This year’s Young Geographer of the Year competition is now open for entries. The competition, run in partnership with Geographical magazine, gives students the opportunity to create an annotated map which reveals how their lives were shaped by COVID-19.
We are looking for eye-catching, innovative, informative and accurate maps which reveal how the pandemic and resulting lockdowns have influenced young peoples’ geographical understanding of their local area. Entries could illustrate local human and physical features they used throughout lockdown, the places they couldn’t visit and why, or any new places they experienced in their local area.
There are four categories for entrants: KS2 (pupils aged 9-11); KS3 (pupils aged 11-14); KS4 or GCSE (pupils aged 14-16); and KS5 or A Level (pupils aged 16-18). The first three categories require pupils to submit an A3 size entry which can be hand drawn or produced digitally, while A Level students must submit an ESRI Story Map containing no more than 1,500 words. All entries must adhere to the entry criteria of the relevant age category.
The Rex Walford Award runs alongside the Young Geographer of the Year competition and is open to trainee and early career teachers. Teachers must produce a scheme of work, covering at least three lessons, focusing on the theme ‘remapping our lives’.
The deadline for both competitions is 5.00pm on Thursday 22 July and entries must be received as an online submission via our website.
This year’s competition supports the Society’s work on the ‘mapping home’ strand of the Stay home stories project, which is researching how the pandemic has changed our relationship with home.
Read the full competition guidelines to find out more.