Sandon High School.

A Business and Enterprise School

Sandon High School

Geography Department use of the Visualiser

The visualiser has the wow factor with all pupils in KS3 and KS4. The impact of
showing pupils work, geographical images and text has been immediate and immense.

Teaching Ordnance Survey Map Reading skills.

KS3

Pupils were taught 4 and 6 figure grid references using grids projected onto the
whiteboard. Pupils then came out in turn to plot grid references. Pupils were asked
orally for grid references from the resource. To then transfer this skill to using the
Free Ordnance Survey Maps for Schools, in the case of Sandon High School.
1:25 000 Stoke-on-Trent, provided for every Year 7. The sections of the Ordnance
Survey map was projected onto the screen and used to set the task and ensure pupils
are looking at the correct section of the map and symbols. (The Department does
have the software Memory Map and uses this for different parts of Britain and the
facility to create 3Dmaps and photographs of the relief features. However on
Memory Map the easting and northings are not always shown).

P.A.Marsden. FRGS. Leader of Study

 Sandon High School. A Business and Enterprise School

KS3
Geographical Fieldwork
Year 8 Traffic Enquiry.
Key Question.

Is the volume of traffic significantly different on the A50. Sandon Road, Weston
Road, Saracens Way and Pickford Place?

The class completed tally charts on the five roads, on fieldwork. Then the data was
then collated in class. Pupils are then asked to hand draw pie charts, using pie chart
drawers, to show the percentage of cars, lorries, heavy lorries, cycles on each road for
comparison. Pupils are also asked to accurately draw flow arrows on a base map of
the road layout. The visualiser enables the teacher to clearly illustrate the use of the
mathematical equipment (Pie chart drawer, 30cm ruler). This avoids the common
mistakes pupils make of not locating accurately the centre of the pie chart, forgetting
to draw in the 0 % line and not remembering to place the 0 % of the pie chart drawer
on the last line the pupil drew. Also to emphasis the need for a common colour key
for the written analysis, comparison of the charts.

The visualiser enables the teacher to clearly demonstrate the method of accurately
measuring and drawing the flow arrows and the spatial placement of the arrows on the
base map.

During the task examples of pupils work is displayed by the visualiser to highlight
common errors and praise pupil progress.

P.A.Marsden. FRGS. Leader of Study

 Sandon High School. A Business and Enterprise School

KS4

Year 10 GCSE Urban Fieldwork.

Pupils collect data in three shopping centres in Stoke-on-Trent using a questionnaire.

The results are collated in class for the whole GCSE geography cohort. Pupils then
refine the data using ICT using a wide variety of appropriate methods which
includes, pie charts, line charts, radial charts, spatial maps, annotated images, land use
mapping selected by the pupils. The teacher uses the visualiser to clearly explain to
pupils how to obtain the data from the 1:50 000 Stoke-on-Trent Ordnance Survey
Maps to construct radial charts to show the sphere of influence of each shopping
centre. The data required is the distance and compass direction of each interviewee’s
home location from the shopping centres. The equipment used with the visualiser is
1:50 000 Stoke-on-Trent OS map, degree drawer and 30 cm ruler. The teacher uses
the visualiser to illustrate how to draw accurate radial charts, with a scale, key and
North Arrow. Using acetate sheets a different example can be shown to illustrate how
to overlay radial charts to show sphere of influence.

Assessment for Learning.

Using the Better Descriptions and Explanations Model created by Chris Durbin,
Former Geography Inspector for Staffordshire and Peter Davies Institute for
Education Policy Research Staffordshire University, Jon Clarke and Miss Marsden
with colleagues from the teaching profession in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
Published in ‘It’s long, it’s neat and it’s coloured in nicely’. QLS Staffordshire 2005.

The model is laminated for each child and show on the screen with the visualiser. The
visualiser is used to show pupils’ work for peer assessment and for pupils to mark
their own work in connection with the model and the Geography Department Marking
Policy. At KS4 the pupils work is peer assessed against the GCSE Marking Policy.

Pupil Presentations

The Geography Department is currently experimenting with the visualiser to record

pupil presentations in Geography and the Eco School Committee presentations.
These could then be used for self assessment and as a record of pupils work, for
Ofsted, the RGS and GA Secondary Geography Quality Mark. At the moment the
memory required on the laptop is too great and the final size of the video footage on
not large enough for the digital projection on to the classroom screen. However the
pupils could be projected on to the screen while presenting to the class.

Pauline Marsden
Leader of Study
Lead Learner for the Geography Department.

P.A.Marsden. FRGS. Leader of Study

 Sandon High School. A Business and Enterprise School

P.A.Marsden. FRGS. Leader of Study