by Paula Owens

Geography Resources Landscape Fingerprints

Key Stage 2

About Digimap for Schools Digimap for Schools is an online mapping service for use by teachers and pupils providing easy access to a range of current Ordnance Survey maps including the most detailed mapping available for Great Britain, OS MasterMap, as well as digital versions of Ordnance Survey's famous paper maps, the Landranger and Explorer series. Also included are street level maps showing street names and road-atlas style maps. Maps can be printed as PDF files at A3 or A4 size with an individual's own map title and name included with the scale bar and school name and address. Search tools include postcode, place name or national grid reference and maps can be moved to centre on any chosen location within Great Britain. Map keys are available for each scale map to explain the symbols used within the map. Maps can be annotated with symbols, lines, areas, text and can be saved to be reused during another session. Digimap for Schools is a subscription service. Schools purchase a subscription for 12 months access to the service. Details on subscriptions can be found at http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/subscribe.html. Terms of use of the service can be found at http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/termsofuse.pdf. For further information or to give feedback on our resources, contact the EDINA Help Desk on 0131 650 3302 (Mon- Fri 9-5) or email edina@ed.ac.uk.

About the Author: Dr Paula Owens

Paula worked for many years as a primary teacher and Deputy Head and is currently a freelance consultant, author and trainer specialising in primary geography and sustainable schools. She is also employed two days a week by the Geographical Association as Primary Curriculum Development and Primary Geography Quality Mark Leader.

Paula has worked with government agencies and NGO’s to develop curriculum materials and provided INSET in National and European contexts. She is co – editor of the award winning series ‘Geography Plus: Primary Teachers’ Toolkit’ and leads an online network of ‘Geography Champions’ to support primary teachers.

Geography Champions network http://geographychampions.ning.com The Geographical Association www.geography.org.uk

© EDINA at the University of Edinburgh 2012 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Digimap for Schools Geography Resources Ref No: 20 Title of Activity: Landscape Fingerprints Level / Key Stage: 2 Context: Investigating mapping contours and mountainous landscape features Location within GB:, Ben Nevis, Scotland; Snowdon, Wales; Scafell Pike, England. Adaptable for other places Knowledge / Skills: Beginning to understand contour patterns on a map / Using the search tool / Using the area tool / Placing labels / recognising kilometre square grids Link to Curriculum: Knowledge of landscape features: mountains; using and reading a map, locating and describing places and features. Scottish Curriculum For Excellence: (Social Science Outcomes: People, Place and Environment): 2-13a, 2-14a

Note to Teacher The amount of independent work children are able to manage will depend on their familiarity with the software and experience of using maps in general. The step by step tasks are not meant to be read alone by children but as a guide for you the teacher to demonstrate with the whole class and / or direct individuals as appropriate. Each activity has several ideas within it that you can tailor and adapt to suit your class and children. The aim of the pack is to:

• Support you in developing the use of Digimap for Schools in the classroom across the primary age range

• Develop the skills of your pupils in the use of the full suite of tools that is currently available

• Suggest some ideas for developing mapping across the curriculum • Save you time and provide inspiration!

The contexts for the learning include both ‘physical’ and ‘human’ geography, and will explore different scales of mapping from the school grounds to locations in England, Scotland and Wales.

Digimap for Schools Geography Resources

Activity Finding the highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales; drawing a kilometre square grid and selecting an area of contour pattern for each; comparing and describing.

Introduction A contour is a line drawn on a map that joins points of equal height above sea level. The height and shape of the ground is shown on 1:25 000 scale maps by brown contour lines. For 1:25 000 scale maps the interval between contours is usually 5 metres, although in mountainous regions it may well be 10 metres. Contour numbering reads up- hill – in other words the top of the number is uphill and the bottom is downhill. The closer contour lines are together, the steeper the slope. Digimap for Schools enables children to search for and examine contour patterns of different features, at different scales, and to annotate them. Ben Nevis (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Nibheis) is the highest mountain in the British Isles (1,343 metres). It is located at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, close to the town of Fort William. Snowdon (Welsh: Yr Wyddfa) is the highest mountain in Wales (1,085 metres) and the highest point in the British Isles outside Scotland. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri) in Gwynedd. Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England (978 metres). It is located in the Lake District National Park, in Cumbria. Pen Y Fan is the highest peak in South Wales and southern Britain (886 metres), situated in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Powys.

