Published: 08 January 2007
Supporting Geography
Visitors to the Ordnance Survey stand at the BETT education technology show at London's Olympia this week will be given a preview of additional resources for geography learning that the map maker has provided on its youth website MapZone.
The award winning website teaches mapping skills by using a stimulating combination of interactive play, questions and answers, animations and games.
It includes a section called GIS Zone aimed at older children that explains the role of geographical information systems.
The new content includes a link to the Geograph web site which Ordnance Survey is sponsoring to improve its use in the teaching of geography.
The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Geograph web site developer Barry Hunter says:
"Using Ordnance Survey grid square coordinates over 3,000 users have already contributed to the web site with close to 300,000 images.
Ordnance Survey sponsorship is enabling the web site to make greater use of the agency's mapping and further improve its geography teaching content with teacher notes and resources."
Ordnance Survey's Education Manager Roger Jeans says:
"We are pleased to be able to support the Geograph web site project. It complements our own on-line resources such as our MapZone and GIS Zone web sites that receive thousands of visits every month.
Recent surveys and research may have cast doubt on the map-reading abilities of Britain's youth, but Ordnance Survey's web sites, resources, and free-maps initiative, which is now in its fifth year, have been proven to have an extremely positive effect on geography teaching and learning in schools.
We also work with a number of business partners who produce a range of educational products and resources based on or enabled by our digital mapping data."
Ordnance Survey's education team has also strengthened links with an association of teacher trainers, Geography Teacher Educators, by providing geographical information systems education resources on its web site.
Teachers and visitors to Ordnance Survey's stand at BETT can enter a competition to win an electronic PDA with Ordnance Survey map data of Britain's national parks, an embedded GPS receiver and either Anquet or Memory-map software.
Further information
Ordnance Survey's educational initiatives
The BETT education technology show is at London's Olympia 10th - 13th January 2007.
The Ordnance Survey stand number is E56.
Geograph website
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