Two Teams Compare Earth's Features

Maps Beside the Lacrosse Field

At a school lacrosse tournament, teams set up a geography display beside the field. The Cedar team and the Flint team compare maps of their home regions. For this activity, both regions and their records are invented. They are practice maps of features found on Earth, not maps of the playing field.

The teams use the same map key. Labels beginning with M mark mountain sites. Labels beginning with V mark volcano sites. Labels beginning with E mark recorded earthquake locations. The number in each label identifies that site on its map. An earthquake location is a place where the ground shook during an event. Labels show locations, not sizes or heights.

North is toward the top of each map. South is toward the bottom. West is left, and east is right. The numbers along the map edges help readers name locations. Read the bottom number first and the side number second. For example, location (2, 8) is above location (2, 3). Locations left of the vertical line at 5 are in the western half. Locations right of that line are in the eastern half.

Both maps cover equal-sized regions and use the same spacing. Each grid square represents 100 kilometers along a side. The maps show selected mountain and volcano sites, along with the teams' earthquake records for one month. At the display, visitors compare where the labels appear. They look for groups, lines, gaps, and places that do not fit a larger pattern. When making a claim, visitors point to locations or count marks as evidence.