Denali Discovery Guide - Lesson #4

Discover Denali Lesson Plans
Lesson #4 - Maps & Storytelling

Alaska Geography Standards

A student should be able to make and use maps, globes, and graphs to gather, analyze, and report spatial (geographic) information.

A student who meets the content standard should:
1. use maps and globes to locate places and regions;
2. make maps, globes, and graphs;
3. understand how and why maps are changing documents;
4. use graphic tools and technologies to depict and interpret the world's human and physical systems;
5. evaluate the importance of the locations of human and physical features in interpreting geographic patterns; and
6. use spatial (geographic) tools and technologies to analyze and develop explanations and solutions to geographic problems.

A student should be able to utilize, analyze, and explain information about the human and physical features of places and regions.

A student who meets the content standard should:

	1.	know that places have distinctive geographic characteristics;
	2.	analyze how places are formed, identified, named, and characterized;
	3.	relate how people create similarities and differences among places;
	4.	discuss how and why groups and individuals identify with places;
	5.	describe and demonstrate how places and regions serve as cultural symbols, such as the Statue of Liberty;
	6.	make informed decisions about where to live, work, travel, and seek opportunities;
	7.	understand that a region is a distinct area defined by one or more cultural or physical features; and
	8.	compare, contrast, and predict how places and regions change with time.

Lesson Introduction -

Maps are windows in the human minds and societies that create them. This lesson is designed to help student become familiar with the numerous cartographic resources for Denali National Park and help them decipher those maps into various story sources. Maps contain both scientific and cultural information that can reveal a lot about the nature of the terrain and the way humans access the area. Maps of Denali National Park have remarkable stories to tell about the geology, glaciers, geomorphology, vegetation, people, political, environmental, and cultural history of the Park. The trick is to help students “see” all these stories embedded in the maps through using some geographer's tools.

national park service

Using a variety of maps from Denali National Park and/or the surrounding areas, you will be asking students to study and reflect upon the information provided in these documents. You can get these maps from sources like the U.S.G.S, Alaska Natural History Association, or commercial map sources. The Resources Button on this website also provides some web-based maps for students to look over. Ask students to work through the following questions in an individual journal, small group dialogue, or whole group discussion to explore the “stories” in the maps of Denali National Park.

Students will move through a series of short activities designed to engage them in the skills of geography that will enrich their ability to tell powerful digital stories about places. Mental mapping, deconstruction of geographical information contained within oral traditions, analysis of maps, and the use of geographical frameworks are skills the student will gain during this session. As students learn these geographical skills, they will utilize iMovie as a way to demonstrate proficiency with the geographical skills.

Topics include:
Mental mapping
Construct sketch maps of home and Denali area and how to use iMovie as a tool in the process

Mental mapping as part of cultural memory
Listen to and deconstruct an oral story and how to use iMovie as a tool in the process

Mapping of the physical region of Denali
Analyze maps and remotely sensed images of Denali and acquire digital topographic maps of areas under study and how to incorporate digital images into iMovie

Perspectives and frameworks of geography
Plan how to use geography and iMovie as mutual tools to create stories about the research that goes on in Denali Park

national park service

Create
Distribute a variety of maps of Denali National Park and Alaska to students, grouped cooperatively. Have each group analyze their map given the complete set of Cartographic Power questions outlined below, given selected questions from those listed, or have students themselves select questions to answer. If students can be divided into groups of four, then it works well to give each student one of the sets of questions printed on 5x8” index cards (or on half sheets of paper), and put each student in charge of reading their questions to the group and recording the group's answers for that set of questions. Afterwards, have each group briefly share with the class their response to one of the questions from each set of questions (each group shares their response to four questions, one from each card).

Next ask students to use their skills from Storyboarding and My Denali Movie lessons to incorporate maps into their individual and research movie about Denali Park. This may include videotaping sections of maps that contain the research area or creating new maps that better reflect some of the information most relevant the “story” the students want to tell about the Park. Students will have to combine or synthesis the geographic space and information with their storytelling and moviemaking skills to complete this lesson.

