Issue 39 Spring 2011

mapping news
mapping for education
- Head of Geography - Geography teachers - Geography coordinators - Geography advisors - Head of History - Head of Humanities - ICT coordinators - Head of ICT -

Read how Digimap for schools is being used inside!

Information
For copyright and general enquiries contact our Customer HelpLine: Phone: 08456 05 05 05 Welsh HelpLine: 08456 05 05 04 Textphone: 023 8005 6146 (deaf and hard of hearing users only please) Email: customerservices@ordnancesurvey.co.uk Website: www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk For product advice and to place an order please contact your Ordnance Survey Mapping and Data Centre network supplier.

Editorial
Its been an eventful winter at Ordnance Survey. We have completed our move to our new head office. It has also seen the end of the Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme, with the last free map leaving our old head office in November 2010. This edition starts with a brief round-up on the free maps scheme and some of the milestones it achieved during its nine year run (pages 45). Ordnance Survey has received some excellent news. Digimap for Schools, an EDINA service enabled by Ordnance Survey, has gained the Gold Award in the Geographical Association Publishers Awards for 2011. On pages 610 is an in-depth look at Digimap for Schools, which is the replacement for the free maps scheme. This includes a lesson in using the online service in the classroom. Looking for resources for teaching map skills? Look no further; on pages 2223 there is an article highlighting a host of available material.

L &

Publishing Editor: Darren Bailey Phone: 023 8005 5739 Email: darren.bailey@ordnancesurvey.co.uk Designer: Julie Buck-Rogers Phone: 023 8005 5186 Email: jules.buck-rogers@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

For those of you visiting the Geographical Association exhibition in Guildford, make sure you come and see us on our stand. Best wishes

Trademarks
Ordnance Survey, the OS Symbol, Explorer, LandLine, Landranger, MapZone, OS and OSMasterMap are registered trademarks of OrdnanceSurvey, the national mapping agency of Great Britain. ArcView and ESRI are registered trademarks of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. Birkbeck is a registered trademark of Birkbeck College. Commonwealth Game is a registered trademark of Commonwealth Games Federation. Digimap is a registered trademark of The University Court of the University of Edinburgh. FIFA World Cup is a registered trademark of Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Goad is a registered trademark of Experian Ltd. Google is a registered trademark of Google Inc. Memory-Map is a registered trademark of Evo Distribution Ltd. NHS is a registered trademark of the Department of Health. PowerPoint is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Twitter is a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc.

Publishing Editor Phone: 023 8005 5739 Fax: 023 8005 6156 Email: darren.bailey@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

Back issues
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/ oswebsite/education/mappingnews/

2 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

243
ayton

t Dr Marke

434
Gairloch & Loch Ewe
The essential map for outdoor activities

rheads Logge shall le c c E &

The es sentia l map for outd oor ac tivities

Issue 39
200
n

y The ess ential ma Y map hanfodo p for outdoor l ar gy activit ies / fer gw eithgare ddau aw

Llandri & Elan ndod Wells Llandri Valley / ndod a Rhayad Dyffry er / Rh n Ela aead
r Gw
yr agore d

4 6 8 10 11

Free maps 2010 Digimap for Schools in the classroom Digimap for Schools in action Digimap for Schools planning a route for a fun run at Clapham Common Getting to grips with the United Kingdom (UK) for younger geographers Continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities from the Geographical Association (GA) My places, my geography Teaching Ordnance Survey map skills Teaching about places Funded opportunities through the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Learning & Leading Programme

1:25 000 scale

000 to 1 mile 4 cm to 1 km 2 1/2 inches

1:25 000 scale Graddfa 1:25

4 cm to 1 km 1 2 /2 inch 4 cm i 1 km 2 / mod es
1 2

fedd i

to 1 mile 1 milltir

18 20 22 25 28

4 cm to 1:25 00 0 scale

1 km

21/2 inc

hes to

1 mile

page 4

page 22

starts on page 10

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 201a

Free maps 2010

Cast your mind back to March 2002. OrdnanceSurvey announced the new Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme. This entitled all year 7s across Great Britain to a 1:25000 scale OSExplorer Map. This scheme would be a worlds first, to distribute free maps to an entire year group within one country.
In February of that year, OrdnanceSurvey sent out the first letters to schools in Scotland, inviting them to register for free maps for their P7 pupils. March saw schools in England and Wales receiving their invitation to register for free maps for their year 7s; the one question we are asked by numerous teachers: Whats the catch?. Now fast-forward to 26 November 2010 and the last free map left the Ordnance Survey building. After nine years, the scheme came to a close and over 6 million pupils have benefited from having their own OSExplorer Map.

To see if there was any impact of Free maps for 11-yearolds, OrdnanceSurvey undertook some detailed research, with the aid of The University of Northampton. The findings highlighted the positive outcomes for the scheme. Prior to the scheme only 7% of pupils surveyed had found maps useful at home. Four years on, the number of pupils who describe maps as useful at home has quadrupled (now 28%). Over 95% of teachers were of the opinion that the Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme was beneficial or very beneficial to helping pupils understanding of maps. Prior to the scheme, 53% of pupils said they did not enjoy using maps; this figure halved, with only 26% saying they didnt enjoy using maps.

200710
Total maps ordered 2007-2010 704196 683392 640222 581560

800000 700000 600000 500000 400000 300000 200000 100000 0

A lack of access to current mapping was a constant message we received. Children were unable to access mapping as it was often controlled by adults. Maps were also restricted at home, with more than 40% of households, not owning a map. Providing a free local map, not to schools, but to school children would solve the access problem. Understanding of maps was also a concern. Researching this issue prior to the launch of the scheme, 48% of pupils surveyed, said they did not understand maps.

Maps Ordered

So why did Ordnance Survey decide to send free maps?

2007

2008 Year

2009

2010

The first five years

The first three years of the scheme saw OrdnanceSurvey send out over three quarters of a million maps per year, with a peak for the scheme in 2003.
Total maps ordered 2002 - 2006
778345 780000 760000 750449 769559 736818 707836

The scheme went from strength to strength, which saw in 2008, the record for schools ordering; this topped 6960. The BITC award was again won in 2007 and 2008. The year 2008 saw a significant landmark for the scheme. The five-millionth map was sent out. This went to the John Cabot School in Bristol. The event was also celebrated at Ordnance Survey head office, where all staff that had been involved in the scheme since its conception were invited to celebrate the event. The then Director General of Schools, and The Inspector and Advisor for Geography for Hampshire both spoke about the benefits that the scheme had bought to schools.

740000 720000 700000 680000 660000 2002 2003 2004 Year 2005 2006

So to 2010. Feedback we had received from teachers recognised that many learners prefer to be able to create their own maps using computers and hence OrdnanceSurvey announced the end of the free maps scheme. A new electronic service, Digimap for Schools, was announced as a replacement for the Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme.
In November 2010, the final maps were sent out and with it ended the nine years of the Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme. On the next page is just some of the plethora of feedback we received during the scheme:

In 2005, the scheme won the Royal Geographical Society Society Geographical Award and in 2006, it also collected an award from Business in the Community (BITC).

