Mental Maps
Making a mental map is a very important skill. You never know when you're going to need to visualize a place or a location in your head. First of all, what is a mental map? It's a drawing of something that you see only in your head.
When you can see these things in your head, you have taken the first step toward making a mental map. Now, you can draw a picture of your room in your head and see where different things are. Why do you need mental maps? You might not always have a map with you. If you want to tell your friend how to get to your house after school, you can visualize how to get there and tell him or her which streets to take to get from school to your house. Mental maps also tell us how much of our surrounding we remember just by thinking about them. For example, you probably know a lot about what's outside your home or who lives in your neighborhood. You probably know what color your neighbors' houses are (at least some of them), and you surely know how to get from school to home and back. You know a lot about where you live because you've been there many times.
This illustrates the need to really pay attention to your surroundings, another skill needed in the study and practice of geography. |
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For
example, what does your room at home look like? Can you see
it in your head? Can you describe it without drawing it?
Where is your bed? What else is in your room? Where are
those things in relation to the bed?
But
what about your state capital? How many times have you been
there? What about some other place that you've been to only
once? You might find that your mental map of that place has
fewer details than the one you can draw of your room, your
house, or your neighborhood.
Social Studies for Kids
copyright 2002–2024
David White
