March 25th, 2011
Maps are Essential in Teaching Geography
It is pretty much impossible to teach geography without using maps. Trying to figure out how to do it might be a fun way to while away an afternoon or it could serve as an interesting exercise for dinner conversation. How else could you represent the earth in order to study it?
Understanding the earth, its continents, countries, and other major features may be possible using just words, either written or spoken, but to fully grasp the spatial relationships that are at the core of geography, a physical representation is needed. The countries on the world map can be described by naming their resources, history and even physical features, but symbolic representation is best — even people who are born blind are given raised border maps. Trying to describe the relative size and position of Iceland or Peru can end up taking a lot of words, whereas a picture (map) does it without any at all.
Lots of parents start teaching basic geography to their kids at a young age. Local stuff, like the geographical layout of their neighborhood or town is supplemented by thumbing through the family atlas , playing name the country with a globe, or putting together jigsaw puzzles of the states or continents.