by Paula Owens

Geography Resources The Locality Detectives

Key Stage 2

About Digimap for Schools Digimap for Schools is an online mapping service for use by teachers and pupils providing easy access to a range of current Ordnance Survey maps including the most detailed mapping available for Great Britain, OS MasterMap, as well as digital versions of Ordnance Survey's famous paper maps, the Landranger and Explorer series. Also included are street level maps showing street names and road-atlas style maps. Maps can be printed as PDF files at A3 or A4 size with an individual's own map title and name included with the scale bar and school name and address. Search tools include postcode, place name or national grid reference and maps can be moved to centre on any chosen location within Great Britain. Map keys are available for each scale map to explain the symbols used within the map. Maps can be annotated with symbols, lines, areas, text and can be saved to be reused during another session. Digimap for Schools is a subscription service. Schools purchase a subscription for 12 months access to the service. Details on subscriptions can be found at http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/subscribe.html. Terms of use of the service can be found at http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/termsofuse.pdf. For further information or to give feedback on our resources, contact the EDINA Help Desk on 0131 650 3302 (Mon- Fri 9-5) or email edina@ed.ac.uk.

About the Author: Dr Paula Owens

Paula worked for many years as a primary teacher and Deputy Head and is currently a freelance consultant, author and trainer specialising in primary geography and sustainable schools. She is also employed two days a week by the Geographical Association as Primary Curriculum Development and Primary Geography Quality Mark Leader.

Paula has worked with government agencies and NGO’s to develop curriculum materials and provided INSET in National and European contexts. She is co – editor of the award winning series ‘Geography Plus: Primary Teachers’ Toolkit’ and leads an online network of ‘Geography Champions’ to support primary teachers.

Geography Champions network http://geographychampions.ning.com The Geographical Association www.geography.org.uk

© EDINA at the University of Edinburgh 2012 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Digimap for Schools Geography Resources Ref No: 13 Title of Activity: The Locality Detectives Level: 6 – 9 years Context: Contrasting localities Location within GB: Leysdown –on - Sea, Kent, England and Prestatyn, Denbighshire, N. Wales are used as an example but you could use this activity with locations anywhere in Great Britain. Knowledge / Skills: Identifying and naming features on maps / Annotating using symbols and markers / Adding labels / Describing and comparing places. Link to Curriculum: contrasting locality, living by the seaside Scottish Curriculum For Excellence: (Social Science Outcomes: People, Place and Environment): 2-13a, 2-14a

Note to Teacher The amount of independent work children are able to manage will depend on their familiarity with the software and experience of using maps in general. The step by step tasks are not meant to be read alone by children but as a guide for you the teacher to demonstrate with the whole class and / or direct individuals as appropriate. Each activity has several ideas within it that you can tailor and adapt to suit your class and children. The aim of the pack is to:

• Support you in developing the use of Digimap for Schools in the classroom across the primary age range

• Develop the skills of your pupils in the use of the full suite of tools that is currently available

• Suggest some ideas for developing mapping across the curriculum • Save you time and provide inspiration!

The contexts for the learning include both ‘physical’ and ‘human’ geography, and will explore different scales of mapping from the school grounds to locations in England, Scotland and Wales.

Digimap for Schools Geography Resources

Activity Identifying features on own and another locality and comparing them then making a maps to show similarities and differences.

Introduction Leysdown on – Sea and Prestatyn are both seaside resorts, though while Leysdown is the size of a large village, Prestatyn is a town with a much greater resident population. Digimap for Schools resources enable pupils to investigate close up, and at other scales, just how similar and different places are. This activity is intended to be applied to your home locality and a contrasting locality of your choice. These two places are used as examples to show how you might set the activity up. The activity lends itself well to going out on fieldwork as it might be done before or afterwards to find out what pupils know or have learnt.

