GIS PAGE AVAILABLE
Now with section on GPS too
Thanks to Danny from WHERE-WOLF for sending me a complimentary GRID REFERENCE FINDER.
Check them out - as Danny says "Get one, or get lost!"
Happy to feature other resources that I get sent for free...
Click the AQUA3 LOGO to find out how to buy OS Maps at a 10% discount and FREE P&P and help support GeographyPages
There are several REVISION sites which have Mapskills sections.
Maps can be produced by the Online JULES VERNE VOYAGER page. (Thanks to Lou Estey for the link update - November 2003)
There are some excellent TUBE MAPS & variations on them at various sites. Harry Beck's original map is a classic work of art:
GEOFFTECH
SIMON CLARKE has an excellent map, which has a map of the underground as it REALLY is above ground, overlain on the satellite image of the area. I like this idea a lot, and there are plenty of other interesting people out there doing fun things with maps.
Contacted by Craig Asquith, who has provided 3 free maps on his site: 2 excellent outline maps, and a striking coloured map of the Lake District. Check them out HERE.
Contacted in November 2007 by Dr Hobart King from Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. He told me of 2 collections of online reference maps and Landsat images related principally to the USA, which can be seen HERE, and a second collection of over 160 country maps paired withh Landsat images which have been popular reference maps and can be seen HERE.
I have a series of questions using map extracts which we have in the department. Here are a couple of them (not very imaginative I know, but they need to know these things...)
1. Coasts Map-skills: Norfolk coast
2. Castleton Map-skills: Peak District
Go to GEOGRAPHY OLYMPICS and you can serve your country by answering mapwork questions within a time limit. After each round of questions you can see what effect you have had on your country's average score. This is getting quite popular now.
There are a range of mapskills which will be tested on the papers 3 & 4.
Need an OS 1:25 000 or 1:50 000 map extract.
Map symbols should be known.
4 or 6 figure grid references.
Distance using scale, compass directions.
Description of relief, drainage, landscape, patterns of settlement, communication etc.
Use of diagrams to represent data shown on maps
You will always be given a key, so you don't need to learn the map symbols, although clearly it is preferable if you are familiar with them.
3. A resource that we purchased in 2003, and have since used quite a lot at different levels is the excellent:
"Essential Mapwork Skills" by Simon Ross
(Nelson Thornes, 2002)
ISBN: 0 7487 6461 5
Now available: a Key Stage 3 Mapskills book by the same author (and in a similar format...) and Essential Mapwork Skills 2
4. Below is a TEST I produced which uses the resources from the book above as the basis for a 40 minute test. The answers will be added in due course, but it's still to be used with some of my groups. You'll need a copy of the textbook for each person in the group.
MAPSKILLS & DATA INTERPRETATION TEST - click the link to download the test...
5. There's also a great deal of stuff provided by the ORDNANCE SURVEY.
You'll hopefully be familiar with the OS MAPZONE site. The GIS Zone is a new area, which includes a simple 'simulation' of a GIS at work including exercises such as locating a wind farm and solving crimes. Check them out, as you can download versions as well.
The link to the OS GIS FILES is now active. Click to explore. The GIS files goes into the terminology and allows students to look at layers on a map and make decisions.
6. I haven't explored this fully yet, but there is a DIY FLASH CLICKABLE MAP making site available HERE. Have a go and let me know how you get on with it.
7. October 2007 - added link to a set of interactive diagrams and maps which have been produced as part of the United Nations Environment Programme.
Don't forget to claim your FREE MAPS for all Year 7 pupils for 2006 when the letter arrives in your school.
Registered a while ago for uLEARN: the new product from the company that produced Infomapper.
Details from Charles Worth. It's FREE to register.
uLearn offers:
· A FREE open cross-curricular resource library including links to every free and open resource created by every Grid for Learning
· FREE Web 2.0 tools to highlight the most popular resources, linked to your areas of interest
· Sophisticated yet simple tools for the creation of online resources (web pages / links) FREE
· Easy upload (even for video) FREE
· FREE tools to link resources (with associated maps if required) into Personalised Learning activities
· A rich set of maps and aerial imagery
· Drag and drop map selection
· Easy drag-and-drop linking to maps FREE
· Safe educational social networking providing multiple tools to create communities of users with the same learning interests FREE
· Thematic mapping (e.g. displaying pupil achievement data on maps) FREE
· ‘Activelink’ tools enabling you instantly to pull information from multiple websites regarding any location on the planet FREE
· Access from home FREE
· Commitment to ongoing development
With the exception of detailed mapping uLearn is available without charge to every school in the UK. This means that, for the first time ever, every school has access to the same free GIS-enabled schools-only learning platform. The shared nature of the new service is already coming into its own. We have sold mapping licenses to both Northern and Southern Ireland (amongst others). Southern Ireland in particular is using it as their key tool for the teaching of geography. They are therefore busy uploading resources to serve their curriculum. But because this is a shared tool there are now 2578 with the word Geography either in the description or as a Tag, in the open uLearn Resource library for all teachers to access.
In addition to this, although it is only in the early stages of our planned development, uLearn includes safe schools-only Social Networking tools.
Check it out !
