Summary
The Nebraska State Legislature passed a law in 2024, prohibiting public school classrooms from using the Mercator map projection, in favor of Gall-Peters and AuthaGraph. Although there are exceptions described in this statute when it is permissible to use projections outside of Gall-Peters and AuthaGraph, it has led to confusion among public school educators. This session will describe how peoples’ mental maps could be shaped by map projections and common map layouts, which could serve as rationale for such a law. In addition, this session will explain how educators facing a ban on the Mercator map projection can still use web GIS and map projections other than Gall-Peters.
Session Focus
Secondary/High School | Curriculum and Instruction | Mercator, Map Projection, Mental Maps
Conference Room
Iowa
Meet the Presenter
Lesli Rawlings is Professor of Geography in the Department of History, Politics, and Geography at Wayne State College (Nebraska). Her research interests include geographic information systems (GIS) applied to study local housing markets, public education issues, and population decline in rural Nebraska. Her teaching interests are GIS and computer mapping, urban geography, economic geography, and world regional geography.
