We’ve started a new form of mapmaking at the Center using the Google Map Engine! (For years we’ve made paper maps exclusively.) From the link below, you can access the first digital map we’ve created. It’s from a field trip of middle schoolers who hiked to our favorite island-like area on the Rivanna River. First, the students were given photographs taken there before the big floods of 2018. They were asked to locate the subjects of the photographs, and then to identify where the camera was held. They did a great job, although the floods had changed a lot about the environment–even the course of a stream, and the shape of the sand bars! We photographed the places and subjects the students chose.

We plugged in that day’s photos to the Google map; later we emailed the map to the teacher, naming her as an editor. The class can now type in notes about the field trip, photograph drawings and writings about the day and insert them into the map. and also draw shapes and lines.

Students can also look at a photo…of a plant, for example…and then research it at school and add new information about it on the place marker. The map is a way to revisit the field trip and keep on learning.

Click the blue markers to see the photographs and field notes.