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3.2 Using geographical skills Finding out about and making sense of the world around us depends on the use of skills. In geographical studies, a variety of general skills is used, including skills in selecting appropriate information from secondary sources, modelling and drawing skills, numerical and data analysis and presentation and communication skills.

Three skills, though, are particularly important in geographical enquiries:

1 the use of maps;

2 reading photographs and pictures;

3 fieldwork techniques.

Maps

Maps come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Large-scale maps, such as plans of buildings and open spaces, and OS 1:2,500 scale maps of streets and villages and towns, show where features are and what area of ground they cover. Medium-scale maps, like street maps and the 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 scale OS maps, show the features of large areas, perhaps the towns, villages, woods, rivers and lakes over an expanse of countryside. Small-scale maps, such as atlas maps and wall maps, show whole countries, continents and the world. Linked to the study of world maps are the use of globes, as a model of the Earth.

To understand how best to make use of the maps we need to appreciate:

e what maps show, for example the route to follow, the town features or the distribution of farms;

e the conventions maps use, for example symbols and a key, direction, scale;

e how to extract information from maps, for example what the individual symbols and the patterns show;

e when to use which map, for example the best map for walking or driving;

the making of maps, for example by drawing maps of familiar areas and routes.

Photographs and pictures

Photographs and pictures provide evidence about places, features and activities in the environment. Their value lies in showing what places are like and what is happening, but they need to be interpreted.

Reading photographs and pictures involves being able to do three things:

1 identlfy particular features in the photograph, for example buildings and people;

2 develop a sense of the photograph showing a scene, for example a busy shopping street;

3 deduce further information from the evidence; for example, that it is a hot sunny day from the fact that everyone is in shirtsleeves and that there is a clear blue sky.

3 GEOGMPHYAT KEY STAGES 1 & 2 1 1

Fieldwork

Traditionally, maps have been made and photographs taken during fieldwork. Fieldwork is the making of observations and gathering of information about the environment through first-hand study of places, features and environments. A fieldwork activity might be making a study of local traffic movements to confirm or challenge a perception that particular roads are very busy at certain times of the day. It can involve the mapping of farm land used in a rural area. It might be the study of river and stream catchment, local rainfall and the local geology to see if a valley might be an appropriate reservoir site.

Fieldwork will involve:

identifying a focus for study, for example river flow;

deciding on the most appropriate methods for undertaking it, for example using floats and a stopwatch;

selecting a suitable site, for example where there is good access to placing, observing and retrieving a float;

considering how best to record the data gathered while outside, for example on a prepared chart or a data program in a laptop computer;

0 making sure that health and safety precautions are followed, for example suitable clothing and a safe riverbank path to walk along while making observations.

The use of maps C O R E A C T I V I T Y 1

Purpose

To identify a sequence of development in map skills and activities, and to indicate some activities that might be used with children at key stages 1 or 2

Activities

1 The development of map skills is central to enabling children to read, use and make their own maps effectively. Figure 2 outlines a sequence of mapwork experiences for children over the primary years. Like all outlines, it should not be seen as prescriptive, for experience should be developed appropriately by the teacher. However, it does indicate a sense of progression; for example, developing children's sense of relative size and distance (words like longer, shorter, bigger, smaller) needs to come before initial measuring activities, which can then lead to measuring to scale and to making scale maps and models. Find the following sequences:

0 drawing plans and maps;

using symbols;

0 understanding direction;

0 using small-scale maps, like atlas maps;

0 making route maps;

0 understanding map perspective, namely the view from above;

0 identifying features of different types, for example individual building compared to housing estate.

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3 GEOGRAPHYAT KEY STAGES 1 & 2 13

when going to visit particular places in the local area, ask the children to think how long it might take, an'd whether it will take longer for different places. Though their sense of 'time/distancel will still be limited, timing the walks (or minibus journeys) helps to develop an idea of relative distance. For longer journeys, 'time/distance1 often makes more sense to younger children;

make lists and rough plans of the sizes of different parts of the school in order of size, for example cupboard, toilets, classroom, school hall, playground;

make drawings of rooms, for example bedroom or classroom, trying to draw objects in roughly the right comparative size. Talk about which features will be bigger or smaller and whether they are half or quarter the size.