4 mapping

Maps ordered

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

Darren Bailey Ordnance Survey

Quite simply, the best free Geography teaching resource! Thank you! For many pupils this is their first contact with a real map! Thank you again for this amazing service. The pupils love it! This is brilliant and worth its weight in gold. Our students excel in map skills because we can give them a map to keep and use both in the class and at home. Thank you again. The maps are always received with immense enthusiasm. The teaching materials that accompanied them last year were superb, with some really inspired activities. This is a great scheme and our pupils really appreciate it, thank you! The importance of maps is not to be underestimated in this technology-driven world. This is an excellent scheme allowing students to develop a variety of skills and insights into the world around them. Most of our students are really excited to get their hands on a map and are fascinated by the manner in which they represent the world! Once again, thank you. This is an excellent scheme and our year 7s have always really engaged with the mapwork as a consequence. These maps have been so important to make the geography of an area the children are unfamiliar with come alive. Thank you, for a socially deprived area, and with school budgets cuts, these resources are gratefully received. Students have become excited about their surrounding area by having ownership of their own maps. Personalised geography has really come to life as students have shared a real sense of place with other. An outstanding resource that has proved to be invaluable for all years from year 7 up to GCSE in many subjects as well as geography A fantastic scheme, the maps still hold a fascination in this technological age! The Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme has provided the school and its students with an invaluable resource over the years. Many students arrive in the sixth form still treasuring their year 7 map.

A real asset to our teaching and something our year 7 pupils always look forward to. Thank you, OrdnanceSurvey! Thank you for such a useful resource our parents are always grateful that their special needs child is treated like all other children. As a teacher of 12 years experience I just wanted to say thank you for offering this wonderful resource free for as long as I can remember. It has been great to give every child the chance to map-read. Truly inspiring for most students. Last year our students were really pleased with their free maps. They took them home and there were various stories of family walks, walking the dog, and new picnic sites. Thank you very much for helping to instil some enthusiasm about map-reading. Thank you once again! The maps are amazing and always appreciated by both pupils and staff! Each year we find the maps to be a superb teaching resource. The pupils love having their own copy and take great pride in them. They bring to life lessons about the local area as well being fundamental in developing their map skills! Free maps is an excellent initiative. We use the maps for both local studies and accessing information on historical sites in our area, as well as practical applications in maths. The children are enthusiastic when using these maps. Free maps enable every child to access the geography curriculum at home and enable us to relate to our local environment with ease. Thanks for allowing us to be a better geography department. Thank you for supplying generations of school children with their first map. There is always one pupil that comes back to geography lesson the very next week with stories of going out over the weekend and exploring with their very own map. This is an amazing resource, it has helped my students become involved and interested in their local area and encouraged many to walk to new places and explore with their families as well. Thank you Ordnance Survey!

2010
November, sees the last map of the scheme sent

2008
5 millionth map sent out

2006
First pupils competition. 12 winners have a bush craft day with Ray Mears

2005
Free maps awarded the RGS-Society Geographical award, BITC Award and SAGT Non book award

2004
Weybridge School win first free maps schools competition

2003
1 millionth map sent

2002
March, Ordnance Survey announce the free maps scheme

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

by Alan Parkinson Secondary Curriculum Development Leader, GA

in the classroom
The cartographers art has changed substantially over the years. Instead of spending some months stretching, bleaching, liming and scudding a piece of calfskin (preferably from a stillborn animal) as a surface on which to create one, todays maps appear on a screen having travelled down a phone line, or as invisible fragments in the air that can be edited on devices that can fit into a pocket.
Digital maps are coming to your school (if theyve not already arrived) thanks to Digimap for Schools an EDINA service enabled by Ordnance Survey, which was launched by Dr Vanessa Lawrence in November 2010. This replaces and develops the successes of the Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme, which distributed over 6 million maps during its lifetime. Although it is sad to see the end of the paper maps (nothing beats unfolding a proper OrdnanceSurvey map sheet after all), the switch to digital maps is not unexpected and also offers flexibility of use, as we shall see in this article. I wrote in the last issue of mapping news about the background to the scheme and there is more on p8 of this issue (Sarahs article), but how is it actually being used by geography teachers in classrooms around the country? Signing up for the service is very easy. Users are sent a username and password, which allows access to Digimap for Schools. The EDINA service streams maps live to schools on request. The maps are taken from the most up-to-date versions and are available at a range of scales. It is this ease of movement from one scale to another (rather than the fixed 1: 25000 scale paper map that was sent out before), which many geography teachers value. Sue Westoby, a geography teacher from Suffolk said:

Ive found Digimap for Schools to be a very useful addition to the resources we use in the classroom and a real improvement on OrdnanceSurveys Get a map due to being able to produce maps that are at a range of scales. The fact that its free for those schools that signed up to the Free maps for 11-year-olds scheme is a bonus, especially for those of us for whom expensive GIS programs are beyond our budget.
I consulted with colleagues on some of the practical issues with using the maps, and had these comments in return:

Signing up to Digimap [for Schools] was extremely easy and the Licence for Use has been well written, making it easy to consult over how the scheme can and cannot be used. One irritation has been that the schools road name appears three times at the bottom right of each map; an issue that has been raised with Ordnance Survey. So far this term we have been able to produce 1:10000 scale maps of the coast at Pakefield, Suffolk so that year 6 pupils could use them in conjunction with Google Earth to investigate cliff-top land uses under threat from coastal erosion.

6 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

We have also printed off 1:20000 scale maps of Stonehenge, laminated them and used them to assess basic mapreading skills, followed by an enquiry into ways of improving visitor access and facilities at the site; part of our Fantastic Places unit, based on the Geography Teaching Today website (http://www. geographyteachingtoday.org.uk) one, but that is also real geography in the news with November2010s announcement of a 10million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards a new 27million visitor centre. A third use has been to produce a map of the streets around Ipswichs waterfront area, as part of a session on fieldwork techniques with colleagues in Suffolk. All year 7 students carry out an active citizenship project, with some students doing a combined Geography-Citizenship activity. The students were looking at improving a footpath from the centre of the village to the railway station. The students used base maps obtained from Digimap for Schools to annotate with elements of urban blight: graffiti, litter and so on. They then took another copy of the map and annotated it with their ideas for improvement. These ideas were then presented to representatives from the local council. I have also used Digimap for Schools with our travel and tourism students, to enable them to produce base maps for the guided tours that they are planning of the local area. We have used Digimap for Schools with an upper sixth IB geography student who was doing his extended essay on microclimates to produce the base mapping at the appropriate scale(s) that they required. There are so many more ways we will be able to use Digimap for Schools, for example, for enquiries into wind-farm locations, examining the landscape around the River Derwent and the causes of the 2009 Cumbrian floods, doorstep geography enquiries within the schools catchment area to name but three. They are really useful for showing students a sense of scale as well. I asked year 7 to do the classic find your house and then they had to zoom out one stage at a time and explain how the things that they could see had changed. That worked very well with both high and low ability.

