Sixth-grade map and globe skills curriculum
Abstract
There has been much concern recently about the lack of basic map and globe skills among America's youth. Map and globe skills are a basic tool of social studies used throughout the rest of students' academic, professional and personal lives. These skills incorporate the development of problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The focus of this project was to develop a map and globe skills curriculum for teaching these skills to sixth-graders in Putnam County, Florida, when they first encounter daily social studies classes. Although curricula have been developed, they do not include all of the objectives necessary to teach sixth-grade Putnam County students who possess different levels of competence. The curriculum incorporates suggestions from the review of related literature. While the curriculum accommodates the average student, it can be adapted to the learning abilities of all students. Because sixth-graders are generally in Piaget's concrete-operational stage of cognitive development and learn best using "hands-on" activities, the suggested lesson plans stress these types of learning experiences.