Geography

General Geography Information
Environment & Habitats
India
Maps
Rivers
Settlements
Sustainable Development
Tropical Rainforests
Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Mountains & Caves
Weather
Yorkshire
Other Useful Sites

Return to Contents

Unreviewed sites: Submit a review
Broken or misplaced links: Let us know
Recommendation: Tell us about it
 
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes) = The Vaultman's current favourites
General Geography Information
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

bullet1.gif (148 bytes) Back To School
This new site from Save the Children helps teachers get to grips with the citizenship component of the national curriculum. Part of the charity's Forgotten Children Campaign, the site contains structured lesson plans in Art, English, Drama and PSHE / Citizenship, along with case studies and maps highlighting the plight of the 13 million internally displaced children who have been forced from their homes by conflict but remain within the borders of their own countries.

C@wley.net ks3_4.gif (1080 bytes)
c@wley.net geography portal is a site providing resources for teachers and students of Geography! Photograph case studies, links, anthems, flags, outline maps and a huge amount of other resources are available here!

CIA -- The World Factbook 1999
Look up any fact, geographical, political or economic, about any country you care to think of. This site has been set up by the CIA, so presumably is useful for any would be spies!!!
The Commonwealth Institute ks2.gif (967 bytes)ks3.gif (965 bytes)
A source of information on commonwealth countries. As well as information on the Institute itself, there is a Teachers Resource section, which is only a prototype at the moment, but which looks extremely promising. Aimed at teachers of KS2 and KS3, it offers curriculum focussed information, including links to the learning grids of many other countries, accompanied by some learning activities and worksheets. At the moment the only country included is South Africa, but there are plans to extend this to cover all commonwealth countries.
The Constants and Equations Page
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
This is really useful.  Do you want to know the mass of the Earth, its volume or the time of sunrise in Kabul on January 18th? Do you know how many gallons there are in a dry pint? Do you know what a slug or G-pound is and how many Kg it is equal to? This site has over 4500 pages of information about scientific, mathematical or astronomical constants and equations.You can get a table of sunrise/set times for any place on Earth - useful for the KS2 QCA Unit on Sun Earth and Moon.
The Disaster Area ks2.gif (967 bytes)
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Floods, Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Tsunami, Storms, Wildfires and more... Learn about natural disasters.Simple explanations, lively graphics. Kids will enjoy this one.
Earth and Moon viewer
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A definite must for work on the Earth in Space! View a map of the Earth showing day and night regions right at this moment, as seen from the sun, the moon, or a satellite. Or view the moon from above named locations. There is also a link to an interactive orrery.
Earth View
Part of the above site.
E-Conflict World Encyclopedia
The Ellis Island, New York, site
Lots of links and search facilities relating to the millions who passed through there and into a new life in the States.
bullet1.gif (148 bytes) Geography Essentials (4Learning)
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Part of Channel 4's educational offering, this interactive site has sections called "Investigating Our Local Area", "People and Places" and "The Environment". There is also an A-Z of geographical terms. Each section has several subsections, is referenced to the QCA scheme and has information, a quiz, downloadable worksheets, a bank of clip art and photographic images,web links and activities to do at home.
Geographia Homepage
bullet1.gif (148 bytes) GeoNet ks1.gif (967 bytes)ks2.gif (967 bytes)ks3.gif (965 bytes)ks4.gif (972 bytes)
The Guardian 07.01.97.described this as 'a one man bid to set up the definitive web site for Geography teachers'. Good on ideas and is gradually developing its resources.
bullet1.gif (148 bytes) GeoNet Internet Geography ks3.gif (965 bytes)ks4.gif (972 bytes)
No apparent connection with the above but this is another really useful site for geographers.It contains geographical resources for both teachers and students. The site contains hundreds of links, downloadable teacher resources, revision help and an ask a geographer facility. Well worth a closer look.
bullet1.gif (148 bytes) GeoResourceks3.gif (965 bytes)ks4.gif (972 bytes)
Provides all the Geographical links that you ever wanted - on one easy to navigate site!
Japan
Lots of information relating to Japan. Site run by English speaking architects based in Tokyo.
Informal Cyberspace Tour Depot
This site is particularly useful for students in middle school. The main tours deal with street markets and bazaars in Egypt and Mexico and all the tours are accompanied with commentary. They should be good for classes dealing with social studies or intenational studies, or for student preparing country reports on Mexico or Egypt.
Kidlinks - Geography
A page from the very excellent Hugo Meynell School Website. This is a links list for maps, photographs or information on countries, cities and famous landmarks.
Map Worksheet Factory
If you have used the excellent Maths Worksheet Factory then you will want to have a go at this one. You can download a trial version for free. (The full product is only $20).
National Geographic
Gives access to an online version of the National Geographic magazine. There is also the facility to print out maps, and to view an archive of photographic images. Provides links to travel and tourism sites. Some of the pages are very slow to load.
The National Railway Museum, York
Definitely one for railway buffs! Perhaps not so much for teachers, although there is a nice section on the history of railway posters. The graphics can make it slow to download.
The National Tramway Museum
The UK's premier museum about trams, at Crich in Derbyshire.
Screen Cam Links
More Screen Cam Links
These two sites are both gateways to web cams all over the world - see what's happening out there, live!
Study Web: Geography
Provides links to sites of a geographical nature. Most of these seem to consist of maps, although there is also a section on Natural and Human Made Disasters.
Teaching Ideas for Primary Geography  ks1.gif (967 bytes)ks2.gif (967 bytes)
This site contains a selection of activities and worksheets to download dealing with mapwork, learning about places and weather. You are also able to contribute your own ideas.
US-Africa
Comprehensive information about each of the countries in Africa. (The site has annoying pop-up ads on every page, though)
World Desk Reference
1000s of charts and illustrations, 100s of maps, 25000 facts and statistics.AN excellent resource from Dorling Kindersley.
World Surfari
 
