What am I gonna do with this huge map?: Critical thinking, primary documents, and old maps
Type of Presentation
Individual paper/presentation
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Session Two Breakouts
Proposal
As any archivist or librarian can tell you, there always seems to be an old map in the Archives or Government Document and it can feel cumbersome as to how you might use it in instruction. This tends to cause the maps to be kept in a long-forgotten box or section of a Special Collections Reading Room where it gathers dust and isn’t utilized in an accessible way to encourage collaboration during instruction. It also causes a vacuum in terms of ideas that students might have about how old maps might work for their research and in which ways they might provide insights into their own research for class papers and projects. However, there are definite ways to engage students with these maps in helping them develop critical thinking skills in a fun and collaborative way that takes a clunky map and turns it into a helpful and intriguing tool. During this presentation, one archivist will show you how to take that map that’s collecting dust and provide you with the questions that work with equipping students with critical thinking skills and primary document reflection that comes from working with these maps.
Short Description
This presentation will provide an archivist or librarian with a toolkit of questions, lesson plans, and materials needed to create a lesson hook that gives students a collaborative understanding of critical thinking skills and provides some legs to those old huge maps that might be collecting dust.
Keywords
Primary document, critical thinking skills, ephemera in Archives
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Beem, Randi E., "What am I gonna do with this huge map?: Critical thinking, primary documents, and old maps" (2021). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 13.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2021/2021/13
What am I gonna do with this huge map?: Critical thinking, primary documents, and old maps
Session Two Breakouts
As any archivist or librarian can tell you, there always seems to be an old map in the Archives or Government Document and it can feel cumbersome as to how you might use it in instruction. This tends to cause the maps to be kept in a long-forgotten box or section of a Special Collections Reading Room where it gathers dust and isn’t utilized in an accessible way to encourage collaboration during instruction. It also causes a vacuum in terms of ideas that students might have about how old maps might work for their research and in which ways they might provide insights into their own research for class papers and projects. However, there are definite ways to engage students with these maps in helping them develop critical thinking skills in a fun and collaborative way that takes a clunky map and turns it into a helpful and intriguing tool. During this presentation, one archivist will show you how to take that map that’s collecting dust and provide you with the questions that work with equipping students with critical thinking skills and primary document reflection that comes from working with these maps.