This last example is a good use of the schemes online mode (maps dont necessarily have to be printed out). When I started teaching, there would have been an investment required if a map centred on the school was needed. This can now be obtained very quickly, and at a range of scales. This changing of scales allows for that concept to be explored. Graham Trueman, a geographer from Oakbank School in Keighley, West Yorkshire said:

I think Digimap for Schools is an awesome resource. I like the way that teachers and students can easily access the very detailed maps of an area, which are perfect for land-use and lots of other types of mapping with AS groups. I used them when teaching the Crowded Coasts unit in Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast. At school, I have used them printed out for students, so that they can explain how they would protect a stretch of coastlines. This work has been carried out with both AS level and year 9 students. We also used maps for mini-transects of land use with years 7, and year 8 used them to map crime in Keighley, our local town. GCSE students used them as a base to add graphs and charts in their controlled assessment as well.

Would I subscribe to the service each year once my department has to pay for it?
I asked several colleagues this question, with most saying they would have no hesitation in subscribing. One teacher replied:

Probably yes, whilst building up a bank of maps that can be used in the classroom as paper copies or as PDF files for pupils to access on the school network. Departments with larger budgets will probably feel that the more expensive GIS packages have more to offer, however.
The teachers I asked tended to use the site at least once a week, usually when planning ahead. Graham Eyre, a geography teacher from the Anglo-European School in Essex, and a GA Primary Geography champion said:

I think that it is really easy to use and it is great that it is all web-based as it does not require any specialist software to be installed, which also means that I can use it from home or any computer in school.
Teachers are sold on the flexibility of Digimap for Schools. If you havent tried it yet, go to http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk and use the free trial version. For more on mapping and Ordnance Survey products, you can follow a number of Twitter accounts: @ordnancesurvey; OSleisure Dont forget the Ordnance Survey blog too: http://blog.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/ Alan Parkinson is Secondary Curriculum Development Leader at the Geographical Association. He is currently leading a number of ESRI/GA courses on the uses of GIS, and also working on a range of forthcoming textbook resources. His favourite map sheet is OSExplorerMap 411. EDINA is a national data centre based at the University of Edinburgh, www.edina.ac.uk. EDINA is a national data centre based at the University of Edinburgh, www.edina.ac.uk.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

Sarah Jones Geography Teacher Graveney School, Wandsworth.

in action

What is Digimap for Schools?

Digimap for Schools is an online mapping service that provides up-to-date OrdnanceSurvey maps at a variety of scales. The digital maps can be printed or saved as PDF files at A3 or A4 size.

How can Digimap for Schools be used in the classroom?

Before being asked to prepare a lesson to be used as part of the Digimap for Schools launch, I had not used Digimap for Schools. It is a new service offered for OrdnanceSurvey by EDINA that will prove to be incredibly useful for geography teachers. From being able to access street-level maps to road atlas style maps, we are finally able to access digital maps of anywhere in Great Britain. This will not only be a useful tool to use within the classroom, but also for gathering maps for fieldwork purposes. I used Digimap for Schools with a year 7 class. They had been studying map skills and were nearing the end of this unit of work. As a summary activity, I wanted the class to be able to utilise their map skills to be able to plan a route for a fun run. I decided that I would allow the class to use the Digimap for Schools website and their paper OSExplorer Maps to complete the task.

As a starter activity, I showed the class how to log onto Digimap for Schools on their computers and how to find Clapham Common, which was the area where they were going to plan their fun run route. I then asked the class to use the OrdnanceSurvey map symbol sheets that I had provided, to identify five points of interest on the map of Clapham Common that they had on their screens.

8 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

How is Digimap for Schools useful as a teaching and learning tool?

Digimap for Schools is a very versatile teaching and learning tool. The service enables teachers to access maps of anywhere in Great Britain, at different scales; this means that Digimap for Schools can be used within any unit of work that is focusing on places within Great Britain. I will definitely continue to use Digimap for Schools as a resource when teaching map skills and also to find maps for fieldwork. The service is really easy to use; being able to save and print maps is also very beneficial. I believe that Digimap for Schools provides an easyto-access mapping resource that students enjoy using. The main activity involved the students working in pairs planning their fun run routes. The box below shows the instructions that were given to the students.

The rules:
The run should be between 10 and 15 km. It must start and finish at Clapham Common tube station. Part of the run must be on Clapham Common itself sticking to the footpaths. The runners will need two refreshment points these should be equally places along the route.

Tasks:
1. Study the maps carefully and discuss with your partner the different possible routes for your fun run. 2. When you have decided on a good route, draw a map of the route in your exercise book, labelling the following: start and finish; and two refreshment points. 3. Underneath your map, describe the route you will need to refer to distances and features shown on the map to help you to do this. 4. Describe the location of the two refreshment points. 5. Accurately measure your route, to make sure that it is really 1015km long.

How did the students respond to using Digimap for Schools?

The students responded very positively to using the Digimap for Schools service. I was a bit sceptical about how much the service would really add to their learning; however, it made the task much more interactive and fun; this meant that the lesson was made memorable, an important factor in teaching and learning. The students were able to use the website with ease and were comfortable using maps of different scales; this lesson really consolidated their map skills.

As a plenary, I finished the lesson by asking the students to feed back on their experiences of using the Digimap for Schools service. They responded very positively, commenting that they thought that it was fun and easy to use, as well as recognising that being able to access digital maps of anywhere in Great Britain was useful. Several students commented on the fact that the maps do not yet contain grid references, which they thought would improve the service.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

Sarah Jones Geography Teacher Graveney School, Wandsworth.

Planning a route for a fun run at Clapham Common

Learning objective: to be able to use an OrdnanceSurvey map to plan a route for a fun run.

Task:
Your class has been asked to organise a fun run to raise money for charity. The fun run will take place around Clapham Common. You need to use the Digimap for Schools service to obtain an OrdnanceSurvey map to help you to plan your fun run. You can also use your paper OS Explorer Map to help you. Activity 1 Go to this website: http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk Log in with the username and password you received after registering for the service. Type Clapham Common into the search and press GO. Click on Clapham Common, Wandsworth and press GO. Zoom in using the + tool on the map; only press it once. Use the arrows to centre Clapham Common in the middle of the screen. 5. Using the symbol sheets write down three points of interest that you can see on the map. Do this underneath your title in your book. Activity 2 Working in pairs, your task is to plan the route for a fun run. The rules are: The run should be between 10 and 15 km. It must start and finish at Clapham Common tube station. Part of the run must be on Clapham Common itself sticking to the footpaths. The runners will need two refreshment points these should be equally places along the route. 1. Study the maps carefully and discuss with your partner the different possible routes for your fun run. 2. When you have decided on a good route, draw a map of the route in your exercise book, labelling the following: start and finish; and two refreshment points. 3. Underneath your map, describe the route you will need to refer to distances and features shown on the map to help you to do this. 4. Describe the location of the two refreshment points. 5. Accurately measure your route, to make sure that it is really 1015km long. 1. 2. 3. 4.

10 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

Getting to grips with the United Kingdom (UK) for younger geographers
Jeff Stansfield County Geography Inspector/Adviser, Hampshire County Council

I hope that you find the outline for investigating the UK with younger geographers interesting and that it promotes detailed debate in your school. The key questions provide a driving force for geographic enquiry: investigation, problem-solving and decision-making. They are followed by suggested activities. I am certain that if you decided to follow a similar planning outline, you would wish to be really creative and design your own teaching and learning activities 1 What is our own locality in really like? It is important that children know the geography of their place and have a real feel for, attachment to and involvement in it. This will support them in contrasting places and investigating similarities and differences between localities. If youre not from the prairie by David Bouchard Aladdin Picture Books ISBN 0-689-82035-6 is a stunning picture book that explores the character of the prairies and the emotions of living on these great plains. Dont forget to locate the prairies this is a chance to develop, enhance and apply atlas skills.

