Distribute student project sheets. If necessary, help students navigate the Color Landform Atlas of the United States Web site to find the map key, the county map, and the relief map. Have available a classroom map of New York state, and help students locate the area in which they live. Help students identify important landforms shown on the map. At Virtual Outdoors, students can choose among several virtual hikes or bike trips. Encourage students to choose different trips to provide a variety of experiences and reports.

When students have completed the questions on their project sheets, distribute pencils or pens, drawing paper, and crayons or colored markers. Tell students they are going to make a four-page travel brochure about their area of New York state. The first page of each brochure will include the title and an illustration of the area. The inside pages will display a map of the area marked with tour routes, landforms, landmarks, and other points of interest. The back page will include a list of places to see and things to do and a map key. Before students begin to create their brochures, have them choose some common symbols for their map keys. For example, they might agree to use squares to represent towns or cities, triangles for mountains, wavy lines for rivers, and arrows for landmarks.