Lesson Six - Mapping

Description
Beginning with a world map, students locate Canada on the map. Students map the boundaries of the ancient civilization they are studying, examine the civilization's proximity to the equator and bodies of water, and make a connection between location and its potential effect on life in the civilization.

Expectations
 – use media works, oral presentations, written notes and descriptions, drawings, tables, charts, maps, and graphs to communicate information about early communities;
– use graphic organizers and graphs to sort information and make connections (e.g., Venn diagrams comparing governments, subject webs illustrating physical needs, year-round calendar to show agricultural cycles, bar graph for temperature data);
 – report on the relevance to modern society of selected scientific and technological discoveries made by early civilizations (e.g., written language, astronomy, irrigation, mathematics, navigational instruments, medicine, architecture, the mining and smelting of metals).
– use appropriate vocabulary (e.g., culture, myth, legend, civilization, technology, democracy ) to describe their inquiries and observations.
-  identify and compare the ways in which people in various early civilizations met their physical and social needs, including how they interacted with and used the natural environment;

Teaching / Learning
DAY ONE - Lecture/Map Making:
1. Distribute world maps to all students. While looking at an overhead of a world map, ask the students what every map should have (i.e. compass rose, legend that may include symbols for topography, title, colour, labels that are printed [not written with cursive], etc.). Have the students place the compass rose, a box for a legend, and a title on their maps while you are adding them to the overhead map.
2. Review the importance of neatness in colouring and labelling maps. If a map is not tidy, it cannot be easily read and is less likely to be accurate.
3. Refer students to a world map in an atlas and tell them to colour all bodies of water in blue and to put the names of the major oceans and seas on the map. (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, Antarctic, Mediterranean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Red Sea). Add the bodies of water to the overhead map as students are working.
4. Draw the equator on the overhead map. Tell the class what this line indicates in terms of climate.
5. Have the students draw and label the equator on their maps, then use a red pencil crayon to shade the land portions of the map in order to indicate the gradual cooling as you go north or south of the equator. The red should be darkest at the equator area, becoming lighter as the shading becomes farther from the equator. Model how to show this in the map's legend, and discuss the reason we would need to tell the reader of a map what the colours are for.

DAY TWO - Map Making Continued:
6. Briefly review what students learned last day about the important parts of a map, the equator, and bodies of water.
7. Hand out a new copy of the same world map students used last day, but this time include the equator on the map before it is handed out.
8. Ask students to refer to a political world map in their atlases to locate Canada, then to draw and colour it on their maps.
9. In addition, give students some time to add a title, compass rose, and legend to their maps again.
10. Discuss: Where is Canada in relation to the equator? What is the climate in southern Canada? What is the climate in northern Canada? How does the distance of Canada from the equator affect its climate?
11. Give the overlays described in the Notes to Teacher to each group so that they can locate and draw their civilization on their own maps.

Discussion:
12. On chart paper or on the blackboard, write the following questions:
a] Describe where the ancient civilization you are studying is located in relation to the equator. Describe where it is in relation to bodies of water.
b] What might the climate might be like where the civilization is located?
c] How do you think distance from a body of water would have affected life in the civilization? Would the distance from water have caused problems or would it have been helpful? Why do you think so?
d] Compare the location of Canada and the location of your museum civilization. What is similar? What is different?
13. One person from each group should share the group's charts with the class. As groups are sharing their findings, place the overlay they used on the overhead for the class to see. By the time you are finished layering all of the maps on the overhead, students will be able to compare the locations of each civilization to each other and to the location of Canada.
14. Examine the final map created on the overhead and discuss the locations of the civilizations. Ask: "What do these civilizations have in common?" (Perhaps they are all near a major body of water.) "Why do you think it would have been important to be located near water?"
15. Summarize students' responses to the above questions and draw conclusions as a class.

Learning Log:
16. Tell students to draw conclusions that summarize and synthesize their learning with respect to the geographic location of their ancient civilization. In their Learning Logs students should answer questions a) and b) from step twelve, for their civilization.
17. Allow students time to discuss their ideas about the above questions with their museum groups as they write.

Adaptations
To accommodate for the needs of students with learning difficulties, in this subtask the following accommodations could be incorporated into the lesson plan:
* provide students with maps that are partially completed but still require some minimal work;
* ensure that, while students are working, they are being observed to help correct any problems as they occur.

To accommodate for the needs of students identified as gifted, in this subtask the following accommodations may be incorporated into the lesson plan:
* have students locate and place their civilization on a modern political map;
* incorporate into the Learning Logs assignment a comparison of the modern location to its ancient location.


Assessment
- use Group Work Checklist to assess student performance in group work
- The Learning Log will be assessed by the same rubric throughout this unit, although different expectations have been attached to suit the needs of the lesson.
- collect both maps and use the map checklist provided to determine whether students have understood the importance of accuracy and attention to detail in mapping.  In addition, ensure that all information is recorded accurately and that all colouring has been done correctly. 

Assessment Strategies
- Observing
- Learning Log

Assessment Recording Devices
- Checklist
- Rubric


Resources
Group Work Checklist rulers blue and red coloured pencils colour overhead of world map ancient civilization transparencies chart paper blank world map overhead projector

Notes to Teacher
The final product coming out of this subtask, a coloured and labelled map of each group's museum civilization as well as a Learning Log reflection, is used as part of the display during the culminating task. These pieces of work demonstrate students' understanding of the relationship between life and environment.

World maps are made into transparencies to be used as overlays. Create one transparency of a world map for each museum group. Draw an outline of a map of each ancient civilization onto the transparencies. For example, if Ancient Egypt, Ancient Maya, and Ancient India are being studied, then create one transparency map of each civilization. There should be one transparency map for each museum group.

It is important to discuss the fact that maps have changed over time. In order to determine the location of the civilizations for the maps that students have been given, the teacher looks at various maps of ancient civilizations and determine an approximate location on the modern world map.