Geography Superheroes

Set up Time: 5 minutes
Activity time: up to 30 minutes

Aims of activity
To highlight fantastic examples of geographers in the world today and to inspire young people to think about the geographical skills their own geography superhero might have.

Key messages
Geography is a subject that covers a multitude of themes and opens doors to a wealth of career opportunities. By using examples of people using geographical skills in the real world, we can help students to understand the importance of studying geography and how the geography that they are learning in the classroom can be applied in the world of work.

Instructions
Using the geography superheroes PowerPoint, you can highlight superheroes that the Society has created using real people. These can be used to target specific aspects of the curriculum and link to careers within a specific geographical theme. Further information about each of the people can be found on the RGS-IBG website

Students can also be asked to think about what specific geographical skills they have and therefore what superhero they would become. Students could be encouraged to design their own superhero and annotate them with the geographical skills they have.

Materials Required
PowerPoint of different superheroes
Colouring pencils
Paper

Adaptations
This could be tied in with key events in the calendar, black history month for example, and highlight the incredible work happening in the real world to ensure geography is available to all.

You could also adapt this to incorporate the geographical skills audit activity and give students the chance to make a superhero squad showing the most employable features of being a geographer.