They might be giants: Nunavut students learn geography with help of oversized floor map

“I liked pretending that I was Godzilla and stomping around”

By COURTNEY EDGAR

One of the learning activities that students can use the giant map for is to map out make-believe routes from one place to another. (PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIE GARDNER)


One of the learning activities that students can use the giant map for is to map out make-believe routes from one place to another. (PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIE GARDNER)

Since April  23, Julie Gardner, a Grade 5 teacher at Simon Alaittuq School in Rankin Inlet, has been using a giant floor map to teach geography, social studies and even math. “It’s really hands-on learning,” Gardner said. (PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIE GARDNER)


Since April 23, Julie Gardner, a Grade 5 teacher at Simon Alaittuq School in Rankin Inlet, has been using a giant floor map to teach geography, social studies and even math. “It’s really hands-on learning,” Gardner said. (PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIE GARDNER)

The giant floor map at Simon Alaittuq School covers nearly half of the school gym. (PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIE GARDNER)


The giant floor map at Simon Alaittuq School covers nearly half of the school gym. (PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIE GARDNER)

For Rankin Inlet students attending Simon Alaittuq School, the world is at the tips of their toes.

Since April 23, Julie Gardner, a Grade 5 teacher, has used a giant Canadian Geographic floor map of the Arctic while teaching her students geography, social issues and even math.

“It takes up about half the gym. Each teacher can bring their own kids down here every other day,” Gardner said in a phone interview last week.

Although Gardner first learned about the large interactive maps when she was a student at w teachers’ college in Kingston, Ont.: she only got to use one in her own classes starting a few weeks ago.

Gardner asked the principal at Simon Alaittuq school about getting a Canadian Geographic map for the students, and she said the school’s administration supported the idea right away.

When the map was delivered, Gardner’s students were midway through learning about measurements.

So she had her students come up with creative ways to learn the distance from one community to another on the map—in non-traditional ways.

Most of the students chose to use their bodies to understand the distances between Arctic communities and from shore to shore.

The syudents could sit in the ice, in the water or even in a part of the map that represents outer space.

Many lay on their backs and pretended to backstroke in the icy waters of Hudson Bay.

“It’s really hands-on learning,” Gardner said, explaining that there is a great difference between looking up at a map on a wall and physically interacting with a map.

“I think learning in a kinesthetic way helps them to learn,” Gardner said. “It is remembered better when using their bodies rather than just their eye.”

After a lesson in which Gardner’s students planned a snowmobile trip across the floor map, she had the kids fill out a questionnaire to understand what they had learned and what their experiences were like while using it.

Cassie Ugjuk, one of Gardner’s Grade 5 students, wrote that for her make-believe trip to Arctic Bay, Arviat and then back to Rankin Inlet, she chose to go by land and ice— but also with a pinch of imagination.

“From Arviat there was a trail that we followed,” Ugjuk wrote. “But from Rankin to Arctic Bay, we could not see any trails from the blizzard that there was the night before.”

Her favourite part of the exercise, she said, was that she got to pretend to swim in Hudson Bay.

“I liked pretending that I was Godzilla and stomping around,” said Haley Tatty, another student.

Some of the students commented that what they loved about learning with the maps was the items that came with them.

“I liked when we got to use chains,” Kylie-Mae Aksalnik said. “We used them to make borders around the provinces and territories.”

Other students said the visuals and unusual perspective were what was most interesting about the map.

“It was cool to see Earth from space,” Payton Kabluitok said.

The giant Arctic floor map is one of a series created by Canadian Geographic and has been made available—free of charge—to teacher members all across Canada since 2015.

The organization has also produced giant maps of the boreal forest region, wildlife migration and of Canada from space.

Gardner even put on a scavenger hunt for parent-teacher night, where the adults accompanied their children to find places on the map.

“There were just huge smiles on their faces,” Gardner said.

“As a teacher you love to see your kids have fun and to be learning. Some of the sweetest moments were seeing the parents learning with their children.”

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