Building the Basics
This section provides some starting points that can be used to help students use computers in their mapping and to develop some basic ideas relating to the functions of a GIS. These ideas will be most appropriate for students in Key Stages 1 and 2 and for those in the early years of Key Stage 3.
Primary
Creating Digital Maps: Choosing the right software for you and your pupils
This short guide by the GA's Wendy North takes you through a number of practical options for creating and editing digital maps in the primary classroom.
Getting Started with Local Studies
Also by Wendy North this document was originally produced for teachers attending the Primary Geography & ICT Curriculum Making Conferences in 2007-08.
The following are examples of primary schools using the Local Studies program on the Geography Teaching Today website:
Music - An Indian Journey
Making and Using Maps
Investigating our Local Area
Fairy Stories and Bawburgh Village Study
Chembakolli: A village in India
Secondary
This site provides a set of six classroom activities that use GIS tools to solve location problems such as finding sites for wind turbines. The data and maps are pre-loaded. Students can choose different layers of data to study the problems then use a scoring system to help reach conclusions.
One of the project ideas on the KS4 ICT project area of our site, in which students investigate and make their own land use models. It includes this helpful download that shows students how to create a layer that shows land use over a base map using Google Maps.
Support for GIS - What GIS can my students do tomorrow? (Word Document)
This shows a local area research activity that can be done using the tools in Google Earth. These tools provide an introduction to GIS elements such as layers of data, measuring and exact positioning.
This open access part of the BBC website consists of short video clips that show examples of how GIS is being used in managing different aspects of crime. They could serve as a stimulus to local field work by students and as illustrations of the vocational aspects of GIS. Three of the titles are:
- Mapping Crime – introduction to GIS
- Mapping crime – using GIS to target vehicle crime in Swansea
- The problem of graffiti.
The site is constantly being updated with additional video clips.
Get started with GIS … on the Internet ... for free
Teaching Geography, David Mitchell, Spring 2007
GA members can download this article for free. It gives guidance to teachers on how to introduce students to GIS principles by the use of free web resources. Several local authorities, for example, have base maps with layers of data that can be searched and mapped. It shows how Google Earth can also be used to demonstrate basic principles.
