Using OS maps in schools
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Using OS maps in schools
Have any of you ever done any sessions with school groups making use of OS maps? I've got a four session programme to design with a Primary school who have all applied for free OS maps under the scheme in Scotland, and the headteacher is very keen that they get some use out of them. They will be plotting their route to school on them in one of the classroom sessions, but we have 2 outdoor sessions on "proper" orienteering areas after that, and the Head would like to see the OS maps out at sometime over these two sessions. I have no idea how to do this! The kids are P7, so 11-12 years old, and the areas we'll be using come up pretty small on an OS map. Any ideas?
Will? We've got proper fire now!
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Becks - god
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if you've got the O map and the OS map together then how about just looking at the difference as to what's shown and discuss why the different level of detail and what each one would be good for? - kind of find a one-contour hill on the OS map and compare to a one-contour hill on the O map, and go looking for both in the terrain...
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Ed - diehard
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- Joined: Wed Nov 05, 2003 12:11 pm
Becks, I did a lesson recently with a year 3 group, so a bit younger than your class will be, but we used a number of different maps, including the OS one. This was a combined geography and PE session!
I got the children to think about what maps you would use for which purpose. So, an OS map is great if you are travelling by car say, but doesn't give fine detail of a small area (the school grounds for example). So we looked at routes to and from school using the OS, but also using googlemaps, with and without the aerial photo of the school and locality (projected on the interactive whiteboard), so the children could talk through how they would get to school or a friend's house. Nice thing about the whiteboard is they can pick up the map and move it around with their fingers.
I also got them to draw a basic map of the school grounds, and the google aerial photo was helpful for them. Some struggled with the idea of a plan/bird's eye view, but I suspect that by 11 years they should be fine with this. We were then able to discuss what detail you would need on the different scale maps. I.E a bench, or notable tree would be a useful feature on the school map (1:500), but really not that necessary on 1:25000. So using the OS really helped in terms of them thinking about a map of a city, and how big that would need to be if the whole city was mapped at 1:500 or 1:1000. I then got them to look at the school map I'd got on OCAD and they then did a simple O course round the school and it went down very well.
You can also use the OS get-a-map internet service to display a particular area that you want them to look at on their OS paper copies. Hope that helps a bit.
I got the children to think about what maps you would use for which purpose. So, an OS map is great if you are travelling by car say, but doesn't give fine detail of a small area (the school grounds for example). So we looked at routes to and from school using the OS, but also using googlemaps, with and without the aerial photo of the school and locality (projected on the interactive whiteboard), so the children could talk through how they would get to school or a friend's house. Nice thing about the whiteboard is they can pick up the map and move it around with their fingers.
I also got them to draw a basic map of the school grounds, and the google aerial photo was helpful for them. Some struggled with the idea of a plan/bird's eye view, but I suspect that by 11 years they should be fine with this. We were then able to discuss what detail you would need on the different scale maps. I.E a bench, or notable tree would be a useful feature on the school map (1:500), but really not that necessary on 1:25000. So using the OS really helped in terms of them thinking about a map of a city, and how big that would need to be if the whole city was mapped at 1:500 or 1:1000. I then got them to look at the school map I'd got on OCAD and they then did a simple O course round the school and it went down very well.
You can also use the OS get-a-map internet service to display a particular area that you want them to look at on their OS paper copies. Hope that helps a bit.
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MikeWinter - off string
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