In order to continue with the dissemination of geographical knowledge in society and to encourage the study of Spanish geography and the interaction of young people, the National Geographic Institute (IGN) has created a series of educational materials aimed at secondary and high school students. To create these contents, the IGN has used their own geographic data, that are shared openly in its Download Center, and maps from its viewers, such as the Interactive National Atlas of Spain.

With these training materials, the IGN aims to provide interesting and attractive information on Spanish geography in an interactive way for young people to become familiar with cartographic systems, maps, coordinates, etc.

Until now, these materials were available in Spanish, but now they can also be found in English, to continue strengthening materials in bilingual education and, at the same time, contributing to their dissemination beyond our borders.

Specifically, these 4 contents have been translated:

1. Territorial inequalities

The activity on territorial inequalities is focused on students between 16 and 18 years old (Bachillerato). The objective is to show in a synthesized way and from different perspectives how human occupation, communication infrastructures or the physical environment (north/south, inland/coast, lowlands/mountains, mainland/islands...) generate a series of differences that characterize the current Spanish society and that are manifested at different scales.

This interactive and educational resource will analyse the territorial inequalities of Spain as a historical process in which economic, political, social and geographical factors come together. For this purpose, data and maps are used not only from the IGN, but also from different entities such as the INE.

2. Economy and urban features

This new activity aimed at high school students is especially focused on knowing the economic characteristics that define 5 Spanish towns (Villablino, Benidorm, El Ejido, Avilés and Zaragoza). In order to study each of them and know their main economic activity, the student must answer several questions by researching through different resources such as: maps, photographs, orthoimages, graphics...

The aim of this exercise is for young people to obtain all the information through the Internet and the different platforms, such as the Geoportal of the National Atlas of Spain, in addition to the topographic resources offered by the National Geographic Institute. What is the ultimate goal? To show students, in the most interactive way, the endless documentation and public information available to citizens and through which they can recognize the characteristics of Spanish populations and learn to distinguish them according to their predominant function.

3. Physical environment and settlement

The third activity is a new exercise in which students between 12 and 16 years old (Secondary) must look for information in several maps to solve the issues raised in the activity.

They must answer questions about why the city has a certain organization, how it is oriented, the layout of its streets and what the reasons are that justify its urban morphology. To answer the questions, they have a series of IGN geolocation services to make the search. These are: CartoCiudad to search for postal codes, streets or house numbers, and the Basic Geographic Nomenclature of Spain for population entities, municipalities and all the toponyms of the country.

4. Spain, 8,000 kilometres of coastline

The following activity delves into the study of the Spanish coastal landscape through definitions, photographs, geographic displays and the use of maps using the National Geographic Information System of Spain (SignA) of the IGN. The exercise, aimed mainly at high school students, tries to show students the different geographical features that are characteristic of the Spanish coast (estuaries, deltas ...), through the management of coordinates in the application SignA.