See and hear : the journal on audio-visual learning (1945)

Lyell J. Moore Director, Department of Audio- Visual Instruction, Mason City, Iowa Henry W. Embry Director, Visual Education, Dallas, Texas Public Schools Esther M. Benson Visual Education Department, Anoka, Minnesota Public Schools Mapping the Local Community REGARDLESS of how well any classroom may be equipped ■ with commercially produced materials, there is a point at which the teacher has the responsibility for bringing in visual evidences of what is happening in the pupils' own local community environment. Ob- viously it is not always economically feasible for commercial groups to produce materials about every local community, yet this is the point at which the teacher responsibility for local production must take over. How can she bring into the class- rfK)m a tangible, vivid, graphic evi- dence of, for example, the terrain in which the local community is situated? One way of accomplishing this is the production of a terrain model or, as it is sometimes called, a relief model, of the land area of the locality. Certainly such a terrain specimen is the starting point of map study. For young people who have had pic- nics, have gone on hikes, or have become well familiar with the sur- rounding landscape to be able to study the graphic visualization of that same landscape or that same terrain area is the first step in bridg- ing the gap between the reality of geography and its symbolization through map presentation. With this end in view, then, the teacher and class approach the problem of pro- ducing their own terrain map or model of the given land area. The first step, of course, is that of assembling the needed materials, which are here listed: 1. Tracing paper 2. Local map, secured from the county courthouse. A map of this type is available for all sections of the United States. 3. Carbon paper 4. 1 beaver board i^ inch thick, usually about 2' x 2' in area. 5. 1 quart or less of library paste 6. Wood pulp 7. Scissors, foot rule, pencil, etc. 8. 1 small can shellac 9. 1 bristle brush i/^ in. wide 10. Mixing dishes 11. 1 pound plaster of paris 12. 6 sheets corrugated cardboard, 2' X 2', i/^ inch or more in thickness. 13. Small amounts of "map" oil paint in colors: brown, blue, green, yellow, etc. These colors should coincide with the colors used on commercially made, physical-feature maps, since the object of this terrain map is to correlate the regular sym- bols and color values used on the commercially produced maps with the terrain model study. A prejjared contour-type map area of the local environment must be secured. The first problem is to enlarge the small section, usually not over 10 to 20 square miles in area, into a map large enough so that it can be translated into a terrain specimen. This can be accomplished by the grid method as follows: Take the specified area of the se- lected map which may be as small as 2" X 2" on the original map, and draw 1/2-inch squares directly upon it. Next, take the piece of beaver board or other map base material, about 2' X 2' square, and lay off this entire surface area into as many squares as were laid out on the original 2" x 2" map section. The new squares may be about two inches by two inches in size. Now, draw into the enlarged squares the identi- cal map characteristics that appear on the small original i/^-inch squared map. On the beaver board or other material map base, draw in the elevation marks for every contour line that appears on the original map. (See Fig. 1.) Figure 1 illustrates the grid meth- od. In the upper righthand corner of Figure 1 is the section of the original contour map which was secured from the county surveyor's office. This original map was then laid out in i/^-inch sections. The 38 SEE AND HEAR