Main Activity Ask pupils to look at their own fingerprints. They are unique to us and part of our individual identity. Contours of the landscape are like fingerprints in this respect; unique patterns of lines and swirls which reveal the shape of the landscape in terms of height, slope and shape. This activity looks at the ‘fingerprints’ of the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales: Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon respectively. Pupils will find and record these fingerprints in a kilometre square grid and compare them. The class could be divided up so that different groups make maps between them of each of these peaks or pupils could try and work through each of the three peaks themselves. It is useful if pupils have some prior knowledge of what a contour is, if not some familiarisation with this term might be needed although this could also be an introduction to the idea of contours. It’s useful to look at these features as well on Google earth and in photographs (see links below).

Tasks

1. Open Digimap for Schools and enter search term into the search box e.g. ‘Ben Nevis’. Then zoom in using the scale bar to zoom level 8. Discuss the patterns of contours and what they look like. Move the map if necessary to centre Ben Nevis.

2. Look at the grid lines on the map. They show a square kilometre of area. You are going to ‘capture’ a square kilometre of contour pattern. Open the Annotation toolbar, select transparency 100% and choose your outline colour first.

Select ‘Draw Area’ then ‘Draw an Area with straight edges’. Make sure you have a grid square somewhere in the screen view that you can see clearly and click on one corner to start, then click on each corner of the square in turn, double clicking to finish. You should see a square outlined clearly. Click on ‘Move Feature’ to finish so that you don’t start drawing any more areas on the map by mistake.

3. Using the ‘Move Feature’ tool, select your square area grid and move it to position it over Ben Nevis until you like the contour pattern it shows. It doesn’t have to line up with the existing grid.

4. Select ‘Place Label’ and choose medium text size. Click near to your square and write ‘Ben Nevis’ in the text box. Close the Annotation toolbar.

5. Zoom in further to Level 9 and move the map by clicking and dragging with the mouse so that you can see the entire outlined square. You might like to open the Measuring Tool to measure your square to see if it is 1km x 1km big. Once you are happy with your map, select ‘Print’ and print a copy.

6. Now zoom out until you can just see a tiny speck on the map where your peak was and the rest of Great Britain. Print this map too to use with your zoomed in contour square. Save your map with a title.

7. Discuss the contour features of these peaks with the rest of the class. Is it easy to tell which peak each grid square of contour is from? Do different peaks have their own unique patterns? Can you see anything else in that square apart from contours? Compare with a ‘fly over tour’ of the peaks in Google Earth to see them in 3D.

Taking it further

• Make a class book of landscape ‘fingerprints’, using the kilometre square method. Beneath each one, write the key characteristics of that feature e.g. height, shape, slope etc. Look for interesting contour patterns in your area.

• Use the contour patterns to stimulate artwork.

• Create large print outs of the contours. Use bright felts to illustrate with descriptive words for that feature. Or use the Annotation features to add descriptive labels to your contour map.

• Adopt a peak. Research it and argue for it as being the best place to go for a visit.

• Investigate the effect tourism is having on the landscape as mountain footpaths become eroded by walkers. Who should pay to maintain them and why?

Additional Resources Presentation 20 ‘Landscape Fingerprints’ contour images

Weblinks About Scafell Pike http://english-lake-district.info/scafell-pike/scafell-pike.html Ben Nevis information http://www.munromagic.com/MountainInfo.cfm?Mountain=1 Google Earth www.earth.google.com Ordnance Survey leaflet to download about reading maps and understanding contours http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/education-and-research/teaching-resources/map-reading-made-easy.html Webcam of Ben Nevis http://visit-fortwilliam.co.uk/the-ben-nevis-webcam-fort-william-scotland

Landscape  Fingerprints  

Primary_Ac4vity_20  Copyright  Edina  at  the  University  of  

Edinburgh  

Copyright  Edina  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh  

Ben  Nevis  is  the  highest  mountain  in  the  Bri4sh  Isles  (1,343  metres).      

Copyright  Edina  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh  

Snowdon  is  the  highest  mountain  in  Wales  (1,085  metres)    

Copyright  Edina  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh  

Scafell  Pike  is  the  highest  mountain  in  England  (978  metres)  

Copyright  Edina  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh  

Pen  Y  Fan  is  the  highest  peak  in  South  Wales  and  southern  Britain  (886  metres)