Using photographs EXTENSION ACTIVITY 1

Purpose

To consider what can be undertaken and gained from using photographs in geographical studies.

Prearn ble

Photographs and pictures provide a wealth of information about places, features and activities. They can show the environment on a grand scale, as a landscape photograph does, or focus on specific features, such as a bricked- up door or window in an old house. Usually, the photographs in books and magazines or on postcards will have a caption to draw our attention to the scene or main feature in the photograph.

Photographs and pictures play a vital role in geographical study. Photographs can be taken in our local area and used in the classroom to focus study on particular aspects of the locality or to illustrate findings from enquiries that have been made. They can relate directly to children's first-hand experience. Photographs also have a vital role to play in developing children's awareness, knowledge and understanding of features, places, environments and events outside their direct experience.

However, children need support in 'reading' photographs. Using our own or published and captioned photographs, they will not necessarily see the features or scene we expect them to. Young children can be very good at identifying detailed features but find it hard to appreciate the general idea that may be shown. This is largely a matter of learning to focus on the evidence in a photograph to see either what supports the caption or what can be deduced where there is no caption.

Figure 3 illustrates one approach to examining a photograph. Using a postcard, the purpose is to identify as many as possible of the features and activities that can be seen. Some of the evidence will be obvious information, such as the sale of shoes and the street market. Other evidence will be tentative, for example, that the purchasers are tourists or that the window box flowers indicate summer rather than spring or autumn. Children should be encouraged to label photographs and to draw conclusions from both obvious and tentative evidence, recognising which is which.

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3 GEOGRAPHYAT KEY STAGES 1 8 2 15

Activities

1 Find a photograph you can cut out of a magazine, or use a postcard or one of your own photographs and mount it on paper. Figure 3 shows six activities that can be used with photographs. Select one of the first five activities and undertake it.

2 If the feature, place, environment or activity in the photograph were unfamiliar to children, how would you introduce the children to the photograph? What would you ask them to look for?

3 You can use photographs in a variety of contexts, such as linked to local area study. Using Figures 2, 5, 6 and 10, select a couple of different aspects of geography for which photographs would be particularly suitable teaching aids.

4 Make a collection of photographs from a variety of sources to use in teaching on the aspects you identified in question 1 above.

3.3 Understanding places

Understanding places lies at the heart of national curriculum geography. For the primary years, the emphasis is on places as localities, which means an area no bigger than a neighbourhood that is easily accessible at key stage 1 and an area that includes most children's homes at key stage 2. The localities need to be set in the larger context of the region of the country they are in and of the country itself and its context as a part of the world, although this is not the main focus of study.

There are two facets of locality studies:

1 the variety of localities;

2 the aspects of localities which should be investigated.

Children will study several localities. At key stage 1 they will study their own local area and will complement this by studying another locality in either the United Kingdom or elsewhere in the world. At key stage 2 three localities must be studied: their local area; a contrasting locality in the UK; a locality in one of Africa, Asia (not Japan), South or Central America (including the Caribbean). Figure 4 surnrnarises this requirement; the localities are indicated in bold print.

In studying the local area of the school, the focus will be on such aspects as:

what its main features are;

0 the nature of the land and building use;

0 what people do;

0 what services and amenities there are;

0 why they are where they are, and how they affect people's lives;

0 how it is changing;

0 how the environment can be improved.

Key stage 1 Key stage 2

-4 the local area of the school b

4 the broader geographical context of the local area, b including its regional and national setting

4- (other places in the regio:n around the local area should be used - as case studies for various topics in geography)

a contrasting. locality in the United Kingdom

a contrasting locality in or beyond the United Kingdom

the broader geogxaphical context of this locality, including where it is in the world

the broader geographical context of this locality including its regional and national settings

a locality in Africa, Asia (not Japan) South America or Central

America and the Cambbean

the broader geographical context of this locality including its regional

and national setting

4 other places in the United Kingdom should be used as I case studies for various topics in geography

4 other places around the World, including places in the P

European Union, should be used as case studies for various topics in geography

I

FIGURE 4 The locality study requirements at key stages 1 and 2

3 GEOGRAPHYAT KEY STAGES 1 & 2 17

In looking at other localities, these points are also relevant, as a focus for developing understanding about what gives a place its distinctive identity. It also provides the opportunity to develop positive attitudes to other places and to challenge stereotypes, aiding the recognition that our knowledge of and views about other places are inevitably partial.

