National Geographic MapMaker – a curated collection of maps for students
Maps are powerful classroom tools that spark students’ curiosity. They encourage them to explore topics more deeply, help develop critical and spatial thinking skills, and make connections across disciplines.
National Geographic MapMaker has not only been designed specifically with teachers and students in mind but also filled with maps and layers tailored to them. Our team is committed to ensuring the materials featured in MapMaker are up to date, from reliable sources, and perform well at common school internet speeds.
Presently, MapMaker offers 90 layers and 57 maps. New maps and layers are added each week. The collection includes a variety of materials suited to social studies and science instruction, including real-time data that allows educators to cover current events in the classroom, maps related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, data from National Geographic Explorers, and historic maps.
This is a historic map of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, created between 1903-1906 by the G.M Hopkins Company. The company was one of the first groups to publish cadastral atlases which were a cross between fire insurance maps and property maps.
Each map and layer includes a detailed description designed to provide additional information on the dataset, including a summary of the topic, key information about the data source, and decisions made by the mapmakers that impact the understanding of the map. The descriptions also include hyperlinks on words or concepts that link out to the National Geographic Education Hub and other relevant student-friendly sites for further exploration or a quick refresh on a particular subject.
The Wildfire Incidents and Perimeters in the United States map features three real-time datasets. This map shows the size and location of current wildfires and the impacts of the related smoke.
Many of our maps are interactive. You can click on the points or polygons to open a popup with additional information about that feature on the map.
This map layer from RESOLVE Biodiversity and Wildlife Solutions includes fifteen different biomes.
Some datasets have dynamic scales. This feature allows students to build an understanding that the story may change at different scales. In the below example, you can see air quality data. In the first map, air quality is generalized at the state and provincial scale. In the second map, air quality is generalized using 50-kilometer hex bins, which provides are more nuanced story of air quality at more local levels.
This air quality layer contains particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) air quality data globally between 1998 and 2016 based on NASA SEDAC gridded data. The data is aggregated to countries, state and province boundaries, and 50-kilometer hex bins. The data is dynamic and changes with the scale.
You are not limited to exploring data in 2D. Simply by clicking the 3D button on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, you can change the perspective of the investigation.
Earth’s human footprint measures the relationship between the human consumption of resources and the number of resources the Earth can supply. Explore this dataset in 2D or 3D.
If you do not see a map covering a topic you would like to use with your class, please reach out to us and let us know what you would like and how you hope to use it in the classroom.
A link to the app can be found on our K12 education website. Please feel free to share the link so that we can help as many schools as possible get started with MapMaker.
If you have any questions or feedback on MapMaker please email us at: