CREATING A COMMUNITY BASE MAP

This unit describes how to enlarge existing maps or create large maps from scratch. If the community has no generally available map, there will be one in the hands of a government agency (e.g. water, sanitation, housing, or city planning). These maps can be updated and have more detail added by working with children and their parents. The process of enlarging a map is a relatively easy task for children over nine years of age and one which they greatly enjoy doing.

A community base map is a fundamental tool for most community research. With it children can map valuable data about their community that no one is likely to have mapped before. Ideally, maps should be large enough to enable the children to identify their own homes. In many instances the available maps of your community will be at too small a scale. Children will be unable to draw in details that they know from their daily activities. If your students have not mapped before you might want to try some of the exercises described later in this Unit. Children of all ages can make maps - although the media for mapping should be different with the younger children (see Figure 11, below).

One of the major values of drawing large maps is that they can be hung in a prominent place for members of a larger community to see, comment on, and even add to, if possible. Some of the new Schools of Colombia reveal their community emphasis by having community maps at a grand scale on the outside walls of their buildings as well as on the insides.

For children who have not previously built any map, you may want to first allow them to build a model of the places they know well. They can use wooden blocks or cardboard cutout houses and moss to serve as trees and string or wool to represent roads and rivers, etc. This can be none in the dirt or sand but it should ideally be done on paper so that the students can then trace around their models with a pencil. The models can then be removed by the child, leaving behind their first map! They can then create symbols for each of the places they have traced on their map. You can suggest that they go over the pencil lines with colored pens. Do not forget to have them make a legend or a key on the side of the map to say what all of these places are. The method can be particularly liberating for less literate children.

1. If material or heavy paper is available this should be laid on the ground. It should be as large as possible (the size of the highest wall that can be used to display it).
2. The children should all assemble around the material.
3. Decide on a feature that all of the children know very well such as the school.
4. Position the school on the map so that the children will be able to fit all of their homes relative to its location. For example, if the school is located near their homes, place it in the center of the map. If the school is located far away from their homes and other aspects of places they visit in their community, position it off to the side of the box.
5. Choose a feature that everyone agrees will be on the outskirts of his or her map and place that on the map. This will be the way of establishing the scale for the map.
6. As a group, position the major streets, fields or physical features such as mountains and rivers using the materials available in your community. These can be stones, wooden blocks, string, sticks, etc. However, it is ideal if you also cut out pieces of cardboard that can be drawn on. This enables the children to make pictorial symbols that everyone can remember rather than relying only on abstract symbols like stones to stand for features.
7. Make sure that all of the children agree on the accuracy of the placement of their features. You might want them to be free to carefully walk on the map to check this out.
8. Consider inviting adults from the community into a meeting with the children to make suggestions for additions to the map.
9. When there is agreement about the placement of features, the children can draw them in with ink, paint or felt pen.

1. Have children draw a grid system over the existing map.
2. Designate a place where the enlarged map will be copied onto - either on a large piece of paper, a blank wall or somewhere on a protected or covered ground/sand area. Have children draw a large grid system over this area.
3. Number each square (for example from left to right) on both the existing map and the larger, blank grid system.
4. Have each child select a square of the map that they will copy onto the larger map.
5. You may wish to choose certain grid sections to copy onto paper so individuals or small groups working in the field can duplicate them for use.

Figure 12: The process of enlarging a base map. (a) Drawing grid lines over a small base map. (b) Enlarging the map by re-drawing each of the grid squares at a larger scale. (c) Drawing the map as a mural on the side of a school building.

• Children's homes
• Homes of people who are important to their daily lives
• Schools/community groups/religious sights
• Places children play/work
• Places children avoid, places of danger
• Places children like/dislike
• Places where children go alone/with their parents/with friends/with other adults/with other relatives
• Transportation routes by foot/bicycle/subway/train/automobile/moped/animals, etc.
• Industrial areas/agricultural areas/residential areas.

Environmental walks through the community can be made to help fill in the map with greater accuracy. To keep this process interesting it is a good idea for children to begin making their own copies of maps from this master map to show features that most interest them. There should be debate as to whether these should be permanently drawn on the map or simply pinned on.

Government agencies usually have aerial photographs. If you can obtain one of these they are extremely valuable resources. They carry much detail and children greatly enjoy the task of interpreting and transferring information about their community to their maps. Even children newly entering school can read aerial photographs. They thoroughly enjoy inventing and designing map symbols by choosing colors, coloring-in the air photos and making legends.

Worldwide list of map libraries:

http://www-map.lib.umn.edu/map_libraries.html

The Green Map System:

Describes how to make useful environmental maps for the community showing examples of good environmental practices - http://www.greenmap.org

Online Map Collection at the University of Texas-Austin Map Library:

Cities and Country Maps from around the world and links to other map sites - http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/map_sites/cities_sites.html