This site from SERC's Starting Point presents sample Gallery Walk questions for an activity about map reading. These questions encourage students to examine lines of latitude and longitude, read representative fractions, identify landforms on topographic maps, ways to use road, contour, bedrock, soil, satellite, and aerial maps, and how to critique maps. The questions are organized according to the ... Full description.

This website contains eight maps showing human population density starting in 1 AD. Maps can be viewed as large single maps or as an animation of population change through time. The maps are from a Social Contract article by John H. Hanton, 'End of the Migration Epoch.' Full description.

The World Population Prospects allows users to change variables to learn about population prospects in the world. Users can change variables such as population, population density, location, date and variant in the basic panel to obtain basic output while a second panel allows users to obtain more detailed information such as median age, total fertility rate and population by age. There are also full ... Full description.

Starting with a view of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, the D.C. border and the Beltway fade in. The view then shifts to Mount Airy, Maryland, indicating urban growth with red dots. Data sets for 1973, 1980, 1985, 1990, and 1996 are presented chronologically. Full description.

The Lights of Earth can be seen from space. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earths surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. ... Full description.

The long operational history of the Landsat satellite allows a detailed study of urban growth around the world, as illustrated by this animation of urbanization around Shenzen, China. Full description.

The Lights of Earth can be seen from space. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earths surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. ... Full description.

Starting with a view of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, the D.C. border and the Beltway fade in. The view then shifts to Reston and Sterling, Virginia, indicating urban growth with red dots. Data sets for 1973, 1980, 1985, 1990, and 1996 are presented chronologically. Full description.

Zoom in showing true color, then changing to daytime thermal, then nighttime thermal, using mountain top, Landsat, ATLAS thermal, land use, and clouds-convection data Full description.

Big cities influence the environment around them. For example, urban areas are typically warmer than their surroundings. Cities are strikingly visible in computer models that simulate the Earths land surface. This visualization shows outgoing thermal radiation predicted by the Land Information System (LIS) for a day in June 2001. Cities are warmer, so they emit more longwave (infrared) radiation. ... Full description.