How did you get into surveying? I entered the geospatial field through my Civil Engineering background, where I was first introduced to spatial analysis and mapping concepts. My interest grew during my final year project on dam break analysis using GIS tools, which showed me the real-world impact of geospatial technology. This motivated me to further specialize in the field, and I am currently pursuing an MSc in Geoinformatics while continuing to build my skills in GIS and spatial data analysis.
What is your name? Kaha loa. 
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Curiosity Comes Before Careers
Why inspiring children’s interests matters more than simply telling them about jobs.
In Part One of this series, we explored a simple but important idea: children can’t aspire to careers they’ve never seen.
By the age of seven, many children have already formed ideas about the jobs that are “for them”, shaped by the people around them and the limited range of careers they encounter through family, school and media. Education and Employers found that the occupations seven-year-olds aspire to closely resemble those chosen by 17-year-olds, suggesting these ideas can become established surprisingly early.
If Part One was about widening the career menu, Part Two is about what makes a child want to try something from it.
It Starts with Curiosity
Most adults can remember a school project that completely captured their imagination.
For one child, it might have been Ancient Egypt. For another, volcanoes. Someone else might remember learning about space, dinosaurs, castles, the Romans or the ocean. The subject itself almost doesn’t matter. What matters is what happens next.
A child starts asking questions.
Who built the pyramids? How did people know where to dig? Who discovered these artefacts? Does anyone still do this today?
Then, somewhere along the way, someone mentions a career they have never heard of before.
“That’s what archaeologists do.”
Suddenly, learning isn’t just about a school topic anymore. It’s about discovering that people spend their lives exploring the very thing that has captured their imagination.
The project didn’t create a future archaeologist. It created curiosity. The career simply gave that curiosity a name.
Perhaps that child does become an archaeologist one day. Perhaps they become a historian, an engineer, a museum curator or something completely different. That’s not really the point. What matters is that something captured their imagination in the first place.
Research increasingly supports the value of this approach. Studies of informal STEM learning and project-based learning suggest that hands-on, exploratory experiences can strengthen children’s engagement, confidence, interest and positive attitudes towards learning. Whether in the classroom or beyond it, activities that encourage children to investigate, test ideas and solve real-world problems can help make learning more meaningful. Alongside building knowledge, children are encouraged to question, experiment and make discoveries for themselves.
Wellcome’s Curiosity programme found that informal science activities can support young people’s problem-solving, self-belief, relationships and the development of new career aspirations. It is a useful reminder that curiosity can flourish in environments where children have opportunities to ask questions, try things, make mistakes and explore new ideas.
For the adults involved in children’s learning, that’s an important opportunity.
Helping Curiosity Grow
If curiosity is often where careers begin, then teachers, home educators and parents have one of the most important roles of all. Every day, they introduce children to places, ideas and questions they may never have encountered otherwise. In doing so, they also create opportunities for children to discover where those interests could one day lead.
Research from Education and Employers reinforces this idea. In a survey of almost 10,000 primary-aged children, those who had experienced more career-related learning, or simply heard about a wider range of jobs, were more likely to have a job they were interested in for the future and to feel positively about school subjects. The research points to a clear pattern: when children are exposed to a broader range of possibilities, their horizons can begin to expand.
Meaningful learning can also help children connect classroom topics with the wider world. A geography lesson becomes more than learning about maps when children discover the people who create them. Science becomes more than a collection of facts when they realise there are careers dedicated to protecting habitats, monitoring rivers or exploring the oceans.
Learning becomes purposeful, not because someone has told children which career they should choose, but because they begin to understand why what they’re learning matters.
What This Means for Get Kids Into Survey
People often assume that Get Kids Into Survey exists simply to encourage more children to become surveyors. That is certainly part of our mission, but it isn’t the whole story.
We want more young people to discover surveying, understand the opportunities it offers and recognise the vital role surveyors play in shaping the world around us. For a profession working to attract and develop its next generation of talent, raising awareness has never been more important.
But awareness is only the beginning.
We don’t believe the best way to inspire future surveyors is by simply explaining what surveyors do. We believe it starts much earlier, by helping children become curious about the world itself.
When children explore maps, investigate how cities are designed, measure landscapes, follow a geocaching trail or wonder how people build bridges across rivers, they are already developing the kinds of skills and ways of thinking that sit at the heart of surveying. Observation, curiosity, measurement, problem-solving and spatial thinking are all part of the profession, long before the word “surveyor” is ever introduced.
And this is where we think GKiS resources can make a real difference.
A child fascinated by space might discover that surveyors use technology to map other planets. Someone who loves solving mysteries might be amazed to learn how surveying equipment can help investigators record crime scenes. A child interested in marine life might discover the people mapping the ocean floor, while another who enjoys building things might become curious about how entire cities are measured, planned and developed.
These are all opportunities to introduce surveying through something a child is already interested in, rather than expecting them to be interested in the profession simply because we’ve told them about it.
For some children, those interests may one day lead them into surveying. Others may discover engineering, planning, environmental science, architecture or careers we can’t even imagine yet. That’s perfectly fine.
