Geography with ICT in Key Stage 3

Year 7: Mapping street crime

Please note: the resources for this series of lessons are hosted on the AUCE website at together with a downloadable version of GIS package Aegis 3 viewer.

Rationale and context of the lessons provided

The main aims of the sequence of lessons are:

  • to engage year 7 pupils in geographical enquiry through fieldwork and the use of ICT with a focus on the collection, mapping and analysis of data on street crime using a geographical information system (GIS) package.
  • promote the effective use of ICT within high quality geography lessons

There are also opportunities for the development of aspects of the wider curriculum, for example PSHE and citizenship.

The sequence of lessons described below is based on the medium term objectives for geography identified in Unit 15 Crime and the local community (see from the Geography Key Stage 3 Scheme of Work (QCA/DfEE, 2000). The ICT objectives are taken from the Key Stage 3 National Strategy, Framework for teaching ICT capability, Years 7,8 and 9, Year 7 Yearly teaching objectives (see

Medium term objectives
Geography
/
ICT
Enquiry and skills
Pupils will:
  • collect/record/present evidence
  • analyse evidence and draw conclusions
  • appreciate values and attitudes
  • communicate appropriately
Knowledge and understanding of placesPupils will:
  • locate places and environments
  • describe and explain physical and human features
/ Finding things out
Organising and investigating
  • In an investigation:
  • design a questionnaire or data collection sheet to provide relevant data
  • use software to represent data in simple graphs, charts or tables, justifying the choice of presentation.
Exchanging and sharing information
Refining and presenting information
  • Plan and design the presentation of information in digital media, taking account of the purpose of the presentation and the intended audience.
  • Use ICT to draft and refine a presentation, including
  • capturing still and moving images and sound (e.g. using a scanner, digital camera, microphone)

Two lesson plans are provided from the teaching sequence. Lesson one would be the first in a unit of work on crime and would introduce the enquiry theme of ‘street crime’.

Lesson two would follow later in the enquiry process after the pupils had:

a.Decided:

  • What do they want to know?
  • What data do they need?
  • Which area of crime to investigate?
  • What data collection methods are required?
  1. Devised and carried out a questionnaire to collect street crime data based on the personal experiences of other pupils. See a questionnaire survey which has been provided as exemplification. This should be designed to gather information on the location of street crimes, date and time, whether victim was male or female, what was stolen, and whether or not a weapon was involved.
  2. *Collated the questionnaire data and entered into an Excel spreadsheet. See Excel spreadsheets oneand two which have been provided as exemplification.
  3. Plotted the crime locations onto a street map
  4. Carried out fieldwork at each crime scene identified. A digital camera can be used to take pictures, and pupils should make relevant notes on, for example, what crime happened, what factors could have influenced the crime.

*The collation of the questionnaire data might be carried out by the class teacher in the interests of saving time.

This enquiry sequence could be adapted to investigate many other local issues,, for example, street crime could become street grime!

Pupil prior learning

  • Pupils will ideally have learned about settlement patterns, including urban land use zones, and be familiar with terms such as ‘nucleated’, ‘linear’ and ‘dispersed’ for describing patterns. They need to have basic understanding of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation packages. They should have knowledge of editing and formatting facilities that handle text and images across common ICT applications, know how to enter data into a spreadsheet and create bar and pie charts and produce a design for a simple multimedia presentation. (Page 22, Framework for teaching ICT capability, Years 7, 8 and 9, Exchanging and sharing information at Key Stage 3 (see
  • Ideally pupils will have completed work on communication (text and graphics) in unit 7.1 and data handling in unit 7.5. These are sample teaching units from the KS 3 Strategy – ICT framework (see

ICT expertise needed by the teacher

  • Will need to be familiar with the GIS software Aegis 3 and the exemplar material and teacher’s guide in order to prepare an Aegis worksheet.
  • Will need to be familiar with the use of spreadsheets.

Resources for the lessons

  • The GIS package Aegis 3 (visit the AUCE website (see to download a free viewer for Aegis files)
  • An interactive whiteboard if available
  • Map showing murder rates in London boroughs
  • Example of questionnaire survey onstreet crime
  • Aegis worksheet with notes and photographs
  • Example of writing frame
  • Excel spreadsheet showing local crime data

Useful websites

  • Courier and Press Evansville (see has weekly crime maps and the opportunity to listen in to the local police radio transmissions from a town in the USA.
  • Local UK crime statistics that can be mapped using MapPoint can be found on the Police services site (seeat:
  • Hampstead School (see shows an account of the original crime investigation on which these lessons are based.

1 [ICT lesson plan – Street crimedownloaded from:

Lesson 1

Learning objectives
/
Learning outcomes
Geography
We are learning to:
  • Interpret information on large scale maps.
  • Ask geographical questions about where crimes take place in our local area.
  • Investigate patterns of crime.
  • Write a description of the patterns of crime using geographical vocabulary.
/
Geography
What I am looking for is:
  • A written presentation in which identifies questions about local crime and illustrates and describes the patterns of crime identified for showing to other pupils in the school..

