City map

Students will work with a map of the local city or town and its surroundings. They will mark on the map which modes of transport they use to travel between home and school and then draw conclusions from their empirical data about how people make decisions about their mode of transport. This map will form part of the poster in LU7.

Format

Discussion
Group work
Hands on activity

Age

What

The possible connections with your curriculum

Geography

Who

The people who take up the teacher role

Teacher

Where

The locations where learning takes place

Classroom

With

The community stakeholders to collaborate with

Ready for action?

Resources

Tangible Resources

map of the town/city, markers in at least 4 colours, A4 sheet of paper

Preparation

Prepare the map and resources; ensure there is enough space for students to work together around the map; optional – prepare an online survey to verify the hypotheses and deepen the observations.

Goals, messages & concepts

Specific goals

To learn to read and analyse the content of a map.
To learn to make inferences and hypotheses based on empirical data collected.

Specific messages

Empirical data is information gained based on experience.
Data can be used to form a hypothesis.

Main terms

map
key
correlation
hypothesis
emperical data
mode of transport

Practices & skills

STEM practices

Analysing and interpreting data
Engaging in argument from evidence
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Asking questions and defining problems
Planning and carrying out investigations

Soft skills

Teamwork and collaboration

Management skills

Use of resources

Course of activity

step 1

Lay out a map of the local area.

step 2

Students will determine which modes of transport they use most often to travel to school.

step 3

They will create a key for modes of transport and assign each a colour. With the chosen colours, they will draw icons of the most frequently chosen modes of transport.

step 4

Next, they will identify the location of the school building on the map.

step 5

Each student will draw their route to school on the map, using the correct colour and transport icon.

step 6

Analyse the map data and discuss if there are any patterns, such as a correlation between distance travelled and mode of transport. Students will share ideas for why we choose certain ways of travelling. As a group they will try to formulate a hypothesis.

step 7

The map will be displayed in the school along with the key for others to add their own school journeys. It will also form part of the mobile exhibition in LU7.

step 8

Optional: prepare an online survey asking respondents about

the distance (approximate) from their place of residence to their place of work, and
their preferred mode of transport

The additional data will help to verify the hypotheses.