Description

A sketch map is defined in general as "a roughly drawn map that shows only basic details." In geography education, a special kind of sketch map is used that is sometimes called "croquis", defined as "a map that shows in one glance the essential spatial relations". We use the French word because in the educational system in France they have been integrated already for many years; These "croquis" are not the same as a sketch maps in the traditional sense of the word: For example they are not necessarily very 'sketchy', or even drawn by hand. What exemplifies them is that they try to bring across a geographical concept or model in a simple, generalised and symbolised depiction.

A typical example is the "blue banana" concept of Roger Brunet (a French Geographer), that describes the European main Urbanisation axis from Manchester to Milan (Figure 2). Website 1 holds many examples for various levels in the French schools. But also in many other countries sketch maps are recognised as a powerful tools in education [2].

Traditionally, these sketch maps are made by pupils and teachers by hand. As students are using more and more digital tools in class, we want to look into the possibilities of web-based tools to help creating them. To research this, you will have to get a good understanding of the use of sketch map in geography education, to be able to define proper user requirements for a tool. With these user requirements and appropriate technical requirements, a design for such a tool can be created, and a prototype or proof-of-concept implemented.

NB: For Dutch speaking students: Voor nederlandse studenten is er de (extra) mogelijkheid aan te sluiten bij de Professionele Leergemeenschap Aardrijkskunde, die een lesplan en boekje maakte over het gebruik van croquis in het voortgezet onderwijs (zie Joop van der Schee, et al.: Geografisch leren denken met Croquis. http://www.expertisecentrum-aardrijkskunde.nl/wp-content/uploads/PLG-UU-...). ,

Objectives and Methodology

Gather requirements and design a tool for creating sketch maps for use in geography education.

Further reading

[1] - J. Muniga. Croquis et schémas de géographie, 2017. http://geographie-muniga.org/
[2] - Howard M. Metz. Sketch maps: Helping students get the big picture. Journal of Geography, 89(3):114–118, 1990. doi: 10.1080/00221349008979610.
A small presentation oabut this thesis subject: https://kartoweb.itc.nl/kobben/publications/2019/OpenMic%20schematic%20m...