Last November, together with two co-workers, laptops, projectors, tons of inflatable globes, CD holders, pencils and of course plastic lizards, I went to the Brighton School in Lynwood, WA, to share my enthusiasm for GIS Day with a class of 5th graders. To prepare for the hour-long presentation the teacher had been in contact with us about where the class was at in their current history lesson, the 13 colonies and Revolutionary War, and could we somehow incorporate that into our GIS lesson?

We began with a birdseye view of their school and how far away it was from Seattle’s Safeco Field. They loved it! I was amazed at how many of them quickly made the connection between ESRI technology and Google earth.

To incorporate their current Revolutionary War curriculum I gathered maps of the 13 colonies, Revolutionary War battle sites and other key geographic locations such as the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and current aerial photos of Philadelphia. I digitized, or overlayed, the current aerial imagery with some of the old maps like the one shown above.

In class I used this to point out the extreme difficulties that individuals such as General George Washington experienced while creating maps during that era.

“The want of accurate maps of the Country which has hitherto been the Scene of War, has been a great disadvantage to me. I have in vain endeavored to procure them and have been obliged to make shift with such sketches as I could trace from my own Observations.”
- General George Washington

After our presentation the kids were really excited to show us some of the tools they had been using to learn about the Revolutionary War and the 13 colonies. One way was by playing Twister with a giant map of the 13 colonies that their teacher had made. They insisted that we play a few rounds. I never realized just how far New York is from Georgia.

I won…twice.

This was a great day with the kids. Many of them asked us to return next year and I have to say I’m looking forward to it. Check out the article about our trip to Brighton (PDF) in the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping’s online publication, ACSM Bulletin.