📋 Activity Overview

Students draw a map of their mohalla (neighbourhood) from memory — then compare it with a classmate's. They discover that each person's map contains different abstractions reflecting what matters to them.

💡 Teacher Tip

The most powerful moment is when a student says 'I put the chai shop but she put the temple — who is right?' The answer: both are right! That's abstraction. A map is not reality — it's a chosen representation of reality.

🎯 Learning Objectives

  • ✓ Understand abstraction as the process of including only relevant information
  • ✓ Recognise that different abstractions serve different purposes
  • ✓ Compare maps and identify what each person chose to include and exclude
  • ✓ Connect the concept of abstraction to real-world maps (Delhi Metro, Google Maps)

🗂️ Materials Needed

A4 blank paper (2 per student) Pencils and colour pencils Rulers Eraser Large display board

📌 Step-by-Step Instructions

Prompt (3 min) — 'Close your eyes. Imagine walking from your home to school. What do you pass? Open eyes — draw your route as a map. You have 12 minutes. Go!'
Individual Drawing (12 min) — Students draw in silence. Teacher circulates without commenting on content choices.
Pair Comparison (8 min) — Pair students who live in similar areas. Compare maps: 'What did you include that your partner left out? What did they include that you missed?'
Class Gallery (5 min) — Post all maps on the board. Class observes: some show shops, some show roads only, some show trees. 'Why are the maps different even though it's the same neighbourhood?'
Show Real Maps (7 min) — Display Google Maps, Delhi Metro map, and a heritage walk map of the same area. 'Each map abstracts the same place differently. Why?'
Debrief (5 min) — 'Abstraction means keeping what's relevant for your purpose and hiding everything else. A Metro map hides roads because roads don't matter for train journeys.'

🧠 CT Pillar Connections

Abstraction
Every map is an abstraction — a simplified model that hides unnecessary details. Students experience how their own mental models are abstractions shaped by what matters to them.
Decomposition
Breaking 'my neighbourhood' into navigable segments (this road, that landmark) is decomposition — identifying the parts that make up a navigable whole.

💬 Discussion Questions

  • Why does the Delhi Metro map look different from Google Maps of the same area?
  • If you were making a map for a blind person, what information would you include?
  • What did you choose NOT to draw? Why did you decide that wasn't important?
  • How is a map an 'algorithm' for finding your way from A to B?