Creative Transform (CT)
Interactive class habitat map
The class collaboratively builds an interactive habitat map of the school grounds. Each pair surveys one habitat zone (a hedge, a corner of the playground, a flowerbed) over the week, photographs the species they find and adds them to a shared map with drop pins. Each pin opens to species notes the children write. Visitors navigate the map by zone.
Tools: Google Earth
Children build a digital story-map of their local area
Each child builds a digital story-map of their local area that includes at least four locations (their house, school, a chosen park, a chosen shop or community space). Each location has a child-recorded audio commentary explaining what happens there and one photo. Visitors navigate the map and listen to children's voices about their place.
Tools: Google Earth, Google Sites
360-degree virtual tour of school grounds
Small groups capture 360-degree photographs of six locations around the school grounds and stitch them into a virtual tour with child-recorded audio commentary describing what they observe at each location. They publish to a class showcase that visitors can navigate.
Tools: Google Earth
360-degree virtual tour with student commentary
Each student builds a 360-degree virtual tour of a fieldwork site (could be physical visit using a 360 camera, or a remote site using existing 360 imagery). The tour has waypoints with the student's audio commentary explaining geographical features, processes and human-environment interactions. They publish to a class showcase.
Tools: Google Earth
AR story-map of a local urban regeneration project
Each student builds an AR story-map of a local urban regeneration project (e.g. a redeveloped high street, a new housing estate, a converted dock). The map has waypoints; at each waypoint a viewer points their phone camera and sees a virtual overlay of "before" imagery, current data, and the student's voice-over interpretation. Students walk the class through their map at the actual location.
Tools: Adobe Aero, Google Earth
Interactive web page comparing two contrasting climates
Each student builds an interactive web page comparing two contrasting climate zones (e.g. tropical rainforest vs hot desert, polar vs temperate). The page must include embedded interactive charts (rainfall, temperature, biodiversity), tap-to-reveal text explaining each chart, and a recommendation panel for which climate they would prefer to live in and why.
Tools: Google Sites
Interactive Amplify (IA)
Map skills with shared digital map pins
The teacher posts a shared Google Map with no pins. Students are each given a country plus a case study (e.g. earthquake, flood, drought, urbanisation). They drop a pin on the right country, label it with the case study type, and add a one-line summary. The class scrolls the populated map; the teacher highlights any pins on the wrong continent and asks the contributing student to explain.
Tools: Google Earth
Climate data analysis for two cities
Each student receives a shared spreadsheet with monthly mean temperature and rainfall data for two cities at similar latitudes (e.g. Lisbon and Boston, or Cape Town and Buenos Aires). They produce a comparison chart, identify three differences, and post the differences to a class Padlet column. The class discusses why two cities at the same latitude can have very different climates.
Tools: Google Sheets, Padlet
Population pyramid sorting on a class wall
Each student is given an unlabelled population pyramid for a country. They have to (a) classify the country's stage in the demographic transition model and (b) post their pyramid to the class Padlet under the right stage column. The class scrolls and the teacher highlights any country placed in a contested column for class discussion.
Tools: Padlet
Coastal management decision vote
The teacher presents a real-world coastal management dilemma (e.g. should the village of Happisburgh be defended or abandoned?). Each student votes on Mentimeter for one of three options. The class sees the live spread, then in pairs writes a 30-second defence on a class Padlet. The teacher calls pairs from each side to argue. The class re-votes.
Tools: Mentimeter, Padlet
Climate evidence reliability sorting
The teacher posts ten pieces of evidence on climate change (from sources ranging from peer-reviewed papers to op-eds to social-media posts). Each student sorts each piece into one of three reliability columns on a shared Padlet (high, medium, low) with a one-line justification. The class scrolls the populated columns and the teacher highlights any piece sorted into different columns by different students.
