When It Comes to Classroom Wall Maps, Size Matters

Auburn Hills, MI, December 30, 2008 --(PR.com)-- The Exploration Company has just launched a line of forty one interactive wall maps and charts aimed for middle school and high school social studies and earth science classes.

Until now, classrooms have had to contend with 65” or 70” wide pull-down maps. “When it comes to classroom wall maps,” says Daniel Rirdan, Director of Product Development, “size matters. For seated students, it has been like trying to read a textbook from ten feet away. Projected on a wall at maximum magnification, our interactive wall maps are the equivalent of 1,200” wide maps. We deliver on the promise that no child is left behind—as every label, every feature of the map can be discerned by the entire seated assembly of students.”

Using a propriety software engine, these wall maps offer teachers interactive capabilities: one can measure distances, write on the maps and save these notes, read precipitation or population density levels, hide some of the map layers, click around for additional data, and print out segments of the maps.

Rirdan states: “From a geology map depicting thousands of volcanoes and earthquakes, to an income distribution chart of individual countries, to a USA landcover map correlating precipitation, elevation and vegetation—it is the most comprehensive line of wall maps yet.” Collectively, the maps aim to support all mandated teaching standards.

The new array of wall maps seeks to outmode the traditional, all-purpose political or physical wall maps that adorn the nation’s classrooms. The new line includes the traditional elevation, landcover and political wall maps. However, it has over thirty additional wall maps, in an attempt to address the myriad needs of high school and junior high classes. The maps address themes such as world population density, global warming, U.S precipitation, congressional districts, global terrorism, and international trade.

“You don’t even need an electronic whiteboard,” says Rirdan. “If your classroom is equipped with an LCD projector and a fairly new Mac or PC computer with a DVD reader, you can use those maps. You just need the Internet for downloading occasional map updates.”

What about Google Earth? Rirdan has definite ideas on this subject. “Geography is the study of patterns—be it that of precipitation, migration, or economics,” he says. “None of those patterns are evident in a satellite images of the planet.

“Google Earth has a clear place in the classroom. But it cannot replace maps. It cannot give you an idea of the land relief or climatic patterns of Europe. It does not give you a snapshot view of indigenous nations or internal conflicts throughout Africa. Nor impart the sense that Nevada’s mountaintops sport subalpine forest surrounded by woodland.”

The prices of the interactive wall maps range from $50 to $180 per title. The maps are also sold in discounted bundles corresponding to the various school courses, such as earth science or economics bundles. Those bundle are priced around $600 to $700 and contain 15 to 25 wall maps, each.

The Exploration Company has also recently released four interactive American history titles and some more basic wall maps for the lower grades.

About The Exploration Company A subsidiary of American Eagle Co. Inc. Founded in 2003, it is one of three national providers of maps, globes, and atlases for the classroom.

###