Lesson video

Hello, my name's Miss Gilyeat and I'm going to be your geography teacher for today.

In today's lesson, we are going to be learning about how we can use GIS to locate and analyse places around the world.

I'm really excited to teach you today because this is one of my favourite topics.

Anyway, let's get going.

So our lesson outcome for today is that you can use a geographic information system, or GIS, to locate places around the world and find out their size and the distance from the UK.

Now, we have got three key words for today's lesson which all will be highlighted in bold on the slide decks.

So if you're not sure what they are, you can always come back to this slide.

So our first key word for today's lesson is digital map.

So a digital map is an electronic version of a map that can be used on a computer to see places, get directions and find information about locations.

Our second keyword is geographic information systems or GIS.

So A GIS or geographic information system is a computer system that captures, analyses and displays geographic data to help us understand spatial patterns.

And our third key word is a layer.

So a layer in a GIS is a set of data about a topic that you can add to a map so that a geographical pattern can be analysed.

So throughout today's lesson we are going to be using GIS and we're also going to be adding layers of information.

Now we've got two learning cycles for today, okay? So our first one is we're going to learn about what is a geographic information system, GIS.

And then we are going to learn how we can use GIS to investigate places.

So if you are doing this on your own at home, then maybe it would be helpful if you can access the geography visualizer, which is a free piece of software that you can get on the internet.

Or if you are doing it in school, it would be useful or helpful if you could use a laptop or tablet or Chromebook for this lesson.

If you don't have access to these, it may just be handy if your teacher could show it on a screen, how you can do these things that we are going to go through.

Let's get going with learning cycle one, which is learning what is a geographic information system.

Okay, so to start off with, digital maps allow geographers to investigate places using a computer, a mobile phone, or a tablet.

So it's basically something digital that we can access maps with.

Now on the slide here we've got an example of a digital map and this is the geography visualizer which we are going to be using later in the lesson.

So this is an example of GIS, geographic information systems, okay? Now there are lots of different types of digital maps that you may already have used in school, in the classroom or outside of the classroom, okay? Now you may recognise, on the slide here, I've got a snapshot of one that a lot of us use quite a lot.

Do you know what this one is? Okay, so I want you to have a think, why do you think people might use a digital map and can you give any different examples of digital maps that you can think of? So either chat with a person that you are sat next to or just have a think on your own.

Okay, so what have you come up with? Well, Sam here who says, "My family used digital maps on car journeys, so we know the way." So quite a common one you might have used or your family or friends may have done is Google maps.

I use that all the time to get around.

Alex has got a really good example here.

So Alex has said, "We use digital maps to investigate where we want to go on holiday.

We also use them to find shops." So that's a really good thing, especially, I do this when I go to a new area on Google Maps, I'll often zoom in to find out what kind of restaurants there are in the area, where I might want to eat out or where I might want to go shopping or do tourist activities.

They're brilliant for things like that.

Okay, let's check our understanding of what we have learned so far.

So I want you to choose three reasons why people may use digital maps.

So the first one is A, investigating an area that they want to go on holiday.

B, finding their way on a car journey.

C, finding out how to spell geographical words.

Or D, look for nearby shops and restaurants.

So there are three reasons on there, so three ticks.

Pause the video and have a go.

Let's see if we've got these right.

So first one, investigating where you want to go on holiday.

Absolutely you'd use a digital map for that.

Finding the way on a car journey, I probably do this on a daily basis.

Okay, not spelling geographical words, I wouldn't use digital maps for that, but you would use them for looking for nearby shops and restaurants.

Now, displaying data on a digital maps makes it easier to analyse spatial patterns.

Digital maps that show data over an area are called geographical information systems, okay? So what we're going to learn later is that you can add information onto a map, okay? So digital maps allow us to put data over an area so we can see a larger area or a small area and find out information about it.

Now because we can look at an area for this data, it helps us pick out patterns in the data.

Now I want you to think, what data could you put on a map? So if you had a map of an area, what kind of things could you look at for that area? I'll give you one example to get going.

You could look at the amount of people that live in an area.

Can you think of any others? So Izzy has got some really good ideas here.

So she's said house price data, that's especially important if you ever get to the point that you want to buy a house.

Crime data, air quality, so thinking about what the pollution is like, traffic data, would all be useful to show on a map.

Now there are loads and loads of jobs that are in geography going into the future where you might have to analyse maps and look at this kind of data to pick out patterns.

Let's check our understanding.

So geographic information systems: A, include digital maps that show data over an area.

B, help you analyse spatial patterns in maps.

Or C, tell you about news and events.

