Mapping Change in Place and Society

Section 1 - Introduction

If you are using the Schools Learning Materials for the first time, we suggest that you go to Learning Packages Theme 4 Topic 1 Introduction to the materials in the archive. This suggests ways in which the archival materials might be used.

Topic 1: Introduction to the materials in the archive   Topic 2: Going to the Seaside: Exemplar materials for National Curriculum Geography Key Stages 1 & 2   Topic 3: The New Smugglers: Exemplar materials for National Curriculum Key Stages 3&4   Topic 4: Mapping Change in Place and Society

The Learning Packages in Theme 2 Settlements and Society provide background to the changes in places and society along the Dorset coast.

Topic 1: Origins of Growth & Settlement   Topic 2: Life on the Land and in the Town   Topic 3: Leisure Hours   Topic 4: The Influence of the Sea   Topic 5: Radar Development in Dorset

The following Schools Learning Material has five main Sections :

•  Section 1 - Introduction describes the main features and objectives of Mapping Change in Place and Society

•  Section 2 - Smuggling and maps develops a specific element of the smuggling story to demonstrate ways in which archival maps can be used to enhance the learning experience.

•  Section 3 - Change in place and society shows how sequences of maps of the same location coupled with selected images illustrate how places and the communities which live in them have changed. At the same time, it poses questions about why those changes have occurred and what their effects on rural and urban coastal landscape have been.

•  Section 4 - Using the archival materials in the field suggests ways in which the maps and images might be used in conjunction with field studies to help students understand how the landscapes which they are visiting and observing have changed over time.

•  Section 5 - Landscape change –past to future – our role poses questions about how those landscapes changed in the past and might change in the future.

Its specific learning objectives are to:

a) help Key Stage 3 and 4 learners to understand how their way of life is also determined by external forces, how their environment has evolved, and how we make judgements that can affect the environment

b) promote effective learning at a personal level, rooted within the community but extended to explore global perspectives

c) promote constructive creative thinking and to encourage the exhilarating moment where content inspires original thought

Four areas of the Dorset coast are used as exemplars of the rich and varied resources available in the Dorset Coast Digital Archive:

•  the village of Burton Bradstock in West Dorset
Burton Bradstock Football Team 1907-8

•  Studland

Knoll beach between 1915 and 1921

•  Durlston Country Park at Swanage

Durlston Head from the air with the strip fields in the background

The maps, paintings and photographs in the DCDA archive were produced at particular times and often for specific reasons. They are not drawn with the same accuracy as today and do not reflect the same attitudes, principles or laws as today. For more detail about the features of maps, go to Interactive Maps and click on Cartography.

As an introductory Learning Activity, students could consider ways in which maps are used today for particular tasks or to carry specific messages.