Environment & Habitats
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

Biomes vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Excellent information about the types of habitat that are found on our planet
.
Earthlights vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A Photograph of the Earth's surface at night, taken from space showing the lights of settlements. Amazing but takes a long time to download.
Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment ks2.gif (967 bytes)ks3_4.gif (1080 bytes)
A Canadian site with masses of information on the atmosphere and weather. Includes lots of stuff on the health of the atmosphere eg. acid rain, air quality, ozone depletion. Many of the pages are presented at "younger" and "older" levels (but even the "younger" pages are a bit wordy).
Environment Agency of England and Wales
Lots of information from this National Agency.
Glaciers ks2.gif (967 bytes)
A very good site for anyone studying Antarctica. Suitable for upper key stage2+.
What's It Like Where You Live?
Pages about tundra, desert, temperate forests, grasslands, taiga This site is part of a the larger Evergreen Project site called "Biomes of the World".  A well thought out and comprehensive resource. The Evergreen Project also has two other sections that might be of interest on Freshwater ecosystems and Marine Ecosystems.
Wild Places
This is the Friends of the Earth site and it places emphasis on our need to protect our wild areas. Best bit of the site is where you can type in your postcode and a map of your local arae is generated showing local sites of special scientific interest (SSSI). Clicking on them shows information about each site and whether it is under threat.
 
India
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

Lonely Planet: Destination India
Mainly tourist information but may be useful.
Art from India ShalinArt presents Art of India
A site selling Indian art, but you can look at the images.
Welcome to India
Lots of well presented information, but younger surfers may find the reading level a little hard.
Discover India
An on-line travel magazine.
An Introduction to India
Some useful information, quite a high reading age.
Chembakolli
This is the Indian village suggested for study in QCA Unit 10. The site is run by the charity Action Aid. You can order the recommended  resources and subscribe to the further materials on the site for  very reasonable fee.

 
Maps
If you are looking for Maps there are lots here. Many of the UK sites will let you search for maps by postcode.
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