Tick all that apply.

Okay, so they definitely do A, okay, 'cause they show data over an area.

They also do B because they help us look at patterns in maps.

They don't tell us about news and events.

Alright then, so the ArcGIS geography visualizer is an example of GIS.

Now everyone can have access to this and there are loads of pieces of information that you can get and you can look at for free using this piece of software, okay? It allows us to investigate places and analyse geographical patterns.

What we are going to do is we are going to look at this later in the lesson.

I'm going to talk through some of the functions that the ArcGIS geography visualizer has on it.

So the first thing that we are going to learn is how we can open different base maps and add layers of data by using the bottoms of the page.

So we're going to watch a video of how to do this.

Now, if you are doing this at the same time as watching the lesson, it might be worth having the ArcGIS visualizer tab open so you can work through it as I am going through this.

Let's watch the help video.

So on this recording, we're going to look at how we can change the base map on the geography visualizer and we're going to look at how we can add different layers of information.

So as you can see here, we've got the main map and if we go down to the bottom of the screen, we can click on base maps.

Now this bar here should pop up with lots of different types of base maps.

So we can scroll down and have a look at them.

At the moment, we're on the imagery hybrid one.

What we're going to do is we're going to change that to the charter territory map.

And there, it sometimes takes a little moment to load up, we can see all of the countries with their political borders, okay? So if we cross that off now, we can see, yeah, a political map.

Now what we are going to do is we're going to look at how we can add different layers of information to this map.

So again, if we go down to the bar at the bottom, we can press add layer.

And if you scroll down there's lots of different layers of information that we can add.

Okay, so from cities of the world, to temperature to population data.

We are gonna have a go at adding cities of the world.

So press cities of the world, and now on the map here we can see all of the cities at at the world that have been located with the circles that we can see on the map, okay? Now the size of the circle represents the size of the city via its population.

To find out what the different circles mean, we can press the legend at the bottom and we can see there there's a key for the population size.

So the biggest circle obviously shows a larger population down to the smaller circle.

Now with all the different layers of information, the keys will be slightly different on how the data is shown on the map.

So in some of them, for this example, they've used circles, but colours might be used for other ones as well.

Okay, let's check our understanding.

Geographic information systems can be used to analyse how things change over an area.

Is that true or false? And can you tell me why? Okay, that is true.

And why is it true? By adding layers to the map, we can see geographical patterns in the data.

Spot on.

Okay, so our first task for today's lesson is you are going to use the geography visualizer and complete the following tasks: First of all, change the base map to show the 'Chartered territory map.

' And second, add a layer to show the cities of the world.

Your second task is then discuss with your partner what the map shows you about where the largest cities in the world are located.

Pause the video and have a go at the task.

Okay, so this is what I've got.

So I changed the base map to the chartered territory country, so this basically shows the country's political borders and we can see the cities of the world that are located there.

Now if you look at the legend, you should be able to see what the size of the circle represents and the population data, okay? So as Alex has said here, "I have noticed that a lot of the biggest cities in the world seem to be in India and China." And Alex is absolutely right, the biggest cities in the world are now mostly located in the continent of Asia, and yeah, in China and India especially.

And the reasons for that being, that's where the the largest populations of the world are.

That's where they are at the moment.

Okay, then let's move on to our second learning cycle is how we can use GIS to investigate places.

Now, to locate a place we can type its name into the search box and click the magnifying glass.

So if you are on the visualizer, if you got there and search anywhere that you know of in the world, it should be able to locate it and find it, okay? After you click the magnifying glass, it zooms into the location.

So as an example here, we have found out about where Dubai is located in the UAE or the United Arab Emirates.

Okay, now what I'd like you to check that you've understood how to do that, I want you to locate Dubai using the search function on the geography visualizer.

Give it a go.

Okay, is that what you got? Hopefully your screen should look something like that.

Now we can use the minus button or the scroll wheel of the mouse to zoom out and see the location of Dubai relative to other places.

So yeah, there are two options.

You can see there on the left, you've got the plus and the minus, which does the zoom, but you can also use the scroll on your mouse as well.

That might be easier for some of you if you've got a mouse.

Obviously, that's hard if you've got a touch screen pad.

Okay, there's Dubai in relation to Europe, Africa, and some of the other Asian countries.

Okay, so your second checking of understanding of how to do that is I want you to zoom out to show Dubai and the UK on the same screen, okay? Have a go.

So your screen should look something a little bit like that.

We can see Dubai in the bottom right corner compared to the UK that's in the top left.

There's UK and there is Dubai.

Now, one of the really cool things about the geography visualizer is that you can measure distance between places.

