What better way to teach young people the power of maps and the limitless depth of geography than a gym-sized map on which they can explore, travel from place to place, hop around, compete, collaborate, and have lots of fun?UA Geography Education and Outreach Coordinator Katie Kennedy is visiting several schools in Alaska with the Giant Traveling Map of Africa. Among her destinations are Crawford Elementary School, North Pole Elementary School, Badger Elementary School, Joy Elementary School, Arctic Light Elementary School, and Tri-Valley School in Healy. Next on her agenda are trips to Nome and Anchorage.
National Geographic's Giant Traveling Maps tour the country's schools, bringing hands and feet-on geography education to tens of thousands of students each year. Designed to combat geographic illiteracy by igniting students' interest in geography, the maps and accompanying activities incorporate physical movement and games to teach students place name geography, physical geography, and cultural geography as well as map reading skills.
Giant Traveling Maps brings memorable learning experiences to children and a school and community-wide focus on geography. These enormous floor maps of Asia, Africa, and North America are accompanied by a set of ready-to-use activities as well as atlases, books, music, videos, and game materials. National Geographic Giant Traveling Maps are produced by National Geographic Live!, the live events division of the National Geographic Society, producing multimedia presentations, performances, and film screenings for the general public, school audiences, and sponsoring organizations throughout North America. This is the second map to travel in Alaska. In April 2008, Kennedy and others toured the state with the Giant Traveling Map of Asia.
Further reading:
"Giant map brings the world to Alaska students," Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Jan. 15, 2009, by Christi Hang
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