have occurred. Once again, I thought of some great ways we could use google earth to incorporate in our lessons that we are creating in Dr. Joe's class.

8. Pasta Population Map- The students are given a map of an area, or even their own home they can then glue the pasta to the areas that are most populated. Again, using art to learn and allowing students to be creative and use different materials in the classroom!

After reviewing all of these ideas, I quickly saw a theme emerging from ways we can incorporate maps into an ECE classroom. The theme is that maps can be used in any subject in our classroom, and can actually incorporate several subjects together! Maps seems like a great foundation or building block in a classroom because so many things can be built or learned off the idea of maps.

After much discussion, our class headed to the actual Maps library. It was extremely exciting and beneficial to all of us as future teachers. We learned that there are 450,000 maps in the library! This was a time where we could individually explore what we were interested in around the maps library. Our group enjoyed looking at the State College maps from 1922 and thinking about comparisons to what State College looked like today.

After our visit was over we came together as a class and began to reflect on different things discussed in the Maps Library. Our group started making some connections and building on ideas from our readings that we could actually use in our classroom, or even better in the Art School next year! I remember reading in our "Engaging Children's Minds" textbook that, "The key feature of a project is that is an investigation." My group believed maps could easily be incorporated into a project based curriculum. Many of the ideas we listed could lead to students investigating where places are on a map, where they live in relation to the map, where the most populated areas are. We even said a scavenger hunt could be made and the students have to follow a map to find different places for the scavenger hunt! It was exciting to see how our thinking went from early in the morning just taking notes about different types of maps to beginning to think of ways to integrate maps into a project that could be used in the near future.

In our last hour of class, Kris began to talk with the class about our next project that we were going to start working on immediately. Our group has been given a board game and our goal is to modify it to somehow connect and relate it to the Nittany Lion or lions in general. We also need to be using the useful information we learned from our Maps Library visit, and the game must show some type of map.

Our game's name is Kids on Stage. The game is basically charades with a game board. So instead of getting points like one would in charades you move how ever many places the spinner tells you to if the charade is guessed correctly. Our group instantly was stumped because the game seemed very broad compared to the other games. Like Kris said, we needed to work with some of the positives that came from the game board. Therefore, as a group we decided to keep the charades idea. At first, it seemed like our ideas were all over the place and didn't have a main end goal. This was until on of our group members said that we need some direction for the game board, almost like a theme. We then decided that the game board could be used as like a map around campus. The starting point could be Bryce Jordan Center, and the ending point the State Theater. We chose the State Theatre to end since the game was based off charades. We thought we could use the idea that the students were going to be acting at the State Theatre that night and they were practicing their acting skills with charades as they walked through campus. After deciding on a broad theme and foundation it became very easy for all of us to come up with ideas for what charades we could do. The game had 3 different types of charades you could act out. We liked the idea to have categories of charades, so we chose to use Beaver Stadium, Nittany Lion, Education, and Penn State Sports. We thought of these ideas keeping our young students in mind. We thought these were very broad categories that could contain many different charades that wouldn't be extremely hard for our young students to act out. For instance, we said that one charade in Beaver Stadium could be a cheerleader. A charade we thought of for the Nittany Lion is the paws of the lion, or ears of the lion. With little time left, we quickly mapped out how our board would look like. This is what we came up with...

1.Start at BJC
2. East Halls -- if they land on the actual "East Halls" spot on the game board we decided we could cut out some of the spots on the board by putting in commands. So for East Halls a command could be, "made a friend playing volleyball, move forward 2 spaces"
3. Creamery - A creamery command could be, "slipped in ice-cream, go back 2 spaces"
4. Palmer Museum- Visual Arts
5. Library - A command could be "Read a chapter book! Go ahead 3 spaces"
6. Old Main- A command could be, "Sang the fight song, go ahead 1 space"
7. The Hub
8.Corner Room- A command could be, "Stopped for lunch go back 1 space"
9. State Theatre is the finish!

After our group collaborated on a main theme our ideas began to explode from their, and became endless. As soon as we had a foundation, it became quite easy to brainstorm our ideas for our game board. Since our board is basically a map, we pulled some knowledge from what we saw on different maps in the library to allow our game board to reach its full potential. For example, we plan on placing a picture of each of our "stops" on those spots on the board. This gives meaning to each place on our "map". Also the direction of our board and the formation the spots on the board are in is actually a perfect representation of a path you would take to get from the BJC to the State Theatre. Our group thought that when we begin to discover and investigate maps with our class, a game like this would be a great starting point because it indeed is a type of map, but has lots of pictures, symbols, and a clear path as to where they are going. As they progress, we can begin to allow them to draw maps and think about scaling and keys/legends. Since our map/game board is a replication of campus, our whole group had to have knowledge of all of our stops on our board and the best path to take to the State Theatre from the Bryce Jordan Center. Since the stops we are putting on the game boards are all very big parts of Penn State, it was not hard to collaborate our knowledge to decide on the best path possible to take to the State Theatre.

After reflecting back on our entire day, I feel as if our group gained so much knowledge and ideas in a three and a half hour time span that will not only help us thrive with our game boards but thrive in Dr. Joe's class as we are starting to put activities together for the Art School next year. Wednesday it seemed as if, our group began thinking as teachers instead of students as we began to ask questions like how could this work in our classroom, and how could we incorporate this into a project based curriculum, instead of asking questions as students.