So we're going to watch this video and the video is going to take us through how we can locate and then measure the distance between places.

Let's watch it together.

For this recording, we're going to find out how we can measure distance using the geography visualizer.

So we're going to find out how we can measure the distance from the UK to Dubai.

Now as we can see on here we've got the main base map.

Now we're going to change this for the purpose of this exercise.

So we're gonna press on base maps on the bottom and then we're gonna change it to the chartered territory map, which shows the country's political borders.

We're gonna cross that off so we can see the whole map in a bit more detail.

Now you might know where Dubai is already on that world map, but we're going to be able to find out where it is a little bit more clearly.

Now for the purpose of this exercise, we're gonna change the map to 3D and you can do that using the bar at the bottom, and then we get a nice 3D image of the world.

Go to the top left to press the open search button.

And then in the search bar we are going to type for Dubai.

So rather than having to find the place yourself, you can search it and it zooms you into the correct location of the area, town, city, whatever you have searched.

So we can see there where Dubai is, okay? If we drag the mouse around, you can actually see where it is in relation to other places.

Now what we want to do is we want to see how far away Dubai is from the UK.

To do that, we are going to zoom out.

Now you can zoom out using the little minus button on the left or you can use the scroll on your mouse.

It's completely up to you, whatever you find the easiest, okay? Now we're going to measure how far away Dubai is from the United Kingdom.

Now we're gonna find an exact location for that.

Now I live in Sheffield, so I'm going to find out how far away Dubai is from Sheffield.

Now I know where Sheffield is because I live there.

So instead of searching it, I have just zoomed in here by using the scroll button.

And there we have got Sheffield, okay? So to find out the distance, you go to the measure button at the bottom of the screen, you press measure, okay? Now there are a few different features that you can do with this.

So to start off with, we are going to start our measurement.

So we're going to click on Sheffield because that's where we are trying to measure from.

Now as you bring the cursor along your screen, it measures how far away it is from different places.

Now for the purpose of this exercise, I want to find how long it is in kilometres, okay? So in geography we tend to use kilometres over miles anyway, so you can change the unit using the key on the right, okay? Now we're gonna bring it all the way to Dubai.

So to do that we need to scroll out and zoom out, okay? And then we're gonna bring it back to Dubai of where we searched earlier.

So we're gonna drag it over and to drag it, you just put your left button down and scroll in, and there we have got Dubai.

Now we're gonna zoom quite far in because we want to make it as accurate as possible.

And then we click on Dubai and we can see on the right how far away it is.

So 5,604.

41 kilometres and that's our answer.

That's the distance that we have found from Sheffield to Dubai.

Now if we scroll out again, we can see that quite nicely over the screen, how far it's gone.

Now let's check our understanding so that you can do that.

Use the measuring tool in the geography visualizer to find out the distance between where you live and Dubai.

Off you go.

Now for me, I live in Sheffield, so I have done my own one here.

So you won't have the same answer as I do because you are likely to be living in a different city or town within the UK or all around the world.

So if you've not got the same number, that's absolutely fine.

In fact, that's better, okay? So my distance to Dubai at the moment is about 5,602 kilometres, quite a long distance away, okay? Oh and three kilometres, yeah, we've rounded up there.

Another cool thing that the geography visualizer allows us to do is add layers of information onto a map to show data over a geographical space, okay? Now if you decide to pursue geography at GCSE, a level in university, this is a type of job that you might get into because people use these layers of information to understand data better.

So if you are finding this information, that's a really good sign if you're thinking you might want to pursue geography, okay? So this map here shows land cover, so what the land has got on it basically.

And we can see on the screenshot here we've got the legend, which shows the different colours and what they represent.

So you've got water, trees, vegetation, crops, built areas, et cetera, okay? So the different colours are representing what the land is like in that area, okay? That's the legend or the key.

So we are going to watch this video together to see how we can add these layers of information and we are going to see if we can find out how large a city is from using the land cover function, but also the measuring tool, okay? So let's watch this together and then you are going to have a practise.

So for this video we're going to learn how we can measure the area of a city.

So to start off with, what we're gonna do is we're gonna add a layer of data or a of information.

So we go down to this button, add layer.

Now as I showed earlier, there's loads of different things that we can add onto the map, but for this one we're gonna scroll down to land cover.

Okay, so this basically tells us what the land is being used for and what we can find there.

Okay, so if we press that button to add it on, fabulous, it's done that.

Okay, so we can see now that the Earth has been shaded in lots of different colours to tell us what we would find in that area, but we don't don't know what these different colours mean unless we have a look at the legend.