ICT
We are learning to:
  • Identify the types of information presented in a GIS;
  • Identify patterns in the information using the functions in a GIS such as searching for data to display on the map;
  • Decide what the information could be used for;
  • Select appropriate images for a presentation;
  • Combine images and text within a presentation.
/
ICT
What I am looking for is:
  • A written presentation which identifies patterns in information, and which combines images which are fit for purpose within the written presentation.

Starter
10 minutes
/ Introduce pupils to the topic with suitable stimulus material - this could be local or regional crime data from the internet or a ‘crime’ map using MapPoint or a similar package (see exemplar resource map) the map or data to stimulate a discussion, for example:
  • what does this map show?
  • how could it help police to target crime?
  • how does it make you feel about the area you live in?

Challenge
20 minutes
/ Introduce pupils to the Aegis worksheet and the links between the map, the photographs, notes and database. Explain what is meant by geographical information systems (GIS) (see Dictionary, University of Edinburgh and Association of Geographic Information).
Demonstrate the functionality of Aegis 3, including:
clicking on hotspots to bring up a photo and notes about the crime scene;
searching for specific crimes and displaying the results on the map;
or highlighting data.
Challenge the pupils to complete a series of graduated tasks using the worksheet, for example:
  • find the photograph showing the crime scene nearest the school.
  • Search for places on the map for crimes which involved mobile phones.
  • cut and paste a photograph and accompanying note into a Word document
highlight all the crimes involving knives with green circles.
Development
20 minutes
/
Using a word processing package, pupils describe the spatial patterns shown on the Aegis map. Encourage them to use the correct terminology (e.g. nucleated, linear). Some pupils may require an information genre writing frame to help focus their ideas, while others could search for and highlight patterns within the data (e.g. thefts of mobile ‘phones) and describe the results.
Plenary

10 minutes

/ Pupils discuss and list the reasons for the observed pattern of street crime in the local area.
Suggested prompts: How would you describe the overall pattern of street crime: clustered, linear or dispersed? How can you tell?
Which crimes are most common? Which are the most unusual? Are some crimes concentrated in certain parts of the map? Which ones and where are they?
Do you know of any reasons why crimes could be concentrated in certain places?
How did you select images for your presentation? What information were you trying to convey in the images?

Lesson 2

Learning objectives

/

Learning outcomes

Geography

We are learning to:
  • Investigate patterns of crime in the local area by graphing data
  • Describe patterns of crime from the graphed data.
  • Explain and draw conclusions about patterns of crime using geographical vocabulary.
/

Geography

What I am looking for is:
  • A report which includes a description and reasons for patterns of crime in the local area.

ICT

We are learning to:
  • Select appropriate data to present in a graph;
  • Recognise that different types of graphs have an impact on the audience’s understanding of the data.
/

ICT

What I am looking for is:
  • a graph that is fit for purpose and uses suitable data
  • a short word processed report that describes the data presented and takes into account the audience.

Starter

10 minutes

/ Pupils predict what they expect the data to show. For example, will more boys have been mugged than girls? Will mobile phones be the most frequently stolen item?

Challenge

20 minutes

/ Introduce the pupils to the spreadsheet containing their data on local crimes that has been collated in advance of the lesson. The teacher should model how they might use the data to construct a chart, thinking aloud in order to make the enquiry process explicit. For example:
  • Enquiry question: Have more girls than boys been mugged?
  • Discuss which data in the spreadsheet to graph.
  • Go through the method: first count up the number of male and females – you can do this ‘manually’ and put the results in another table on the spreadsheet (see streetcrimeatt7.xls).
  • Discuss which type of chart would be most appropriate to show the data.
  • Demonstrate how to use the ‘Chart Wizard’ to display the numbers of male and females on a pie chart. Highlight the table with Males, Females and the numbers of each. Click on the Chart Wizard icon and go through the steps to draw a Pie Chart.
  • Demonstrate how to copy the pie chart and paste it into a Word document for the report.
  • Go back to the original purpose of the enquiry: does this chart back up your enquiry question? Show how to add annotations to explain this.
Working in pairs, the pupils should construct their own charts. First they must decide upon the most appropriate format for each chart. Their charts should then be pasted into their Word document and annotated with description and explanation.

Development

20 minutes

/ Pupils working in small groups take on the role of police officers who have been assigned the task of reducing crime in the local area. They can use PowerPoint to prepare a presentation that utilises excerpts from your Aegis spreadsheet, together with charts, crime scene photographs and notes, and must offer strategies for reducing street crime. Their work could then be presented to a real audience of their peers, senior staff and representatives of the local police and environment office (as suggested in the follow-up activities).

Plenary

10 minutes

/ This is essentially a period of reflection on the outcomes of the work. It should cover issues such as personal safety, and some of the ways that planners try to design crime out of the urban environment (through, for instance, changes to street furniture, building design and local legislation).
Suggested discussion prompts:
  • Did the AEGIS map and data show that there are certain areas where street crime is more likely?
  • Could you identify any characteristics of these areas?
  • How do you think the urban environment in these areas could be improved to minimise street crime?
  • What have you learned about your own personal safety and that of others in the community?

1 [ICT lesson plan – Street crimedownloaded from: