Event Map

Students draw a treasure map as they hike, highlighting discoveries and features along the trail and making quick sketches of plants, animals, or other surprises and writing notes to record memories.

Externalizing thinking (getting our ideas and observations down on paper) is a good way to enhance attention and memory. Making an event map, or a physical chart of experiences in time and space, is a way of intentionally recording memories. In this activity, students make a map of hidden treasure. The treasure is not buried at the end of the trail; it is all along it. When they return from the hike, students will not only remember the sequence of events along the trail but also have a spatial memory of where they were and the distances between the discoveries. An optional extension guides students to write a narrative of their “treasure hunt.” This is valuable practice in storytelling and an opportunity for students to strengthen their writing skills.