Topo Bingo

What can you do with a large assortment of mismatched USGS topographic maps of various faraway places?

Play Topo Bingo

This exercise is intended to familiarize students with topographic maps, the symbols used on them, and some basic topographic features. It can be used as an entertaining introduction to topo maps or as an assessment tool to see how well students know maps. The techniques discussed below can be used to adapt the game from beginning to advanced levels.

Created by Leslie C. Gordon, Geologist/Education Coordinator
U.S. Geological Survey, Western Region, Menlo Park, CA

Grade level: 3rd – Adult

Note: * Please note that the symbols used do not necessarily adhere to the specifications for publication symbols developed jointly by the USGS and the USDA, Forest Service, to be used in preparing primary series maps at scales of 1:20,000-1:63,360.

Download
File	File Size	File Format
Instruction and game pieces	152 KB	Zip file
Topographic Maps You may choose to use your own topographic maps for the game or download maps from us. For download, we provide 22 small maps from 11 different U.S. locations. Download all the maps in a zip file or each map individually in gif files.
All maps	3,916 KB	Zip file
Map of Bell Chasse, LA (1)	164 KB	Gif
Map of Bell Chasse, LA (2)	164 KB	Gif
Map of Homestead, FL (1)	178 KB	Gif
Map of Homestead, FL (2)	136 KB	Gif
Map of Koko Head, HI (1)	184 KB	Gif
Map of Koko Head, HI (2)	165 KB	Gif
Map of Jersey City, NJ/NY (1)	152 KB	Gif
Map of Jersey City, NJ/NY (2)	163 KB	Gif
Map of Mount Rainier National Park, WA (1)	188 KB	Gif
Map of Mount Rainier National Park, WA (2)	197 KB	Gif
Map of San Diego, CA (1)	183 KB	Gif
Map of San Diego, CA (2)	180 KB	Gif
Map of San Francisco, CA (1)	171 KB	Gif
Map of San Francisco, CA (2)	199 KB	Gif
Map of Seattle North, WA (1)	204 KB	Gif
Map of Seattle North, WA (2)	230 KB	Gif
Map of Seattle South, WA (1)	195 KB	Gif
Map of Seattle South, WA (2)	201 KB	Gif
Map of Washington, D.C. (1)	182 KB	Gif
Map of Washington, D.C. (2)	208 KB	Gif
Map of Yellowstone National Park, WY/MT/ID (1)	186 KB	Gif
Map of Yellowstone National Park, WY/MT/ID (2)	180 KB	Gif

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