Students Put on the Map in Unique Lesson : Education: Giant U.S. drawing on play area at Heideman Elementary School is hands-on way to study geography.

Roxanne Garcia, 12, sits in New Hampshire, while classmate Alex Magdaleno stands gazing at the Olympic National Forest in Washington. Over in West Virginia, 11-year-old Chris Clemons walks along the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and, in Nebraska, Jonathan Amezcua traces the path of the Platte River.

All four children can travel across the United States without leaving the playground at Heideman Elementary School in Tustin. In fact, the entire journey from New Hampshire to Washington is only about 42 feet--which is the the approximate width of the giant U.S. map that is painted on the school’s asphalt play area.

The map, completed in February, is the brainchild of fifth-grade teacher Peggy Cartier and cost $280, which was donated by the Tustin Area Women’s Council. “It serves as a real hands-on geography lesson,” Cartier says.

“When I saw it, I thought it was a great teaching tool, and I wanted one at my school.”

Cartier uses the map to help children learn the 50 states and their capitals.

The outline of the United States and its state boundaries is painted in broad white strokes against the black asphalt and can be spotted halfway across the playground. The states are not labeled, but each does contain a white star, denoting the approximate location of capitals.

During social studies lessons, Cartier sends teams of 12 pupils scurrying out to the playground, each with an assigned state. The object is to find the state, label it in chalk, name its capital and draw in its major features--such as mountain ranges and rivers.

In Indiana, Juan Sanchez and Leonardo Elias, both 11, work together to color in the Hoosier National Forest. Below them in Kentucky, Tion Demyers is running out of blue chalk as he tries to draw in the state’s many lakes.

Nearby, another pupil is looking for Mississippi.

“You’re standing on it,” someone shouts.

Pupils have 15 minutes to complete their assignment, Cartier tells them.

“Today we’re putting in the physical features, and they’ll be graded on their work when they’re finished,” she explains.

Cartier says she uses the map to teach not only geography and social studies, but also history and reading.

“In history. we can use it when we’re teaching about the westward movement,” she says. “And recently we read a story about ladybugs in the Rocky Mountains. So, we can bring the kids out here and show them where the ladybugs travel.”

The map is used by the entire school.

“The fourth-graders do a lot on where the different states are. And we also use it to teach directions. And you can show how the different land formations develop. I even see the little kids at recess looking at it and trying to figure out where they are. This is just what we need for hands-on experience,” she says.

Although playground maps may be a good learning tool, finding someone to paint one is not always easy. Cartier called a school where she had seen a similar map and asked who did it. The woman who designed the map was willing to do one for Heideman School at what Cartier considered a bargain price of $280.

“We’re talking cheap,” she says.

Other schools have created such maps themselves, said Bonnie Ryan, coordinator for Rand McNally’s geography teaching award program in Skokie, Ill. Rand McNally, the world’s largest commercial map-maker, sometimes receives calls from schools wanting to create a large-scale map, but the company does not provide such a service.

“We got a call from a Chicago teacher to ask if we could do such a project, but we didn’t have the capabilities to do it without it being outrageously expensive,” Ryan said.

Thomas Bros. Maps in Irvine occasionally receives such calls, too, said Michelle Sweeney, who works for the company’s Educational Foundation. Although Thomas Bros. does not draw playground maps, Sweeney usually refers callers to the California Geographic Alliance, which offers a free a do-it-yourself program called “Maps on Your Playground, the World at Your Feet.”

Using the free packet, schools can create their own patterns and draw their own maps for under $200, said Marycarol Deane, a fourth-grade teacher in Oroville who works with the alliance.

For information about the alliance, write to Jerry Williams, California Geographic Alliance, Department of Geography, Cal State Chico, Chico, Calif. 95929. (916) 898-6219.

If you don’t want to do all the work yourself, you can order stencils from a Utah company called Brentwood Products for about $245. The stencils can be reused, said Sheldon Bagley, a Brentwood spokesman, so that several schools could share the cost. For information, write Brentwood Products, P.O.Box 1035, Draper, Utah 84020. (801) 572-8202.

Another option is to get in touch with Jim Ryder, a school administrator in McCleary, Wash., who has been running a map painting business on the side for 15 years. Ryder, who works with his wife, a teacher, charges from $200 to $250 to create a 20-by-30-foot map.

The Ryders will be in Southern California to draw maps for local schools in August.

“Normally we work in Oregon and Washington,” said Ryder, “but we have about half a dozen orders, so we’ll be making a trip to California.”

Schools that want to make an appointment for August must contact Ryder before July 15. For information, write McCleary Map Painters, P.O. Box 234, McCleary, Wash. 98557. (206) 495-3998. “We try to keep our prices so that schools can afford it,” said Ryder, who began painting maps when he was teaching in the primary grades. “It’s just a real good learning instrument for children.”

The giant map at Heideman Elementary School helped fifth-grader David Johnson, 11, learn most of his capitals.

“The kids love it,” Cartier says. “Now that we have this, I can’t imagine not having one.”

She glances toward the playground and smiles. “I’d like to have the world out here, too,” she says wistfully. “So we could do the continents.”