MapMaker, developed by ESRI and National Geographic, continues to evolve! Join us to see the most recent updates. Explore how your students can gain an understanding of the world’s most crucial issues, challenges, and historical context of place.
Keeping up with MapMaker, Deepen Science and Social Studies explorations!
MapMaker, developed by ESRI and National Geographic, continues to evolve! Join us to see the latest updates. Explore how your students can gain an understanding of the world’s most crucial issues, challenges, and historical context of place.
What’s New with MapMaker? Enrich Classroom Science and Social Studies Explorations
National Geographic MapMaker, developed by Esri and National Geographic, is a mapping application that uses the latest in GIS software to connect social studies and science classrooms with essential technology for exploration. Created specifically for students and educators, MapMaker is easy to use, free to access, is browser-based, and usable on most laptops and tablets. Learn about MapMaker and how your students can gain a better understanding of how the world’s most crucial issues, challenges, and opportunities fit into the context of place.
Explore the Power of MapMaker to Fuel Your Science and Social Studies Classrooms!
National Geographic MapMaker, developed by Esri and National Geographic, is a mapping application that uses the latest in GIS software to connect social studies and science classrooms with essential technology for exploration. Created specifically for students and educators, MapMaker is easy to use, free to access, is browser-based, and usable on most laptops and tablets. Learn about MapMaker and how your students can gain a better understanding of how the world’s most crucial issues, challenges, and opportunities fit into the context of place.
Make Project-Based Learning an Integral Part of Your Teaching Strategies!
Make Project-Based Learning an Integral Part of Your Teaching Strategies!
Want to learn how to implement Project-Based Learning (PBL) in your classroom? Jim Bentley, National Geographic Explorer, and Educator will present the concepts and implementation strategies for Project-Based Learning in your social studies and science classrooms. This informal session will include a presentation, a discussion, and an opportunity to hear from you!
Jim Bentley
Educator, Filmmaker, Geographer, and National Geographic Explorer
Want to learn how to implement Project-Based Learning (PBL) in your classroom? Jim Bentley, National Geographic Explorer, and Educator will present the concepts and implementation strategies for Project-Based Learning in your social studies and science classrooms. This informal session will include a presentation, a discussion, and an opportunity to hear from you!
You’ll leave the session with answers to the following questions:
- What are the essential elements to include in PBL?
- How can we find authentic ways to connect PBL in the classroom with the world outside the classroom walls?
- How can standards and content be integrated with a PBL experience?
- What's an example of a PBL experience that was authentic, connected with community, and taught content while developing the attitudes, skills, and knowledge of a modern-day explorer?
Incorporating National Geographic Society Resources into Your Lessons
Incorporating National Geographic Society Resources into Your Lessons
Learn about the National Geographic Society’s abundant educational tools for the pre-K–12 classroom—all available to you free when you’re looking for something special to complement your lessons and teaching strategies. We’ll share how to find thousands of ideas available, ranging from class activities, maps, lessons, articles, photographs, and videos. Content areas include Social Studies, Earth Science, Biology, Geography, Anthropology, and many more.
Tyson Brown
Editorial Director,
National Geographic Society
Learn about the National Geographic Society’s abundant educational tools for the pre-K–12 classroom—all available to you free when you’re looking for something special to complement your lessons and teaching strategies. We’ll share how to find thousands of ideas available, ranging from class activities, maps, lessons, articles, photographs, and videos. Content areas include Social Studies, Earth Science, Biology, Geography, Anthropology, and many more.
Tyson Brown, Editorial Director at the National Geographic Society, will take you on a tour through National Geographic Society’s Resource Library for discoveries you’ll begin using tomorrow.
In this webinar replay, you will:
- Incorporate photographs, video, and activities into any lesson by simply going to the National Geographic Education Resource Library;
- Engage students to begin creating their own resource library from their backyard;
- Create excitement by flipping your classroom lesson to a student-centered inquiry project based on authentic discoveries from the library of resources.
Teaching History and Science Using What? Incorporating Artifacts into Your Lessons
Teaching History and Science Using What? Incorporating Artifacts into Your Lessons
Bring the world into your classroom! Join Bill, Mark, and Andrea in this lively session where they’ll explore how to use actual artifacts to teach science and history. The artifacts may be represented in the textbook and digital program you are using or you may have an artifact at home from your travels. Material culture adds a dimension to learning that cannot be replaced by the written word. Let us demonstrate how to teach a lesson with artifacts from afar or from your own community — or your own home.
Dr. William Parkinson
Curator of Anthropology
Field Museum, Chicago, IL
National Geographic Society Grantee
Andrea Kingman
Exec. Product Marketing Manager
National Geographic Learning | Cengage
Mark Hoffman
Senior Product Marketing Manager
National Geographic Learning | Cengage
Bring the world into your classroom! Join Bill, Mark and Andrea in this lively session where they’ll explore how to use actual artifacts to teach science and history. The artifacts may be represented in the textbook and digital program you are using or you may have an artifact at home from your travels. Material culture adds a dimension to learning that cannot be replaced by the written word. Let us demonstrate how to teach a lesson with artifacts from afar or from your own community — or your own home.
