Tech integration and Map Skills

What does an African map, cones, geography questions, and technology have in common?  

In Mrs. Bentley's 6th grade Social Studies classes, students participated in a fun map activity thanks to our PTO.  Each year, our PTO provides enrichment for our students in Middleton.  The students are learning World Geography in 6th grade and what better way to discover Africa than bring a humongous map into our school.  

Mrs. Bentley makes learning fun by creating a game to learn the geography of Africa.  Students are divided into four teams and are positioned at each corner of the map.  They are given a laptop to research any question that they need help with.  Mrs. Bentley asks a question, and students take turns running to the location that she is asking about.  They must be the first to put their cone on the location and say the answer.  Most of the time, the students didn't even need to search Google because they knew the answer.  But, what a great asset it was to have it when they needed it. Students learned a great lesson on being prepared when searching in Google.  They learned about key words, such as "Africa +" and "Countries in Africa +" to make searching quicker.

 What a great way to learn Geography and research skills while having fun!

Massachusetts Social Studies Standards

SS.A.1 On a map of the world, locate the continent of Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian

Ocean,  the Mediterranean Sea,  and the Great Rift Valley.   On a map of Africa, locate the

northern, eastern, western, central, and southern regions of Africa, the Sahara Desert,

the Nile River, Lake Victoria, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Cape of Good Hope. (G)

SS.A.4 Identify the locations and time periods of the sub-Saharan empires of Ghana, Mali,

and Songhay. (H, G)

  Thanks to our PTO for your support!