These studies also provide a basis for considering how places are similar to and different from each other, enabling comparisons to be made and diversity across the Earth's surface to be valued.

The study of a locality offers opportunities to look at the inter-relationship between its human, physical and environmental geography. This may involve considering the relationship between the local geology, the landscape features and the type of farming in a mountain valley, or it may mean examining the reasons for the flood defences along the coast near a town and what happens when they are breached.

Thus a sense of the immediate and the wider world is engendered. This is supplemented through the development of general locational knowledge of key features of the Earth's surface, including the continents and oceans, the countries of the UK and some countries in other continents, and the location of selected cities, rivers and mountains (Catling, 1995).

The geographical potential of the local area C O R E A C T I V I T Y 2

Purpose

To identify aspects of geography that can be studied in the local area.

Activities

1 Use the checklist in Figure 5 to make an inventory of your local area's geography. Remember to use the definition of a local area (or locality) given in 3.3 'Understanding places'.

Make a chart similar to Figure 5. In the second column, list sites that provide good examples and are safe places at which to make surveys or undertake fieldwork. In the third column, note the particular aspect of geography which the site offers. For example, under 'Shops and other services', for shop surveys, you might list the sites (column 2) of a corner shop, supermarket and/or shopping precinct to interview shoppers (column 3).

Aspects of geography

Types and uses of buildings (for exarnple, homes, shops, offices)

Shops and other services (for example, supermarkets, dentist, fire service)

Leisure facilities (for example, park, swimming pool, museum)

Types and areas of land use (for exarnple, homes, industry, leisure)

Landscape features (for example, fields, woods, reservoirs)

Physical features (for example, hill, rocks, stream, evidence of erosion)

Weather and weathering (for example, sites exposed to weather, weathered features]

Settlement origins/layout [for example, old town centre, mine, river crossing point, street pattern, old and new developments)

Industry (for example, farms, warehouses, garage repairs, quarry, factory)

Routes and transport [for example, main/side roads, bus and rail services)

Migration (for example, evidence of people moving home)

Local changes and issues [for example, housing/shop development, rubbish tipping, bypass]

FIGURE 5 Aspects of geography that can be studied in your local area

Sites for study Focus of study

For either key stage 1 or key stage 2, choose two different aspects of geography that you have listed on your chart. Now select one site and focus of study for each of them. For example, you might choose a shopping parade and a farm or local industry.

Make a survey of each of these sites; consider what geographical evidence you would gather and how you would go about it, including what resources you would need. Consider whether the sites have other possibilities.

It may be that there is an industrial estate which is occupied by a number of small industries or businesses. To gather information about the estate you will need to undertake fieldwork, annotating a base map with names or a code for type of industrial usage. To do this, you will need a base map (either make your own or obtain a copy of a map of the site from your local studies or local history library), a clipboard and a pencil (maybe together with a large transparent plastic bag for working in wet weather). You might note from your survey that some types of industrial land take up large areas and recognise that you can contrast this with the area the local corner shop occupies.

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3 For the two sites and focuses you examined in question 2 above, consider how you would go about making those surveys with a group or class of children. List what you would need to do. Remember to take account of: a period of time; safety; pu pil-teac her ratios; resources; what the children do.

Using information technology in geographical studies

Purpose

To use IT to analyse data as part of an enquiry into an aspect of the local area.

Prearn ble

Much geographical enquiry is concerned with collecting data for a variety of purposes:

0 to find out what is there, such as in conducting a building survey of a street;

0 to collect data to support or challenge an hypothesis, such as 'more traffic uses one street than another';

0 to map accurately the variety of features of a locality, such as its land use, or the distribution of particular features, for example its shops;

0 to pursue a question, such as where do the people who shop in this parade come from?

You will need to access and familiarise yourself with a basic data base or concept keyboard program, such as 'Our Facts', 'First Facts', 'Grass' (databases), or 'Touch Explorer Plus' (concept keyboard) (NCET) (see Bowles, 1993b; Davidson and Krause, 1992; Smart and Parker, 1995).

