Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators, Part 4

Question 1: Discuss how to compare maps of the same place from different time periods, and describe the information that provides.

Answer 1: Maps of the same place from different time periods can often be initially aligned by geographic features. Political and land-use boundaries are most likely to change between time periods, whereas locations of waterways and geologic features such as mountains are relatively constant. Once geographic features have been used to align maps, they can be compared side-by-side to examine the changing locations of human settlement, smaller waterways, etc. This kind of map interpretation, at the smallest scale, provides information about how small groups of humans interact with their environment. For example, such analysis might show that major cities began around ports, and then moved inland as modes of transportation, like railroads and cars, became more common. Lands that were initially used for agriculture might become incorporated into a nearby city as the population grows. This kind of map analysis can also show the evolution of the socio-economics of an area, providing information about the relative importance of economic activities (manufacturing, agriculture or trade) and even the commuting behavior of workers.

Question 2: Discuss how to compare and contrast the natural, political, and cultural features on maps.

Answer 2: Map legends will provide information about the types of natural, political, or cultural features on a map. Some maps show only one of these three features. Natural features such as waterways, wetlands, beaches, deserts, mountains, highlands and plains can be compared between regions by type, number, distribution, or any other physical characteristic. Political features such as state and county divisions or roads and railroads can be compared numerically, but examining their geographic distribution may be more informative. This provides information on settlement density and population. In addition, road and railroad density may show regions of intense urbanization, agricultural regions, or industrial centers. Cultural features may include roads and railroads, but might also include historic areas, museums, archaeological digs, early settlements and even campgrounds. Comparing and contrasting the number, distribution, and types of these features may provide information on the history of an area, the duration of settlement of an area, or the current use of the area (for example, many museums are found in current-day cultural centers).

Question 3: Describe how to compare maps with datasets or texts to draw conclusions and make generalizations.

Answer 3: Maps can provide a great deal of information about an area by showing specific locations where certain types of settlement, land use, or population growth occurred. Datasets and texts can provide more specific information about events that can be hypothesized from maps. This specific information may provide dates of significant events (for example, the date of a fire that gutted a downtown region, forcing suburban development) or important numerical data (e.g., population growth by year). Written datasets and texts enable map interpretation to become concrete and allow observed trends to be linked with specific causes (“Real estate prices rose in 2004, causing middle-class citizens to move northwest of the city”). Without specific information from additional sources, inferences drawn from maps cannot be put in context and interpreted in more than a vague way.

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