Maps, Globes and Directions

You can help someone find a place with words. Location means where something is. A useful clue says where to look and names something nearby.

Start with something you can find

A landmark is something easy to notice, like a bright door. Compare your lost thing with that landmark. “My glove is near the gate” gives your friend a place to begin. “My glove is near” leaves your friend guessing.

Use next to or beside when things are side by side. Use between when something is in the middle of two things. A flowerpot between two chairs has a chair on each side. A toy under one chair is not between the chairs.

Near and far tell about distance from a named place. Your lunchbox can be near your desk and far from the sink. Both clues can be true. You are comparing the lunchbox with two different things.

Think about which way you face

Left and right depend on the way you face. Stand looking at a window. Notice what is on your left. Turn around, keeping your feet in the same spot. That thing is now on your right.

To check your hands, hold them in front of you, palms away. Stick out your thumbs. Your left thumb and pointer finger make an L that faces the usual way.

A friend facing you has a different left and right. Imagine standing beside your friend, facing the same way. Then give a direction from your friend's side.

In front of and behind also need a clear front. The front of a house is its main-door side. A bike behind the house is on the other side.

Put two clues together

Imagine a room with a door, a low shelf and a table. The shelf stands next to the door. A red box sits on the shelf. A puzzle is inside the box.

To help your brother find the puzzle, say, “Look inside the red box on the shelf next to the door.” First he finds the door. Then he finds the shelf and box. Each clue brings him closer.

Try a clue for something in your room. Choose a landmark, then add a position word. “The slipper is under the bed, beside the blue bag” is much easier to follow than “It is over there.”

A toy farm is a model of a real farm. A model is a small copy of a thing or place. You can use one to see how a place fits together.

Build a little place

Imagine making a model bedroom in a shoebox. A small box stands for the bed. A block stands for a shelf. Put them where the real bed and shelf belong. If the bed is beside the window, keep it there in your model.

A useful model keeps the places of things. It also keeps big things bigger than small things. The bed should take up more room than a bedside table.

You can look at a model from different sides. Looking from the doorway shows the fronts of some things. Looking straight down shows their tops.

Change your view

A side view is what you see when you stand beside something. A table has a top and legs. A bird's-eye view looks straight down from above. A square tabletop looks like a square. The tabletop hides its legs.

Think of a round stool. From the side, you see the seat and legs. From straight above, you mainly see the round seat. A long shelf looks like a thin rectangle. Outside, you see roofs and treetops.

Some things disappear from this view. A shoe under the bed is hidden by the bed. A photo taken from above cannot show through the bed either.

Turn the model into a drawing

Look straight down at your model bedroom. Trace the room's outside edge. Draw the bed's top shape where the bed belongs. Add the shelf as a thin rectangle and the rug as its flat shape. Leave a gap where the door opens.

You have drawn the room as it looks from above. This is the view you need for a room plan.

A common mix-up is adding side-view legs to the table. Pause and picture looking down from the ceiling. Draw the top shape you would see. Keep things next to the same neighbors as in the real room. If you move the shelf across the drawing just to fill space, the drawing will send someone to the wrong place.

A plan shows a small place from straight above. It might show your bedroom or a whole school. It helps you work out where things are before you move.

Match shapes with real things

On a plan, lines show walls. A door is often a gap in a wall. A curved line may show how the door swings open. Flat shapes show furniture: a circle for a round table, for example.

The title tells you which place the plan shows. Start there. Then look for something you recognize, such as a doorway. Use that place to help you match the other shapes.

A plan of a school can show rooms and hallways. Labels help you find the office, gym and restrooms. A building's escape plan may have a “You are here” mark. That mark shows your starting place, and arrows show a way out.

Read a plan one clue at a time

Imagine a plan called “Art Room.” Its door is in the bottom wall. A sink is beside the door on the right. A long worktable is in the middle. Shelves run along the left wall.

Stand at the door, facing into the room. Find the door on the plan. Look from the drawn door toward the middle table. The shelves are to the left of this view. In the real room, look left to find them. The sink is close to the door, on your right.

To describe the sink, say, “It is next to the door.” To describe the table, say, “It is between the door and the far wall.” The plan lets you use position words even before you visit.

Turn the plan to match

Turning a plan to match the real place is called orienting it. Turn the paper until the wall with the drawn door lines up with the wall with the real door. Check another feature, such as the windows. Both should match.