Activities

For these activities you might use data that you collected as part of Core Activity 2.

1 Decide on the fields of data to be collected, for example traffic type and number for different directions along named streets, the range of building or shop categories, the types of land use. Collect the data using survey sheets or maps, and type i t into the database.

2 Identify the questions you want to investigate using the data. Print out the findings on a bar chart, graph or map.

3 Consider what the findings tell you. Which road has more traffic? What type of traffic? What is the distribution of shops and types of shops? What are the different amounts of land use? Do they relate to the need for large and small areas of land? How are they distributed around the local area? Are there other things you would like or need to know from your analysis?

4 How would you organise this activity with a class of children?

EXTENSION ACTIVITY 2

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3.4 Understanding physical, human and environmental geography: thematic studies

Physical, human and environmental geography provide insights into both particular features and aspects of the environment and patterns that can be seen to recur in different places, as well as over the surface of the Earth. In order to focus study and to develop understanding, we can separate these three themes of geography and then subdivide them into strands. In reality, the strands and themes are closely inter-related.

The focus in physical geography is on becoming aware of and beginning to understand some facets of the landscape and of weather. In particular, this includes landscape features, river features and their processes, and weather and seasonal patterns.

Human geography looks closely at where people live, their needs and activities and what use they make of the land. This is achieved by examining different sizes and types of settlement - the links between places, the jobs people do and the journeys they make, the variety of uses of buildings and land for economic and other purposes, recent or proposed changes to buildingdland, together withissues that might be related to land use.

Environmental geography is concerned with the use of natural resources and the impact of human activity on the environment. This covers the extraction of natural resources, changes and damage to the natural and modified environment, how environments can be sustained and how they might be managed..

The inter-relationship of these three themes in geographical study can be shown by focusing on three of the 'raw materials' of our environment: rocks, soil and water.

Developing knowledge - part of physical geography - of rocks, soil and water is arrived at, firstly, by recognising these elements, then by realising that they occur in a variety of types and forms. That they are resources which can be used but which can also be mismanaged is considered in both human and environmental geography. For example, a rock such as chalk is a useful natural resource, but quarrying for cement may both change and cause damage to the environment, probably resulting in the need to restore land around the quarry while improving its environment and altering its use to that of a local amenity. Why the quarry is where it is, as an extractive economic activity, forms part of human geography, as does study of the transport of the chalk or the cement, though consideration of how the chalk might be turned into cement would again fall within the area of environmental geography. Study of its re-use as a leisure facility is part of human geography. Examination of the chalk hillside and of its soil would be part of physical geography, while the type of farming and the need for considerable acreage of grazing land are aspects of human geography.

There are a variety of topics covered by physical, human and environmental geography. Figure 6 surnrnarises the main elements of these by drawing them together in the context of physical and human

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-- -

Geography of the natural environment

Weather and climate What weather is (sun, rain snow, etc.); measuring and recording weather [temperature, wind, sunshine, rain, air pressure, cloud cover); the water cycle; microclimates - how temperature, sunshine, etc. can vary according to site, for example one side of a building compared to another; change in weather over the seasons; satellite images in W weather forecasts showing weather s stems; beginnings of the idea that different climates exist in di Y ferent parts of the world.

Landforms Scenery, landscape (what makes the landscape) - hills, plains, rivers, mountains - and how they were formed; the rocks which form the landscape [igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic); the water cycle, outline explanation of weathering of rocks and building stone by rain, acid rain and the effect of wind; the erosion of rocks by sea, rivers, glaciers; the making of new land by the deposition of sediment/pebbles from the sea or rivers.

Soil and vegetation Different types of soil [clay soil, sandy soil, etc.); variation in soil particle size (that is, structure); how water drains through soil; different types of natural vegetation [rain forest, deciduous, coniferous); beginnings of knowledge of natural vegetation zones [desert, polar, tropical rain forest).

Natural resources

Understanding what natural resources are: water, rocks to be quarried, minerals, etc. to be mined, forests, woodland, indigenous animals, etc.; alteration of the landscape b r extraction of natural resources, for example reservoirs, and fill, gravel pits, lakes; how we can preserve our resources; damage and pollution of our environment by using resources, for example, rubbish tips, waste disposal, recycling.

