The Awfully Big Map Project

The annual unfurling of the 8th Grade 'Awfully Big Map' was on Friday, May 14th.

Each year, the A.B.M shows up in a different place on campus (which means its size changes each year as well) and without prior announcement - so its arrival is always a surprise event. This year the A.B.M. was hung from the roof of the Upper School, allowing for it to be seen by all students and drivers arriving at school. It was still there during dismissal, which meant that more drivers (and students who may have slept-walked to school in the morning) had a chance to see it.

The Awfully Big Map project has two design and creation stages. During the first, budding cartographers, working solo, plot to scale the most accurate borders of the various contiguous U.S. states that they can. Then they bring all their states together and try to assemble the 48, identifying and adjusting for the best fit possible. The more accurate the individual states, the more accurate the overall map.

This year, the 8th Grade took a novel approach, simultaneously assembling from three anchor states - Florida, Maine, and California. From Maine, they moved to New Hampshire (their only option), then sequentially south along the coast. Georgia was attached to Florida and then they moved along the eastern and southern coasts (attaching states to each other but not to the backing paper). The first permanently affixed state was California. As the assembly moved East, irreversible decisions were made. When all the 48 states were finally placed, the Class of 2021 found that they had completed one of the most precise maps done in over a decade of this project. Congratulations to the entire class, for a well-earned collaborative effort.