Pre-Arrival Activity - Geography

Welcome: this activity is for students enrolled on Environment and Geography awards

A warm welcome from your new Geography and Environment tutors at Staffordshire University.  We are, of course, delighted that you have chosen to join us for your university education, and wish you well in your studies.
To ease you into your university career, we should like you to complete this pre-arrival activity, as part of the University’s ‘Step-by-step’ scheme.  It is important to have a go at it and to bring the results to your first Geography or Environment tutorial.   The task is very straightforward and should take you about an hour, or even less.  If there are things you can’t do, just let your tutor know at the first tutorial.  

What do you have to do?

You will first need to access a web site, run by the Ordnance Survey.  It’s called ‘Getamap’.  The site allows you to look at OS maps and air photographs of any part of the UK, at a range of scales.  You should find it at:
http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap/
We’d like you to use it to look at the area surrounding the College Road site of Staffordshire University.  What are its landscapes and environments like?  What geographical and environmental issues are there, which we may need to study?

• Go to the web address; scroll down the page; click the orange box ‘Leisure’, and go to the orange box that says launch getamap now>>
  A pane will appear, asking ‘Do you have an account?’   In due course, you may find it useful to have one (it’s free, and there are lots of useful features) – but for the moment, just click on the dark grey box saying ‘Guest access’.
  
  A map of the North of England will appear, together with a key, a blue scale bar and tools for moving the position of the map and changing the scale.

• Don’t do any of those things for the moment, but find the little red circle on the map.  With a little trial and error, you should be able to ‘float’ it down until it’s just below the last ‘T’ in the name STOKE-ON-TRENT.  
  That will take you to the right area:  then use the vertical ‘zoom’ bar at the left of the screen, and move the pointer nearly to the top.  You can also use the orange arrows on the diamond-shaped navigating button, to move around the map.  
  You need to find the College Road site of the University.  If in doubt, look for the main Stoke-on-Trent railway station.  College Road is just north of this.

• At present, the orange button marked ZoomMap is highlighted.  Click the button marked Leisure and you’ll get one of the OS Landranger or Explorer maps, which are perhaps more familiar to you.  We need the Explorer map (the ‘two-and-a half-inch’ map: 1:25,000).  You’ll know you’re on that when the blue scale bar shows 500m  - when the pointer is nearly at the top of the vertical zoom bar.
  
  Now we’re ready to do the work for the tutorial!

The tutorial exercise

Activity A
Look at the College Road site on the map (marked ‘Univ’) and the areas immediately around it, and thinks about the following:

• What sorts of different land-use areas are immediately-apparent on the map?  (You should be able to find at least eight of them – but the more, the better.)  For example, to take an obvious one:  educational sites (University and College grounds).  Make a list of these, ready for the tutorial.

• This is an area of mixed land use.  Some of the juxtapositions of land uses may have the potential for problems.  Name at least three adjoining land uses which could cause problems – and briefly explain what the problems are.
  

Activity B
On the map, instead of the ‘Leisure’ button, click on the one marked ‘Aerial’.  It changes the image to a vertical air photograph of the same area, at approximately the same scale: 1:25,000

• Can you explain what 1:25,000 means?  Be ready to tell your tutorial group!

• Look at the air photograph and then list at least four pieces of ‘environmental’ information that the air photo additionally reveals about this locality.  (Hints:  vegetation?  ground condition?  human activity affecting environment?)

Activity C
To summarise:

• Be ready to contribute to your tutorial group: 
  (a) three sorts of information that you could obtain from a map but not from an air photograph; and
  (b) three sorts of information that you could obtain from an air photograph and not from a map.

That’s it!  Please don’t forget to bring your information in with you.
If you have time, look a little more at the ‘Getamap’ site, and remember it’s there for future reference.

We look forward to meeting you soon!

If you have any questions or queries don't forget you can always contact your Faculty Student Guidance Advisor: