Canadian Geographic Education (Can Geo Education), formerly the Canadian Council for Geographic Education, is the educational branch of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS). Can Geo Education is one of the largest non-profit educational organizations in Canada and our goal is to foster geographic engagement among Canadians. Can Geo Education is a joint initiative of the RCGS and the National Geographic Society of Washington, D.C., established in 1993.

Sign up here! As a member you will have access to all Can Geo Education products, a discounted subscription rate for Canadian Geographic magazine, and receive school resource mailings throughout the year. In addition, Can Geo Education offers a number of different professional development opportunities and awards for members.

No, membership is completely free!

Can Geo Education has an executive team made up of has regional representatives. These executive members are educators who help provide guidance on the resources that we develop and distribute to teachers. Each executive term is three years. Any educator can apply to become a member of the executive team as long as they live in the region for which they are applying. For more information, please visit our Executive Team page.

Over the course of the school year there are also opportunities for teachers to get involved with Can Geo Education’s programs and events. We encourage you to become a member to receive our newsletter to stay up to date on upcoming events.

As we are a national organization and curricula differ from province to province and territory to territory, we don’t link our resources directly to province/territory-specific curricula. However, we have developed and used a national curriculum called the Canadian Geography Learning Framework, which was developed with all provincial and territorial curricula in mind.

Anyone who meets the criteria of the particular award/scholarship/grant can apply. You do not need to be a member of Can Geo Education to be eligible. You can also nominate yourself for an award. Learn more about each award!

The standard size of our Giant Floor Maps is 11 metres by 8 metres (35 feet by 26 feet), roughly half the size of a school’s gymnasium. However, some of our maps have different dimensions, so be sure to check on our homepage the size of the map that you are booking.

Yes, the map is accompanied by a teacher’s guide, activities and cards, and props.

Yes. All of our educational resources are provided in both English and French.

No, the Giant Floor Map program works on three-week reservations only.

Please let us know if any materials are missing so that we can replace them. Contact us at [email protected] 

Any member of Canadian Geographic Education may reserve a map. Not a member? Sign up now!

These requests are dealt with on a case by case basis. Please contact [email protected] with your request and information about your organization. Please note that priority is given to teachers and schools.

Log in as a member and visit the homepage to choose which map you want to book for your school. Once you’ve selected a map, click “Book Now” and follow the steps as prompted.

No. All of our maps that are currently touring are free for booking. However, there are shipping costs if you request a map that isn’t currently touring.

All special requests are dealt with on a case by case basis. Please e-mail [email protected] with your request.

In order to ensure that the map is available to all schools, each map may only be reserved by the same school once per school year.

No. You may only book one map at a time.

Unavailable dates mean that the map is either already booked or those dates are not yet available for booking. If a map has no available booking dates, it means that this map has been fully booked for the year.

Currently, we are only allowing bookings for the 2021-2022 school year, in order to provide a fair chance to all teachers to get the opportunity to book a map. Bookings for the 2022-2023 Giant Floor Maps will open in the summer of 2022. When bookings for the next school year become available, you will receive an email from [email protected]. Please make sure you receive emails from this email address to stay up to date on all information pertaining to the Giant Floor Map program. If you are a member of Can Geo Education and have unsubscribed from the monthly newsletter, you will not receive notifications.

We try to make our maps available to everyone in all parts of the country, which is why we have designated our maps to certain areas around the country. If you get this message, this means that the maps for your region are currently unavailable for this school year. Please email [email protected] for more information specific to your area.

Any past bookings will have to be re-made through our new booking system. Please email [email protected] for more information.

The map and its materials will be delivered to your school via courier in a large bag.

You may have the map shipped to any location you wish. However, please note that when it arrives someone must be available to receive and sign for the delivery.

Depending on where the map is coming from, it may arrive at any point during the first three days of your reservation. Please account for this when you are planning your time with the map.

If there is no one available to sign for the map when it arrives, the map will be taken to a nearby depot, where it will be held until the next business day, when another attempt will be made to deliver the map.

You can download the teacher’s guide and all associated materials for your Giant Floor Map ahead of time. Visit our homepage for more information on each map.

No. The Giant Floor Maps must be used indoors. Please check on our homepage the size of the map you are booking ahead of time to ensure that you have a space big enough to fit the Giant Floor Map. Some of our maps come in a smaller classroom size.

Yes. The maps are packed inside hockey bags on wheels, which means that one person could move the map, unpack it, and set it up without assistance. However, we do recommend that you get another person to help make the process go easier and faster. We advise against lifting the bag containing the map without assistance.

Indoor shoes are allowed on the map. Shoes that have been worn outside and can track dirt or snow onto the map are prohibited. Students who require a wheelchair (or any other device to assist with mobility) are allowed on the map, the same as any other student.

You are responsible for notifying Can Geo Education of any missing items. Please contact us at [email protected]. If the map is damaged in any significant way, your organization/school will incur the costs necessary to repair the map.

Please wipe any dirt off the map before returning it. If the map arrived in poor condition, you can let us know via [email protected].

Yes. As long as your classroom meets the requirement for the individual competitions, you may enter as many of them as you wish.

Can Geo Education provides numerous professional development opportunities for educators throughout the school year. We offer a variety of PD opportunities from STEM resources and citizen science to Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing. The workshops we offer differ each school year. Visit our Professional Development page for more information. To stay up to date on upcoming workshops, we encourage you to become a member of Can Geo Education to receive our monthly newsletter.

Yes, absolutely. Presentation requests (whether virtual or in-person) are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Please email [email protected] with your request of visit our Contact Us page.

Our programs at our headquarters (50 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ont.) have been temporarily shutdown until further notice to ensure safety during COVID-19. We encourage you to become a member of Can Geo Education to receive our monthly newsletter to stay up to date on all of our programs.

We are always excited to receive new geography-linked lesson plans from certified educators. Please send your lesson plan to [email protected] for review.