Skip to content
Geolens

Skills studio

Read the map, then the hill.

This page is the skills studio — a bench of labs you can open. /realms/skills is the same realm as a catalogue card: hook, photo, and the list. Start here to run a contour or a projection; use the realm page to browse. GCSE map questions are contour questions. Then the graticule, a projection, a grid reference, a hydrograph, a texture triangle.

USGS topographic map of Mount Rainier with contours, glaciers and named summits.
Loading photograph
Skills

Contours ↔ 3D terrain

A contour joins places at the same elevation.

A physical marker of the historic Greenwich Meridian at the Royal Observatory.
Loading photograph
Skills

Graticule and coordinates

Latitude measures an angle north or south of the equator, while longitude measures an angle east or west of the prime meridian.

NASA Blue Marble satellite composite of Earth in an equirectangular global map.
Loading photograph
Skills

Map projections

A map projection transfers positions from a curved surface to a plane.

USGS topographic map extract showing Yosemite Creek, a campground, contours and coordinate markings.
Loading photograph
Skills

Grid references

A grid reference locates a cell using eastings followed by northings.

Also a skill, housed in another realm

A streamflow-gauging station beside Huey Creek in Antarctica's rocky McMurdo Dry Valleys.
Loading photograph
Water & Carbon

Storm hydrograph

A storm hydrograph shows how river discharge changes after rainfall.

National Park Service soil scientists examine a freshly sampled soil profile and record its texture.
Loading photograph
Soils & Rocks

Soil texture triangle

Soil texture describes the proportions of sand, silt and clay.

All labs