International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B6. Istanbul 2004
specifications, yet in many schools resources for even the
aforementioned age-old aspects are still not in place. For the
last three years, geomatics.org.uk has sought to educate teach-
ers on aspects of modern geomatics that include photogram-
metry, remote sensing and spatial information science. Feed-
back received from the project indicates that teachers have
become enthused by geomatics and have started to implement
aspects of the discipline in their own teaching. Geography
teachers, for example, have seen ways of revolutionising
fieldwork and teachers of mathematics, faced with the peren-
nial question, “why are we doing this, miss?” have found an
answer other than, “because it’s maths and you need to do it”.
The two obstacles in the way of teaching geomatics in schools
have been the lack of teacher awareness of the subject (in a
survey carried out only 1/3 of geography teachers polled had
heard of the term “geomaties”) and the necessary provision of
sufficient resources to facilitate successful implementation.
Geomatics.org.uk is supported by the UK geomatics sector and
aims to raise the discipline's profile in schools and further
education colleges across the country by providing useful and
timely learning and teaching resources based on contemporary
research. Resources available to teachers include lesson plans,
instrumentation, software and data that are nominally out of
reach of schools due to excessive cost and insufficient training.
All resources are aimed at the UK National Curriculum and
exam specifications and are provided free to teachers. The
management and distribution of resources is operated via a
website, whilst a portfolio of nationwide teacher training
courses initiates teachers into geomatics theory and practice.
The website is not a stand-alone source of information; instead
it operates as a portal to the geomatics sector, serving to pro-
mote the profession through raising public awareness.
The target audience for geomatics.org.uk is, albeit indirectly,
school pupils studying for GCSE, AS and A levels. The project
has up to now focussed on geography, but has overlapped into
the related disciplines of mathematics, physics and ICT. Whilst
aspects of geomatics are mentioned throughout national speci-
fications for geography, the perception of geomatics (nee sur-
veying) remains vague (Parker and Booth, 1999), with pupils
at best believing it to be the use of a clinometer and tape meas-
ure, and at worst having no perception of the science whatso-
ever. Geography, on the other hand, is a subject about which
everyone is aware (Lemmens, 2001), is popular within schools,
and has massive potential to utilise modern scientific and en-
gineering methodology. By incorporating contemporary
geomatics technology into school level geography, it is hoped
that pupils will better appreciate the need for scientific enquiry
and the power this brings to geographic study. By associating
interesting study with geomatics, rather than geography, it is
anticipated that there will be an increase in the number of ap-
plications for students wishing to study geomatics at university
and other levels. The core aim of the geomatics.org.uk project
is therefore to promote the geomatics profession through rais-
ing awareness. Within this broad aim, the objectives are to:
e raise awareness of how geomatics science, engineering
and technology can help monitor and manage issues per-
taining to the earth;
e raise the profile of mathematics, science, engineering and
technology taught in schools and further education col-
leges across the UK by providing useful and timely geo-
matics based learning and teaching resources;
e bring aspects of geomatics, already present in the Na-
tional Curriculum and exam specifications for a wide
range of subjects (including mathematics, geography, ICT
and physics), into the 21* Century by placing modern geo-
matics technology in the hands of school pupils;
e encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration between teach-
ers of mathematics, geography, ICT and physics through
the media of geomatics science, engineering and technol-
ogy.
This paper reports on the work of geomatics.org.uk in anticipa-
tion that its success may be of interest in other countries ex-
periencing similar recruitment problems.
2. GEOMATICS.ORG.UK: AN OVERVIEW
2.1 Internet portal
The project's name is derived from its hub — a website that
acts as a portal to the UK geomatics sector (Figure 2): The
website has three overlapping areas: an open access arca con-
taining general information about geomatics for students and
the public; a member’s area containing ideas and support for
teachers applying geomatics in the classroom and, finally, an
area for the geomatics community where supporters are kept
informed and future plans for the project are revealed. Mem-
bership, for both the supporter’s and teacher’s areas is free and
is achieved simply by filling in an on-line registration form.
There are currently over 600 teachers and 150 supporters
registered with the website.
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2.2 Teaching resources
2.2.1 Schemes of work and ideas for lesson plans
The project has developed learning and teaching resources,
based on contemporary aspects of geomatics, for GCSE, AS
and A level specifications and the National Curriculum. The
schemes of work have been developed in close collaboration
with an educational advisor from the University of Newcastle
and with teachers from various institutions across the country.
Developing materials in this manner has ensured that the re-
sources created were useful and timely to teachers. The web-
site also contains ideas and examples for many school subjects