The AA
No actual maps but the routefinder is excellent. Children can plan a road journey and then follow it on a map or atlas. The route planner gives full details of the route, mileage and expected journey time.
Atlapedia
Gives access to full colour physical and political maps of the countries of the world as well as a comprehensive collection of key facts and statistics about the countries. A very useful site for general geographical information.
This is a popular site and access is limited when it is busy. It is often available during the day.
Breathenet Streetfinder
You can locate from postcodes easily, and zoom in and out, including my village street names.
Children's Atlas
This is an interactive atlas with basic information about different parts of the world (eg country populations and other simple information) presented in a colourful way. It is a carrot for a purchasable atlas with much more information.
How Far is it?
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Look up the distance as the crow flies between two places on the Earth's surface. You can ask for towns or give longitude and latitude. Some of those crows fly HUGE distances!
Mapquest
Travellers' guides to cities in the USA. You can get up to date traffic details as well as locations of places of interest. You can also get maps of cities worldwide and mark them with places of interest. I found it tediously slow with a 56K modem.
Multimap World Maps
Multimap UK Maps

Find anywhere in the world (including street maps).
Streetmap.co.uk
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Excellent site for UK maps. Street maps of London and some other areas and lots of other easily navigated maps.
World Atlas : Maps and Geography of the World
This one is from About (The Human Internet) and is crammed full of maps and data about the different countries of the world. I have only had a quick look but it looks good.
World Factbook 1998: Reference Maps
A selection of maps of areas of the world (in jpg form) with main cities marked. Nice looking but lacking in detail - certainly not as informative as the equivalent pages in a printed atlas, and more difficult to read. Outline maps are also available in pdf form. They show coastal outlines (might be useful to print out for colouring in) but no other useful information.
World Time Interactive Atlas
You have a globe. See where it is day and where it is night. Click on a spot to turn the globe to face you. Zoom in or out. Find out the time and the times of sunrise and sunset for today in the cities of the country you have selected. Or choose your country from an alphabetical list. The site is simple, clear and quick.

European Cities
Interactive Maps
Lonely Planet: Visit Any Country
Lonely Planet: Destination Europe
RAC
London Interactive Map
UK Active Map
Map Machine
Maps of the New Europe
TerraServer
 

Rivers
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

Niagra Falls
The Amazon River
A simple site about the Amazon with maps, photos and basic information. Some nice photos of wildlife and a really good aerial shot of meanders
The River Thames
All sorts of stuff about Old Father Thames.Useful links page.
River Derwent
A Walk along the River Roe
This page is dedicated to the River Roe in Ulster. This is a page from the excellent Limavady site (see Settlements section)
River Thames Interactive Map
River Nile
A simple, single-page site with information about the Nile and the countries it flows through. There are a few useful links.
The River Trent
This site follows the River Trent from source to mouth, including aerial photographs, narrative and useful vocabulary along the upper, middle and lower course of the river. It has sections on River facts, Flooding, Settlement, Uses and Conservation. A very useful site!
 
Settlements
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

Coalport, Shropshire
Coalport is in the Ironbridge Gorge, the first World Heritage Site. This site has is a must if you are planning to visit the area. There is a virtual tour of Coalport and news and views about what is going on locally, particularly with relation to the museums.
Cotswold Villages
Not so much an educational site, more a travellers' guide to 15 Cotswold towns and villages. Written in a pleasantly personal style and giving good information about the interesting features of the villages, together with photographs. If you are planning a visit to the Cotswolds, or use them as a contrasting region of study, you will find these pages very useful.
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
The Ironbridge Gorge was the Silicon Valley of the first Industrial Revolution and was the first area to be awarded the status of World Heritage Site.Information about the area and the museums and the beginning of a collection of project activities for pupils who are visiting the museums (in the Resources section).
Ironbridge, Shropshire (Virtual Tour)
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A virtual tour of the town of Ironbridge. Each page has a good quality photograph, written information and navigation arrows to take you further along the street or round the next corner. An excellent way of preparing children for a visit to the area and its superb museums.
Limavady
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Jochen Lueg, who produced this excellent site says, "This site is full of irrelevant but valuable information about the Town of Limavady and some of the people that have the good fortune to live there." Limavady is in Ulster. The site contains photos of the town and some of its events and characters and lots of information about life in the town.
Lonely Planet:Destination England
A not entirely flattering potted guide to England, its geography, history, economy and places of interest. Useful background if you are an American thinking of visiting us!
Guide to the Peak District
If you are planning a visit to the Peak District then visit this site first. It is packed with information about the area, its history, geography, events and accommodation. The site is well structured and the presentation is both simple and attractive.
Shrewsbury, Shropshire
An virtual tour of Shrewsbury, by the same team that produced the virtual tour of Ironbridge (see above).
Travellers World: Guide to the UK
A Travel, Tourism and Accommodation guide to the UK. A potentially useful American site but currently with little hard information. It can, though, produce useful area maps and lists of local links.

