article / 3 May 2025

Maps, Education and Community

geocarto

I loved cartography from the time I started studying it. I thought teaching it at university and college level my students would enjoy it as much as I did, that wasn't the case 😃😕

Some counted days to finishing the unit and not work on construction of grids manually 😁 I demanded lots of accuracy to ensure accurate plotting, this being equivalent to georeferencing. 

At the same time some just like me really enjoyed the map work and have become way better than I am. 

I had to do something, I wondered how old one has to be to appreciate and understand map work. I dared to introduce 4 year olds in drawing their classroom map since that is where they spent most of their day time. 

I smile looking at their crooked rectangles and squares of their tables and seats☺️

2019 I published a first paper, Introducing children to Maps that I presented at the International Cartographic Association Conference in Tokyo. I have since published another, Fun with Maps and in a project with other universities we published another great involvement of learners in cartography, GIS and Remote Sensing. 

I have been interacting with my initial group of learners who are now 11 years old and they have really inspired me to do more. 

They will appreciate the mapping space way more for having been engaged very early in life.

I invite partners to help me reach way more schools!

I hope you get a moment to read through the article below from this year's Spring Issue of Maplines Magazine by the British Cartographic Society, in which I am a full member.


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