Jacaranda’s Atlas of Discovery is the ultimate passport for middle years students to engage with and explore the world. And what a world unfolds within these pages – a world of exciting new maps, amazing places, natural and built environments, people and culture – a world that challenges students to inquire, to investigate and to understand.

Your students will discover
The maps
The organisation of the atlas
Special features
Internet links
Sample page spreads

Your students will discover:

• hundreds of Amazing Places of the world
• Learning Centres to engage and inform them on key world themes
• Australian and World sections with stunning new maps and case studies
• breathtakingly detailed illustrations
• activities to foster understanding and inquiry
• Skillboosters to understand and practise geographical skills
• links to an interactive web site featuring Hotspot Commander and Jigzone

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The maps:

• The atlas contains stunning new satellite-created landform maps for each of the continents, resulting in mapping accuracy only made possible by this advanced technology. These maps bring the continents alive with relief colours that give students an insight into how the continents look from outer space. The overlay of labels and the key operate as identifiers for the important landform features of each continent.
• The settlement maps have been redesigned to enhance clarity and navigation. Major transport networks, World Heritage areas and icons linking to Amazing Places have all been added to increase interest in the maps. The most recent population data available (2002 or later) has been used to ensure that the Atlas of Discovery is the most up-to-date school atlas.

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The organisation of the atlas:

• The first section of the atlas contains the Learning Centres – twenty-four spreads packed with maps, detailed artwork, graphs and challenge questions to enable students to explore key themes of study: The Natural Environment, Changing Environments, People and Culture, The Built Environment, Power and Conflict and Discovery and Invention.
• The Australia section focuses on maps for each state, with additional spreads on each capital city. Australian thematic spreads link to the Learning Centres providing a comprehensive study of the Australian continent and people. The Amazing Places feature directs students to maps and information about places of historical or geographical interest.
• The World section presents a comprehensive collection of continental and sub-continental political or settlement maps complete with Amazing Places and challenge questions.

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Special features:

• Challenge questions. These questions, on every spread of the atlas, encourage student interaction with the maps and information not just on the page on which they appear but with other maps and information throughout the atlas. The questions are graded from a one point-value to a three-point value.
• Amazing Places. Over 180 Amazing Places are featured on maps throughout the atlas, linked to snippets of information. These Amazing Places may be world records, ancient or natural wonders, people or places of historical significance and many more.
• Skillboosters. Many key geographical and historical skills are explained and illustrated throughout the Learning Centres section of the atlas.
• Find feature. This feature on every page of the atlas directs students to related information within the atlas or to project sheets on the atlas web site.

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Internet links:

• A Hotspot icon on many atlas pages links to the Hotspot Commander game on the web site that accompanies the atlas. Students can choose from seven themes: Endangered Species, World Landforms, Natural Hazards, Indigenous People, Environmental Issues, Ancient Wonders and Marvellous Monuments as they undertake a mission played out in a virtual world.
• A Jigzone icon found on continent settlement maps and some other maps links to a web game where students take the challenge to ‘put the jigsaw pieces’ together to make a map. The player must score more green jigzones than the enemy red jigzones to win the game.
• The Find feature in the bottom right corner of the atlas often has a web address to a Learning Centre Project found on the web site. The projects target multiple intelligences, giving students choice to select activities related to their own interests – such as building a scale model, making a poster, creating a cross-section or playing the web site games.

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Sample page spreads:

Pages 2-3 [PDF 493kB]
Pages 78-79 [PDF 566kB]
Pages 104-105 [PDF 269kB]

This resource is in Adobe® Acrobat® format and requires Acrobat® Reader v5.0 or later for viewing and printing.

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