UTM Grid -- Large Classroom Training Aid

Previous Next

Product Description

This is a large UTM Grid style tool intended for use in a classroom teaching situation. It is about 4 times the size of our regular tools. That means you can hold it up to the whiteboard to demonstrate how to use it, and you students can see it.

I’ve put holes at the four corners of the 1 kilometer grid square so that you can easily mark a grid on the whiteboard for your demo map. Just make dots at the corner of as many grids as you want, and then connect the dots with a straight edge and your whiteboard marker. Add some grid coordinate labels and you are ready to demo UTM coordinates.

The actual scale of the tool works out to 1:6,369. Use that scale if you want to create a map image for printing on a large sheet of paper to use with the tool, using a service like CalTopo.com to create your pdf file. If you want to enlarge part of a 1:24,000 scale map, enlarge it by 377%. (24000 / 6369 * 100)

We use the same scale for our UTM Slot style classroom training aid, so it’s easy to move students from the conceptually simple idea of the grid tool that just fits inside the grid, to the more complicated, but more precise, measurements they can make with a slot style tool.

The tool has a protractor on its outer perimeter so you can use it to teach students how to plot a compass bearing using a protractor. I usually teach plotting with a protractor, before I teach how to do it using their compass. The protractor has no moving parts. Just line it up with which ever north reference you are using, and make a mark at the edge at what ever bearing you are plotting. Finish by drawing in the line with a straight edge. There is a hole in the center of the protractor so you can demonstrate using a string to extend a bearing beyond the tool. (String is not included.)

There is also a hole in the corner that you can use to hand the tool from a nail or peg, to keep it handy. I put a self adhesive backed hook on the edge on my whiteboard to hang my training aids from.

Here is a link to a page that describes how to use our line of large teaching aid products.

This product pairs nicely with some of our other tools and instructional handouts.

• Map for use with Large Classroom Training Aids
• 1:24,000 Scale Pocket Size UTM Grid Tool
• 1:25,000 Scale Pocket Size UTM Grid Tool
• Using your GPS with UTM Coordinates Booklet 3rd Ed.
• Reference Card - UTM, MGRS, USNG
• Locating Coordinate Grid Information on USGS Maps Handout and Practice Map
• UTM Tool Instruction Sheet