Reinhard Herzig, Helga Jarausch

• The Barbara Petchenik Award was created by the International Cartographic Association in 1993. The aims of the competition are to promote childrens creative representation of the world, to enhance their cartographic awareness and to make them more conscious of their environment. Every two years a lot of children from all over the world take part in this competition. The national committee for organizing the competition in Germany collected and archieved all of the german entries since 1993. The evaluation of the childrens maps takes place continuous and get an insight into the cartogaphic and spatial comprehension of the children. The favourite subjects of the paintings depend on the age of children and current occurrences during the time of making the maps (map as document of the times). Designing an own map requires a good knowledge of cartographic rules. Therefor especially the creation of thematic maps shows very clear the stage of development of childrens cartographic education and spatial ideas. The connection of their selectedThe Barbara Petchenik Award was created by the International Cartographic Association in 1993. The aims of the competition are to promote childrens creative representation of the world, to enhance their cartographic awareness and to make them more conscious of their environment. Every two years a lot of children from all over the world take part in this competition. The national committee for organizing the competition in Germany collected and archieved all of the german entries since 1993. The evaluation of the childrens maps takes place continuous and get an insight into the cartogaphic and spatial comprehension of the children. The favourite subjects of the paintings depend on the age of children and current occurrences during the time of making the maps (map as document of the times). Designing an own map requires a good knowledge of cartographic rules. Therefor especially the creation of thematic maps shows very clear the stage of development of childrens cartographic education and spatial ideas. The connection of their selected subjects with the map design is very different. Either the most imaginative created subject in a way of a picture or the exact cartographic design comes to the fore. In some cases were noticed a very good combination between figurative and cartographic expression with a high harmony of a recognizable message and cartographic content. A development of cartographic and spatial comprehension in general can be seen, but the childrens maps waver between reality and fantasy.…