My formative years were spent in Portsmouth, although I have been for many many years an adopted Southamptonian; a brave decision if you have localised knowledge and understanding of the social dynamics of the south coast!
As a young geographer growing up in Portsmouth, I gradually explored more of that city and places beyond my immediate locality such as the shoreline of Langstone Harbour, Hayling Island and the chalk downlands in the Petersfield area (especially Butser Hill now Queen Elizabeth Country Park). Summer holidays were spent with my grandparents in Totton my ace contrasting locality (near the head of Southampton Water). Placing places is a very important facet of geography (many people both young and old have very limited locational knowledge). Check out the location of these places using http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/

Of note, on a very recent trip to the USA, I was asked which state England was in by a teenager!!!
Concerns have often been expressed by people in high places regarding children and young peoples lack of knowledge and understanding of both the geography of the UK and life in a contemporary UK society. Wow, what a criticism! Until I moved to London to follow my degree course I have to admit that I knew little about more distant places across the UK or life in them. Although we live in a far more mobile and mediated society today, many young geographers, as I did, work, learn and play within very personalised local areas. Some might say that they now have less opportunity for detailed exploration of other places than in the past. I do think that it is imperative that children and young people have an understanding of the diversity of people, places and environments within the UK. However, I think it is very difficult for them to really have empathy for life in more distant parts of the UK unless they experience it first hand.
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

Children can use this book to create their own story outlines with words and photographs for their locality their place and space in the UK

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

11

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/836550 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/473772 Pictures: www.geograph.org.uk

12 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

My place by Jeff Stansfield

Netley Abbey
If youre not from Netley Abbey you will not know The mighty and mystical abbey ruins, The hoots of the great ocean going liners as they leave Southampton and say bye bye to their tug boat escorts off of Netley Wall. The smells of Fawley oil refinery carried on the prevailing south westerly wind, The rich colours of the coastline through winter, spring, summer and fall, If youre not from Netley Abbey you wont know, That I am wide awake in the evening and at the dawn call. But at most other times just a sleepy village down by the shore.

Check out the geography of Netley Abbey using http://www.upmystreet.com/ http://maps.google.co.uk/ www.geograph.org.uk http://www.bing.com/maps/ 2 Where exactly is the United Kingdom then? Sorting and sequencing secondary sources onto a class washing line. In this activity, children work in pairs and are given an envelope with one of the following items in it. They describe their geographical resource to other members of the class and place it on the washing line in the correct position. (From space to place). The sources listed below are only suggestions. Children are selected at random so that the correct sequencing of resources comes into consideration.

Source 1 Source 2

Source 3 Source 4 Source 5 Source 6 Source 7 Source 8 Source 9 Source 10 Source 11 Source 12 Source 13 Source 14 Source 15

picture of the solar system photograph of the Earth from space (Apollo 13 astronaut Over a colourless lunar surface, the Earth hangs like a gaudy Christmas bauble against a deep black background the most beautiful bauble I have ever seen) satellite image of the world lights around the world map of the world physical map of the world political showing the countries map of the northern hemisphere EU satellite image physical features EU map showing countries satellite picture UK physical map of the UK showing distribution of towns and cities map of your economic region aerial picture of your economic region from Google Earth maps of your county different scales/parts 1:50 000 scale and so on school location map picture of the school gate/school sign

High order questioning to involve the children in digging deeper into each resource is essential.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

13

3 What is the United Kingdom like? A carousel of activities focusing on developing and enhancing knowledge and understanding of the UK these activities might include: Facts and figures detectives: information can be obtained by teachers from http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom. The children can produce country trump cards with self-selected information about each of the UK countries. Newspaper/Internet detectives: happening in the UK today UK headline makers getting to grips with topical issues from across the UK. Ask the expert: hot-seating the geography coordinator or another member of staff who has travelled extensively in the UK. Pamphlet and poster detectives: http://www.visitwales.co.uk/ http://www.visitbritain.com/en/GB/ http://www.enjoyengland.com/ http://www.visitscotland.com/ http://www.discovernorthernireland.com/ Gathering information from secondary sources public information documents. Poems, picture books, stories and account detectives: from the Katie Morag stories to extracts from Notes from a Small Island (by Bill Bryson). Children read selected stories (full or part) about UK places. Locate places review pictures of the places. Where are the places portrayed in relation to the school locality? How are they similar and different? Art explorers: investigating the UK through the eyes of great people, place and environment artists. Liaise with the art coordinator in your school. See also: http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=pictures+of+british+land scape+paintings&um=1&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IESearchBox&rlz=1I7SKPT_en&tbs=isch:1&ei=pEY3TduwHIW7hAfB w5SgAw&sa=N&start=20&ndsp=20

UK image explorers using images downloaded from www.geograph.org.uk, matching (pre-written names of places and simple description cards to the pictures) placing selected pictures and cue cards around a large home-made wall map of the UK. Creating a UK landscape map. Mighty mind mappers children given a blank map of the UK to label, write brief descriptions and annotations of the UK as they already now know it. There is a need to model the difference between labels descriptive sentences and annotations. This segment of the unit could be expanded to include having a UK Day in school different teaching spaces for different countries of the UK. 4 How am I and other members of my family connected to other parts of the United Kingdom? Which places in the UK do I visit? Investigate with the children reasons why they visit other parts of the UK family visits, sporting events, shows and concerts, school visits and so on. Create personalised/labelled UK journey and visit maps developing mapping skills and techniques. Your place or mine? Children compare their maps with other people in the class. Are there common places that they go to? What regions do their visits cover? Who has travelled furthest? What types of transport have they used? And so on. The mapping activity can be a source of data (from all the class) to graphically display class interconnectivity with other places and regions across the UK.

The Haywain Constable Near Flatford Mill Suffolk

Other colleagues (both teaching and nonteaching staff) may wish to show and tell their UK connections with the class. Show and tell when managed effectively and efficiently, show and tell is an outstanding opportunity for children to share their experiences with each other. Some might want to show and tell unique visits that they have had to other parts of the UK. 5 How is our place (in my case Hampshire) connected to other parts of the United Kingdom? It is important to investigate how places

Atlas and map explorers: getting to grips with the UK using a range of simple thematic maps physical, political, settlement, transport, farming, climate and so on. http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=maps+of+the+UK&rls=com. microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7SKPT_ en&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=Il85TenPE8yxh AeTz4TFCg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=2&v ed=0CD8QsAQwAQ

14 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

are interconnected. It is difficult for places to exist in isolation. Here are a few suggestions of activities that can explore interconnections. Chose your own football team Southampton is mine. On the road with the mighty Saints: Southampton play in Football League 1 but which away places do they visit? What places do they visit during the season for away games? Where are these places located? Simple mapping task. Which places do they visit more than once? Why might this be the case? In pairs for selected away venues drawn from lucky envelopes What route do you suggest the team coach follow to take to your away place? What is your place like? How is it similar and different to other places the team goes to? The children can produce a small guidelet for the players ( to be read on the team coach) for places that they are visiting creative and personalised information documents. Check out http://www.geograph.org.uk/ gallery/football_grounds_10584 even if it is a bit out of date now! Mighty map explorers children explore a range of atlas maps, electronic maps and specialised maps (for example topological transport maps bus and coach, train and air routes and so on). Which parts of the UK is their locality connected to? Travel brochures what UK places and tours are advertised in local travel brochures and newspapers this year? Which places would the children like to visit (and why)? How are the places they would like to visit both similar and different to their home locality? The children can create their own tourist route (to include a seaside resort, mountain area, island hop, capital city and so on). Meet the people local town centre fieldwork meet the visitors interview information can be via the use of a Dictaphone or iPod and so on. Questions can be developed/selected by the children but might include: Where are you from? How did you get here? Why are you visiting here?

