Why would Robert E. Lee order Pickett's Charge, an action that changed the course of the Civil War? Geographer and historian Anne Knowles uses digital technology to explain what she thinks is the missing piece in trying to understand...

Sometimes it is difficult to grasp topographic maps. Here is a clever presentation designed to help your middle school earth scientists understand. Beginning with a side view of a pair of mountains, a graphic guy walks up one slope. As...

Students analyze the details of a topographic map and create one of their own by utilyzing a map of elevations.

Learners research USGS maps and identify the major features. In this map skills instructional activity, students identify low and high elevations on a USGS map and practice finding latitude and longitude.

In this contour map learning exercise, students create 3 different contour maps by highlighting all the data points with the same value and connecting the dots.

Students examine topographic maps and discover how to decipher contour intervals, use contour lines and apply information to complete a topographic map lab. Working in groups, they identify the scale of the map, latitude and longitude,...

Seventh graders practice reading maps.  In this geography instructional activity, 7th graders compare a topographical map to a picture of the actual place.