New resources for QGIS and Census Data

In 2014, the Royal Geographical Society awarded two teachers an Innovative Geography Teaching grant of £1000 to fund the development of new resources, based on the use of Census data.
I was one of those teachers, and worked with Ben Hennig to create a new education section of the LondonMapper website: a new project involving Professor Danny Dorling, which explores London through a series of cartograms using Census data.
My Scheme of Work explores the LondonMapper website and materials, and uses the idea of future urbanists looking back at London to see how it has changed over the years.
It connects with the other unit that I wrote for the RGS called Mapping London.

The second grant was awarded to Paul Turner, who takes over as Head of Geography at Bedales School in September. He worked with Dr Adam Dennett, a lecturer from UCL who works at CASA.
Paul's website and materials can now be viewed here, and he is keen to connect with teachers who want to trial the materials. You can contact Paul via the site.
There are 10 lessons which act as an introduction to QGIS, and the mapping and analysis of Census data.

Some nice thoughts on GIS in the Curriculum

Two good posts on the Leicester DIGILIT blog from Rob Manger of English Martyr's School.

The first followed Rob attending a course that I led in the city for the GA a few years ago, and covered Google Earth and some other technologies. At the time, ArcGIS Online was just coming out and offered some real promise.

Worth downloading the documents which accompany this post.

The second brings Rob's thinking up to date, with some thoughts on Digimap for Schools. ArcGIS Online and others, including the new CSV upload feature, Raphael Heath's work and the new GeoForm.

Rob has taken a lot of time to develop his skills in GIS, including attending the recent UK ESRI User Conference in London. I look forward to seeing what he and his students produce next.

If you've used Digimap for Schools in your own school, let me know what you've been up to and I'll share it here.

CSV upload added to Digimap for Schools

A new feature has been added to Digimap for Schools.
Subscribers can now upload CSV files of fieldwork data/locations and the values will be plotted at the location within the postcode where they were recorded, along with a text label if required.

You can watch a tutorial video here.


 Give it a go and let us know how it works for you.

The Add points from a file marker tool allows you to upload a CSV file containing data you have collected and create points on your map. For example, if you have been out on fieldwork and collected data in a spreadsheet or mobile app, you can upload that data and represent points on your map. Your points must have a location element to them, either Easting and Northing coordinates, Latitude and Longitude coordinates or a full GB Postcode. The data you have collected might be recording certain tree species, places you have observed micro climatic conditions, locations of graffiti or the postcode of people you have surveyed in a tourist hot spot.