Workshop & Stations
TeachFORGE.ai
Workshop / Maps & Timelines
Maps & Timelines Station
Place stories on maps and timelines — markers, journeys, choropleth views, and animated playback — then turn one artefact into as many classroom versions as you need.
AI can draft. You decide what the class sees.
What Maps & Timelines is
Maps & Timelines is a way of placing stories in space and time. Build Leaflet maps with markers, choropleth regions, and journeys — or visual timelines with lanes, milestones, and animated playback — including linked map-and-timeline documents when both views belong together.
That matters in teaching because place and sequence are often the hook. Show where events happened, how a route unfolded, or when eras lined up — then adjust the artefact live instead of flipping between disconnected slides.
Why teachers use Maps & Timelines
Geography that pins down
Capitals, sites, and regions with markers and popups learners can discuss.
Journeys and routes
Ordered paths with clear direction — grand tours, campaigns, or migration stories.
History on a playhead
Lane and category timelines you can scrub and play through with the class.
Linked map + timeline
Keep place and sequence in one teaching artefact when the story needs both.
On TeachForge, Maps & Timelines is a Workshop Station — built to move from idea to live teaching without leaving the platform.
Inside the Maps & Timelines Station
Like the rest of the Workshop, you get a familiar working space: shape the artefact on one side, see the map or timeline on the other.
- Map modes for markers, choropleth regions, and journeys
- Timeline modes — horizontal, vertical, and lanes, with category bands and milestones
- Place search and coordinate picking so points land where you intend
- Map JSON and Timeline JSON editors with import and export when you want full control
- Parametric catalogue packages for ready teaching starts across maps and timelines
- Interactive Leaflet preview, plus schematic SVG for export and Whiteboard send
How a story becomes a map or timeline
Start from a template, catalogue package, or JSON
Choose maps, timelines, or a linked document.
Edit markers, regions, routes, or events
Use the GUI, place search, or JSON — the preview follows.
Export, save, or send it live
Take the schematic SVG to the board, into a question, or out as a file you own.
One map. Every version of it.
Alongside free editing, Maps & Timelines supports parametric packages: teaching visuals driven by controls — sliders, toggles, colours, and age bands — so the same journey or timeline can shift for a new class without rebuilding everything.
Change it while you teach
Add a marker, scrub the playhead, or recolour a region without starting again.
Keep the structure, vary the places
The same package shape can hold tomorrow’s case study or a harder follow-up route.
Match the room in one step
Age bands shift stroke, labels, colours, and fonts for Early Childhood through Lifelong teaching.
Stay close to assessment
Save JSON and reuse the same artefact inside questions, labs, and later lessons.
Prefer editing the map JSON by hand? That path stays. Parametric is there when you want a classroom instrument, not only a static image.
Ready-made maps and timelines to start from
Open the catalogue or a template, then adapt it to your lesson:
| Area | What you can open |
|---|---|
| Maps catalogue | Markers; Choropleth; Journey |
| Timelines catalogue | Horizontal; Vertical; Lanes |
| Templates | World Capitals; Grand Tour of Europe; WWII Timeline; Ancient Civilisations; Climate Cities (linked) |
AI help, your way
Need a first draft? Use AI as an assistant — then review, edit, and approve before anything reaches learners.
Copy the prompt
Generate a ready-made prompt and paste it into the chat tool you already use.
Use your own GPU
Connect a local model endpoint in your settings and run generation on hardware you control.
Use your own API key
Add your provider key in settings, choose the model, and generate with your own account.
AI can be wrong. That is exactly why a teacher stays in the loop.
Take the map or timeline where teaching happens
- Whiteboard — put it on the live board and adjust it in front of the class
- Quest Ladder — drop it into questions and explanations
- Virtual Lab — reuse it inside interactive lab work
- Community — share what you built, and build on what other educators shared