Water Water as part of the environment; water as a natural resource, water in different forms (liquid, ice, cloud, fog, snow, glaciers); water as a landscape feature (stream, river, lake); water over the surface of the Earth (seas, oceans); rain [types of rain: shower, downpour); river catchment (run-off, seeping into ground); water eroding, transporting, de ositin materials; causes and effects of floods; reducing flood r i g avaikbility and reliability of water sup ly (rivers, lakes, reservoirs); fresh water sources, polluting an B cleansing water (sewage farms); water cycle.

Geography of the human environment

Settlement Reasons for s~t~ng of settlements (often rooted in local history). ease of communicat~on, types of economic activities found in a place [function), the way the place has grown (form), how the place is linked to nearby places

Building and land use Uses made of buildings (homes, shops, industry, storage, etc.); use of land in different wa s (buildin s, farming, parks, roads, etc.); different amounts of 7 and for di 9 ferent purposes [small area for building, large aT for farm); reasons for the different uses of land; conf icts arisin over competition for the use of land (conflict about use o land for housing or recreation uses); types and patterns of land use in industries (different uses in farming, patterns of land use in shopping centre).

Towns and cities The difference between town centre and suburb [that is, zones), the kinds of economic activities found in centres; travelling in towns and cities; growth of towns and cities.

Population People cluster together or s ace out to live according to the physical geography, lifesty P e and employment opportunities; people migrate because of lobs, war, famine, etc.; too many people living in one place can strain resources.

Transport Types of transport; systems or networks of routes linking places; why people travel, when they travel, the relationship between time and distance [a short distance can take a long time to travel); the effect of transport systems on our environment; barriers to communication, for example mountains, river channels, 'no go' areas in playgrounds.

Industry Primary industries (mining, fishing, quarrying), secondary industries (steel works, food processing], tertiary industries [service industries: transport companies, travel agencies), siting of industries.

Farming Farming as an industry to provide us with food; types of farming [sheep, dairy, arable, etc.); the farm as a system with inputs [seed, animals, etc.) and outputs for sale (crops, milk, wool, animals, etc.); special types of farming and their location, e.g. pickyour-own fruit farms in heavily po ulated areas; how

UK and the developing world. f products travel to market; contrasting arming methods between

Recreation Leisure activities and facilities; holidays; environmental issues: increased recreation can cause pollution damage to landscape and wildlife.

Environmental issues Likes and dislikes about the local area ['What do I like about it?' 'What spoils the area?'); how quarrying, mining, industry, dumping affect the environment; activities that can improve the environment; how we can improve our own area (litter campaigns, improving school grounds); conflicts over competition for land use (industry v. housing development); how damaged environments can be restored [landscaping, infill, replanting); why some environments need special protection (national parks, rain forest areas, Antarctica).

FIGURE 6 Themes in physical, human and environmental geography at key stages 1 and 2

Source: adapted from Foley and Janikoun, 1992, p. 8

22 GEOGRAPHY

environments. As the example above of a chalk-based industry shows, separating the thematic elements has its limitations, but it does at least give an overview of the key areas of geography.

The thematic studies in the geography programmes of study at key stages 1 and 2 cover several areas.

@ 'Environmental quality and change' is a key theme.

8 'Settlement' and 'weather' (though identified as themes at key stage 2) are introduced in local area studies at key stage 1.

o lJobs and journeys' is an optional key stage 1 theme in Wales (Welsh Office, 1995).

Q 'Rivers' is introduced as a theme at key stage 2 (DFE, 1995a).

Other aspects of physical geography, such as 'rocks and soils' and 'the water cycle' also appear in the national curriculum science requirements (DFE, 1995b).

3.5 Integrating the three dimensions of geography: two examples

So far the three 'dimensions' of geographical studies have been outlined, namely, geographical skills, place studies and themeshhematic studies. However, this structure is a convenience for analysing the content, not an indication of an approach to structuring geographical work with children. Indeed, it is essential, if geographical studies are to have any meaning, that the three dimensions are seen as integral to each other.

In studying any locality, geographical skills will be used and thematic aspects of the locality will be examined. Geographical skills are only developed by looking at places and aspects of the environment. Thematic aspects can only really be studied in the context of places, using geographical skills. So, though the focus may vary, all three dimensions must be part of any study in geography (see Figure 7).

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Geogrophicol skills

FIGURE 7 Skills, places and themes in primary geography

--

Example 7

Children do not see the dimensions of geography separately. In an activity on the topic 'Places we know', a class of 6 and 7 year olds were involved in making postcards to send to their home address. They had to draw a picture of the place on one side of the card to show what it is like (see Figure 8). To help them complete their postcards, they were encouraged to talk about what was there. This activity involved five aspects of the key stage 1 geography requirements:

1 helping children to name where they live;

2 making a picture (representation) of a real place;

3 using geographical vocabulary to talk about the places;

4 show their awareness of localities inside or outside the UK;

5 identlfy features in the environment.

FIGURE 8 Two poatcord drowlcp by children Philip's pMun

3 GEOGRAPHYAT KEY STAGES 1 8 2 25

Ellie's postcard shows her visit to St Vincent.

I Dimensions

Geographical skills

understanding of places

Geographical themes

Comment

clear drawing to represent the features of the island that she noted not accurate as a realistic image of the island is able to use geographical words, like 'island', 'volcano', 'homes', 'shops', etc. accurately

she writes her home address correctly she can name the island and some places on it she knows that she flew there and that it is a 'long way' from home

she can describe what an 'island' is she can describe the features of a 'volcano' and say what a 'mountain' is she knows that people live in homes and that the settlements they live in can be 'villages' or 'towns' she can talk about the different 'iobs' that she saw people doing she can say what she liked and did not like about being there

Philip's postcard is a scene from his seaside holiday in Cornwall.

Dimensions

Geographical skills

Knowledge and understanding of places

Geographical themes

Comment

he has drawn a reasonably accurate (if rather embellished) picture of the castle he built on the beach one day he can name features of the beach, like 'sand' and 'sea', and some of the things pople were doing, for example, 'buying icecream', 'sunbathing'

he can tell you that the beach is in Cornwall, but is not sure where exactly; he knows his home address, though he cannot spell it accurately

he can identify familiar landscape features like 'beach', 'seaside', 'rocks', 'sand dunes', etc. he noticed that people had left rubbish on the beach and had ideas about how it could be cleared up he could explain that sand could be used for building when wet but was not much use when dry

26 GEOGRAPHY

Example 2

A class of 9 and 10 year olds were making a study of their local area. They had investigated aspects of it on two previous occasions in school. This time, they were examining changes that were occurring, and looking at the layout and function of the area. Through a wide variety of activities they used and studied the following aspects of geography.

Dimensions

Geographical skills

Knowledge and understanding of places

Geographical themes

Aspects covered

using largescale Ordnance Survey maps using oblique and vertical aerial photographs use of key, compass, coordinates extending geographical vocabulary making and recording a survey

examining changes to shops and to a derelict site mapping land use of the local area

looking at the function of the area as a housing and service (shops, offices, etc.) suburb considering what the layout of the land use and evidence of change showed about its development investigating why changes were taking place to the shops and derelict site considering whether there might be objections to the use of the derelict site and what alternatives were possible considering how a damaged (derelict) site could be improved and how it might improve the local area

3.6 Geography in the integrated curriculum

Geography and other subjects

Geographical studies inevitably involve other subjects. Studies of weather and climate overlap with work in science (Mills, 1988; Russell, Bell, Longden and McGuigan, 1993, as do topics on soil and rocks. The development of children's geographical vocabulary is a vital part of English (Foley and Janikoun, 1992), focusing as it does on giving clearer and more precise meaning to 'everyday' words as well as the widening and deepening of vocabulary through the introduction of appropriate terms. Effective descriptions of features, well made arguments for improvements to a site and the writing of information leaflets to attract visitors to particular places provide opportunities to use speaking and listening, reading and writing skills. The use of stories with well described place settings or about environmental events, like river floods, can contribute much to geographical understanding.

3 GEOGRAPHYATKEYSTAGES 1 8 2 2 7

Mathematics offers a variety of opportunities, not only in relation to work on maps, co-ordinates, relative and compass directions and measuring distances and using scale, but also through data gathering and handling (Norris Nicholson, 1991, 1993). History has long-standing connections with geography. This has usually been in the context of local area studies, looking at the geography of the area as it is now and looking at what it was like in the past, what evidence there is of change and who or what was involved in past events and activities.