If you stand elsewhere, keep thinking about which way you face. The left side of the paper is not always your left as you walk.

Plans usually show things that stay in place. Your room plan can show the desk and bed. It may leave out a backpack that moves each day. An empty spot on the plan does not mean nothing can ever be there.

A map is a flat drawing of a place. It can show a park, town, country or the whole world. Small signs help you read it without a crowded page.

Read the title and key

The title tells you the place or topic. “Cedar Park Paths” tells you to expect paths in Cedar Park. A map of the whole town would show a much bigger area.

A symbol stands for something on the map. It can be a little picture, a shape, a letter, a line or a color. A tree picture looks like a tree. A dot for a town does not look like the town at all. Both can work as symbols.

The key, also called the legend, explains the symbols. Find the matching symbol in the key and read its meaning. Check the key on each new map. A star could mean a visitor center on one map and a capital city on another.

Use lines and colors

Long things are often shown with lines. A road can be a solid line. A walking path can be a dashed line. Rivers are often wiggly blue lines. Railroad tracks may have little marks across a line.

Colors can cover whole areas. Blue often shows water. Green often shows parks or forests. The key tells you what each color means on this map.

Find the picnic area

A map called “Cedar Park” has this key:

• Blue shape: lake.
• Brown dashed line: walking path.
• Triangle: picnic area.
• P: parking.

You want a picnic spot. First find its triangle in the key. Next search the map for triangles. One sits beside the lake. A brown dashed path leads from the P to that triangle. You can follow the walking path from parking to the picnic area.

Now work the other way. You notice a P on the map. Find P in the key to learn what is there.

Symbols show what and where

A tent symbol can mark a large campground. A nearby tree symbol can be the same size. Those symbols do not tell you that a campground and tree are equally big. They help you find the right kind of place.

When you make symbols, choose clear shapes that look different from one another. Explain every symbol in your key. A compass rose or north arrow adds the directions.

You can learn about a place from a photo taken above it. You see roofs, treetops, roads and fields. Their shapes help you work out what is there.

Where the picture comes from

An aerial photograph is taken from above the ground. A camera can ride in a plane, helicopter, drone or balloon. A satellite image comes from a satellite in space.

Some photos look straight down. Others look down at a slant, so you see building sides too. A straight-down photo is especially easy to match with a map. Both give a view from above.

Gather several clues

Start with something big and easy to recognize. A river bend or large field is a good starting point. Then find a known landmark. Look at the smaller features around it.

Use several clues together:

• Shape: a long strip might be a road.
• Color: a field might be green.
• Size: a field is much bigger than a nearby house.
• Neighbors: rows of cars beside a building suggest parking.
• Shadows: trees and buildings can cast shadows beside their tops.

Color alone can mislead you. A green patch could be grass or treetops. Water can look blue, green, brown or bright where sunlight shines. Use the shape and nearby things too.

Match a photo with a map

Imagine a photo with a winding stream beside a wide gray roof. Beyond the roof is a large green oval with white sports lines. A road curves around the other side of the building.

First find the winding stream. Next use its neighbor, the roof, to find the building. The marked green oval is a sports field. On a map, the stream might be a blue line. The roof becomes a building shape labeled “School.” The road becomes a named line.

A map maker chooses the features and adds names and symbols. A photo records what the camera could see at that moment. Roofs hide things underneath. Tiny details may be too small to see.

Check when a photo was taken. If a playground opened last month, it may be missing from a photo taken three years ago. The photo has not changed just because the place has.

“Turn left” helps only when you know which way someone faces. Compass directions stay the same when you turn. The four main directions are north, east, south and west.

Read the direction symbol

A compass rose shows directions on a map. Its letters are N for north, E for east, S for south and W for west. These are the four cardinal directions. Some maps use just an arrow marked N. That is a north arrow.

North and south point opposite ways. East and west do too. Around a compass rose, clockwise, the order is N, E, S, W. The saying “Never Eat Soggy Waffles” follows that order.

North is usually at the top of a map. When it is, east is right, south is down and west is left. W and E spell “WE” as you read across. Check the compass rose before using this tip. A map can be turned.

Start at the right place

Imagine a map with north at the top. A fountain is in the center. A cafe is directly above it. A garden is directly to its left. A gate is directly below it.

Where is the cafe from the fountain?

1. Put your finger on the fountain, your starting place.
2. Look toward the cafe, directly above it.
3. Check the rose: that way is north.

