Welcome to Navigate Powered by NIDES Social Studies 8!Please note that the First Assignment is a requirement to be registered in the course.

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Instructions: This assignment is intended to take approximately 5 - 10 hours to complete. It is worth 10% of your final grade for the course, so complete it carefully:

Read each question carefully before answering Answer all questions to the best of your ability, and in your own words.

Plagiarized assignments will not be accepted, and you will not be registered in the course.

Take your time and explore all of the resources. You will receive a higher mark on your First Assignment if you include your learning from the readings and resources provided.

When you have completed this assignment, attach it to your registration form or return it as an attachment to an email to: registrar@sd71.bc.ca

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Social Studies 8 First Assignment

Learning Outcomes:

Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions

Identify what the creators of accounts, narratives, maps, or texts have determined is significant (significance)

Maps are the basic tools of geography. They enable us to depict larger spaces on a small piece of paper. There are conventions used in map-making which allow a map to be read efficiently and quickly.  The practice of map-making is called "cartography."

A good map will have a legend or key which will show the user what different symbols mean. For instance, a square with a flag on top usually represents a school and roads are represented by a variety of widths and combinations of lines. Often a dashed line represents a border. Note, however, that map symbols used in Canada are often used for different things in other countries. Make sure to read the legend and you'll understand the symbols.

Look at the chart of symbols below.  These are just a few but you can find more here.  

All of these terms will appear in this unit at least once. Look for them as you read to get a sense of what they mean.  You may wish to look up the definitions and include them here.

Cartography Map Scale Latitude Longitude Prime Meridian Legend Outline Map Elevation Coordinate System Parallel Meridian International Date Line

You will be tested on them in the unit quiz according to how they are used in this unit. For example, parallel and legend could have quite different meanings according to how they are used.

Outline Maps

What you see below is an outline map of the world. See which continents and other landmasses you can identify

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Download a copy of the outline map here as either a Word do c ument or PDF file.  YOU will need to hold down the control button when you click in the link – you may get a message warning you about viruses – these links are safe and you can click on the “OK” button You will be told what to do with it on the next page. 

World Map

Here is a world map that shows the continents and oceans. How many of these did you already know? Which continent is not labelled?

Now open the copy of the outline map you downloaded. Label the continents and the oceans and add extra information as you like. You can add the information using a word processor or image editing program or you can print the outline map, label it and submit it by scanning it. You will hand this in for the unit assignment at the end of the lesson, so hold on to it. You will also need to know this map for the unit quiz. 

Every map is a representation of a larger portion of the earth. Read the feature about scale to learn more about how to determine the distance on earth represented on the map.

Without a north arrow, it is difficult to determine the orientation of a map. With a north arrow (pointing in the correct direction), a user can determine direction. Some maps, such as topographic maps, will point to "true north" (the north pole) and to magnetic north (where your compass points, to northern Canada).

Since the map is a flat representation of the curved surface of the earth, all maps are inherently inaccurate. There are a variety of projections which have been formulated for different uses.

A map's title provides important clues about the cartographer's intentions and goals. You can hope to expect entirely different information on a map titled "Unemployment in British Columbia" versus "Topography of Vancouver Island."

Colour appears so often on maps that we often take it for granted that mountains are brown and rivers are blue. Just as there are many types of colour maps, there are also many different colour schemes used by cartographers. The map user should look to the legend for an explanation of colours on a map.

Our expectations of colours on a map leads to some problems when it is used for elevation. Elevation is often represented as a sequence of dark greens (low elevation or even below sea level) to browns (hills) to white or gray (highest elevation). Since many people associate green with a fertile region, many map users will see lower elevations, which may be deserts, and assume those areas are filled with lush vegetation. Also, people may see the reds and browns of mountains and assume that they are barren landscapes of desolation but the mountains may be forested and covered in brush.

Additionally, as water always appears bright blue on a map, the user is often inclined to visualize any water on a map as pristine and clear blue - even though it might be entirely different color.

Maps are rarely drawn at the same scale as the real world. Most maps are made at a scale that is much smaller than the area of the actual surface being depicted. The amount of reduction that has taken place is normally identified somewhere on the map. This measurement is commonly referred to as the map scale. Conceptually, we can think of map scale as the ratio between the distance between any two points on the map compared to the actual ground distance represented.

On most maps, the map scale is represented by a simple fraction or ratio. This type of description of a map's scale is called a representative fraction. For example, a map where one unit (centimeter, meter, inch, kilometer, etc.) on the illustration represents 1,000,000 of these same units on the actual surface of the Earth would have a representative fraction of 1/1,000,000 (fraction) or 1:1,000,000 (ratio). Of these mathematical representations of scale, the ratio form is most commonly found on maps.

Scale can also be described on a map by a verbal statement. For example, 1:1,000,000 could be verbally described as "1 centimeter on the map equals 10 kilometers on the Earth's surface" or "1 inch represents approximately 16 miles".

Most maps also use graphic scale to describe the distance relationships between the map and the real world. In a graphic scale, an illustration is used to depict distances on the map in common units of measurement (see below). Graphic scales are quite useful because they can be used to measure distances on a map quickly.