Reviewer's note: There are many sites on the internet which give local information. Why not visit a search engine such as Google and simply type in the name of the place you want to know about? You never know what you will find!
 

Sustainable Development
Development Education Program vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
This one is from the World Bank.It encourages explorers of all ages to investigate on their own and also offers guidelines and materials for more structured explorations.   There are Learning Modules about Population Growth Rate, LIfe Expectancy at Birth, Economic Growth and Access to Safe Water. There are useful pages for teachers and lots of resources. Well worth a look.
LearningChannel  
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
LearningChannel is a multimedia web portal on global education. The channel is produced by OneWorld, the online human rights and sustainable development network, in partnership with over 300 organisations working in education. LearningChannel allows you to:
* Keep informed on the campaigns, projects, reports and facts from OneWorld partners and the media
* Read opinion and analysis from leading commentators
* Uncover the success stories of front line educationalists
* Check out the diary of education-related events
* Access a web directory of over 300 organisations working on education issues.
Tropical Rainforests
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

Amazon Interactive
Learn about the geography of the Amazon Rainforest. Find out about the inhabitants, and how they live off the land. Try running an ecotourism project in a simulation based on those on the Rio Napo in Ecuador.
Photojourney through the Costa Rican Rainforest
Well described and lots of good quality photos. Lots of short, quick-loading pages.
Rainforest Action Network: Kids' Corner
Rainforest Action Network works to protect the rainforests and the people who live there through education and the organising of non-violent campaigns. Find out about their work, and what you can do to help.
The Rainforest Database ks2.gif (967 bytes)ks3.gif (965 bytes)ks4.gif (972 bytes)
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A comprehensive collection of articles and information about rainforests. There is a contents list and the database is searchable. More suitable for older pupils.
Rainforest Information Centre
Find out about the latest research into rainforest issues and read news updates from rainforest conservation projects. Obtain a list of eco friendly suppliers of timber products. A children’s discussion page has just been set up. Check out the Rainforest Information Centre Children's Forest Links Page at http://forests.org/ric/children/chlinks.htm 
Lots of links for children and access to useful info page on rainforests and the dangers they face.
Rainforest Stories
Read some of the legends of the rainforests. There are experiments for you to try at home, and pictures for you to print out and colour in.
The Rainforest Tram
The Rainforest Tram is an aerial tramway in the Costa Rican rainforest. This site give information about the tram and access to useful pages of links and information. The Quicktime panoramas of the rainforest are worth looking at.
Rain-Tree's company website
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Rain-Tree specialises in medicinal products of rain forest origin. The site has useful information about the economics of rainforest usage, access to a database of rainforest plants and their medicinal properties, a fascinating page of rainforest facts, and a really useful page of categorised links to help with school projects. There is also a general links page and much much more. A really good resource..
Tropical Rainforest Biome
A site created by American high school students. It gives a limited amount of information.
Rainforestconcern ks2.gif (967 bytes)ks3.gif (965 bytes)
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Rainforestconcern is a UK charity. Their website has lots of information about rainforests. Kids will enjoy the virtual rainforest which is actually a sort of animated book about rainforest, written in kidspeak. Little insects crawl about and some of them are clickable to pop up information panels.
Tropical Rainforests in Suriname
A virtual tour through the tropical rainforest in Suriname. Read about the flora and fauna, and the people who live there. Click on the links to look at the photos and listen to the sounds. Lots of nice photos but rather wordy. Track the URL back to http://www.euronet.nl/users/mbleeker/ to get to a worthwhile Botanic Diversity Page..
Toucan Sam's Rainforest Encyclopedia
A simple online information book. Don’t expect it to be terifically interactive, although the information given is easy to read. Sponsored by Kelloggs.
What's It Like Where You Live? Rainforest
A site full of easy to find information, from flora and fauna, to the causes of destruction. There is information on both temperate and tropical rainforests.
Zoom Rainforests
A Wealth of basic information about many aspects of rainforests with links to further information all pitched at a level that is accessible for children. Particularly good are the pages about rainforest animals.
 