Tools: Padlet
Migration evidence on a shared map
The teacher posts a shared Google Map. Each student is given one country pair (origin and destination) representing a real migration flow (e.g. Syria to Germany, Mexico to USA, Bangladesh to UK). They drop two pins on the map (origin and destination), label each with one push or pull factor, and post a one-line caption. The class scrolls the populated map and discusses dominant push-pull patterns.
Tools: Google Earth, Padlet
Critical globalisation case-study annotation
The teacher posts a globalisation case-study text in a shared class Doc. Students add suggesting-mode comments on lines they find most or least convincing, with reasoning. The class plenary scrolls comments, drawing out where critical thinking converges and diverges.
Tools: Google Docs
NEA hypothesis option workshop on shared wall
Each student posts three potential hypotheses for their A-Level NEA fieldwork investigation to a class Padlet. Three named peers comment on each post: one strongest, one weakest, one suggested refinement. Students then revise their preferred hypothesis based on the feedback.
Tools: Padlet
Live fieldwork data analysis across class
Each student brings their A-Level NEA fieldwork data to a shared class spreadsheet. The class collectively scrolls all data sets, with the teacher highlighting students whose data shows interesting patterns and asking them to explain. Pairs then write a one-line interpretation of one classmate's data.
Tools: Google Sheets
Interactive Transform (IT)
Cross-school case-study debate
UK class debates a partner school in a developing economy on a contested globalisation question (e.g. is fast fashion a net good or harm?). Each side argues from their national perspective; teacher-judges on both sides facilitate. Live, contested, peer-vs-peer.
Tools: Microsoft Teams
Live global-data collaboration with partner school
A class partners with a school in a different climate zone (e.g. UK paired with a school in southern Australia, the US Southwest, or Singapore). Both classes record local rainfall, temperature and humidity data into a shared spreadsheet for two weeks. They then video-call to compare patterns and discuss what the climate difference reveals about geographic processes.
Tools: Google Sheets, Microsoft Teams
Real-time fieldwork data sharing across countries
Two classes (UK and a partner country) conduct similar fieldwork (e.g. high-street pedestrian counts, river-channel measurements at equivalent sites) and share data live to a joint spreadsheet over a video call. Both classes interpret the cross-country data together; each team writes a one-line interpretation of the other team's findings.
Tools: Google Sheets, Microsoft Teams
Passive Replace (PR)
Listening to a podcast on a country
Class listens to a 12-minute podcast on a country (e.g. life in modern Iceland, megacity development in Lagos). Students take notes in books.
Tools: Spotify
Reading a Bitesize geography textbook page on iPad
Students read a Bitesize page on population distribution patterns on their iPad. The teacher highlights three key terms at the start. Students take notes in their books.
Watching a Bitesize geography video clip
The class watches a 10-minute Bitesize video on river formations. Students take notes in books.
Tools: YouTube
Passive Transform (PT)
Live satellite imagery of weather formation
The class watches live satellite imagery on the projector showing current weather systems globally, with the teacher pausing on a depression forming over the Atlantic, a high-pressure ridge over central Europe, and a developing cyclone in the western Pacific. Students observe the cloud movement, sea-surface temperatures, and isobars. The teacher links what they see to the textbook diagrams.
Tools: Windy
VR Google Earth tour of the Amazon basin
Each student navigates a guided Google Earth tour of the Amazon basin. The tour stops at six locations: the river mouth, three tributary junctions, two deforestation fronts. At each stop students observe the satellite imagery and the timeline slider that shows the same place ten years ago, twenty years ago. Pairs share three observations after.
Tools: Google Earth
360-degree street view of an Indian megacity
Students explore three preset locations in Mumbai using 360-degree Street View: Dharavi, Bandra-Kurla Complex, and the airport district. They are asked to record three observations per location about housing density, infrastructure, and visible economic activity. The class discusses contrasts after.
Tools: Google Earth
Lessons that look CT but are not
Useful counter-examples when you are checking your own lesson placement on the PICRAT grid.
This page is one of a growing set of PICRAT examples by cell, subject and key stage. Page maintained by Andy Perryer.