 

Maps are often described, in a relative sense, as being either small scale or large scale. The example below helps to explain this concept. In the example, we have maps representing an area of the world at scales of 1:100,000, 1:50,000, and 1:25,000. Of this group, the map drawn at 1:100,000 has the smallest scale relative to the other two maps. The map with the largest scale is map C which is drawn at a scale of 1:25,000.

The above three illustrations describe the relationship between map scale and the size of the ground area shown at three different map scales. The map on the far left has the smallest scale, while the map on the far right has the largest scale. Note what happens to the amount of area represented on the maps when the scale is changed. A doubling of the scale (1:100,000 to 1:50,000 and 1:50,000 to 1:25,000) causes the area shown on the map to be reduced to 25% or one-quarter.

Location on Maps

Most maps allow us to specify the location of points on the Earth's surface using a coordinate system. For a two-dimensional map, this coordinate system can use simple geometric relationships between the perpendicular axes on a grid system to define spatial location. The image below illustrates how the location of a point can be defined on a coordinate system.

Check out this video on Absolute Locations Within Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSPe5H9ojG0&feature=youtu.be

A grid coordinate system defines the location of points from the distance traveled along two perpendicular axes from some stated origin. In the example above, the two axes are labeled X and Y. The origin is located in the lower left hand corner. Unit distance traveled along each axis from the origin is shown. In this coordinate system, the value associated with the X-axis is given first, following by the value assigned from the Y-axis. The location represented by the star has the coordinates 7 (X-axis), 4 (Y-axis).

Two types of coordinate systems are currently in general use in geography: the geographical coordinate system and the rectangular (also called Cartesian) coordinate system.

Geographical Coordinate System

The geographical coordinate system measures location from only two values, despite the fact that the locations are described for a three-dimensional surface. The two values used to define location are both measured relative to the polar axis of the Earth. The two measures used in the geographic coordinate system are called latitude and longitude.

Lines of latitude or parallels are drawn parallel to the equator (shown in red) as circles that span the Earth's surface. These parallels are measure in degrees (°). There are 90 angular degrees of latitude from the equator to each of the poles. The equator has an assigned value of 0°. Measurements of latitude are also defined as being either north or south of equator to distinguish the hemisphere of their location. Lines of longitude or meridians are circular arcs that meet at the poles. There are 180° of longitude either side of a starting meridian which is known the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian has a designated value of 0°. Measurements of longitude are also defined as being either west or east of the Prime Meridian.

Latitude measures the north-south position of locations on the Earth's surface relative to a point found at the center of the Earth (see below). This central point is also located on the Earth's rotational or polar axis. The equator is the starting point for the measurement of latitude. The equator has a value of zero degrees. A line of latitude or parallel of 30° North has an angle that is 30° north of the plane represented by the equator. The maximum value that latitude can attain is either 90° North or South. These lines of latitude run parallel to the rotational axis of the Earth.

Measurement of latitude and longitude relative to the equator and the Prime Meridian and the Earth's rotational or polar axis.

 Longitude measures the west-east position of locations on the Earth's surface relative to a circular arc called the Prime Meridian. The position of the Prime Meridian was determined by international agreement to be in-line with the location of the former astronomical observatory at Greenwich, England. Because the Earth's circumference is similar to circle, it was decided to measure longitude in degrees. The number of degrees found in a circle is 360. The Prime Meridian has a value of zero degrees. A line of longitude or meridian of 45° West has an angle that is 45° west of the plane represented by the Prime Meridian (Figure 2b-3). The maximum value that a meridian of longitude can have is 180° which is the distance halfway around a circle. This meridian is called the International Date Line. Designations of west and east are used to distinguish where a location is found relative to the Prime Meridian. For example, all of the locations in North America have a longitude that is designated west. 

Assignment - Map Basics

There are three parts to this assignment. If it seems complicated, that is because it has been designed, in part, to allow you to practice the skills that you will need to do well in this course. 

Part 1 - Outline Map

Attach the map below that you created earlier. Make sure that it is properly formatted according to the style sheet for this course which you can find here. If you need help with this, ask your teacher. 

Part 2 - The Island Country Map

This is the main part of the assignment.  Open this document in Word   or as a PDF. You can format this assignment in a word processor if you have the skills or by printing it then creating it by hand.  

Follow the instructions below. 

1. Put the name of your country at the top of the legend. You can make this up. 2. Take note of the north arrow for directions3. You will put all symbols into your legend. You will need symbols for capital city,

town, village, paved and unpaved roads, trail, river, campsite and mountains. 4. Put your map scale below the legend. 

Upload your completed file below. If you complete this by hand, you may have to scan it for your teacher. 

Part 3 - Your country's population

You will now write a paragraph in which you describe the population that inhabits your island.

Your island sits at 33N, 66W.  Take this into consideration in terms of climate. 

Describe where the people have settled on the island, what they do for a living in the various areas, and what their lifestyle is like. This should all fit the size and location of the island, but you can get creative. 

Marks

Outline Map - 4 marks according to the completion rubric

Island Country Map - 16 marks according to the map rubric

Paragraph  - 12 marks according to the short composition rubric

Total - 32 marks

When you have completed this assignment, attach it to your registration form, or return it as an attachment to an email to: registrar@sd71.bc.ca