TEAM 7

Using Maps and Graphs: Data Analysis Tools for Middle School Social Studies
Avner Segall, Bettie Landauer-Menchik and Mark Wilson

Background

Maps and graphs can have a powerful effect on our view of our community, our country, and our world. As geographer Mark Monmonier writes, "At the root of their power is our unquestioning acceptance of cartographic messages." Mapping and displaying data on graphs and charts is a complex project. Once mastered, students and teachers will have tools that allow them to better understand and evaluate the complex stories conveyed through maps and charts, as well as the skills to create their own maps and charts electronically. As they engage with these issues, teachers and students will not only better understand complex historical and political events, but also understand why and how maps and charts are used to tell particular stories that advance/disrupt those historical and political processes.

The purpose of this project is to use our wide range of expertise to develop a series of modules for teachers/student teachers/middle school students on using maps and graphs across all social science disciplines. Participants will manipulate a variety of map and data presentation formats available through the Internet and consider the political, economic, and social implications of these formats to name, construct, and depict our geographic and social imagination. Students will use historical and geographical maps, cartograms, charts, and graphs to examine mapping and data analysis concepts in different contexts on the web. The proposed PT3 project will create a technology-enhanced learning environment in which teachers, interns, and secondary students can critically interpret and make maps and graphs as socially constructed narratives about the world.

Research Team

This proposal brings together the combined interests, knowledge, and expertise of following partnership: Avner Segall (whose academic work focuses on social studies as discursive/cultural practices. Looking at maps as signifying practices is integral (though currently only a minor) part of the two social studies methods courses I teach in the internship year); Mark Wilson (an economic/urban geographer in the Urban Planning Program who has constructed online course content and taught about the social context of information technology; Bettie Landauer-Menchik (a specialist in using data resources on the Internet and former middle school social studies teacher. She teaches courses in Turning Data into Information: Using the Internet for Education Research; and Using Census Data from the Internet for Understanding Schools. Don Moore (a doctoral student who teaches the other two sections of the social studies TE 802 and 804 and whose work focuses on the role of discourse/discursive practices in social studies education); and Julie Hodges (a former intern/future middle school social studies teacher who was one of the interns in this years TE 804 class).

Content

The purpose of these modules is to introduce students to the concepts, practice, and use/misuse of maps and graphs through:

• Map mechanics: Student teachers and students will learn about the construction and presentation of information in maps and graphs. Maps can be used to investigate national and international controversies, understand local political and economic issues, and history. We will examine the concept of mapism: the belief that a specific world-map projection is superior to all others. The most popular form of classroom map seriously distorts the less developed areas of the world and distorts population of countries in the northern hemisphere. Other topics: language of maps - names of places, historical boundaries and why US is laid out as it is and the roles that maps play in establishing boundaries between countries, the role of maps in domestic partisan politics - for example, in redistricting decisions following the Census; the role of maps in political processes - the siting of landfills, incinerators, nuclear power plants, and other environmentally obnoxious facilities; using maps for public policy - crime prevention, health planning, and school busing, etc.
• Applications: Interns will learn to construct maps and graphs using tools available on the Internet, the Atlas of Michigan, and standard software packages (Excel, Powerpoint etc). Having mastered presentation techniques, interns will then be able to use the modules in their classrooms.
• Professional Development: Interns will use an embedded authoring tool to ask questions of, and write about, the content and process of their learning while using these modules. Further professional development will take place and will include electronic links to resources (books, articles, internet sources, etc.) that would enhance their understanding of maps and graphs.

Audience

We envision multiple audiences for our modules. Since the modules engage teachers and students in learning concepts that require an inter-disciplinary approach, the modules can be used with a number of different secondary social studies curricula. While broadly applicable, we believe the modules will be most appropriate for middle school world cultures (world geography) and American history classes.

These modules initially will be used in the social studies TE 802 and TE 804 courses, and will accomplish three goals.

• Integrate practical experience on how teachers can use maps and graphs to accompany the theoretical materials already presented in these courses.
• Allow interns in their practicum settings to assess and evaluate how well their students understand how maps and graphs can be used as manipulative tools (and use that knowledge to think about/through how to plan for future instruction that includes maps).
• Revise modules, regarding both student engagement and teacher professional development, after interns have tested the module content in their classrooms.