Educational websites

Educational Websites > Environmental Studies > Social Subjects > People And Place

A. Pintura: Art detective
An online game about art history and art composition. In the game, you try to identify the artist who made a painting found in an attic. To do so, you must examine paintings by famous artists from Gauguin to Van Gogh. Each example highlights an art concept such as composition, style or subject.

African Wildlife Foundation
The African Wildlife Foundation's beautifully designed and illustrated website contains detailed information about Africa's natural habitats and wild animals.

Arctic Studies Center
Information and online exhibitions about the natural habitats, wildlife and indigenous peoples of the Artic. It includes excellent sections about Viking exploration and a gallery of ritual masks created by the Yup'ik people.

BBC Landscapes
A BBC website for 7-9-year-olds where Goggs, the friendly alien, helps children learn about map skills and landscapes of Scotland. Choose the area you live in and get to grips with compass skills, grid references, symbols and keys, and scale. Try the different games and send in pictures of where you live to the Gallery.

Eduplace
Website offering downloadable outline maps of the world and the continents for classroom use.

Environment Agency
This section of the UK Environment Agency's website contains a series of interactive animations and games on environmental themes including climate change, food and population, waste and recycling.

Farming and Countryside Education
Case studies of farms with background information as well as maps, photographs and downloadable factsheets on aspects of farming.

Geography in the News
A Royal Geographical Society website that presents topical news stories of Geographical interest. A good source of information to support People and Place topics such as population, climate change and natural resources.

Global Dimension
A resource tool for teachers that provides a range of links to books, videos, posters and websites with a global dimension. Resources can be searched by age group and subject. It also has links to local events, case studies and information on professional development opportunities for teachers.

Global Eye
An online magazine for schools about world development issues, divided into primary and secondary sections. It profiles developing countries and topics such as refugees, shelter and tourism.

Highland Clearances
This website looks at the lives of people who lived in the Scottish Highlands during the time of the clearances. It covers levels C-E of Environmental Studies 5-14.

Island life
A BBC Northern Ireland Schools website on life on two different islands, one British, one German. It includes two simple map activities.

Kids Web Japan
Kids Web Japan is produced by the Japan Information Network and contains content suitable for several age groups. There are informative sections on topics such as daily life, tradition and culture, nature, climate and history. The site includes interactive games and animated folk tales.

Loch Ness
Feature and activities about Loch Ness, its monster and the Scottish legend of the kelpie, with accompanying resources related to the release of the children's film, 'The Water Horse, Legend of the Deep', in early 2008.

MapMachine
MapMachine is an online world atlas provided by National Geographic. It has access to many detailed maps, both physical and political. Type in the name of where you live and see it displayed on several different kinds of map.

Met Office Education resources
The UK Met Office's education pages. Its printable information pages explain many aspects of weather and weather forecasting. Pupils can test themselves on what they have learned using online quizzes, and there are downloadable lesson plans for teachers.

National Maritime Museum
Online exhibitions from the National Maritime Museum around the themes of travel and exploration. Features include the mythological stories behind the names of the constellations, an interactive learning activity about Tudor exploration and downloadable teaching materials on the Vikings.

PhotoArch
The website of PhotoArch, an annual Scotland-wide heritage photographic competition for primary schools and primary-aged children. Organised by the Scottish Civic Trust, the competition encourages young people to look at their heritage in the places they live, and through the medium of photography, develop an understanding of the world around them.

Rainforest Action Network
This site has a large amount of information on the rainforests for both teachers and children. There are sounds and graphics to accompany this information.

Recycle City
A US Environmental Agency website on recycling, designed for young people. It includes an interactive game called 'Dumptown', in which players must choose and monitor the success and cost-effectiveness of different methods of recycling.

Remember me - echoes from the lost generation
A site for teachers and pupils produced by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It focuses on the human cost of war and includes the true story of one boy soldier. This well illustrated site also contains suggested activities and teacher's notes.

SchoolNet Global
The SchoolNet Global project is the world's biggest children's collaborative project. More than half a million young people, aged 5 to 18, have been involved in creating the project's 55,000 web pages where they have recorded their thoughts and feelings about life in the 21st century. The website has learning projects created in collaboration with the British Council, a library of the children's projects and International Childrens News.

Scottish Association for Geography Teachers
Resources for Standard Grade and Higher Geography, list of useful web links and membership details.

Scottish Water Education
A website produced by Scottish Water and aimed at educating school children about the importance of water and the processes involved in its supply. The site includes an interactive learning game based on an imaginary Scottish island. Teachers can apply to login to a section that gives them access to downloadable worksheets and notes.

See you see me
BBC education site covering three topics for primary pupils: the Picts and the Scots, the Romans in Scotland and sustainability and environmentalism.

The Tibet Game
An entertaining, beautifully illustrated, interactive tour of Tibet in the form of a game. It introduces the player to facts about Tibetan life, culture and religion. Players can buy Tibetan artifacts on the way, and by acts of generosity, pick up 'karma' points.

The United Nations Cyberschoolbus
This United Nations site for young people contains factfiles on every UN member as well as sections on issues such as poverty, peace, education and human rights.

Voyage of exploration
This site is an excellent resource for a topic on exploration and includes lesson plans, quizzes and timelines.

WaterAid Learn zone
The education section of the charity WaterAid. It contains resources, including factsheets and online games, designed to help people gain a better understanding of water and sanitation issues in the world today.

World InfoZone
Detailed country profiles with information on the geography, history, languages and architecture of affected countries, with a gallery of images

WWF Education
The education site of the WWF includes the interactive activity 'Cyberdodo' on the theme of conservation, and 'Virtual Wildlife', an informative information section on habitats and wild animals. For teachers there is a wide range of factsheets on wildlife and conservation issues to download.

Youthink
Website for young people created by the World Bank, which explores global issues such as poverty, development, free trade, education, child labour and the environment. There are sections for children and for teachers.

It must be emphasised that inclusion of these web links does not in any way represent endorsement by Learning and Teaching Scotland, nor are we responsible for the content of external websites.