How long are you staying in here? How is this place similar and different from your home locality? Great data to display remember safe fieldwork practice. School service detectives when people visit the school for meetings, to undertake repair work, to deliver goods and so on, ask them to complete the visitor sign-in book ask them to record where they have come from. This data can then be used to check out how the school is interconnected and interdependent on other places in the UK. For upper juniors we can begin to explore spheres of influence the size of the area that the school is connected to and depends on. Hunting for UK connections in school and in the school grounds. Children are UK place-hunters and mappers. Explain and model what to look for for example, where books are published; where equipment is made; where food items originate from or are packed; where car owners get their tax discs; the garages they bought them from and adverts in the windows; digging deeper (cracking) postcodes and phone numbers and so on. Set the fieldworking task explain how to capture the information recording sheets, cameras and recording on base maps/plans and so on. Which places in the UK can the children track down through fieldwork? Where did they discover the information? Where are these places? What can we discover about these places and so on? Why are they important places to the school? And so on. Children select one of the places found and research it display information in a personalised format. 6 What is the United Kingdom really like in character? How are different areas and/or places in the UK similar and different to our place? Secret postcode investigators: the children are given a secret postcode to investigate using sites such as: http://maps.google.co.uk/ http://www.bing.com/maps/ http://www.upmystreet.com/ http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/getamap/frames.htm http://www.geograph.org.uk/ http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk** ** for most able year 5/6 children (using the neighbourhood summary data with the help of the adults in the classroom to explore demographic data for localities). Teachers will have their own sites once located, the children can, with support, expand their investigations. You will need to generate your own questions with the children you can select your own postcodes. Which place is your secret postcode in? In which part of the UK is this place located? Where is this in relation to our home locality? What can you discover about this place? How is it similar and different to our home area?

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

15

Children create simple recording sheets and display similarities and differences between their secret locality and the local area using independent techniques. Some randomly suggested postcodes: E15 4BQ EN1 2NG TA24 5SH IV40 8AB These are for locations within specific UK settlements

BT1 5GS LA22 9SH LL24 0BN TR18 5HF

LE1 6ZG OL9 9EF RG14 5AA HU1 3RQ

LL24 0BN HU1 3RQ http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/598287 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2244930

LA22 9SH TR18 5HF http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1860182 http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/926040 Digging deeper into aspects of the geography of the UK the children work in small groups to enquire into aspects of the geography of the UK. Examples of topics that can be researched: landscapes mountains, lowlands, rivers, coasts and so on; weather and climate of different parts of the UK; UK National Parks; population distribution; UK peoples backgrounds, culture, religions; UK traditions festivals and celebrations; UK economic regions and their character; and so on. Class PowerPoint presentations of their findings. Wish you were here! children are given (or select) a wish you were here locality to create a PowerPoint presentation for the place includes both urban and rural locations both coastal and inland and so on. Generating school links it is important to generate links with schools in other parts of the UK especially in areas that are geographically significantly different to your local area. This will, under supervision, allow the children to share geographical information with their peers

16 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

in other areas either by email or via Skype. Beginning to get a real feel for living in another part of the UK through the eyes of children. 7 How has the United Kingdom changed in the lifetime of my family? Meet the family: a chance to meet and interview people of different ages and backgrounds great grandparent(s) grandparent(s) parent(s), older brothers and sisters and carers. Again, the questions are for your colleagues and the children to decide on but might well include: Where did you live as a child? How did you come to live in this area? What was a school day like in those days? What did you do in your leisure time? What places did you visit in the UK? What is your favourite place in the UK? Why? What was happening in the UK when you were our age? What have been the biggest changes you have seen in the UK in your lifetime? Alternatively: Historical resource detectives: linked to history investigations, this is an opportunity to investigate the character of The UK (remembering that the Act of Union was in 1707) in times past and compare it to the present. For example: Prehistoric Britain Medieval times/Tudor times Roman Britain Victorian times expansion and empire Anglo-Saxon times The Second World War the UK since 1930 Life and times of these periods can be researched and displayed as wall posters around the classroom. What did each period bring to the UK?

8 What are the main issues facing the United Kingdom today? Small group discussion facilitated by adults Start whole class review of items in the news both locally and nationally items that interest the children. Use school Internet news boards, selected pages from local and national papers, what the children have seen on TV, hot gossip cards and so on. Discuss styles of reports, bias in reporting, impact of reports and so on as necessary. Thence into small group discussions facilitated and recorded by adult helpers. What are the childrens concerns in their local area? What things have happened in the local area that have pleased them? What items of UK news stick in their minds? Where are these events/issues occurring? What do they think are the big issues facing the UK at this moment in time? Why? Sharing of group findings creation of gossip boards. 9 What do we want the United Kingdom to be like in the years ahead? Ignore our views at your peril a chance to tell the local MP. Following the previous activity, the children work in teams to outline their dreams and aspirations for the UK of tomorrow participatory geography. Their points of view are shared with a panel that can be made up of selected governors, the head teacher, the phase leader and a local councillor. Letters expressing their considerations can be sent to the local MP. NOTE: the children are our today and our tomorrow it is important that their views are sought on local, national and international issues we ignore their voice at our peril. I hope that this brief outline gives you a range of ideas for planning your own unit on the UK and that through it, your children to start to get a flavour of the diversity of the UK.

David Ross and Britain Express

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

17

Continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities from the Geographical Association (GA)
Whether youre looking for support, or an experienced teacher after some new ideas, weve got something for everyone. As always, GA members will receive huge discounts!

Primary National Conference

Leading Geography: Opening up a world of curriculum opportunity Birmingham Monday, 13 June 2011 Sheffield Friday, 17 June 2011 Overview This CPD course is aimed at all who teach primary geography. During the day we will: explore the potential implications for the curriculum in a changing educational climate; think about the role of subjects, core knowledge and big geographical ideas; develop and extend geographical expertise through the use of speaking and listening, creative thinking and enquiry learning; and focus on practical teaching ideas for both indoor and outdoor environments that will challenge learners, enhance the quality of geography in your school and encourage enthusiasm for the subject.