Links with art involve the use of drawing, painting and photographic skills and insights developed by observing and representing landscapes, vistas in towns, and particular features in the environment, and by examining buildings (Scoffham, 1993). Making models of the local area, as it is now or has been in the past or might be in the future, and of other places, is one of the contributions of technology. The use of information technology through data programs, simulations and concept keyboards offers many possibilities in geographical studies (Parker and Tapsfield, 1989; NCET, 1990; Davidson and Krause, 1992).

Activities in PE help support the development of children's directional and spatial skills, while music contributes through studies of sound in our environment and of music in other cultures.

Geography and crosscurricular themes and dimensions

The cross-curricular themes of environmental education and education for economic and industrial understanding are those with most overlap with geography (NCC, 1990b, 1990d; NICC, 1989; CCW, 1992; Corney, 1992). The environmental theme draws strongly on and provides considerable support for the development of children's environmental knowledge and concern (Neal and Palmer, 1990).

In looking at matters of environmental health, the interplay between wealth, the environment and people's lives, and how to work and study safely in the environment, geography contributes to health education (NCC, 1990c; NICC, 1989). Studies of the local community, different communities in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world, work and leisure activities, the provision of services and how to become involved in a responsible way in affecting your community, in both a local and a wider sense, involve the interplay of geographical work and education for citizenship (NCC, 1990e; NICC, 1989; CCW, 1991).

Consideration of the needs of children, for example, in terms of their understanding of other peoples, cultures and places and of developing girls' experience of the environment, is one way in which geographical education contributes to the equal opportunities and multicultural dimensions of the curriculum. Through geographical enquiry, children develop their skills in expressing their views, undertaking research, tackling problems and posing possible solutions, and working together. The nature of geographical work strongly supports the development of cross-curricular skills (NCC, 1990a).

Purpose

To outline the geographical possibilities of children's fiction and to identify the vocabulary children encounter both in stories and in their everyday world and school activities.

Prearn ble

Children's fiction -- picture books, picture and story books, novels and illustrated novels -- offer a great deal of potential for developing children's geographical awareness, knowledge and values.

Picture stories like Wendy Lewis's Sarah Scrap and Her Wonderful Heap (Cloverleaf, 1990) examine questions and issues to do with how we look after the environment and what can be done to improve it. Charles Keeping's Adam and Paradise Island (Oxford University Press, 1989) offers a different perspective in looking at change, helping children to appreciate that you may not be able to stop development but you can help it work for you. As a children's novel, Judy Allen's Awaiting Developments (Walker Books, 1989) provides further insights into urban development.

Adam and Paradise lsland helps give a sense of what an urban locality is like. In a similar vein, Mairi Hedderwick's Katie Morag stories, such as Katie Morag Delivers the Mail and Katie Morag and the Two Grandmothers (Collins Picture Lions, 1986, 1988), provide well illustrated imaginative but realistic descriptions of island life off the Scottish west coast. Florence Heide and Judith Gilliland's The Day of Ahmedk Secret (Gollancz, 1 992) follow the day's activities of a child working in Cairo, giving a vivid sense of life there, while Nigel Gray and Phili ppe Dupasquier's A Country Far Away (Anderson Press, 1988) provides a comparison between the daily life of two children, one in an English village and the other in a Sudanese village.

The physical environment is not neglected in children's story books. Take the weather. Philippe Dupasquier's Our House on the Hill (Puff in Books, 1 988) provides a sense of seasonal change and human response as it follows a family through the year in their home in the country. More dramatically, for older children, Andrew Sal key's novel Hurricane (Puff in Books, 1 977) explores the nature and impact of dramatic weather conditions on a family and community in Jamaica.

Equally, poetry collections about the environment and places offer much to provoke children to consider .the impact of the environment on people and of people on the environment and each other. John Foster's Con You Hear?

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Poems for Oxfam (Piper, 1 992) and Judith Nicholls' What on Earth . . . ? Poems with a Conservation Theme (Fa ber and Fa ber, 1 989) are [?st twobf an increasing number of collections which have many good poems to use with children of all ages.

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