Say, “The cafe is north of the fountain.” The garden is west of the fountain. The gate is south of it.

Reverse the journey

Now ask where the fountain is from the cafe. Start at the cafe this time. Look down toward the fountain. It is south of the cafe. Changing your starting place reverses the direction.

You can check by tracing both journeys with your finger. The way there and the way back point opposite ways.

Use north on the ground

North points along Earth's surface toward the North Pole. It does not mean walking into the sky or climbing a hill. A flat path can lead north.

Stand facing north, then turn to face south. North stays where it was. It is now behind you. Your left and right have changed, but the compass directions have not.

A place is sometimes between two main compass directions. Four more names help you describe those ways. They make an eight-point compass rose.

Join the names

Northeast (NE) is halfway between north and east. Southeast (SE) is halfway between south and east. Southwest (SW) is halfway between south and west. Northwest (NW) is halfway between north and west.

Start each name with north or south. End with east or west. The letters follow the same order: NE, not EN. The last letter helps you choose the correct side. NE and SE are on the east side. NW and SW are on the west side.

With north at the top of a map, the four directions point toward the corners. NE is top right. SE is bottom right. SW is bottom left. NW is top left.

Find a cabin

Imagine a camp map with north at the top. The campfire is in the middle. A cabin is just as far above the fire as it is to the right.

Start at the fire. Moving toward the cabin takes you halfway between north and east. Say, “The cabin is northeast of the campfire.”

Now begin at the cabin and look back at the fire. It is down and left, so it is southwest of the cabin. Northeast and southwest are opposites. Northwest and southeast are opposites too.

Walk around the rose

Read clockwise from north: N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW. Each in-between point sits between the two letters in its name. You can build the rose by placing N, E, S and W first. Fill the four gaps afterward.

A common mix-up is choosing southeast when you mean southwest. Check the final letter. Is the place on the east side or the west side?

Use a more helpful clue

A hut lies just as far north as west of a gate. “Northwest of the gate” is a more exact clue than “north of the gate.” But something far north and only a tiny bit west is closer to north. Look at both parts of the direction before choosing the nearest compass point.

A compass helps you find directions outside. The sun and shadows give rough clues too. You can use these to line up a map with the place around you.

Hold the compass flat

Inside a compass, a tiny magnetic needle can swing. Its north end is often red or marked N. The other end points south.

1. Hold the compass flat and still.
2. Wait for the needle to stop moving.
3. Turn the compass so N lines up with the north end.
4. Read the letters to find the other directions.

Keep it away from magnets, phones, cars and big metal fences. These can pull the needle away from its usual direction.

Line up your map

Hold the map flat beside the compass. Turn the map until its north arrow points the same way as the needle's north end. This is orienting the map. Now compare the drawn paths with the real paths around you.

For a close match, keep the compass steady while you turn the paper.

Read clues from shadows

The sun rises in the eastern part of the sky. Soon after sunrise, shadows point roughly west. Shortly before sunset, the sun is in the western part. Shadows then point roughly east. Shadows stretch away from the sun.

Never look straight at the sun, because it can hurt your eyes. Use shadows instead.

Imagine a flagpole soon after sunrise. Its shadow stretches toward a shed. The shed is roughly west of the flagpole. To check, use your compass. Later in the morning, the sun has moved. The sunrise clue no longer tells you the same direction.

Midday depends on your part of Earth

Around the middle of the day in places far north of the equator, shadows point roughly north. Most of the United States, Canada and Europe are examples. The sun is in the southern part of the sky there.

Far south of the equator, in New Zealand and southern Australia, midday shadows point roughly south. The sun is in the northern part of the sky there.

Sunrise also shifts north or south of east during the year. Sun clues give rough directions. A compass gives a closer check.

A route is the way from a start to an end. On a map, a colored line or arrows can show it. Trace the line slowly to find each turn.

Follow the route in order

First find the start and finish. Put your finger on the start. Follow the route line without jumping across corners. At each turn, notice the street name or landmark. Stop when your finger reaches the finish.

Imagine a map with north at the top. Your route starts at a pool. It runs east along Birch Street to a clock tower. Then it turns south and ends at a museum.

Trace east from the pool to the clock tower. You are facing east as you arrive. Turning south is a right turn. Follow the line down to the museum.

Use the walker's left and right

Now follow the same route backward. Start at the museum and go north to the clock tower. To head west toward the pool, turn left. The return journey has different turns.

