On Tuesday, November 3, voters across the United States go to the polls in the midterm elections. For civics, government and social studies classes, few weeks make the workings of representative government more visible.
Much of that story is geographic. Who represents you depends on where you live, how lines are drawn, and how seats are shared among the states. National Geographic MapMaker is a free digital atlas for schools. It has maps that let students explore those questions using authoritative data, whatever the results on the night.
Here are some MapMaker maps and ideas that might fit your plans this week and after. Take what works for your classroom and leave the rest.
What's on the ballot
Midterms fall halfway through a president's four-year term. On November 3, voters elect:
- All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Representatives serve two-year terms, so every seat is up every two years.
- 35 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats. That is 33 regularly scheduled seats plus special elections in Florida and Ohio.
- 36 governors, along with state legislators, judges, local officials and ballot measures that vary from place to place.
This year has a geographic twist. Several states redrew their congressional districts in the middle of the decade, rather than waiting for the next census. They include California, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. In Missouri, a new map was used in the August primary, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the November election must use the state's 2022 districts. Missouri voters also decide a referendum on the new map on November 3.
That makes redistricting one of the most current topics a civics class could map.
Maps to explore
Each link below opens the map directly in MapMaker. No login is needed.
Representation: who represents you?
- United States Congressional Districts shows the districts of the 119th Congress, with the 118th Congress as a second layer. Students can zoom to their town and find their district. Which district is your school in? Which neighboring districts are larger or smaller in area, and why?
- United States Apportionment 2020 shows how the 435 House seats were shared among the states after the 2020 Census, and which states gained or lost seats. Why does a census every ten years matter to how much say a state has in Congress?
- Population Density helps explain why districts with nearly equal populations can look so different on a map. What happens to the size of a district where people live close together?
People: who are the voters?
- Generations of the United States maps the most common generation in each state, county and neighborhood. Many high school seniors are, or soon will be, old enough to vote. Where does your generation make up a large share of the population? How might the age of a community shape the issues people care about?
- Population Change 1930 and 1940 offers a historical case. If people move from one region to another, what happens to representation after the next census?
Government: who decides what happens here?
- State Atlas of the USA has facts about each state and the date it joined the Union, a starting point for the state offices on the ballot. Is your state electing a governor this year?
- Federal Lands and American Indian Reservations shows land managed by the federal government alongside reservations, where tribal nations govern. Who makes decisions about the land in your region: federal, state, tribal or local government?
Issues: what do elected officials decide?
Some MapMaker maps show conditions that public bodies make decisions about. They can help students connect an election to their own community.
Which level of government is responsible for this issue where you live? Who represents you at that level?
Classroom ideas
These short activities stay with the geography of representation, so they work whatever the results. Each can run from the front of the class on one screen or with students on their own devices.
- Find your district. Open the Congressional Districts map, zoom to your school and click its district. Use the measure tool to find its area, then compare it with a district in the nearest big city. Students explain the difference using the Population Density map.
- Old lines, new lines. If you teach in a state that redrew its map for this election, MapMaker shows the 119th Congress lines, not this year's. Students compare them with the new map from their state's official election website and describe which places changed districts.
- Equal people, unequal shapes. Using Population Density and the sketch tool, students divide a county or small state into districts with roughly equal numbers of people. Comparing their maps shows how many different ways the same place can be divided.
- Results across time zones. Polls close at different times across the country. Open World Time Zones and ask why results from some states arrive hours before others.
- From issue to office. Pick one issue map, such as Internet Connectivity or Urban Heat Severity. Students identify which level of government handles that issue where they live and who represents them there.
Students can save their work as a screenshot, or sign in with an ArcGIS Online account to keep working on their map.
Get started
Open National Geographic MapMaker. It's free, runs in a browser on any device, and brings together over 180 maps and layers from the National Geographic Society and Esri. Lesson resources and How To videos are on the MapMaker Educator Support Hub.
If you're a teacher, I hope some of these maps are useful in your classroom this week. If you work in GIS, you probably know a civics or social studies teacher. Please share this with them.
