Category Archives: resources

Got 10 minutes?

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We’ve put together a series of 4 short guides on using Digimap for Schools. The guides are intended to be worked through over 4 weeks and new subscribers to the service will be sent one each week, post sign-up. Each guide takes just 10 minutes and by week 4, you’ll be making the most of the cross-curricular potential that Digimap for Schools offers.

We guide you sequentially through key features and provide short videos to demonstrate each function. A short practise exercise plus links to some of our lesson ideas are included.

Have a look and let us know what you think!

  • Week 1 Maps and Places Get to grips with the essentials of searching, zooming and viewing our range of maps – contemporary, historic and aerial.
  • Week 2 Making your mark Find out how to add text, shapes, symbols and images to your maps.  Create prints in different sizes and formats. Organise your maps into folders for different classes or projects.
  • Week 3 The numbers Check out how to find a grid reference and measure map features. Add measurement labels to any shapes and lines you create.
Week 3 - add measurement labels.

Week 3 – add measurement labels.

Lesson ideas

Remember we have lots of resources, written by curriculum experts,  with great ideas for using Digimap for Schools. Browse by subject and level at our resources site:

https://dfsresources.edina.ac.uk/

Keep in touch

We really value your feedback so let us know if we can improve these, or if there are any other resources that we can provide to help you get mapping!

Geograph images now available!

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screenshot of Geograph images on a Digimap for Schools map

Geograph images as viewed in Digimap for Schools

You can now view images from the Geograph project in Digimap for Schools. Geograph aims to collect images for every grid square in Great Britain. So far more than 5 million images have been contributed.

Just click the Geograph icon on the toolbar to start searching and viewing images. Our search facility offers suggestions as you type to aid your explorations. A short help video is available on  YouTube, to help you get started.

Dr Paula Owens has authored some fantastic new learning resources to accompany the new Geograph feature.  They have lots of ideas to inspire you to use the images. Landscape Alphabet has some fun ideas on using the images in Key Stage 1 to support language development. There are three resources aimed at Key Stage 2; A focus on rivers, Flooding and Other Hazards, and Photographic! There’s also a Getting Started resource with lots of suggestions for searching.  All resources include ideas for linking in literacy and numeracy.

We hope you will find Geograph a useful tool and enjoy viewing the wonderful images that are available. Do send us your feedback and any examples of fun images you find!

Watch our new video resources about the historic maps

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If you’ve enjoyed looking at the beautiful new 1950s maps within Digimap for Schools, you really should watch our interview with Chris Fleet, Senior Map Curator at National Library of Scotland, talking about both sets of historical mapping NLS have donated to Digimap for Schools.  Chris is full of interesting facts about the mapping products, how they were scanned and points we must remember when looking at scanned paper maps.

These short videos are a superb resource for you to watch with your pupils.  Both interviews are available on the Digimap for Schools YouTube Channel.

Interview Part 1 – An introduction to the 1890s and 1950s maps

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

Interview Part 2 – About digitising historic maps and making them available online

Click here to view the embedded video.

We hope you enjoy watching the videos and learning more about these wonderful historic maps.

Quick start guide now available

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We’ve put together a two page quick start guide with our top ten tips to get going with Digimap for Schools.  The guide is a PDF file available from the link below.  You can print it, download or view on screen.  Please share with your colleagues and pupils, anyone that is unsure about how to get started using Digimap for Schools.

Digimap for Schools Quick Start Guide – Click to view, download and print.

If you are then looking for ideas, remember we have fantastic resources available here – http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/resources

The Geographical Association have also created a fantastic page with examples of use from teachers across different stages – http://geography.org.uk/resources/ordnancesurveymappingresource/workingwithdigimap/

New resource – investigating coastal changes with historic maps

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To help Digimap for Schools users make the most of the service, we have a number of free resources available that have been written by curriculum experts. A brand new resource is now available which is aimed at using the modern and historic mapping to investigate coastal change.

‘Investigating changes to coastal spits’ written by Janet Hutson uses the annotation tools to mark the extent of coastal spits on the 1890s historic mapping. Then pupils use the modern map to annotate the current extend of the spit. These extents can then be compared on the 1890s and current mapping to provide evidence for conclusions drawn about any changes.

You can find Janet’s fantastic resource under the Key Stage 3 resources, on the Free Resources page.

Investigating coastal spit change using 1890s, modern maps and the annotation tools

Investigating coastal spit change using 1890s, modern maps and the annotation tools

We need you! Classroom displays and resources

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This is a call/plea to all teachers that have created any classroom displays that feature maps printed from Digimap for Schools.  We are looking for photos of your displays to feature in a new progression in geography resource that is being written.  If you have any displays featuring maps from Digimap for Schools that you’d be happy to share, please email them to us at edina@ed.ac.uk.  We need photos of your displays by the end of June, so get snapping!

Our second call is for resources, for any stage/age using Digimap for Schools that you have written.  We have a number of resources already available written by Paula Owens and Alan Parkinson, which are extremely popular.  We want to expand the range of resources available and would like to share your tried and tested resources.  We’ll add your resources to the Digimap for School website for other teachers to download and reuse.  Please send us your resources to edina@ed.ac.uk and we’ll pop them up on the website.

 

 

Country outlines map now available

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You may have noticed that we have made a wee tweak to the GB level map view in Digimap for Schools, and have added simple country outlines for the countries of the UK. The idea of this change, is to provide a simple resource for younger pupils to learn, identify and then annotate on the map UK countries and their capital cities.

Pupils can create their own maps, adding annotations to label the countries and cities, to test their knowledge!

GB view level with country outlines