Jacaranda is proud to announce that the Jacaranda Primary Atlas 3E has received an Australian Geography Teachers Association (AGTA) 2008 Award in the Primary School Resources Category. This Award will be presented at the AGTA National Conference during the conference dinner on Wednesday October 2008 held at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast Queensland.

The Geography Teachers’ Association of South Australia managed the judging of the AGTA 2008 Awards and met on 25th July 2008 to judge each of the entries. Each entry was judged according to the quality of the product in terms of its currency, authenticity, application of contemporary understandings about how students learn and use of cutting edge production and contemporary and innovative style.

The Jacaranda Primary Atlas 3E has been designed to give middle and upper level Australian primary students an exciting window into their world from a local, national and global perspective. This new edition is an outstanding source of up-to-date, exciting and relevant maps, photos, illustrations, statistics and information about Australia and the World, divided into three sections:

Skills
Students are introduced to basic map interpretation and geospatial skills through 25 pages of stimulating ideas and student activities.

Australia
Clear detailed maps of each state and territory are supported by Geofacts and all-new case studies. Thematic pages present nationally studied topics such as exploration, natural hazards and government.

World
Political maps to show countries and new satellite image maps to show physical features are the focus of the World section. These clear and realistic maps have been specially designed for primary students. New case studies showcase major geographic and environmental issues with an emphasis on positive solutions. An Amazing Places feature takes students to iconic natural and human features on their planet. Additional thematic pages provide a valuable reference on world topics such as world climate and endangered species. Flags of the world and statistics complete this section.

The Jacaranda Primary Atlas is part of the Jacaranda Atlas program which has established benchmarks in atlas publishing for nearly five decades. It is an essential and versatile reference resource for all Australian primary classrooms.

The Jacaranda Primary Atlas 3E is supported by the Jacaranda Primary Atlas 3E Teacher Resource Kit, which includes the Jacaranda Primary Atlas 3E Strategies & Activities Book. This book provides a support package for teachers who may not feel comfortable teaching elements of Geography especially using atlases and map reading and interpretation. The Strategies and Activities Book provides teachers with professional development materials, teaching and learning strategies as well as practical and challenging student activities.

In addition the Teacher Resource Kit also contains a CD-ROM which includes all the maps and educational artwork from the Atlas for use by teachers when producing learning materials and in-class/whiteboard presentations, a DVD containing video lessons of teachers in a range of schools and a range of year levels demonstrating Atlas usage with their students, and access to a teacher website with downloadable maps, illustrations and activity sheets.