Map the World- Incorporating Art, Science, and Geography STEM
My students need a giant wall map of the world that is dry erasable to incorporate art into our STEM classroom in Social Studies 6 and improve geographic literacy skills.
Ben Franklin said, "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." My students need a map space where they can personally and artistically interact so that they can be involved in the geography of the world and learn it on a deeper level through hands-on STEM.
Our school is one of two certified STEM middle schools in the state of Indiana.
Social Studies is a perfect subject to incorporate the arts to make it more of a STEAM setting. With large class sizes of 30-32 students (175 students per grade level), it will take a huge wall map for everyone to be able to interact. Our rural community has a near 75% free/reduced lunch rate; exposure to STEAM is essential to broaden student horizons for future careers. Most students have had minimal exposure to STEM as well as social studies at the elementary level when they come to our classroom. Though the S stands for "science", STEAM is a perfect fit with our Indiana curriculum in sixth grade too. Our social studies classroom is active and uses STEAM almost every day. We do math, language arts, and science along with technology to learn history, geography, government, and economics! We would like to add more of the arts- visual arts especially- to reach multiple-intelligences in a hands-on way.
My Project
As we move through the yearly social studies curriculum, students will interact daily with geography and our wall mural of the world map. It will be dry-erase friendly, so they will be able to draw mathematical concepts like the latitude/longitude grid, scientific geographical concepts like the Ring of Fire and earthquake fault lines, and draw the historical boundaries of empires and political boundaries of countries. This is a physical relief map, so it will include mountain ranges as well as bodies of water in a very visual way. Much of what we have traditionally done on small individual paper maps can now be done on a large artistic scale for the whole class on the wall mural. Students will be able to draw on the map with dry erase markers and personally interact with the world in a way that didn't translate through a small paper map on their desktop. We will map ocean currents and winds, trace the Silk Road, outline the Roman Empire, draw the exploration of Columbus and more!
Students have a small world view in our rural Indiana classroom.
Some of them rarely travel outside of the county, let alone to another country or continent. They struggle to visualize a larger world. They also struggle to find their voice if they are a hands-on, visual learner who is artistic; not all students get to take elective art classes due to limited teaching staff in our rural school. Incorporating a large world map mural in Social Studies 6 will literally expand students' world view.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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