The development of spatial concepts is important for students to understand how to think in different ways. Imagining how shapes may look from different angles is the key to understanding maps and mathematical spatial concepts. Developing location concepts helps students understand where they are in relation to other features and how they can use scale to estimate distance and grid references to locate places.

Children in their first few years of school learn to understand the relation of objects to one another using simple descriptions such as next to, beside, in front of, behind, over and under. They begin their understanding of the concept of location as a relative position, including left and right, and start to interpret simple maps.

One of the most difficult concepts for young students to grasp is that a map is a representation of the region from above (the plan view). Most school starters would have difficulty drawing everyday objects such as a garbage bin from above, whereas most eight-year-olds would not.

Early years learners also find it difficult not to include the features seen in the ground-level view (such as the legs on a table) when they are not seen when viewing the object from above. To make sense of the transition from the familiar view to the plan view, young students can benefit from seeing the two views next to one another.

Pages 14-15, Oxford Atlas Project 1, Oxford University Press 2008

www.oxfordatlasproject.com