Milton Keynes geography visit

Established in 1987, Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre aims to increase understanding and appreciation of Milton Keynes' unique urban geography and rich history. Focusing on Milton Keynes as a new town and urban locality, our programmes include comprehensive presentations tailored to age group and topic.
The visits focuses on MK as an urban environment, and give students practical experience of geographical enquiry outside the classroom. A visit to MKCDC will give pupils the chance to develop their knowledge and understanding through interaction, presentation, debate, and fieldwork. The fieldwork methods can include field sketch, traffic surveys, and observation.
We also produce tailor-made programmes for all age groups. If you’ve got your GCSE controlled assessment questions, talk to us about how we can help you.

Topics covered

KS 2&3

Our KS2 & 3 visits focus on encouraging a fascination about geography and building a framework of study methods through bite-sized tasters to comparative, survey, map and data analysis.

  • Contrast MK and your pupils' home town/village - we embark on a guided city tour using field work methods. A day for your pupils to really get to grips with their understanding of localities.

  • What is in your local area and what would you like to have there? This is the start of an enquiry into how neighbourhoods are designed and what sort of communities are created in such areas.

  • Taking on the characters of city planners, incoming residents and residents of the area to be developed, pupils explore the key themes needed to be considered when developing a new settlement.

  • Look at how settlements differ and change. The children will learn from an introductory presentation then head out into the field to collect and record evidence from the city they see around them.

  • Pupils discover what sustainability means and the pit-falls and benefits of sustainable technologies. Looking at how sustainability has been, and is continued to be, incorporated into the development of Milton Keynes, pupils plan their own ecological cities.

  • Using Milton Keynes as a case study. Ideal for classes learning about their city, settlements, or art and wildlife in a built environment, this visit can be adapted to suit a range of curriculum areas.

KS 3

At this level we look at planning future settlements, the impacts of retail and leisure on urban development and visits include former brown field sites, industrial zones, local regeneration projects and housing provisions.

  • For any city to develop it needs people, it needs money and it needs industry. These sessions explore key issues in getting the balance right, and what each of these factors needs in order to not only function but be successful.

  • Looking at how to create an environment that people will want to live in. Regarding open spaces, housing, education institutions as well as transport, retail and leisure facilities.

  • An info-packed and practical day, this addresses the key themes, concepts and processes that are crucial at both KS3 & 4, with a focus on fieldwork. Milton Keynes is a fascinating case study for studying human geography in the built environment; with plenty to evaluate in terms of sustainability. MK continues to grow rapidly, making it a place to study these processes in a real, relevant context.

  • This offers the chance to use Milton Keynes as a case study in a variety of ways in different curriculum areas. Ideal for classes learning about their city, about settlements, public art, business and the local economy, wildlife in a built environment, and much more, this programme can be adapted to suit a range of subjects and group sizes.

GCSE | 6th Form | A Level

Studies at this this level are often bespoke to classes and even individual students, and although we do offer some packages, here at the MKCDC we offer flexibility to create a programme around study needs. Contact us for more details.

  • Milton Keynes is one of the world's best known case studies of new town development. Many of the key documents detailing the development are part of the MKCDC archive collection, making it an excellent resource for pupils researching the development of new towns.

  • This session looks at the factors that need to be considered when creating a city and looking at how to improve sustainability within the infrastructure of new cities, and potential for incorporating these methods into older urban centres

  • This session looks at not only comparing the city's success to its own expectations, but evaluating Milton Keynes against other new town developments across the world, and looking at what the future holds in store for MK.

Bespoke session

We can also provide other explorations into geography such as:

  • Enviroment

  • Urban design

  • Transport

  • Urbanisation

Professional

Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre is a must for town planners, architects and students of urban studies who want to learn from the Milton Keynes experience.

Educational staff

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