When a walker faces south, the walker's left points east. On a map with north at the top, that looks like the paper's right. A common mistake is to use the paper's left at every turn.

Imagine yourself standing on the route, facing along it. You can turn the paper so the next part points away from you. Keep checking the compass rose when you use compass words.

Check crossings and distance

At a crossing, several lines meet. Look for the correct street name or landmark before going on. A path crossing your route does not mean you should turn onto it.

You can describe distance with steps, blocks or minutes. “Walk 30 steps to the gate” gives a stopping point. A block is a stretch of street between crossings. Four blocks are shorter than six when the blocks are about the same length. Different-sized blocks need another check, such as steps or walking time.

Follow a map on a screen

A map app can draw a colored route and show your place with a dot. It can also give one turn at a time. The screen may turn as you walk. Look for its north arrow or N before you decide which compass direction a line follows.

You can plan a route and help someone follow it. Clear directions give each step in order. A good route also fits the person who will use it.

Say where to begin and stop

Begin with a clear starting place. Then name the direction, distance or landmark for each part. Tell the person what to look for at the end.

“Go that way” is hard to follow later. “Start at the cafeteria door. Go straight to the office” names a start and a stopping place. Add the next turn from the walker's point of view.

Imagine guiding someone from the cafeteria to the music room:

1. “Start outside the cafeteria, facing the office.”
2. “Go straight past the office to the stairs.”
3. “Turn right at the stairs.”
4. “The music room is the first door on your left.”

Trace those steps on a school plan. The office is a check along the way. The stairs tell your friend where to turn. The final door clue tells your friend when to stop.

Compare more than one route

The shortest route is not always the best choice. Look for sidewalks, crosswalks and traffic lights. Think about who is walking. A route with stairs will not work for someone using a wheelchair.

Two routes lead to a garden. One takes 4 minutes but uses stairs. The other takes 6 minutes along a ramp and a level path. For a visitor using a wheelchair, choose the second route. It takes longer, but the visitor can use it.

For another journey, a short path crosses a busy road without a crosswalk. A longer path reaches a traffic light. Choose the safer crossing when planning the walk.

Test what you wrote

Follow every step with your finger on the map. Ask a friend to try the directions. Notice where they stop or choose a wrong turn. Add the missing turn, distance or landmark there.

For a route map, draw the start, end and connecting paths. Add landmark symbols. Show the route with a colored line and arrows. Explain that line in the key. Add a title and a north arrow so your friend can read the map.

Earth is shaped like a ball. A globe is a small, round model of Earth. You can turn it to explore places all around our world.

Look for land and water

Oceans, seas and lakes are usually shown in blue on a globe. Other colors show land. Look all around, turning the globe slowly. There is much more water than land.

About 71 out of every 100 parts of Earth's surface are covered by water. That is more than two thirds. The colors help you see this even before you count anything.

You can see only about half a globe at once. A place may be hidden on the back. Turn the globe to bring that place into view. Use its name and shape to find it.

Find the two poles

The North Pole is Earth's farthest-north point. The South Pole is its farthest-south point. The North Pole is usually at the top of a classroom globe. The South Pole is at the other end.

North leads toward the North Pole. South leads toward the South Pole. These are directions along Earth's surface. A globe helps you picture where those directions lead.

Find the line around the middle

The equator goes around Earth's middle, halfway between the poles. It is an imaginary line. You can see it drawn on a globe, but there is no painted line all around the real Earth.

The equator divides Earth into two hemispheres, or halves. The Northern Hemisphere is north of the equator. The Southern Hemisphere is south of it.

Try this with named places. Find the United States and then the equator. The United States is north of that line, in the Northern Hemisphere. Find Australia and New Zealand. Both lie south of the line, in the Southern Hemisphere.

Think about people on every side

A globe's stand often puts north at the top. That is how the model is held. People in Australia still stand with their feet on the ground and the sky above them. They are not standing on their heads.

Find your own town's part of the world. Look at its place compared with the equator. Is it north of the line, south of it, or on the line itself?

A globe and a map both help you find places. They show Earth in different ways. Choose the one that helps with your job.

What a globe does well

A globe is round like Earth. Land and water keep their shapes and their sizes compared with one another. You can turn it to see how places fit together around a ball.

