Happy Geography Awareness Week!  This week, celebrate geography in your classroom by inserting maps into your lessons.  Maps are a fantastic way to visually interest students in a topic and help them make connections they would otherwise miss.

Take for example this image of Magellan’s Route in 1544.

In early November, when this map appeared as the “Image of the Week” on our Facebook page, teacher Michelle Delgado responded to the question: How can you get students to engage with this image?

“Whoa!  Check out the shapes of the continents!  I love this map.  I’d use it as an opener and compare with a map students are more familiar with and ask what Magellan got right/wrong and why.”  -Michelle Delgado.

This is a fantastic idea Michelle!  Students would not need to know much about Magellan’s trip in order to interpret this map, and it would be a great exercise to get them excited about the Age of Exploration.  To find more maps to add to your lessons, check out the image collection page at the Marchand Archives and search under the topic “maps”.

Our thanks to Michelle for her insights, if you want to share your thoughts on our “Image of the Week” join the discussion on our Facebook page. For more information on Geography Awareness Week visit the National Geographic Education website.