Maps Library and Board Game Making (5/30)

Our first activity of the day was visiting the Maps Library.  We started off by watching a presentation made by the head maps librarian and having some discussions, such as "What makes a map a map?".  We learned about different maps, such as thematic maps, road maps, topographic maps, old maps, new maps, aerial maps, quasi maps, cartograms, maps by latitude and longitude, and flow maps.  We also explored map options on Google.

We discussed how maps could be used in a classroom setting.  Some ideas we came up with were mapping the school, classroom, town, etc, using concept maps to connect with readings, using the National Geographic education site, mapping where different foods come from, and using mazes.

Next, we went across the hall to the actual Maps Library, where all of the maps, globes, atlases, etc. are stored.  We learned that there are over 450,000 maps in the drawers and over 5,000 atlases.  Some of the maps were bought directly from companies, while others were printed off or donated.  Some maps are laminated but laminating all of them would take up too much room.  The lower drawers have more detailed/specific maps (counties, neighborhoods, etc.), while the upper drawers have more general maps (state).  Many of us did not even know that a Maps Library existed prior to this class.

One set of maps we looked at showed State College over the years, starting in 1922.  It allowed us to see many drastic changes that took place, yet still compare it to State College today.

Another part of the Maps Library that we all seemed to be pretty interested in were the different globes.  Many of us never knew that so many different types of globes existed that did not simply represent Earth.  There were globes that represented the constellations, the moon, bodies of water, Mars, and more.  Our group discussed how we could incorporate the Moon Globe for our Summer Lab School classroom next year because for one of the weeks we plan on discussing the moon.  We did not go into detail on how we would utilize it, but we would most likely use it during one of our projects that week.

We finished off the day by beginning to work on our board games.  The board game we were given was Alpha-Bug Soup.  After much deliberation, we decided that we would transform it into a game called "Nittany Tracks," a game where young children move around the board collecting ice cream flavors along the way.  The first person to collect all four flavors and return back to the Creamery in the center of the board wins.

We decided to make each of the 4 corners a different flavor of ice cream that each player must collect.  The 4 flavors we chose were: Arboretum Breeze, Peachy Paterno, Mint Nittany, and Palmer Mousseum.  We chose these because they are not "ordinary" flavors and they represent Penn State/ The Nittany Lion in one way or another.  The center of the board will be covered with The Nittany Lion eating an ice cream cone at the Creamery.  The original game has each player starting in a different corner, but we adapted the game to have every player start in the middle because we believed this would be less complicated and would also allow for more than 4 players at a time.  Each player has a game piece to represent him or her, which will be different colored Nittany Lion paw prints.  Our ultimate goal is to create a fun, yet not too complicated, game that, in the process, gives children an opportunity to become more familiar with our main theme: the Nittany Lion.