Map Skills
Introduction - Maps present information about the world in a simple, visual way. They teach about the world by showing sizes and shapes of countries, locations of features, and distances between places. Maps can show distributions of things over the Earth, such as settlement patterns. They can show exact locations of houses and streets in a city neighborhood.
Mapmakers, called cartographers, create maps for many different purposes. Vacationers use road maps to plan routes for their trips. Meteorologists—scientists who study the weather—use weather maps to prepare forecasts. City planners decide where to put hospitals and parks with the help of maps that show land features and how the land is currently being used. Some common features of maps include scale, symbols, and grids.
History of Map-Making: Through the ages, maps have taken many different forms. The earliest maps were probably sketches made on the ground that showed the surrounding area. People native to the Marshall Islands used palm fibers to show wave patterns between islands in the Pacific Ocean. They used seashells to represent islands. Inuit fishermen in the Arctic carved pieces of driftwood to show coastal features. One of the world’s oldest existing maps was found on a stone tablet in Spain. It dates back nearly 14,000 years!
Globes & Hemispheres Latitude & Longitude
Globes and Hemispheres.pdfLatitude and Longitude.pdfElements of a Map VOCAB
A compass rose shows the directions north (N), south (S), east (E), and west (W).
A legend, or key, explains what the symbols and colors on the map or globe represent.
A scale shows how much distance on Earth is represented on the map or globe. For example, a inch on the map below represents 500 miles on Earth.
Map Scale
All maps are scaled models of reality. A map’s scale indicates the relationship between the distances on the map and the actual distances on Earth.
Today, maps are often computerized. Many computerized maps allow the viewer to zoom in and out, changing the scale of the map. A person may begin by looking at the map of an entire city that only shows major roads and then zoom in so that every street in a neighborhood is visible.
The top map is a small-scale map. The countries look small because the map is showing a big area. Small-scale maps are useful for showing vast (large) regions, such as entire continents or many countries.
The bottom map is a large scale-map. The countries appear larger and in greater detail because a much more limited area is shown. Large- scale maps are useful for showing a lot of detail, such as national capitals and cities, and even streets, parks, and other features of a single neighborhood or community.
Watch the video and answer the following questions about scale:
1. What was Mugatu trying to say before Derek Zoolander interrupted him?
2. What is Derek Zoolander missing here?
political maps
Political maps are designed to show governmental boundaries of countries, states, and counties.
They can also indicate the location of major cities, and they usually include significant bodies of water. Differing colors are often used to help differentiate between nations.
Like you might guess, there are lots of different sizes of political maps. Some cover entire continents, some are regional, and still others are of much smaller areas, such as a state or a county.
For example, let's take a map of Africa. The first thing you might notice is lots of boundaries between countries. The squiggly lines you see represent those boundaries. You might also see some major cities on the map, including each country's capital city, which is usually the city that houses the government of that country.
Physical maps
Physical maps show information about a region's terrain (landscape). These maps often include much of the same data found on a political map, but their primary purpose is to show landforms like deserts, mountains, plains and valleys.
Their topography (shape and features of the Earth) style presents an overall better picture of the local terrain.
A physical map can also show elevation. Elevation is the height of a physical feature above sea level. Maps show elevation by using color.
Thematic Maps
Thematic maps are all around us. These maps presents information related to only one theme, or topic. They show information about some aspect of physical or human geography.
Tune in to a news program and you’re likely to see a climate or weather map showing high and low temperatures. To find your way on the local bus system, you might use a map of bus routes.
Example of a thematic map = Climate Map A climate map provides information about an area's climate (weather patterns). Usually colors, symbols, lines or dots are used indicate average temperatures, precipitation (rain and snow), drought, etc.
population Maps
Population maps typically focus on the population density (the number of people living in each unit of area) in cities, towns, states and countries.
Researchers and students are able to understand the overall distribution of population density across the globe using population maps.
Population maps are also used by governments to plan and distribute resources.
According to recent data, there are an estimated 7.3 billion people in the world! Some regions are more densely populated than others, however. This population map below shows two types of information about the world's inhabitants (people).
Population density - The average number of people per square mile in a particular area.The map below uses color-coding to show variations in population density worldwide. To calculate a region's population density, divide its population (number of people) by its area (number of square miles).
(1 square mile = 640 acres -- Holliston is about 19 square miles (12160 acres).
What is Holliston's population density?
Population of Holliston = 13,547 (divided by) 19 square miles = ???
Sources: World Atlas, Jr. Scholastic, and Geography Alive!