1. Mental Mapping!

2. What is a mental map? Turn and talk- come up with a definition of what you think it is.

3. What is a mental map?
Definition: A map of an environment within your mind. 2 ways: Indirect and direct

4. Direct Mental Mapping
Direct mental mapping is purposely memorized by looking at maps of places we are unfamiliar with. ( For example, you might know the shape of Japan and what it is next to even though you haven’t been there. You know this because you have looked at a map and remember it)

5. inDirect Mental Mapping
Indirect mental mapping is done without knowing you are doing it. It is mapping of places you have been in your life.

6. Have you ever mapped in your mind?
Activity: Mapping someone’s room

7. What is a mental map?
A map of an environment within the mind of a person that reflects the knowledge and experiences of that individual. Sometimes mental maps are inaccurate due to the person’s perceptions or inexperience.

8. http://www.youtube.com/results? search_query=muncie+mental+ map
Video Clip
search_query=muncie+mental+ map

9. Animals Map things too!
Did you know?! Elephants make mental maps to track their family members. Psychologists study mental mapping in mice!

10. Assignment
Draw your mental map of Tulsa. Do your best and do NOT look at any maps for help.
On the back of your map I want you to answer the following questions.
Do you think your parents would have a different mental map of Tulsa? Why or why not?
How would your mental map change as you got older? Why?
Is there a place that you think you could mentally map very well? Why?

11. Mental maps provide people with essential means of making sense of the world and of storing and recalling information about the patterns of Earth’s physical and human features. These maps represent ever-changing summaries of spatial knowledge and are indicators of how well people know the spatial characteristics of places. We develop and refine our mental maps through learning from teachers and the media and through personal experience, moving from simple to more complex levels of completeness and accuracy, continuing to add layers of information so that our mental maps reflect a growing understand­ing of a changing world. As people read, hear, observe, and think more about the world around them, they add more detail and structure to their mental maps and accumulate layers of information that can be used in problem solving and decision making. Students must understand the role that perception plays in the creation and development of their understandings of the world. Students must build their mental maps to develop detailed understandings of peoples, places, and en­vironments. By understanding these themes, students can build and apply the mental maps that are the foundations for learning geography and other subjects.

12. Making a mental map is a very important skill
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. 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? 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. 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. This illustrates the need to really pay attention to your surroundings, another skill needed in the study and practice of geography.