That makes a globe useful for comparing whole continents. But a classroom globe is too small to show your street clearly. You also see only about half at one time. The rest faces away from you.

What a map does well

A map is flat. You can fold one into a bag or read one on a screen. A map of a small area can show paths, doors and other useful details. A world map puts the whole world on one page.

Suppose you need the path from a zoo entrance to the penguins. A zoo map can show the paths and animal areas. A globe cannot show those small details. If you want to compare the sizes of large land areas, a globe gives the better view.

Why world maps change shapes or sizes

A round surface cannot become one flat sheet without changes. Picture an orange peel. Pressing the whole peel flat makes it tear or stretch. Making a flat world map has a similar problem.

Every flat map of the whole world changes some shapes or sizes. On many world maps, Greenland looks about as big as Africa. On a globe, Africa is clearly much larger. In real life, Africa is about 14 times as big as Greenland.

A world map is still useful. It lets you see places around Earth at the same time. Just remember that a flat picture can change how big or how stretched some places look.

Earth does not stop at the page edge

Find the left and right edges of a usual world map. The paper ends there, but Earth keeps going. On a globe, you can follow a path around the whole ball. There is no edge to fall off.

You can make a map that helps someone use a place. First you need to find out what is there and where it is. Fieldwork means visiting a place and recording what you find.

Give your map a job

Choose a familiar place and a reason for your map. You might make a map to help visitors find places to sit in your schoolyard. That reason tells you which features matter most.

Bring paper, a pencil and a clipboard. Go with your class or a grown-up, stay with your group and watch for traffic.

A feature is something in the place. Natural features include trees, streams and hills. Built features include paths, fences and benches. Both kinds can help a map reader.

Record what and where

Use a list, quick sketch, photo or tally marks. Put a mark beside “bench” each time you count a bench. Counts help you remember how many symbols to draw.

Counts alone leave something out. “Four benches” does not tell you where they belong. Add notes about their places: “Two benches beside the gate; two benches by the field.”

Find north with a compass or ask your teacher. You can then add clues such as “The field is north of the gate.” Sketch the main shapes from above so your notes fit together.

Build a record you can use

Imagine mapping a small courtyard for visitors. You count 4 benches and 2 trees. Your sketch shows the gate in the south fence. Two benches stand beside the gate, one on each side. The other two stand under the trees along the north fence.

The tally gives your total. The sketch and position notes show where to draw each bench. If you had written only “4 benches,” you could accidentally put them all beside the gate.

Check the picture in your head

A mental map is the picture of a familiar place in your mind. It helps you remember your home or journey to school. It can also miss things or put them in the wrong place.

Compare your remembered picture with the real place. Stop at a known landmark and check what stands beside it. Add a feature you forgot. Keep the details useful for your map's job; you do not need to record every leaf and pebble.

Your notes are ready. Now turn them into a clear map. Draw the place from above so another person can see how its parts fit together.

Make space for the big things

Start with the edges of your place: walls, a fence or a yard outline. Lightly mark where the biggest features will go. Check that there is room for everything you need.

Draw the big shapes first. A field should look bigger than a sandbox. Keep real neighbors beside each other. Draw top views, such as a roof shape for a building.

Add smaller features with simple symbols. Use the same symbol each time you show the same kind of thing. Make different kinds of symbols easy to tell apart.

Add the reading tools

Make a key that shows every symbol and its meaning. Include line symbols, such as the line for a path. Add helpful labels, or names, beside features.

Give the map a clear title. “Our Courtyard” says more than “My Drawing.” Add a compass rose or north arrow pointing the way north really is. Check north from your notes. Putting N at the top only works when north is that way in your drawing.

Make a courtyard map

Imagine your notes show a classroom along the north side of a courtyard. A garden bed sits beside the west fence. A gate is in the south fence. A path joins the gate to the classroom door.

1. Draw the courtyard edge as a rectangle.
2. Add a large classroom rectangle along its north side.
3. Add the garden bed beside the west edge and mark the south gate.
4. Join the gate and door with a path line.
5. Put the building, garden, gate and path marks in the key.
6. Add the title “Our Courtyard” and a north arrow.

If you show a route, draw arrows along its colored line. Explain the route line in the key too.

Give the map a real test

Compare the map with the place or an aerial photo. Then ask a friend to use your map to find the garden. If the friend goes to the wrong fence, check the garden's position and north arrow. If the friend cannot identify a symbol, check the key. Fix the part that caused the problem.