By David Decker Mrs Blahnik – 2 nd Grade

Research Questions 1. What is the history of Maps? 2. What types of Maps are there? 3. What do the symbols stand for? 4. How many maps are made each year? 5. What is the difference between a map of Stars and a Map of Land?

The definition of Maps Maps are “the World written down”. Maps are used to: Locate places on Earth To display patterns Show relationships Maps show a grid system, called Latitude and Longitude. Latitude gives East and West lines Longitude is the North and South lines This grid system measures distance and finds directions The starting point is called the Prime Meridian (0 longitude) and half-way around the world (180 longitude) is the International Date Line. The international date line is where the date actually changes.

The history of Maps Maps go back to 1000 BC!! Maps were made on clay tablets back then. A cartographer is a person who makes maps and charts. In the 15 th century maps were printed on carved wooden blocks. In the 16 th century they used engraved copper plates. The first map of the whole world was in the 16 th century after Columbus sailed to North/South America. The world was hardly mapped until after WWI when they started using photographs from planes to make the maps. Today there are many more accurate tools to create maps, including computers, digital data, electronic distance measuring, and people.

Ancient Maps

Types of Maps Climate Maps – describe the weather of a region and precipitation (or rain, snow, etc) They use different colors to show the relationships Economic or Resource Maps – show major natural resources, like oil, water, gas, coal or economic activity. Physical Maps – show the land or features of an area, like rivers, mountains, lakes. Water is usually blue. Political Map – shows states, and national boundaries, cities and capitals. Street and Road Maps – show small areas like towns and cities. People use these to find directions. Topographic Maps – show shape and depth or elevation. Lines that are close together show steep terrain. Engineers use these maps to plan roads and buildings.

Climate ResourcePolitical Physical Street and RoadTopographic

Map Symbols Maps have Keys and Scales A Key on the map, tells you what each symbol means in the real world Scale determines the difference in distance between the map and the real world – for example: 1 inch on map = 1 mile driving.

Map production Maps need updating all the time, because roads and population and economics change all the time. Maps are getting better constantly. Cartographers use observation and benchmarks to create maps. Benchmark is an object of reference. Photos, surveys, census data, distance calculation and drawing are just a few of the techniques in map making. Projecting means putting 3D (sphere) map information on a 2D surface (paper)

Map of Stars verses Land A constellation is a type of Map of stars. However, they are “made up pictures” by connecting the dots, but are not real. Poets, farmers and astronomers have made them up over the past years. On a Star Map, the larger the dot, the brighter the star. This is the same on land map: the larger the dot the bigger the city.

References h_map.htm h_map.htm ocial_studies_class.cfm?subpage= ocial_studies_class.cfm?subpage=