MapZone

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone

KS2 - KS4 (Years 3 - 11)

Geography, Citizenship, Mathematics, English, History & ICT

This product is distributed by Ordnance Survey (Tel: 08456 050505)

Mapzone is a highly useful website that would particularly enhance classroom input on Mapping Skills. Explanations are brief and to the point and are supported by quality video clips and pictures. The text is straightforward to read and is presented in easily digestible chunks, supported by illustrations to aid understanding.

Although this site has been designed for Key Stage 3, it is an appealing website that has the potential to be used as a useful teaching tool in Key Stage 2. The site is well designed and covers a wide range of Geographical skills and concepts, including map symbols, grid references and understanding scale. There are opportunities to learn and test knowledge. The games and activities are bright and attractive and include animation and sound effects. There are useful printable resources for all the topics. I am looking forward to using this site next term.

I used this site to teach mapping skills to Year 5 children, primarily to prepare some of them for a residential field trip when they will be using OS maps but also to help deliver elements from the National Numeracy Strategy. These elements included the use of coordinates, scale, compass directions and bearings.The teaching in the site is not designed for Key Stage 2 but a lot of it can be adapted. The children greatly enjoyed the many interactive activities which are linked into the teaching sections, as well as the excellent games area, many of which are very educational.