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A Method for Sketching World MapsLeonard Rifas aa Seattle, WashingtonPublished online: 16 Aug 2007.

To cite this article: Leonard Rifas (1996) A Method for Sketching World Maps, Journal of Geography, 95:1, 17-21

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221349608978400

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Teacher's Notebook

A Method for Sketching World Maps by Leonard Rifas SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

Here's a trick for remembering the locations, sizes and shapes of the world's largest land

... and in half again ...

Fold down the upper right corner, even with fold line #6.

Take an ordinary 8 1 /2 by 11 inch sheet of typing paper. Fold it carefully in half ...

... and in half a third time. I

................... ........................ ...................... .......................

......................... ........................

.................................. .................................

................................ ........................ ........................ ................................

Unfold the page and number the fold lines as shown.

~ ~~ ~

Fold down the upper left corner, even with fold line # 7.

p. ........................................... ...................... ......"....""......., t .................. ?: ..................

.......... .................. :-: ........................... ::: .:.. .......

*..* ............ t .......................................... :a. ... ...., i. ...................................................... i. ............................................................

*.** B **-..,

...*A

Open it up again and label the diagonal fold lines as shown.

@National Council for Geographic Education Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA 15705 17 JANUARYFEBRUARY

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Using thesefolds as guidelines, draw in the rough locations of the continents following this model ....

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Antarctica \ / \

Even if you go no further, you’ve already drawn a lot of information here.

This map shows not only the locations, but also the relative sizes of the inhabited continents.

Australia and Antarctica.

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,- If you like, you can take another

step, and rough in the shapes of the continents in more detail, copying this

/' Use a second color, ,,*+' and be patient. This

step takes practice.

I.------------------ .---.--.------

It's more fun and educational if you say the name of every line. For example ...

West Africa

South Africa The Horn Madagascar North The

Africa Red Sea of Africa

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You can use a transparency of the map on the previous page not onl to demonstrate how

(using an overhead projector), but a h to check the finished work.

This speeds up the process of learning how to draw the map from memory.

to B raw in the lines

Don’t get carried

Feel free to

away with trying to make an exact copy!

redesign the map to make it easier to remember, more accurate, or suitable for different sizes of paper.

(Use the basic grid lines as rrgistration marks. Look for the main discrepancies between the model and the sketch)

Sketch Maps and Geography A detailed mental image of where places are in the world can help a person understand and remember information about distant places and events (Metz 1990). The recently published Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994 proposes that every young American be able to draw a world map from memory (Geography Standards Education Project 1994).

In schools, student-drawn sketch maps are valuable tools for diagnosing a class’s knowledge when planning lessons, for assessing the effectiveness of instruction, and for making visible to students their own progress in understanding world geography (Wise and Kon 1990).

A training program for improving the accuracy of sketch maps includes guided practice in copying maps and evalua- tion sessions to analyze the results (Drumheller 1968). One key to improving the accuracy of the sketch maps is to organize the information around a grid. Metz recommends teaching students to include on their maps the equator, the prime meridian, and the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (Metz 1990).

This article presents an original, ad hoc system of grid lines designed to help people remember the locations, relative sizes, and general shapes of the major land masses of the world. Some of the steps that went into designing this mne- monic device include:

1) tracing continental outlines on photocopied maps with

2) experimenting with various ways of folding paper to

3) creating a master map to serve as a model; and 4) choosing reference points, looking up their coordinates,

and checking that the map represented these points in proper sequence, horizontally and vertically.

a thick marking pen to simplify the shapes;

discover the most useful guidelines;

With these steps, it may be possible to design mnemonic maps for individual continents or smaller areas.

This map is centered on the Pacific Rim (Saarinen 1987). By folding the lower corners of the paper up, rather than folding the upper corners down, the same basic grid can be modified to draw a map centered on the Atlantic Ocean.

References Drumheller, S. 1968. Conjure up a map-acrucial but much neglected skill.

Journal of Geography 67(2): 140-146. Geography Education Standards Project. 1994. Geography for life: Na-

tional geography standards 1994. Washington, DC: National Geo- graphic Society.

Metz, H. 1990. Sketch maps: Helping students get the big picture. Journal of Geography 89(3):114-118.

Saarinen, T. 1987. Centering of mental maps of the world. Discussionpaper series. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona.

Wise, N., and J. Kon. 1990. Assessing geographic knowledge with sketch maps. Journal of Geography 89(3):123-129.

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