Collaborate
Ask students stay in their cooperative groups to conduct a specific case study of the discrete content presented on each map. These case studies are a way to allow students to deduce information in teams from these maps. Encourage the students to begin thinking about capture the “story” of this information in writing or filming for use in their own movie about the Park. They will need to collaborate with other team members to gather geographic data, infer what is and is not shown by the map, and make decisions about how to use this information to formulate their own movie/story. A good place to start getting students to think about these maps and the geographic information is through the following questions:

Conduct a class discussion using questions such as the following:

	?	What groups have divided, organized, and unified areas of Earth's surface?
	?	How does the spatial organization of a society change over time?
	?	What does your map indicate about the attitudes of the people involved?
	?	What were people's perceptions of the western United States during the nineteenth century?
	?	How does the image of a continent as a wilderness to be settled and developed contrast with the fact that the continent was entirely occupied prior to European contact and settlement?
	?	How did the desire for land and territory, domination of other peoples, and control over resources play a role in spatial change, in who had control over what territory?
	?	How well do maps deal with the dynamic nature of human spatial arrangements and cultural contacts, interactions?

Communicate -
Conduct a turn-taking discussion centered on an analysis of the questions listed in the cartographic analysis. Let student share they thoughts and ideas as they have come to study the maps and the information they provide. Mostly ask students to tell, re-tell, or imagine the story that each map represents to them. Ask them to reflect on both the present and missing information embedded in each map of Denali Park and surrounding areas.

It is important to give students an opportunity to react privately in their journals. A suggested question to use as a prompt is: How do you as an Alaskan or American feel about the roles various groups play in the history and formation of national parks? What does Denali National Park mean to you, your family, and/or to your culture? How do maps shape what people know about an area?

Additional questions may include:

	?	Who has the most power: the cartographer, the reader of the map, or the person whose landscape is depicted on the map?
	?	Who has the power and authority to map the Denali Park?
	?	What do maps tell us about our world?
	?	Are you comfortable with the stories they tell?
	?	What are the traditional ways Native Alaskans have shared stories about geographic areas?

Selections for the Map

	?	What selected aspects of Earth's surface, physical or human features, are represented on this map?
	?	Who do you think selected the aspects to be included on this map? In other words, who decided what would be included and what would be left out of this map? Why do you think this?
	?	Did an outsider or an insider create and produce this map? What is the basis for your choice?
	?	What is the point of view of this map? How do you know?
	?	Does this map reflect more of a homeland, frontier, or territorial paradigm?
	?	Who is the audience for this map? How do you know this?
	?	Were the audience members consulted during the production of this map? Why do you think so?
	?	Who are the actors, if any, on the landscape of this map? How can you identify them? Which actors are visible? Which are invisible?
	?	Were the actors on this landscape consulted in the production of this map? Why do you think so?
	?	Why was this map produced? Who made the decision to produce this map?
	?	What kinds of resources were utilized in producing this map? Who controls these resources?
	?	What is the source of the information produced in this map? Is it an authoritative source? How do you know? What gives the source its authority?

Stories from the Map

	?	What story or stories does this map tell?
	?	Does it tell a whole story?
	?	From whose point of view does it tell the story?
	?	Are there parts of the story that are left out?
	?	If there are parts of the story that are left out, how do we get the rest of the story? Is there another map with which you are familiar that tells another part of the story?
	?	If parts of the story are left out, how could you revise this map to be more reflective of the whole story?
	?	What kinds of maps need to accompany this map, be used with this map, in order for more of the story to be told?
	?	Does this map reflect reality? How do you know?

Diversity of the Map

	?	What does this map reflect about diversity of the population: about ethnicity, ancestry, race, gender, etc.?
	?	What does this map say about the gender roles, ethnic diversity, and makeup of the population during the time period reflected on the map?
	?	Does this map need to be revised to be more reflective of a divers population? How could this map be revised to be more reflective of a diverse population?

