The Leventhal Map & Education Center offers engaging, inquiry-based programs for K-12 students that encourage critical thinking through maps. Our Education Team leads programs for students both at the Leventhal Center at the BPL in Copley Square and remotely through virtual classroom visits for students outside of Boston. Using a guided inquiry approach, we support and challenge all learners to explore how maps shape our understanding of the past and present.
Guided Class Visit Programs
What Can a Map Do?
Grades K–3
Young learners encounter maps all over the place, but what does a map do? In this interactive experience, students consider how a map “works” and how it helps us make sense of the world.With age-appropriate activities including creative map-making and read-alouds, students build spatial thinking skills and discover how maps represent—and even shape—the world around them.
Parks and Playgrounds
Grades K–6
Let’s go to the park—without leaving the library! On this guided visit, students explore how parks and playgrounds shape how we move, play, and come together.Students think like city planners as they consider a community’s histories, values, and needs—and analyze land use around Boston’s most popular parks and playgrounds using historic park plans and green space designs from our collection.
Boston, You’re My Home
Grades 3-5
How does the Boston we see on maps match the Boston we know today? Students investigate Boston’s dynamic history by studying what has changed—and what has stayed the same—using both historic and contemporary maps.Together, we explore how geography and key decisions by individuals have shaped the city we call home. This tour can also be tailored to highlight a specific moment or theme your class is studying, helping students make meaningful local connections.
Maps as Primary Sources
Grades 6-8
In this hands-on program, students apply historical thinking skills to analyze maps as primary sources. By exploring different perspectives and discussing what maps show—and what they leave out—students uncover how maps communicate purpose, story, and point of view.Through collaboration and critical inquiry, students deepen their understanding of how maps help us interpret the past.
Terrains of Independence
Grades 5-12
How did geography shape the course of the American Revolution? This guided tour of the Terrains of Independence exhibition invites middle and high school students to consider how Boston’s landscape influenced key events and strategies during the war.Through hands-on map analysis, students will learn how features like the city’s busy harbor and roadways played a critical role in the American Revolution. This experience supports historical thinking by encouraging students to use geography as evidence and connect physical space with historical events.Workshops
These 80-minute workshops invite high school students to think critically, collaborate with peers, and make meaningful connections between historical and contemporary topics.
Designed for groups of 12 to 32 students, workshops are offered on Thursdays at 9:30 am and 11:00 am.
Data Makes the Map
Grades 9-12
This workshop invites high school students to question, interpret, and evaluate the visual media they encounter every day. Through hands-on analysis of real-world visualizations, students explore how maps and datasets can influence perception, shape arguments, and even mislead.By the end of the session, students will be better equipped to critically assess the visual information that surrounds them in today’s data-driven world.Virtual Guided Class Visits
The Leventhal Map & Education Center offers live, interactive programs for K-12 classrooms through Zoom. Led by our experienced educators, these virtual visits showcase maps and materials from our collection in your classroom.
We focus on topics ranging from introductory map skills to indigenous erasure to the American Revolution to urban planning. Students actively participate through discussion, inquiry-based activities, and collaborative learning.
We offer the following guided class visits in a 30-45 minute synchronous virtual format.
What Can a Map Do?
Grades K-3
Young learners encounter maps all over the place, but what does a map do? In this interactive experience, students consider how a map “works” and how it helps us make sense of the world.
Atlascope Tour
Grades 3-5
Take your students around the neighborhood! This synchronous virtual program is designed for Boston-based elementary students to explore their school neighborhood using Atlascope. This digital tool helps us see who and what are in the neighborhood through historical and modern maps. Teachers who register will receive a map kit to help prepare students before and during the virtual program. Join us as we answer the question: What’s in your neighborhood?Please note: This experience must be booked at least 7 weeks in advance in order to prepare and send your kit to your class.
Terrains of Independence
Grades 5-12
The American Revolution was as much about places as it was about people or ideas. In this 30-minute session, students will observe how geography plays a role in historical events. Students will view historical maps that document the transformation from thirteen colonies to one country.
Off the Map
Grades 7-12
Explore how maps reflect, erase, and obscure Indigenous geographies across the United States. Students will consider how being included or excluded from the map continues to shape the experience of indigenous groups today.Booking a Program
- K-12 guided class visits can be booked from Monday to Wednesday at 9:30 am and 11:00 am. Each session lasts 45-60 minutes.
- Due to the size of our gallery, we can welcome groups of up to 32 students and 4 chaperones per time slot. At least one chaperone must be the lead or cooperating teacher of the school group.
- For groups larger than 32, you may book multiple time slots in one day or across multiple days.
- All groups are required to make reservations at least one month in advance. To ensure a smooth visit, all school groups must register using the online form below.
Preparing for Your Visit
Cost:
Please see our table of education program fees for information on costs. Please note that if you are teaching at a Boston Public School, fees are waived for your visit to the Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library and virtual classroom visits.
We strive to make our programs and resources available to all institutions without cost as a barrier. If your district or institution is not able to support our standard fees, please send us an email to discuss adjusted rates.
Transportation and Parking:
Unfortunately, the Central Library in Copley Square does not offer reserved off-street parking for buses or other vehicles. However, several garages are within walking distance of the Leventhal Center, and two-hour metered street parking, though often occupied, is available throughout the Back Bay.
We recommend taking the MBTA to the Leventhal Map and Education Center when convenient. Use the MBTA Trip Planner for more information on traveling by transit.
Lunch:
Please note that there is no lunch space for classes in the Boston Public Library.
Accessibility:
Our physical spaces are ADA-accessible via a lift from the main level of the BPL’s McKim Building. Most, though not all, spaces in the Central Library in Copley Square are accessible. For more information, see the BPL’s Resources and Services for Users with Disabilities here.
If you have any questions about accessibility to the Leventhal Map and Education Center, please email education@leventhalmap.org ahead of your visit. We strive to make sure all students can participate in our programming.
Booking other BPL Programs:
Please note that a reservation for a guided class visit to the Leventhal Center does not automatically include access to other tours or services offered by the Boston Public Library. School groups are required to stay within the designated areas of the Leventhal Center during their visit.
To combine your visit with sessions in Teen Central (grades 6-12) or activities with the Children’s Library services (grades K-5), please schedule these additional tours or activities in advance.
Curricular Connections
The K-12 programs align with or supports the following standards.
- Massachusetts History and Social Studies Standards
- Kindergarten-Grade Two: Standards K.4, 1.4, 2.4
- Grade Three-Five: Standards 3.2, 4.2, 5.2
- National Council for Social Studies
- Standard 2: Time, Continuity, and Change
- Standard 3: People, Places, and Environment
- Standard 8: Science, Technology, and Society
- The College, Career & Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies
- Standard D2.Geo.3-5.1
- Standard D3.1.3-5
- Standard D 4.2.3-5