So if we go onto legend there, we can see that the green area show where there's trees, yellow shows crops and a red shade shows built areas.

So if we look there, we can see all the areas that have got red dots, and that are shaded in red is a built up area or a town or a city basically.

Now we're gonna try and find the distance or sorry, the area of the city of Dubai.

So we're gonna go up to the search, put in Dubai in the search bar.

Brilliant.

So it's zoomed us into the city of Dubai here, so we can cross that off.

Now we want to see how big that area is, okay? So to do that we are going to press on measure, and measure there.

We showed you how to measure distance earlier.

We're not doing that one.

For this one, we are going to measure area.

So we press measure area.

Now it's a little bit tricky to be super accurate, so we're just gonna try the best that we can.

You basically do a left hand click on the area and you basically just need to draw around the area which has been shaded in red, okay, to find out what it is in kilometre squared.

Now you will notice it's showing the imperial measurement at the moment on the right, but I will show you how to change that in a second.

Now, for the purpose of this, I'm not doing it super accurately so I can show you quite quickly, but you might be better just spending a little bit longer just trying to get it a little bit more accurate.

Okay, so double click and that finishes off the, sometimes a bit tricky to stop it drawing, it finishes off the measurement for us.

Okay, so if we have a look on the right, it shows it's 571.

05 miles squared, but we are going to change the metric into metric.

There we go.

Fabulous.

So the city of Dubai is approximately 1,479.

2 of a kilometre squared.

So that is how you measure the area of a city.

Okay, let's check our understanding.

So what I'd like you to do is add the land cover layer to your map and measure the distance of the area around Dubai.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, so first of all, you should have created a map like that by adding the the map layer and then you should have zoomed into Dubai to see where the area that has been shaded in red is.

You then should have measured around it.

And now for my answer, I got an answer 567.

86 miles squared.

But yours might be slightly different to that depending on where you shaded it and that is absolutely fine.

Okay, now the map layers on the geography visualizer can be used to investigate a range of different things about places, okay? So for example here, we've got temperature data, we've got data about biomes.

All of those different layers of information can be put onto one map.

So you do that by adding map layers at the bottom.

So this map shows the biome that's surrounding Dubai.

So we can see there, if we look at the legend, it's a little bit small, but the majority of the land surrounding, or all of the land surrounding Dubai is actually desert.

Right, let's check our understanding of this.

What different information could you find out about Dubai and the surrounding area by using the different map layers? So Izzy says, "I found out that the average temperature around Dubai is very hot." Well done, Izzy.

And Alex has said, "I found out that the area around Dubai is desert." Both of those are absolutely correct and they both found that information using the geography visualizer.

Okay, we're gonna move on to task B.

So your first thing is to use the geography visualizer, complete these task for Moscow, okay? So if you don't know where Moscow is, remember you can use the search tool at the top left, type it in and it'll zoom into the area.

So that's your first thing, is I'd like you to locate the place, so locate where Moscow is.

Second of all, you're going to measure the distance from where you live to Moscow.

Find out the size of the built up area.

So remember you're gonna have to add a layer there.

Then look at how much of the layer is the built up area and use the measuring tool.

And finally, investigate one other geographical feature of the place or its surroundings using a map layer of your choice.

So for example, you could find out what the temperature is like or the rainfall.

Your second task is to use the internet to research the area of Moscow.

Discuss with your partner any differences from your figure and why that might be.

So pause the video and have a go at task B.

Now you may have information similar to this.

It doesn't matter if it's not exactly the same.

So, "Moscow is 2,505 kilometres from where I live in Sheffield.

I measured Moscow and found out that the built up area was about 2,600 kilometres squared.

I found out that the biome around Moscow is supposed to be temperate forest, but the satellite images show a lot of forest that has been cleared for farmland." Good research there Lucas.

Alex has said, "We researched the size of Moscow and our figure was a little higher.

We think this might be due to the difference in what we included in our measurement." And Alex is absolutely correct there.

When you use that measuring tool, you have to make your own judgement about where you are going to include in your measurement and that will mean that you get a slightly different measurement to your partner and that's completely normal.

A summary for today's lesson.

Okay, so A GIS allows us to store and display data on a digital map.

Different layers of data can be added on a GIS, which allows us to investigate spatial patterns.

A GIS can be used to locate places around the world and investigate their size and distance from other places.

And decisions are taken when using a GIS to analyse data which can lead to different results.

Right, that's it for today's lesson.

Well done because there's been loads of tricky skills in today, okay? So keep up the good work and I'll see you next time.

Goodbye.