Juneteenth and Other Expressions of Freedom

School’s out – or is likely to finish soon for the summer. There’s a certain sense of freedom.  But the concept of freedom has much deeper roots and meaning. For example, the celebration Juneteenth commemorates the ending of  slavery in the U.S. Freedom can also be in the mind. Feel free to explore the varieties of freedom.

CONNECT:

• Juneteenth is a contraction of June 19^th, and is NOT the date of the Emancipation Proclamation. Find out the reason for the date discrepancy, and the impact of Juneteenth at http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm
• What if you had to hide in order to get to freedom? You can experience the Underground Railroad at http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/multimedia/interactive/the-underground-railroad/?ar_a=1
• Another journey to freedom was the crossing of the Delaware during the American Revolutionary War. This ThinkQuest was developed by students for students: http://library.thinkquest.org/10966/
• The cost of freedom is not free. Enter the virtual Smithsonian exhibit “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War” to experience how war has shaped American freedom: http://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/

CREATE:

• You can participate in Juneteenth celebrations in almost every state. You can probably take photos at the event, and upload them to http://www.juneteenth.com/worldwide.htm to show your support. Indeed, you can even create – and share -- your own event or way to recognize this date and its meaning.
• What does freedom look like? Civil Rights dealt with ways to live fairly and justly in a free society. Part of that effort to address Civil Rights has been through art, as shown in this African American conference “Oh Freedom!” (http://africanamericanart.si.edu/conference)  Try your artistic hand at visually describing freedom.
• Songs of freedom can mobilize people. Hear some of the classic ones at http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/freedom.asp. Make up your own!
• How creative can you be? Open-ended tools and toys can give children more freedom to open their minds and create. Think about providing a creative corner, inspired by http://adventuresathomewithmum.blogspot.com/2013/02/our-art-centre-freedom-and-creativity.html

CARE:

• What freedoms do children have – or should have?  Humanium is a humanitarian relief organization for sustainable development and child sponsorship in India. Read Humanium’s list of children’s rights to freedom: http://www.humanium.org/en/fundamental-rights/freedom/. Do you agree with that list? Are  the rights of children in India the same as U.S. children’s rights?
• “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom,” and part of that vigilance is voting. Even if you’re too young to vote, you can build political power, starting with http://www.rockthevote.org/
• Assistive technology can help individuals gain more mobile freedom. Find out about freedom machines at http://www.pbs.org/pov/freedommachines/#.Ubzv2ZzAgXc
• One of the most important freedoms is intellectual freedom. Know your rights by reading what the American Library Association has to say: http://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/issuesadv/intellectualfreedom/kidsknowyourrights.pdf

CAREERS:

What kinds of careers help maintain freedom?

• Politicians enact laws that maintain freedom: http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2008/summer/art01.pdf
• People in the military are sometimes called peace keepers, and work to keep America free: http://www.todaysmilitary.com
• In terms of freedom of the mind, teachers want students to be free to learn: http://www.bls.gov/k12/help01.htm
• And librarians certainly support intellectual freedom: http://librarycareers.drupalgardens.com/

Maps: We Get Around

Interested in maps? You need them when you travel or try to navigate around. Maps are visual representations that show relationships among the mapped items, be they cities or ideas. Atlases are collections of maps. Consider that even websites have site maps. Explore the variety of maps, and how to make them. It’s a fun way to get around.

CONNECT:

• What are maps for? Find your way around maps at http://www.k-8visual.info/maps.html, http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/ttravis/social_studies_class.cfm?subpage=648434, and http://msnucleus.org/membership/html/jh/earth/mapstype/lesson1/mapstypes01a.html
• How do you take a 3D globe and make it into a 2D map? Think about taking an orange peel, and making it flat. How does it impact how you perceive that orange’s shape? Different world map projections can also impact your world view, literally and culturally (Africa is bigger or smaller depending on the map’s projection). Find out details at http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/TOC/. For another perspective, look at the world upside down:  http://flourish.org/upsidedownmap/.  Does it alter your view about each continent’s importance?
• How have geography regions changed over time? The U.S. Geological Survey has produced topographic (land mass) maps for more than 125. See how your region has changed by searching the agency’s historical map collection online at http://nationalmap.gov/historical/.
• Do you what “mappa mundi” means? Is any European map of the world. Take a look at at ancient maps at http://ancientworldmaps.blogspot.com/
• Find out how to read weather maps by using Discovery Education’s lesson plan, which contains several kinds of weather maps: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/weather-maps.cfm.
• How about mapping the sky? A brain? What kinds of legends or keys would you use? Here are some examples to explore: http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/brain.html, http://www.skymaponline.net/, http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/22/time-explains-genome-sequencing/, http://arctic.fws.gov/birdworldmig.htm.

CREATE:

• Personalize your journeys, be they your family’s history or a fantasy trip. It might be your family’s immigration journey. Go to Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/‎), and download it for free. Follow their directions about adding features to the map.
• Going on a family car trip – or wish to? Choose a destination across the country, and see how it’s tracked by car on http://maps.yahoo.com. Figure out reasonable stopping times and places. Then use the site to find lodging, dining spots, and local sites. You can use a spreadsheet to calculate the cost of the trip (don’t forget the cost of gas!). Each family member might make their own choices, and then compare the results, or it can be done as a family project.
• Try your hand at creating an imaginary map. http://www.fantasticmaps.com/ provides great tips and examples.
• You can map any area, even the moon – or an imaginary place! You can make a map from several types of image documents (jpg, png, gif) by using UMapper (http://www.umapper.com/). You can make a journey through the body, for instance, such as the blood’s journey from the heart, or food from the mouth on down.This application also allows you to create your own geography game.

CARE:

• Create a neighborhood or school map for visually impaired. It might be a raised map, or a podcast that can serve as an audio tour. You can start by printing out a digital map from http://maps.google.com or http://maps.yahoo.com, or you can create your own using digital or traditional drawing tools.
• Travel ecologically. Visualize different ways to get to a family destination by using http://maps.google.com. It enables you to map your path by car, public transportation, bicycle, and foot. See how far you can get by using only public transportation.
• Is there a park in the area? You can create a nature walk, and map it. Get ideas for projects at http://www.stormthecastle.com/nature-walk-ideas-and-projects.htm.
• Create maps from data using UN statistics (http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/map/) or Harvard University’s data sets (http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/map/). See if you can see issues arising as a result of visualizing the statistics.

CAREER:

Like maps? You can become a cartographer: a map maker. You are also likely to use a map for many jobs: city planning, pilots, shippers, engineers, GIS programmers, scientists, performers, even writers. Here are some career leads that involve mapping skills.

http://www.cccarto.com/gisjobs/gisjobs.html

http://careerkey.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-maps-and-related-promising-careers.html

http://www.distancelearningplan.com/cartographers-surveyors-and-other-map-related-professions.html

http://www.aag.org/careers

http://www.superscholar.org/careers/technology/mapping-engineer/