The University of Redlands School of Education has a great big map from National Geographic. A charting of South America has been in the university's hands since Monday, and it will be on display through Oct. 27.

The map is 26 by 35 feet.

It comes with a trunk of fun and content-rich activities, props and other educational resources.

Visitors will be able to walk right across the high peaks of the Andes, search for the ancient city of Machu Picchu, then follow the Amazon River from its alpine headwaters thousands of miles through the Brazilian rainforest all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

On Wednesday it will be featured at Cram Elementary's Family Geography Night in East Highlands. It will remain there on Thursday.

Friday it will be in the Casa Loma Room at the University of Redlands from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Classes from local elementary schools have been invited to the exhibit.

From Oct. 25 through 27, the map will be at Citrus Valley High School in Redlands.

In 2010 the University of Redlands was awarded a three-year grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to support the university's "learning spatially at the University of Redlands," or LENS activities. The LENS funding creates new opportunities for faculty and undergraduate students in multiple disciplines across the curriculum to use maps, mapping and spatial perspectives in teaching, learning, and research.

Recently, LENS program grant funding has made it

possible for the University of Redlands' School of Education to host the map, and share it with local schoolchildren as a way of promoting concepts of spatial literacy.

More on LENS research in online at www.redlands.edu/innovation-research/8106.aspx

Kristin J. Alvarez, an associate professor at the UofR is the map host/coordinator.