Lancashire County Council: GIS for Schools
Lesson Plan: Key Stage 1- Unit 1- Year 1
Our local area
National Curriculum paragraph 6a The Locality of the School
This lesson plan supports citizenship 5,6
This module can be adapted to suit the needs of different age groups. The lesson plan has been written with the aim of trying to incorporate the use of different tools in Mario. Please note you can be selective about which elements you cover and that it is not essential to complete all parts of each task.
These exercises can be completed using a combination of maps printed from Mario, your interactive white board in conjunction with Mario and children using Mario at their individual or shared computers.
Learning objectives
This module introduces children to looking at their local area. This unit focuses on aspects of local features including land use and the environment.
Resources
A computer with an internet connection.
Coloured Pens
A camera
Printed maps and aerial photos taken from Mario
Teachers notes
For these sections children need access to computers which have an internet connection. Children can work in pairs or groups if there are not enough computers for each child. In some sections the teacher can use Mario along with their interactive white board.
When visits are made to your local area maps and aerial photographs could be printed from Mario and an individual map given to each child.
Task 1: Where do I live? Where do other pupils live?
1) Open Mario at the web address http://mario.lancashire.gov.uk and open the Mario Viewer.
2) Go to the Search/Find section at the top of the map viewer and select address search. Enter your address in the spaces provided and press find address. (your house should be marked with a dot)
3) Now see if you can see your school on the map.
4) How do you travel to school? …………………………………………….
5) Ask one of your friends for their address. Enter your friend’s address in the address search.
6) Can you see by looking at the map who lives nearest to the school, you or your friend?
Task 2: Where is the school? How do I get to school?
1) Print a map from Mario and draw on this map your route to school. This could also be done using the drawing tools in Mario.
2) Either print or view an aerial photograph of your school using Mario, (access the aerial photos by going to Maps then aerials. You will have to zoom in to the area first using the zoom tool)
Draw your route to school on this photograph this can also be done using the drawing tools in Mario.
3) Mark on the map the places where you cross the road. These could be marked with a star using the draw shape tools in Mario.
4) Describe to a partner your route to school
5) What shops and buildings do you pass on your way to school?
6) What do they sell in these shops?
7) Compare your route to school with a partner. What shops and buildings do they pass?
Task 3: What can we see in the streets around our school?
1) Go to Mario and click on the maps section. Click on Environment then click Lancashire Images select the picture(s) which are in your local area or an area close to where you live. Do you recognise these areas?
2) What features in the picture(s) are far away and which features are near by?
3) Do you see these areas on your way to school?
4) Look at the aerial photograph for your local region (again you will need to zoom into your local area first using the zoom tool).
5) Can you see the individual buildings on the photograph? Do you see these buildings on your way to school?
6) What are these buildings used for?
7) Either print a map or aerial photograph from Mario or use the annotation tools in Mario and write next to each building what it is used for.
Task 4: What are our immediate surroundings like?
This section can be completed by walking the children around your school buildings and local area.
Give each child a map of the local area and aerial photograph printed from Mario.
1) Identify any changes which are taking place in your local area. Are any new buildings being built or are any being knocked down? Are there any obvious changes in the use of the land taking place?
2) Take photographs of any changes which are taking place so they can be kept to form an historical record.
3) Mark on a printed map where changes in land use are taking place.
4) Ask the children to find a place they like, this could be a nice building, a tree or a pond also get the children to identify places they dislike, these could include regions where litter can be found or regions where dog fouling has occurred. Get the children to sketch on their map the map the places they both like and dislike?
5) Look at an historical map of your region (also available on Mario) and note how your region has changed over time. Was your school on the historical map? Pin photographs taken on your field visits to the map so as to create an historical record.
6) Look at the number of parked cars outside your school. Do these numbers change on a daily basis? Help the children carry out a survey and plot these results on a graph.
Get the children to think about where these people go and who park their cars in these areas.
7) Look at the parking controls outside your school. Are there yellow lines? Are there pedestrian crossings? Plot these parking controls on a map either using the drawing tools in Mario or on a printed map from Mario. Get the children to compare these parking controls with those outside their own home.
8) Is the road near their home quieter or noisier than that outside their school?
9) Get the children to think about how their region could be made safer ie cycleways, addition of pedestrian crossings etc.
10) Split the children into groups and ask them to identify a route around the area that visitors could follow to give them a good idea of what a place is like. Get the children to mark this route on a map. This could be done using coloured pens and a map printed from Mario, or using the draw/measure tools. Get the children to annotate the attractive areas and sites of interest. If the children have access to a computer this could also be carried out using Mario utilizing the annotation and drawing tools.
Task 5: What jobs do people do in our locality?
1) Provide each child with a map or aerial photograph printed from Mario. Walk the children around the local area and ask them to observe and make notes about the land uses and types of buildings in that area.
2) On the printed map, or using Mario, get the children to draw a line of the route taken when you walked around your local area. Add notes to the paper map or use the annotation tools in Mario to directly add notes on the computer screen. These notes should be about what the children have seen.
Task 6: How do people spend their leisure time?
1) Design a questionnaire along with the help of the children to carry out a survey of how the children and their families and friends spend their leisure time.
2) Use the local maps and aerial photographs that can be accessed on Mario to plot the leisure and recreational facilities in your area. Also use the additional data layers that are available in Mario to assist with this exercise. Further information can be obtained from local newspaper advertisements.
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