Volcanoes, Earthquakes,  Mountains & Caves
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

Enchanted Learning's Volcanoes page
A nice labelled cross-section of a volcano and several useful activities for children. EL's stuff isn always worth a look.
Model Volcano to make from Paper
Old Faithful Webcam
Watch the famous geyser in Yellowstone National Park. The picture is updated about every 20 seconds.
Peakware World Mountain Encyclopedia
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
"
Welcome to the web's premier resource on world mountains and mountaineering. Here you can explore the world, and network with others who share your love for the high country". An excellent site for mountain information, well produced - the enthusiasm of the production team shows through.
The Virtual Cave
This is a great site for those interested in caves. Wonderful photographs.

Volcanoes of the World Part of the Volcano World site. Links to key parts of Volcano World's Massive site.
Volcanoes in the Learning Web
Volcanoes on Line
Volcano World
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
This is an excellent site for finding out about volcanoes. It claims to be the "Web's Premier Volcano Site" and it may be.The stated aims of the site are "to provide authoritative information about volcanoes to kids and others, with a human touch. We did not want visitors to feel their computer was downloading information from our computer".

Volcano World Movie Clips vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
A collection of movie clips to download, presented in both Quicktime and MPEG formats. Some of the files are quite large but worth the wait!
 
Weather & Seasons
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

Clouds
This site excellent by Carl Wosniak is all about clouds. There is an excellent page of downloadable photos. Carl writes: Clouds comprise a wonderful focus for classroom study. They're ubiquitous, ever-changing, scientifically interesting and, most importantly for teachers, ... they're cheap.
Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment ks2.gif (967 bytes)ks3_4.gif (1080 bytes)
A Canadian site with masses of information on the atmosphere and weather. Includes lots of stuff on the health of the atmosphere eg. acid rain, air quality, ozone depletion. Many of the pages are presented at "younger" and "older" levels (but even the "younger" pages are a bit wordy).

Four Seasons
A site focusing on environmental education. It includes "The Weather Project", "Signs of the Seasons" and "Energy and the Weather". An excellent resource.
Geocare Weather Lab ks2.gif (967 bytes)
Part of Lifelong.com. This is a simple introduction to weather forecasting, introducing some of the basic ideas in meteorology. Each page suggests useful and enjoyuable activities.
Hyper Hurricanes
Learn about super storms.
The Met. Office
The Weatherman's website! Everything you'd ever need for a "Weather" topic.... and then some! Look in the "Education" section first on this huge searchable site.
Latest Weather Satellite Pictures
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
Part of the Met Office site. Great pictures in jpeg format updated every six hours. This is what the Net was made for!
On-Line Weather Forecasts: UK
If you want the latest weather forecast for your region then this is the site for you. Climatic data for the major cities, satellite pictures and even a "weather window" for your own website. It's all here!
The Tornado Project
All you ever wanted to know about tornadoes but were afraid to ask? Yes, but also a big push to sell you books, videos and posters! Some useful stuff for teachers can be found in "The Storm Cellar".
The Weather Dude
vmstar.gif (1122 bytes)
American TV weather man, Nick Walker is the Weather Dude. This site includes an online textbook called Weather Basics in which The Weather Dude explains the weather in simple terms. There are useful pages on Precipitation, Lightning and Thunder, Clouds, Snow, the Sun and much more...There are songs about the weather with lyrics and sound clips. There are also lots of useful links for parents, teacehrs and pupils.
World Climate
Weather data from around the world. 
Yorkshire
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

Yorkshire Information Centre
North York Moors, Yorkshire Wolds and Yorkshire Coast
Yorkshire Tourist Board
Whitby Museum
Elizabeth Botham and Sons, Bakers of Whitby
The Yorkshire Coast
History of North East England
Captain James Cook
Captain James Cook: the World's Explorer
Other Sites
 

top.gif (1541 bytes)

The Inca Trail
An informative photographic tour of the towns and mountains around Machu Picchu in Peru.

top.gif (1541 bytes)


© ICTeachers Ltd www.icteachers.co.uk
ICTeachers is the Trade Mark of ICTeachers Ltd

 
Contact us

This page was last updated on 24 July 2009