Outcomes When you leave at the end of the day, we hope you will feel excited and stimulated by the lively approaches to the teaching of geography demonstrated, and that you will: have a greater understanding of the direction that geography is likely to take in the next curriculum review; take away practical ideas that you can try out at school, including ideas for fieldwork and enquiry learning; and have shared your ideas with other teachers.

Further details and online booking available at

www.geography.org.uk/primaryconference
18 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

Paula Owens

Paula Owens

This course will help you ensure that the geography you teach is of the highest quality and makes a distinctive contribution to your school curriculum.

Bryan Ledgard

Post-16 National Conference

Excellent teaching, excellent results London Monday, 20 June 2011 Sheffield Monday, 27 June 2011 Overview Welcome to the GAs second national conference for A-level geography teachers, this year jointly run with the Royal Geographical Society International Baccalaureate (IB). This conference is designed to update your knowledge of current topics, offer ways to challenge your students to think more geographically and, ultimately, enhance your A-level teaching with new ideas. Further details and online booking available at

www.geography.org.uk/p16conference IB Geography Reflecting on the new syllabus

London Friday, 24 June 2011 Overview This course will help post-16 teachers, both new and experienced, reflect upon the demands of the IB geography diploma programme. The new 200917 syllabus will have completed its first cycle in the summer of 2011 and this one-day course will provide an excellent opportunity for teachers to reflect upon the first cycle and make plans for the next. Aims and outcomes The course will investigate: what worked well for you? What didnt? What can be done about it?; internal assessment best practice; the materials available to support the IB geography course; and the best online resources to support students and educators.
Bryan Ledgard

Presenter: Richard Allaway, Teacher of IB geography and MYP Humanities at the International School of Geneva Campus des Nations; author of www.geographyalltheway.com and IBO Online; Curriculum Centre Faculty Member. Full programme and online booking are available at

from the GA CPD opportunities

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

www.geography.org.uk/ibgeography

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

19

Bryan Ledgard

Bryan Ledgard

by Adrian Manning Head of Geography and Geology, St Helena School, Colchester

My places, my geography
Worldwise is the banner for the Geographical Associations range of student-oriented activities found on http://worldwise.geography.org.uk. Worldwise aims to support the engagement of as many schoolaged children as possible in geography and also to increase the appreciation of their role in todays world. Adrian Manning, Head of Geography and Geology at St Helena School, Colchester describes how he has used the Worldwise My Places to meet the personalised geographies agenda in his school.
Since completing my postgraduate certificate in education in Secondary Geography during 2003, I have found it somewhat of an anomaly that whilst the potential for getting students to explore and interact with geography at their own personalised scale is undisputed, what was taught at Key Stage 3 provided little opportunity to do so. The situation at my school is now very different and this is due, in no small part, to my involvement with the GAs Worldwise initiative. In 2008, with the new geography programmes of study and becoming head of department I set about attempting to create a new kind of geography, a geography that engaged my students, directly impacted on them and challenged them in the way that they see the world and their own place within it. This process involved consideration of some key questions: How could this be achieved? How should students express their personal geographies? What would their end product look like? How could/should their work be assessed? I began with the Year 7 Introduction to Geography unit. I wanted to enthuse and excite the learners from day one of secondary school and show them the true nature of geographys relevance to them as individuals. I therefore set about devising a skills-based unit that would cover practical ways the students could interact with geography, both in and outside the classroom, at a scale that was accessible and relevant to them as individuals. Sharing their personal geographies would be key to this unit and My Places was to be at the heart of this. My Places is an interactive area of the GAs Worldwise website (http://worldwise.geography.org.uk) that allows students to upload details, some text and up to two images, of their own special places. They can also read about others places and even vote for ones that they particularly like. I had used this in the past with the schools geography club, but it clearly had the potential for the wider audience of an entire year group. So, in September 2008 the first Year 7 students began to work on their My Places as a starter activity to a lesson. What had seemed like a leap into the unknown went down a storm! The students loved the interactiveness of the website page, the opportunity to speak about places that were important to them, and the fact that within 24 hours it would be up on the GAs website was the icing on the cake! I realised there was potential to expand this beyond a starter activity, so in September 2009, I set up a series of lessons and activities based around the My Places theme and website.

Lesson 1: An Introduction to My Places

Start the lesson off by discussing the importance of place and space to people and lead into exploring the idea that each person will feel they fit in with the world around them (their geographies) at different scales and in different places (for example, spaces/places where one person feels comfortable/safe someone else may feel unsafe and threatened). The main part of this lesson deals with the student going onto the My Places website (NOTE: you will need to register your school first before students can log on under your school name) and assessing/peer-reviewing the entries that have previously been uploaded to the site.

20 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

Lesson 2: Uploading my own My Places

Using the ideas, which they have gathered from the previous lesson, learners should log back into the My Places website and choose whether their own My Place is going to be at the scale of Britain or the world (if so, select the continent that it is on). At the bottom of all the previously uploaded entries click on add My Place. At this point, a simple template containing space for some text and a place for up to two photos will appear and the learner can begin to create their own My Place entry. They should be encouraged to maximise the geographicalness of their entry by including in their description of their place, explicit references to scale, location and interconnectedness (all key strands of the 2008, geography programmes of study) as well as showing an appreciation for the physical and/ or human geography; reasons for why they regard their place as special. Finally, the students should find, ideally from their own sources, one or possibly two photos of their place and add them to their entry (NOTE: these will need to be saved into their My Documents area on their user account, prior to uploading them as part of their entry).

Examples of My Places recently added

Amritsar, India I would like to go to the golden temple, somewhere in India the reason for this is because my religion was made up in India, and the golden temple is something very special it is a special temple where you would go and worship, they say if you go there and make a wish, it will come true. The reason why it is so special is because it is known for where the god I worship has kept all his weapons. India is a wonderful tourist place for people of different religions could go. The golden temple is surrounded by holy water, you should bathe in the holy water if you visit the golden temple, the holy water gives you good luck for the rest of your life. Added by: Simran, age 12 Ferizaj, Kosovo, Europe I love Kosovo! I guess the main reason why I love it so much is because all my family are in Kosovo (except my parents and brothers of course). The reason why I am living in England right now is because of the war that happened back in 1999. But of course if there had been of no war, then I would have been living in Kosovo right now. It was a terrible war but we cannot do anything about that now, so lets get back to the subject. I mostly love Kosovo because my family live there. I always look forward going to Kosovo every summer. Its not just seeing my family that I look forward to but its also the swimming pools! I adore the swimming pools. All the pools are outside, so that you can get a tan. And also, the pools have a couple of water slides and 3 metre diving boards! You dont really go to Kosovo to go shopping but you should go once in a while. The weather is also brilliant! Its very, very hot! In the summer, the average temperature is over 30 degrees! Added by: Melita Bibaj, age 11 Malham, North Yorkshire Janets Foss is a small waterfall on Goredale Beck. Janets Foss is situated on limestone bedrock and is an outstanding example of tufa, a calcium carbonate deposited due to precipitation of water with a high calcium content. This calcium comes from the limestone. Janets Foss is supposedly the home of Janet the fairy, although on my visit she did not seem to be at home, perhaps she went on holiday I dont know? This place is fantastic to visit for all you geographers out there! Added by: Max, age 15

