Update on "Where We're From" Mapping Project

On Thursday, the (almost) final dots were added from our class to the three maps found in the hallway. One child was out sick, and we have a new child just joining our class, so we are not quite done yet!

As you may remember, this part of our Identity Project had children research where they were born, where their parents were born, and where each set of grandparents were born. They used this information to fill out a chart with different colored dots - each dot color representing different generations. Green dots represented the children, red dots represented their parents, and yellow dots represented their grandparents.

The last bit of this project had children look at three different maps - a state map, a U.S. map, and a world map. If someone was born in Michigan, their dot went on the state map, if they were born in a state other than Michigan, we used the U.S. map, and if they were born in another country, we needed to find the country on the world map.

We noticed many things. Most of the green dots (the children) were all clumped around Ann Arbor, Michigan. There are a couple children born in other states, but most were born here. Lots of parents were born in Michigan, too, but we started to see a lot more dispersal of red dots in other states, and even countries. Yellow dots tended to be all over the place! Grandparent dots were in other countries more frequently than any other colored dot.

Grace's class is just finishing up adding their data to the map as well, and Val's class will be doing this project in the near future (they have done the research, but have not yet charted their information).

Please feel free to take a look at what our social scientists have been up to!