Applied Measurement- Fish Tank Design Challenge

Regents Earth Science: A spiral approach to teaching maps

In the current NYS Regents Earth Science course, mapping is a skill that reinforces learning across multiple content areas. Many teachers choose to include a unit on mapping early in their curriculum sequence to give students the background skills needed to interact with learning later on in the course. This is similar to the way in which Earth Science courses address skills-based topics such as measuring and density, and rock and mineral identification.

More recently, many teachers have proposed shifting topics out of the "prologue" or preview of the course, and spiraling their introduction within the context of other Earth science themes. For example, teachers introduce density when discussing the separation of the Earth into layers and the mechanism of convection currents. Igneous and metamorphic rocks form by tectonic processes, and sedimentary rocks link the study of lithospheric landforms with the interactions of the hydrosphere and atmosphere.

The same can be done with map skills. Outside of their contextual use in interpreting landscapes, maps are arbitrary constructs to students. Especially with the shift toward a 3-dimensional approach to student learning, maps can and should be more of a thematic link between multiple core ideas within the discipline. Deliberate decisions about the introduction of the different types of maps can have an important impact on student understanding, especially if aligned with the development of a student's math skills. This also allows teachers to free up the time usually spent introducing skills at the beginning of the course and dive deeply into the curriculum itself - addressing the concern that a 3-dimensional approach "takes longer" in an already-full Earth Science curriculum.