Map Your Street
Draw a map good enough that a stranger could use it.
1 week🌍 Social Studies🔢 Math🔬 Science
What you need
- paper
- a pencil
- something to measure with — even footsteps
Nothing to buy and nothing to print — if you do not have one of these, swap it for whatever you do have.
The steps
Day 1
Walk it
Walk the street and note every building, tree and crossing.
📋 Make a list
Day 2
Pace it out
Count your paces between two landmarks. That is your unit.
🔢 Write the number down
Say this: “Every map has a unit. Yours is one of your paces.”
Day 3
Which way is north
Work out north — the sun rises east and sets west. Mark it.
🎨 Draw it
Day 4
Draw it
Draw the map to your pace scale, with north at the top.
🎨 Draw it
Day 5
Make a key
Add a key so someone else can read your symbols.
🎨 Draw it
How to score it
You score this, not us. Pick the description that actually matches what they did.
Accuracy
- 1. Landmarks missing
- 2. Most landmarks
- 3. All landmarks in roughly the right place
- 4. All landmarks with distances that match the paces
Scale
- 1. No scale
- 2. Scale mentioned
- 3. Scale used
- 4. Scale used consistently across the map
Readability
- 1. Only the author can read it
- 2. Needs explaining
- 3. A stranger could follow it
- 4. A stranger could follow it and the key explains every symbol
What goes in the portfolio
A drawn map with a key, a scale and a compass direction.