Gavin Richards has created a monster, one that keeps growing and devouring hours of his time.

But he is not complaining, as the beast that is www.geoexplorer.co.uk is proving a valuable asset to geography teachers and students.

The website was launched in March and in the space of a few months is attracting an impressive 10,000 hits a day, reflecting the demand for high quality geography materials relevant to the curriculum.

It has five aims: to develop the web to support geographical investigations; provide access to quality resources; promote geography as a way of understanding the world; establish links between places; and encourage geographical skills through ICT.

Gavin developed a thorough knowledge of web resources in the two years since he became a tutor for Channel 4‘s Homework High site. “There is a huge amount of stuff on the net but it’s not always in a suitable form for key stage 3 students, for example,” he says.

The former head of geography in Somerset and now a trainer and part-time geography and ICT teacher at Courtfields Community School in Wellington, Somerset, created GeoExplorer as an in-service training resource.

At the start it was simply a list of links to other sites, but he used the questions that students kept asking on Homework High as a guide for developing revision materials.

As well as appealing to students, Gavin says the site has resources teachers can use in the classroom. There is free access to more than 1,500 pages of revision sheets, photos, virtual fieldwork, as well as outline maps and 2,000 links to useful resources on the internet.

Gavin’s interest in photography has led him to develop innovative ways of presenting geographical photos and the virtual reality section is the most innovative part of GeoExplorer. There are interactive 360-degree panoramas of places such as Dartmoor that offer nuggets of information when the mouse is dragged over points of interest.

There are also sections on countries such as Japan and Italy that are included in the geography curriculum. “It gives students the chance of experiencing different environments without going there - it’s the next best thing,” Gavin says. Students can even become virtual geologists on the site. While the virtual fieldwork is flashy, Gavin believes the most successful aspect of his site is the sense of community it has fostered among geography teachers and students - there are now more than 5,000 registered “GeoExplorers”.

Chris Durbin, Staffordshire’s geography inspector and editor of the Staffordshire geography teachers’ website (www.sln.org.ukgeography), is full of praise for Gavin’s initiative. “He has created a fresh and imaginative site with many teaching resources and ideas. There is a new geo-puzzle which takes some doing and other interactive and participatory ideas.”

The site also has an excellent picture library and collection of sound files, Chris adds. There is so much on the site the only way to take it all in is by logging on. It is part of the National Grid for Learning and has won a Geography World gold award.

Gavin remains amazed by the success of GeoExplorers. “I never thought it would take off so much - I don’t know where it will go from here.” He spends about two hours a day updating the site and answering queries and wants to get other teachers involved. Anyone interested in helping develop the site further is invited to contact Gavin.

Email: contact@geoexplorer.co.ukwww.geoexplorer.co.uk