Lesson 3: My Favourite Place presentations

I started this lesson with an example of a presentation of my own Favourite Place, a short PowerPoint presentation including map(s) and photographs overlaid with 10 key words to summarise the reasons why this is your Favourite Place. You could even attach a piece of music that relates to this place to play whilst the presentation is being given. Learners can then gather and select photos, maps, text and music (if your network will host it) and produce a short presentation to the class that can be peer assessed. Such assessment should be discussed and the assessment criteria agreed with the learners at the start of the lesson so as to give learners ownership of their individualised learning. Since then I have further developed the above ideas through the use of Digimap for Schools, which enables learners to explore any part of the British Isles at individual road house scale. My Places, like the entire suite of activities provided by Worldwise, offers a quick and easy way to engage learners in an interactive geographical learning environment. Take a look at what else is on offer on the website; local quizzes, online quizzes or the annual Geography Awareness Week resources. My Places has enabled my learners to appreciate and experience what I believe to be the widest possible breadth of geographical learning. Learning that has left them better equipped to understand their own, as well as others, personal geographies.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

21

Teaching Ordnance Survey

map skills
Ordnance Survey map skills in a creative and engaging way. Here is a reminder of some of the ideas you could consider;

by Ruth Totterdell Publications and Journals Manager Geographical Association

There are many resources to help teachers to teach

On the Ordnance Survey website

Map reading made easy peasy

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/education/ freemapsfor11yearolds/index.html To help your students with their map reading, Ordnance Survey produces a leaflet with lots of guidance on map-reading skills. This can be downloaded from their website or hard copies ordered, while stocks last.

Fantasy expeditions
This is an ideal resource for use with your Year 7 pupils. It encourages individuals to work in groups. Two expeditions have been created to tackle Ordnance Survey map-reading skills in a fun and interesting way. Each activity should take approximately four lessons to complete for an average class size.

Fantasy expeditions 1. Elvis and me on tour

As we all know, Elvis is alive and living in space!You will be given a day off school to take Elvis on an expedition and can choose to visit anywhere on your Ordnance Survey map.

Fantasy expeditions 2. Euro expedition

The European Union is sending you and a friend to a country of your choice for a week on holiday. Two students from that country will be visiting your home area in exchange. Plan the best day out for them!

Teaching guide and skills checklist

These resources are designed as an aid for teachers working with Year 7 pupils. They provide a variety of hints and tips for developing map-work skills. The printable checklist is a tool to establish the current level of mapping knowledge of your pupils, which you could use again after finishing your map-work lessons to evaluate pupil progress.

22 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news
mapping news has provided teachers with many creative ideas for using the free maps. All the previous mapping news can be downloaded from the Ordnance Survey website.
Here are some highlights from previous editions: Spring 2008 (issue 33), Gary Rogers about the Geograph website (www.geograph.org.uk) and how to use this to develop your students map-reading skills and visual literacy. The spring 2009 (Issue 35) develops this further. Spring 2009 (issue 35). Val Vannet describes an exercise to analyse a 16 km area of an Ordnance Survey map. This ICT activity encourages students to analyse their patch. Autumn 2008 (issue 34). Rachel Bowles gave many further ideas of how Ordnance Survey maps can be used with younger pupils and linked to literacy and outdoor learning.

The Language of Landscape

The Geographical Association developed more ideas for using Ordnance Survey maps with students in a Natural England publication, The Language of Landscape. It includes activities for using Ordnance Survey maps both inside and outside the classroom. This can be downloaded from the Natural England website: http://naturalengland.etraderstores.com/NaturalEnglandShop/NE20

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

23

Mapping festivals
On the geographyteachingtoday website there is a Key Stage 3 resource unit that develops map skills through the contemporary topic of music festivals. Students are able to develop a variety of map skills as well as using maps to explore wider issues in relation to festivals, such as environmental impacts and flooding. Students can engage with maps on a wide range of scales from different sources including Google Earth, Google Maps and Ordnance Survey, developing and building on their map interpretation skills. The unit starts with the geography of Glastonbury. www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/ ks3-resources

Anna Totterdell

Free maps
24 mapping

Anna Totterdell

Anna Totterdell

The free maps scheme has now closed, 2010 was the last year of the scheme. If your school has Year 7/Primary 7 pupils at the start of the autumn term in 2010, you are eligible to sign up to the new Digimap for Schools service. http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/ For more information and ideas of how to use it see the article in this magazine.

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

Teaching about places

The vocabulary is probably best learned in context of the ideas or concepts (the grammar) we are trying to develop with students: ideas such as, countries, regions, interdependence, climate, place, location. It can be built into lessons with careful teaching. World knowledge is enabling knowledge and in some ways brings to life powerful conceptual understanding of the world and how it is made. One without the other diminishes students geographical capability their understanding of the world and their relationship with it.

by Ruth Totterdell

In November 2010, the Department for Education published the schools white paper, The Importance of Teaching. It heralds more curriculum change and reform over the next few years. The emphasis is quite different from the secondary curriculum introduced in 2008.
Read some key extracts from the white paper below; We will ask teachers to work with us to review the National Curriculum in order to reform it. The curriculum should embody rigour and high standards and outline a core of knowledge in the traditional subject disciplines (p42). At present the National Curriculum includes too much that is not essential knowledge, and there is too much prescription about how to teach (p10). A new approach to the National Curriculum will specify a tighter, more rigorous, model of the knowledge which every child should expect to master in core subjects at every key stage (p10). The Curriculum needs to refocus on the core subject knowledge that every child and young person should gain at each stage of their education (p11) There will be a great focus on subject content (p42).

You can read the schools white paper, The importance of Teaching in full at www.education.gov.uk/ b0068570/the-importance-of-teaching/ GA Chief Executive, Professor David Lambert has prepared a think piece which comments on and responds to particular aspects of the schools white paper. You can read this at www.geography.org.uk/news

Teaching about places

How do you give your students a knowledge about places, a major part of the core knowledge of geography? Perhaps a good place to start is a department audit of the places you teach about during your Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. An activity for a department meeting could be to label these places on a blank world map. Are all the continents represented? Are there any blank areas? How could you incorporate more places? What strategies do you use in your school that enable your students to develop an extensive knowledge of the world? Here are some simple ideas; 1. Quizzes The GA has plenty of help at hand. Make use of the Worldwise website for Online Quizzes, Local Quiz and My Places. http://worldwise.geography.org.uk/ 2. Inflatable globes Use an inflatable globe in lessons. There are plenty of fun ways they can be used to reinforce locational knowledge.

What impact will this repositioning have on geography teaching? Is this a return to a regional gazetteer approach to school geography? Hopefully not, but we should not be afraid of geographical knowledge! The Geographical Associations (GA) manifesto (www.geography.org.uk/adifferentview) states clearly, to learn geography requires both vocabulary (geographical information) and grammar (big ideas or concepts). These represent different kinds of knowledge and both are important. The core subject knowledge mentioned in the white paper may be thought of as vocabulary. It does not just accrete naturally: it has to be taught and learned. This need not mark the end of relevant and engaging geography! Knowledge development is not to be confused only with closed facts, nor with the very old fashioned idea of education based solely on the accumulation of fragmented, received information. But extensive factual world knowledge geographys vocabulary is useful.

