Photo Trail

Source:

Adapted from Natural Leaders - Environmental Games and activities, by SNH & NTS, available from the National Trust for Scotland

Time

1 hour or more

You will need

• Cameras
• Notebooks and pencils
• Maps of an appropriate scale for the area you are going to study

Did you know?

Detailed maps of the entire Scottish mainland were made by the military surveyor, William Roy, between 1747-1755. They are available as an online resource (see downloads)

Before the activity

Plan the route for the activity, the activity can be done on the journey to and from a field trip or as a short local trip.

The activity

Get the children take photographs of the landscape along your pre-selected route. Note down the place name of each photograph or an aid to remembering where it was taken.

Back in the classroom, print out each photograph with a code number in the top corner. Get the class to spread out maps of the route and work out, on the map, where each photograph was taken. Sticky labels or post-its could be used to mark the places on the map where a photograph was taken.. For younger children the photo places could already be numbered on the maps, each group would then only need to work out which lettered photograph corresponded to which numbered point.

Discuss which landscape features on the map were used to pin point where the photographs were taken from, and which direction the photographer faced. 

Suggested Follow up

Take another sequence of photographs, along the same route at the same places, but at a different season. Discuss the changing appearance of the landscape in each season.

Look at modern and old maps of other local areas. See if the class can find changes in the built, planted or natural landscape. Have fields become woods, have towns expanded, have rivers changed their course?

Find (or not find?) your village or town on the amazing detailed map of the entire Scottish mainland, mapped by the military surveyor, William Roy, between 1747-1755 (see downloads)

Find out about the history of the Ordnance survey

Downloads

• Detailed 18th Century maps of the whole Scottish mainland (1747-1755)
• Ordnance Survey Maps

Additional Information

copies of Roy's maps are available from the National Libraries of Scotland for a few pounds. You can select the size and area you require for a copy.

Curriculum Links

• science
• social studies

Age Range

2,3,4