Landscape of the Map

	?	Does this map reflect a natural, physical, political, or personal landscape?
	?	What types of groups of people use this landscape? Whose landscape is it?
	?	Who has sovereignty over the territory depicted on the map? Is this clearly identifiable on this map?
	?	What does this map say about how the world is divided (i.e. race, class, gender, etc.)?
	?	Is this landscape fairly represented on this map?
	?	Was this map produced by means of direct observation, air photos, infrared/color air photos, satellite images, or merged images?

Assessment
The assessment for the maps and storytelling comes from geographic space and information, as well as the integration of these in the student's moviemaking. We are looking for students to study maps using geographic tools, analyze on the information and history of the maps, and use their reflections of these maps in their own moviemaking about Denali Park. The following rubric gets at most of these goals, but you may want to add additional categories for the levels of map analysis, creation, or group collaboration asked of students in the process.

Learning Outcome	Advanced	Proficient	Developing
IMovie Construction	iMovie construction reflects creative, original, unique, and/or imaginative ways of presenting geographic information and/or maps of the locale or place in which the iMovie is set.	iMovie construction reflects some creative ways of presenting geographic information and/or maps of the locale or place in which the iMovie is set.	iMovie construction reflects conventional ways of presenting geographic information and/or maps of the locale or place in which the iMovie is set.
Geographical Space	The personal, cultural, or natural importance of the places in the iMovie are highly evident through the story told Locations of importance are precise.	The personal, cultural, or natural importance of the places in the iMovie is evident through the story told. Locations of importance are generally accurate.	The personal, cultural, or natural importance of the places in the iMovie is not readily evident through the story told. Locations of importance are somewhat accurate.
Geographic Information	Insightful and multiple direct observations were made to generate detailed geographic information to construct this iMovie.	Several direct observations were made to generate detailed geographic information to construct this iMovie.	Cursory and/or a limited number of direct observations were made to generate geographic information to construct this iMovie.

Resources
(see Resources Button)

Other Activities

Using any of the maps of Denali National Park, either in whole or small groups, have students study and respond to the following questions:

Denali Visitor's Guide: MAP ANALYSIS

	•	Is the title appropriate for this map? Why or why not?
	•	When was this map produced?
	•	Who produced this map?
	•	Is Mt McKinley represented on the map? If so, how?
	•	What are the limitations of this map?
	•	Who is the audience for this map?
	•	What native Alaskan names show up on this map?
	•	What Alaskan cultures to these names come from?
	•	What story does this map tell about visiting Denali National Park? (look for roads, airports, etc)
	•	What else can you discover from this map?

TODALSIGss

LETTER	ASSOCIATED WORD/WORDS	QUESTIONS TO ASK
T	title	• What does the map show? • Where is the place? • What is the time period portrayed by the map?
O	orientation	• What are the principal geographical directions of the map? • Does the map have a compass rose or another way of showing orientation? • What direction is to the top of the map?
D	date	• When was the map made? • How long ago was the map made? • Is it still reliable? • What has changed since the map was printed?
A	author	• Who made the map? • Was it an individual or a team of people? • Is this a commercially produced map?
L	legend	• Does the map have a legend (key) that clearly shows the meaning of the symbols? • What symbols are included in the legend?
S	scale	• Is there a map scale? • What distance does a unit of measure represent in the area actually shown on the map? • How is the scale expressed: verbally as a ratio or in graphic form?
I	index	• Does the map have an alphabetical list of places shown and the grid address of those places?
G	grid	• Does the map have a set of intersecting lines that provides a map address? • Is the grid an arbitrary system or latitude/longitude system?
s	source	• Where did the information to make the map originate?
s	situation	• Does the map show the situation of the place in relation to a larger or smaller region or the world?

Source: Anderson, Jeremy. Teaching Map Skills Through An Inductive Approach. Indiana, PA: National Council for Geographic Education, 1986.

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Home Page

Discover Denali Lesson Plans:

• Lesson #1 -
Storyboarding

• Lesson #2 -
My Denali Movie

• Lesson #3 -
Handhelds

• Lesson #4 -
Maps & Storytelling

• Lesson #5 -
Wireless Worlds

Resources

Denali Science & Storytelling Camp