We always use this competition as a focus for the final month or so of the Summer term, when lessons are often disrupted by trips and other events, and this forms a useful basis for some lovely class work. Students have time to complete their entries over the summer and we then collect them in in September and have an in-school competition judging and then send off the best entries.
The
Young Geographer of the Year is the Society’s annual competition which recognises the outstanding work of the next generation of geographers. With its age ranges spanning the primary years to A Level, the competition encourages thoughtful and creative answers to the competition’s theme which is set each year.
The Society encourages schools to run their own in-house competition and then send their top 10 entries into the national competition. The Young Geographer competition has been running for over 20 years and in 2020 over 10,000 young people took part.
The theme for the Young Geographer of the Year competition 2023 is:A blueprint for the future
The Society invites students from KS2 to KS5 to create their own blueprint for the future.
They are looking for innovative ideas to address problems in areas such as food production and supply, energy and sustainability, water security, resources, population growth, economic crisis, transport, travel, urbanisation, risk management, trade, environmental management, biodiversity and more.
Your ideas and recommendations should be forward-thinking, taking into consideration the depth of the problems and the reasons behind them, as well as what can be done to mitigate them.
Your blueprint for the future could be a design for an eco-city, or a plan to produce and distribute enough food to feed the world. It could be a look at the future of energy and how we can produce enough energy sustainably without harming the environment, or a plan to revolutionise travel and transport in your country or beyond.
Your plan must be realistic, but we welcome ideas for futuristic strategies and new technologies.
Entering the competition
The competition has four categories.Key Stage 2 (pupils aged 7-11)
Key Stage 3 (pupils aged 11-14)
Key Stage 4 or GCSE (pupils aged 14-16)
Key Stage 5 or A Level (pupils aged 16-18)
Students should enter the Key Stage category they will be in on 30 June 2023.
The deadline for receipt of all entries is Monday 2 October 2023 at 5.00pm.
Entries received after this time will not be accepted. The RGS encourages schools to run an in-house competition and only send their top 10 entries into the national competition.
All winners and highly commended students will be invited to an Awards Ceremony at the Society in London on Friday 8 December 2023.
The general entry criteria are the same as usual
KS2, KS3 and KS4 students should produce an A3 size poster entry.
This can be handmade (then submitted electronically using a scanned copy or photograph) or using PowerPoint, Word, Publisher or PDF, etc. KS5 students should produce an Esri Story Map or write an essay – both of which should contain no more than 1,500 words.
Key Stage 2 criteria:
Provide your plan for at least one geographical issue, using annotated images, maps or diagrams.
Key Stage 3 criteria: Provide your plan for at least two or more geographical issues, using annotated images, maps or diagrams.
Key Stage 4 criteria: Provide your plan for at least three or more geographical issues, using annotated images, maps, diagrams and data.
Key Stage 5 criteria: Provide your plan for multiple geographical issues, using annotated images, maps, diagrams and data.
Good luck to all those who put together an entry.
