Map Quest

How well do you know your local area?

The activity kicks off with a brainstorming session where the class reflects on their familiarity with their community. They discuss whether they feel they know a little, a lot, or a fair amount about their surroundings, whether they take family trips to local points of interest, and which places they particularly enjoy visiting in their city.

The teacher divides the class into four groups. Using an interactive whiteboard or computers, each group open OpenStreetMap or Google Maps. Together, they choose a specific area in their territory to focus on and note places based on the following guidelines:

• Identify tourist attractions that would interest a visitor to your city.
• Suggest locations for students on a trip where they can have fun during their free time.
• Recommend interesting sites that would appeal to a group of archaeologists.

The result will be the creation of a personalised map with three specific places to visit.

The class prepares for a guided tour along one or two of the chosen routes by splitting into pairs. After selecting one of the four routes , print out the map and distribute one copy to each pair.

During the tour, students will mark the locations of sites of interest on their paper map, noting their latitude and longitude. They can take photos of the sites and jot down relevant information, such as notable natural features or nearby buildings. Upon returning to the classroom, they will update their maps with any additional information.

The teacher can ask the class to work together to produce a mini-guide, detailing the itinerary and providing brief descriptions of the places visited.

The teacher can ask the following stimulus questions to conclude the activity:

• Do we truly understand the places we visited?
• What might happen to these locations if they were impacted by an extreme event, such as an earthquake Sudden ground shaking resulting from movements of the earth’s crust , landslide, or flood?

This activity could serve as a starting point for deeper investigations into the risks facing the area or the specific characteristics of one or more of the sites explored.