Our goal isn’t to decide children’s futures. It’s to make sure surveying is one of the possibilities they genuinely have the opportunity to discover.
Turning Curiosity into Career Inspiration
So, how can we put this into practice?
The good news is that inspiring curiosity doesn’t require expensive equipment, specialist knowledge or a carefully planned careers lesson. Sometimes all it takes is a question, an interesting image or an opportunity to explore something new.
Here are a few ways to get children thinking, questioning and discovering the world of surveying for themselves.
Start with a mystery
Children love solving problems, so why not give them one? Ask how they would map a crime scene without disturbing any of the evidence. How could investigators record the exact position of everything? What technology might they use?
Our GKiS CSI Poster introduces children to the role surveying can play in crime scene investigation, bringing together technology, observation and problem-solving.
Follow something they already love
Not every child is fascinated by maps or buildings, but perhaps they’re obsessed with space, oceans, technology or the environment.
A child who loves space might be surprised to discover the role surveying and mapping technology play beyond Earth. Our Surveying in Space Poster is a brilliant place to begin.
For those fascinated by the oceans, Offshore Surveying opens up the world beneath the waves. And for children interested in cities, computers and technology, our Smart Cities Poster explores how geospatial information helps us understand and develop the places where we live.
The starting point isn’t the career. It’s the child’s interest.
Turn an ordinary walk into a mapping adventure
The next time you’re heading to the park, walking through the woods or exploring somewhere new, why not turn it into a little mapping challenge?
Ask children to draw the route they took, mark the landmarks they passed or work out which direction they travelled. Can they create a map that someone else could follow?
For something more adventurous, try geocaching, a real-world treasure hunt that uses GPS coordinates to help people discover hidden locations. Geocaching Kids offers activities and ideas for families and educators.
Without necessarily realising it, children are exploring location, navigation, spatial awareness and some of the basic principles behind surveying.
Discover how maps actually work
Maps are something many children encounter every day, whether on a phone, in a book or on a classroom wall. But how often do we stop to think about how they’re created?
Ordnance Survey’s MapZone offers games, quizzes and activities that introduce children to map reading, symbols and geographical information.
You could even challenge children to create their own map of the classroom, playground or neighbourhood. What would they need to include to make it useful to someone else?
Explore the world without leaving the classroom
One of the most exciting things about modern mapping technology is that children can explore places they might never have the opportunity to visit in person.
Using Google Earth Education, children can investigate landscapes from above, explore unfamiliar places and discover how geography shapes the world around us.
Ask them to compare two completely different environments. What can they see from above? How might someone measure the landscape? What would a surveyor need to know before a road, bridge or building could be constructed there?
And if you’re looking for something ready to use, our Get Kids Into Survey Resources Hub brings together posters, quizzes, homework projects, colouring sheets and activities designed to help children discover surveying in fun and accessible ways.
The important thing isn’t how complicated the activity is, or whether children can remember the name of a particular surveying career afterwards.
It’s whether something has made them curious enough to ask another question.
Because if a child finishes an activity thinking, “That’s interesting. How does that work?”, we’ve already opened the door to something new.
Asking Better Questions
All of these activities have something in common. They begin with an opportunity to explore, rather than an expectation that children should already know what interests them or where those interests might lead.
And perhaps that’s something worth remembering when we think about one of the questions adults ask children most often.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
It’s a well-intentioned question, but perhaps it asks children to think about the destination before they’ve had the chance to explore what interests them.
What if we started somewhere else?
What makes you curious? What do you love learning about? What questions do you keep asking? What problems would you love to solve?
Those questions don’t ask children to choose a career. They invite them to discover what genuinely captures their imagination.
A fascination with maps might one day become surveying. A love of wildlife could lead to ecology. An obsession with Ancient Egypt might inspire archaeology. Or perhaps those interests will evolve into something completely different. That’s the beauty of curiosity: it doesn’t point children towards one future; it opens the door to many.
As parents, teachers, home educators and employers, our role isn’t to tell children what they should become. It’s to give them opportunities to explore the world, ask questions and discover what excites them.
Because children don’t usually fall in love with careers. They fall in love with ideas.
References
Alexandre, S., Xu, Y., Washington-Nortey, M. and Chen, C. (2022). Informal STEM Learning for Young Children: A Systematic Literature Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(14), 8299.
Education and Employers (2018). Drawing the Future: Exploring the Career Aspirations of Primary School Children.Drawing the Future
Education and Employers (2019). What Works? Career-Related Learning in Primary Schools. What Works? Career-Related Learning in Primary Schools
Education and Employers (2021). Starting Early: Building the Foundations for Success. Starting Early
Kitchen, J. A., Sonnert, G. and Sadler, P. M. (2021). Informal Learning Environments and Impact on Interest in STEM Careers. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education.
Wellcome (2019). The Role of Informal Science in Youth Work: Findings from Curiosity Round One. Wellcome Curiosity report
Zhang, L. and Ma, Y. (2023). A Study of the Impact of Project-Based Learning on Student Learning Effects: A Meta-analysis Study. Frontiers in Psychology.