In this webinar replay, you will leave with these fresh ideas:
- Create a lesson around historical or scientific objects, providing their background and what they show about the world around them from their era;
- Design a written inquiry project to encourage curiosity about things students may never have considered or observed;
- Help students discover science and history in their own community and in their own home by asking each student to bring in an artifact that represents their culture.
The New Social Studies Classroom: Making the Most of Distance Learning with Exciting Digital Resources
The New Social Studies Classroom: Making the Most of Distance Learning with Exciting Digital Resources
Learn how to engage your students from your laptop to theirs when you can’t be together in the classroom. Explore approaches to online resources in core social studies programs to engage your students while inspiring their curiosity and igniting their passions. Connect social studies to their lives whether it’s reading a Cast Study in Human Geography, or learning about why salt has been a global commodity for hundreds of years. We’ll be joined by teachers who’ll share their own experiences and we hope you’ll stop in for a worthwhile hour as well.
Ellen Lees
Senior Director, Product Marketing at
National Geographic Learning | Cengage
Megan Fileccia
Senior Product Marketing Manager at
National Geographic Learning | Cengage
Leading Educator Panelists
Brittany Brazzel
Social Studies Teacher, Department Chair
DeForest High School
Chris Eadie
AP® Lead Teacher, National Board Certified
Santa Fe High School
Learn how to engage your students from your laptop to theirs when you can’t be together in the classroom. Explore approaches to online resources in core social studies programs to engage your students while inspiring their curiosity and igniting their passions. Connect social studies to their lives whether it’s reading a Cast Study in Human Geography, or learning about why salt has been a global commodity for hundreds of years. We’ll be joined by teachers who’ll share their own experiences and we hope you’ll stop in for a worthwhile hour as well.
3 Key takeaways
In this webinar replay you will learn how to:
- Engage with the most current and effective tools to keep your social studies classroom relevant
- Teach through storytelling and through the research and travels of National Geographic Explorers
- Connect students to their own community through thought-provoking Student Inquiry projects
Field Learning and Gamification in the Age of Virtual Reality
Field Learning and Gamification in the Age of Virtual Reality
Join National Geographic Explorer and NASA Challenger Center Teaching Fellow T.H. Culhane as he describes his expeditions around the world to “bring sustainability home”. T.H. has met people from the poorest villages and urban slums to the richest enclaves and resorts, learning and sharing ways to “be the nexus” where healthy food, clean energy, pure water, and zero waste meet so we can thrive as one and have fun doing it! Culhane will explain how his journeys transformed his teaching practice into a three-ring “sustainability circus” of hands-on-field learning, documentary audio, and video production, as well as animated VR/AR/360 simulations where the curriculum is by and for students and teachers.
T.H. Culhane
National Geographic Explorer
and Professor at the Patel College of Global Sustainability
at University of Southern Floria, Tampa (USF)
Join National Geographic Explorer and NASA Challenger Center Teaching Fellow T.H. Culhane as he describes his expeditions around the world to “bring sustainability home”. T.H. has met people from the poorest villages and urban slums to the richest enclaves and resorts, learning and sharing ways to “be the nexus” where healthy food, clean energy, pure water, and zero waste meet so we can thrive as one and have fun doing it! Culhane will explain how his journeys transformed his teaching practice into a three-ring “sustainability circus” of hands-on-field learning, documentary audio, and video production, as well as animated VR/AR/360 simulations where the curriculum is by and for students and teachers.
In this webinar replay, you will learn:
- Create food/energy/water/zero waste technologies and applications in the field and in the classroom
- Teach appropriate technologies and concepts of global sustainability
- Share the concepts of sustainability with your students through teacher and student created Geographically Precise video games.
Teaching Human Geography and Sustainability Through Storytelling
Teaching Human Geography and Sustainability Through Storytelling
Join National Geographic Explorer Lillygol Sedaghat as she describes her expeditions around the world to study how approaches to sustainability have changed how people live. Lillygol will describe her experience in Taiwan, a country with an advanced approach to recycling. She will also explain how the use of plastic bags has changed the way people live in Bangkok, Thailand. And join Lilly to learn about the National Geographic “Sea to Source” expedition in the Ganges which aimed to significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic that reaches the ocean, including how the Marine Debris Tracker creates litter profiles.
Lillygol Sedaghat
National Geographic Explorer
Join National Geographic Explorer Lillygol Sedaghat as she describes her expeditions around the world to study how approaches to sustainability have changed how people live. Lillygol will describe her experience in Taiwan, a country with an advanced approach to recycling. She will also explain how the use of plastic bags has changed the way people live in Bangkok, Thailand. And join Lilly to learn about the National Geographic “Sea to Source” expedition in the Ganges which aimed to significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic that reaches the ocean, including how the Marine Debris Tracker creates litter profiles.
In this webinar replay, you will learn:
- Teach the concept of human geography through storytelling
- Collect data in the field using different human geography approaches including semi-structured interviews, immersive experiences, and app-driven technologies
- Share the concept of sustainability with your students through stories of plastic waste and the circular economy and receive exercises on how to encourage your students to think more about their waste footprint