Last week was Earth Science Week – an international event aimed at helping the public gain a better appreciation for the Earth sciences.

The theme for this year was “Mapping Our World.” It’s a phrase that Cindi Long’s fifth grade class took to heart.

Cindi’s class has been immersed in Earth sciences for several weeks, learning about plate tectonics, land features, and geography. Now, the students are applying what they’ve learned in a project that highlights their creative and academic abilities.

“We’re creating landform maps using all of the concepts that we have learned,” Cindi said.

Each of the maps represents the imaginations and interests of the students. Some have long names like “Imasomakahami,” and contain all sorts of mountains, bays, rivers, and valleys that mimic worlds from works of fiction. Others are more representative of places familiar to the students.

The next step will be developing a narrative in which the students will imagine they have crash-landed on their island and must traverse the geographical features they created on paper. The result will be books that wrap together art, science, and language arts.

“We’re creating something that covers so many parts of the curriculum,” Cindi said.

The books will be sent to the Studentreasures publishing organization in January, where they will be set in hard bound covers and given back to the students to keep.