Encompass: New Elementary School Program

Summary

A new elementary school program called Encompass that includes new atlases, globes, 3D embossed relief desk maps, student actives, and place mat activity maps.

My Part

Cartographer

Skills Learned + Demonstrated

• Historical, reference, and thematic map design

• Visualize concepts for younger students

• Globe design and production

• Desk map design and production

• Legible small-scale mapping for activities

• Adherence to state and district-level curriculum

• Adherence to the creative process (learn, draft, create, revise)

The Proposal

The old Nystrom Elementary Program was getting a little dated and needed to be updated with new data, maps and design. The new program would cover grades 1 to 5. Grades 1-4 focused more on geographical concepts while grade 5 focused on US history.

What I Did

For each grade level, I developed the following:

1. The Atlas Section of the included student book that included:

   • Maps of the 7 continents (grades 1-3)

   • US physical and political maps (all)

   • World physical and political maps (all)

   • Reference and thematic maps of 10 US regions (grade 4)

2. Additional thematic maps in the student book that demonstrated concepts like flattening a 3D globe onto a flat surface

3. A raised-relief desk map of the US

4. 12-inch reference globes

5. Place mats that included mapping activities on them

6. Maps for student actives, helping the student demonstrate understanding of mapping and other concepts

Additionally, Grade 5 covers U.S.-centric events from about 14,500 BCE to today.

Each of these deliverables had content that matched the grade level they were for with regards to difficulty and design.

The Result

Though not launched at the time of this writing, all 5 grades are completed and ready for shipping.