WHICH MAP'S THE BEST MAP FOR ANTARCTICA?

Take a day, a week, or a whole month to explore the advantages and drawbacks of different types of maps.

• If you want teacher strategies, assessment, and a schedule for the unit, start with Curriculum Materials. Then download all the activities (with handouts) and readings.
• If you want stand-alone, hands-on, or research on the Web activities and don't need teacher strategies to go with them, go directly to Activities.
• If you want accessible content readings that will help your students connect to maps, go straight to Articles. You'll find interviews with real scientists as well as content readings written by or about Antarctic researchers.

		Which Map's the Best Map for Antarctica? Curriculum Materials for grades 7 through 10 Mercator, polar, azimuthal, and conic—do you get lost just hearing about the different types of map projections? Get back on track with a hands-on look at how each is created and what each displays.
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		Mercator Projection Evidence and Analysis for grades 6 through 12 A globe may be the most accurate way to represent the Earth, but you can't slip one into your back pocket. The Mercator projection map is certainly portable, but look what it does to Antarctica!
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		Polar Projection Evidence and Analysis for grades 6 through 12 If you've ever compared a map of the world and a globe, then you've seen how Antarctica can get really distorted. See how a polar projection map solves that problem.
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		Research on the Web: Map Projections Activity for grades 6 through 12 Mapping the Earth would be a whole lot easier if it were flat. Find out how scientists use different types of map projections to compensate for the problems of representing a curved surface as flat.
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		Which Map's the Best Map? Activity for grades 6 through 12 As a miniature model of the Earth, a globe is the most accurate representation of our planet. Yet it's not what most scientists use to do their work. What do they use instead, and why?
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		Making Map Projections Activity for grades 6 through 12 Don't toss that empty soda bottle! Grab a knife and test out your cartography skills. You'll never look at a map of the Earth in the same way again.
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		Let's Talk with Jane Ferrigno about Using GPS in Antarctica Article for grades 6 through 12 Remote sensing, which not long ago was limited to the classified community, is now a popular tool for researchers in a variety of fields. Learn more about its use to monitor Antarctica's glaciers.
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		Let's Talk with Christina Hulbe about Studying Ice Flows for Clues to Climate Change Article for grades 6 through 12 What's better than watching ice melt? Building a computer model to simulate the melting! Ice flow plays an important role in everything from deep ocean circulation patterns to global warming.
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		Letter from Stephanie: Maps Article for grades 6 through 12 Why are there over 100 types of map projections? Because translating a globe onto a flat surface usually requires some compromise—cartographers must distort some features in order to preserve others.
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