Jane: "Wait a sec, what was so interesting about maps, anyway?"
Me: "Well...what if we had the students walk around our town and find out the answers to stuff that we still don't know about? They could make their own maps - heck, we could even make an atlas out of the deal."
Little did I know that yes, I've got to me more careful with my suggestions. We both taught the same map-based curriculum with our Oral English classes last fall, but it was Jane and her students who fundraised, revised, scaned, and edited the material into a thousand full-color copies of the Hongguang Guidebook, a 37-page English-language atlas of our area. Scans of the actual book are forthcoming (hmmm, maybe we should wait until after the book release party?), but in the meantime, here are a couple of student maps that I uploaded a while back to give you some idea of the project.
The New District of Xihua University...
Every kind of flower on campus!
Our local convenience store/supermarket
And one of my favorites...
Lover's Dating Places!
As the map's authors state,
"The aim of the map is that, on the one hand, it helps lovers to find the perfect dating places. Oh the other hand, it helps passengers [passers-by, ed.] and the lovers to avoid feeling embarrassed."
Fantastic maps - what a great project! I feel less embarrassed already!
ReplyDelete