Main Activity How well do you know your local area? What are its characteristics? What kinds of man- made and natural features does it have? Make a class list from memory. Maps give lots of information if we can be like detectives and find the clues. Model being a map detective using Digimap for Schools on an interactive whiteboard (IWB). Challenge pupils to identify and name as many features as they can find in a minute, using the Scale tool and Key as appropriate. Make a list and compare to original brainstorm. Once pupils are confident in their knowledge of local features, most of which they are probably familiar with, move on to look at your chosen, contrasting locality. You could do a brainstorm first of what features pupils think they will find there before looking at the map of this place.

Tasks Keep the original map of the home area on the IWB for pupils to refer to, or have printed copies available. Pupils could work individually, in pairs or in small groups depending on their ability.

1. Open up a map of the local area you want using Digimap. Use a town or postcode search to find the area you want. Zoom in to help you spot features, remembering to use the Key to help you identify symbols. Make notes and report back.

Give a set time to do this and have a competition to see who can find the most features. Here’s an example of one pupil’s lists.

/ 2. Add different coloured icons and labels to the map to highlight some main

similarities and differences with your home area. Open up the Annotations toolbar and select ‘Place Marker’, choosing the icon you want; to show features that are similar in both places. Click on these features in the map to add them.

Choose a different icon to show features that are different and click to add markers to these as well. Then select ‘Place label’, choosing the smallest text and click beside the features you have marked to name them.

You may need to move your labels so that they can be seen as clearly as possible. Select the ‘Move Feature’ from the ‘Modify’ section of the toolbar to click and drag your labels.

Leysdown Beach (pebbly) Sea Caravan park Houses Shops Roads Pub Playground Park Police station Groynes

Prestatyn Beach (sandy) Sea Caravan park Houses Shops Roads Pub Playground Park Police station Sand dunes Groynes Hotel Railway station Fire station

If there is space on the map, add a Key of your own to say which markers show similar and which different features. 3. Give your map a title and save it.

Worksheets 13a and 13b may be useful to help pupils sort similar and different features. Some pupils could be doing this while others make their maps.

Discuss what you have found out from searching the maps. For example, how do the places compare for size? Use terms such as village, hamlet, town or city. What reasons might explain some of the similarities and differences? This idea could be repeated with a variety of different places using pupils’ suggestions.

Taking it further

• Pupils compile a quiz about these two places. Use as an assessment activity to test the whole class.

• Make an advert to persuade people to come and live in a particular place or to have a holiday there. Write and perform the script and film.

• Use a Twitter feed to Tweet the key features of a place. Decide what the most important features are as you have a limited number of characters.

• Set up a blogging link with another school and send each other maps and information about your locality.

Some  similarities  and  differences  between  Prestatyn  and  Leysdown

• Start a ‘Place Profile’ either as a written book or an online document. Decide what the most important headings should be and illustrate each page with a different place its key features. Make a map of all the places you have covered and keep it updated as you add more.

• Investigate what kind of jobs people do in these places and ask how are jobs and the characteristics of a place connected?

• Use a list of the main features of your locality and see if you can detect a place that is very similar to yours.

• Make a list of opposites e.g. coastal – inland, hilly – flat, rural – urban etc and use these new criteria to find a place that is very different to yours?

Additional Resources Worksheet 13a Similar and different (writing) Worksheet 13b Similar and different (drawing and writing)

Weblinks

Geograph: a project which aims to collect a geographically representative photo for every square kilometre of the British Isles http://www.geograph.com The UK in pictures http://www.uk-photos.co.uk/ Making Geography Happen Project: understanding the local area http://www.geography.org.uk/projects/makinggeographyhappen/understandingthelocalarea/thegeography School Linking information http://www.schoolslinkingnetwork.org.uk/ Streetview and aerial imagery http://www.google.com http://www.bing.com/maps

   

Comparison between _____________________________ and ____________________________________

Different  features  at  _________________________   Different  features  at  __________________________  

Name:    

Draw or write some of the similarities and differences between these places  

Name: ___________________________________

My Local Area Contrasting locality

Paula Owens

Jan 02, 2012 20:10Scale 1:25000

Similar features

Different features

Holiday parkGroynes

Sandy beach Sand dunes

Fire Station

Rail Station

National Trail

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Digimapfor

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