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

25

Shaun Flannery

Teaching ideas for inflatable globes:

Globe tossing Throw the globe to a student, they catch it and look at the location under their left thumb. They have to come up with three clues for the rest of the class, for example neighbouring countries, continent, major river, cities and so on. The person who guesses correctly then gets passed the globe.

Great Circles Use string to compare the distances in travelling around the world. Choose two locations and place the string from the departure to the destination location following longitudinal or latitudinal directions. Mark the distance on the string with a felt pen. Then stretch the string to find the shortest route, which may be a great circle via the poles. Discuss why this is.

Where in the world? Name particular features and/or places for a child to find and point to it on the inflatable globe. The child then passes the globe to the person sitting next to them; either the teacher repeats the task or another chosen child asks the holder of the globe to point to a new feature or place.

Spot the biggest/smallest As part of a group use the globe to look for large and small features. Students can be asked to find the largest continent or ocean; to find the smallest of four named islands; countries bigger or smaller than another country; the longest mountain range or river or the largest lake or inland sea. They can set each other features and places to find.

Where we have been Use the inflatable globe to locate places in the world that children have been to on holiday. Children note the country and area of the world. This might be an informal geography activity or a task in a project on places we have been to, and can be extended to include places where we have connections and where the places are they would visit?

Hot or cold? With the lights off and a torch you can illustrate the differences in an area heated up by the suns rays, to show why the poles are cooler than the equator.

Drawing on the globe Use a whiteboard pen to draw on the globe, ask the students to locate case studies, travel routes, physical features and so on. This could be done as a group challenge with each group having a globe and list of things to locate.

Hot-seating Get the class to stand in a circle and to pass the globe between them. As soon as they receive the globe they have to say a key word or associated word from the lesson. If they cannot come up with one, they are out and have to sit down. The globe can be used for hot seating, the student with the globe talks, this can be used for feedback, debriefing. The globe can be used when asking questions, throw the globe to a student and they get asked a question.

A fuller version of this can be found on the GAs online shop where inflatable globes can be purchased: www.geography.org.uk/shop More ideas can be found or adapted from those in Simon Catling (2002), Placing Places, Sheffield: Geographical Association (3rd edition).

26 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

 Leonie Stevenson

Leonie Stevenson

3. Use your classroom walls Make maps a major feature of your classroom. Ordnance Survey produces world and British Isles wall maps. Use the maps to highlight the location of case studies, geography in the news, postcards. You can buy aerial photos of your school. Secondary Geography Quality Mark school, Bispham High School Arts College in Blackpool have put a display with information of every country in the world outside their geography classrooms.

Bispham High School Arts College in Blackpool, a Secondary Geography Quality Mark School 4. Using maps and atlases in lessons Always locate places on maps; have atlases out frequently. GA members can access 30 base maps of countries and continents: www.geography.org.uk/ resources/basemaps When learning about case studies, say, the favelas of Rio de Janerio, always take the opportunity to locate them in the context of Brazil and South America.
Barking Photographic

5. Google Earth Google Earth can make an amazing visual tool for locating places. It is immediately engaging, and offers the chance to add your own layers and data to visualise your own places. Places that have been bookmarked can have links to media including images, video and audio and customised markers. From the first time that many geography teachers saw the world rotating on their classroom walls, they began to explore the possibilities that it offered. As you zoom into places, dont forget to take your time to locate places at the continent and country scale, before they pass you in a blur. There are ideas for the use of Google Earth in locating places at: www.geography.org.uk/projects/ks4ict/geographicallocation Make sure that you keep your version up to date. The latest version has 3-D trees for a number of locations, and Paris in 3-D. Jamie Buchanan Dunlop has produced an excellent free guide to using Google Earth for an enquiry on the school grounds. This can be downloaded as a PDF booklet from the Digital Explorer website: http://digitalexplorer.com/tools/google-earth/ Alan Parkinsons Google Earth Use Guide project was funded by an Innovative Geography Teaching Grant from the Royal Geographical Society in 2005, and can be found at: http://googlearthusersguide.blogspot.com/ Also follow @googleearth on Twitter for the latest news and updates. Email me with some of the ideas that you have used in your school and we will share them on the GA website. Ruth Totterdell rtotterdell@geography.org.uk

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education

mapping news Issue 39 Spring 2011

27

Leonie Stevenson

Opportunities for teachers and students through the Royal Geographical Society
(with IBG)
Funded opportunities for teachers and students through its Learning and Leading programme:
Weekend Fieldwork masterclass for geography teachers Sixteen free places on a weekend fieldwork masterclass are offered to secondary geography teachers from maintained schools Course date: Friday 15 July (evening) to Sunday 17 July 2011 (lunchtime) Location: FSC Slapton Ley, South Devon Theme: investigating coasts and rivers Activities: planning A-Level fieldwork on coasts and rivers, with field visits to Start Bay and the River Harbourne; using and evaluating a variety of fieldwork techniques; building case studies; low cost and local activity ideas; sharing ideas and adapting for use in own school. Course fees, accommodation and meal costs are all covered by the project. All participants need to pay for is travel to get to the course. Application closing date: Friday 6 May 2011 Fieldwork summer school for AS students Sixteen fully-funded places are available on a fieldwork summer school for AS/Higher geography students. The course is aimed to give students who would not normally have such opportunities, a chance to experience high-quality residential fieldwork. Course date: Monday 22 to Friday 26 August 2011 Location: FSC Slapton Ley, South Devon Activities: Students will investigate and build-up case-studies of coasts, rivers and issues relating to rural settlements; use ICT and a variety of fieldwork techniques, plan and carry out group fieldwork investigations and take part in team-building and personal development activities. All costs of the course are covered by the project, including return travel from home address, accommodation and meals. Application closing date: Friday 6 May 2011 Gap year scholarships for A2 geographers Gap year scholarships gives young geographers, who wouldnt otherwise get the opportunity, the means to take a meaningful overseas gap experience before going onto university to continue their geographical studies. Each scholarship includes funding of up to 4 000 as well as advice and support from the Society and a dedicated mentor to help the students plan a meaningful and successful gap experience. Next round: Students commencing Year 13 in September 2011 Application closing date: 30 September 2011

Further information
For information on all these opportunities and application details, see: www.rgs.org/learning&leading Email: landl@rgs.org

Inspiring progression and careers in geography and GIS

Esri UK has become the corporate partner to the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)s Geography Ambassador Programme. The scheme, which has achieved over 1200 school visits in the past year alone, inspires young people to study geography and shows them the possible careers that lie ahead Esri UK will provide financial support as well as adding a GIS strand to the programme Ambassadors who go into schools will now have access to additional GIS materials, GIS career case studies and will be joined by a team of 20 new Ambassadors selected from Esri UK staff who trained as ambassadors recently and are eager to come out into schools to share their passion for GIS.

Feedback from visits is overwhelmingly positive, with words like inspiring, relevant , helpful and positive often used by teachers For more information about the Geography Ambassador Programme and to register for a visit, go to http://www. findgeographyambassadors.org

28 mapping

news Issue 39 Spring 2011

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/education