FROM TEXT TO MAP: AN ACTIVITY TO ASSESS, EVALUATE AND FOSTER SPATIAL REASONING

For the past fifty years the amount of geospatial data available to the general public has skyrocketed as geoscientists have investigated environmental, climatological, and meteorological problems. Evaluating, assessing, and interpreting this data requires an understanding of spatial (and temporal) relationships, yet spatial reasoning remains one of the least addressed skills in the K-12 curriculum. The advent of modern digital map-reading software has made map use ubiquitous, but has also made map reading opaque. More people use maps, but also trust various levels of AI to direct their map-use. To evaluate the spatial reasoning ability in my high school Earth Science and Environmental Science classes, I distribute an article with geographic and environmental information and require my classes to draw a map based upon what they have read. I provide minimal instruction to the classes. This is an early-class assessment intended to evaluate reading comprehension and ability to construct their own images from what they have read. The material can be altered based on the academic or developmental level of the class. A similar assignment may be made at the end of the course for comparison and growth assessments.