Frequently Asked Questions

What is Create GBM?

It visualizes the relationship between terrain and human activity and supports inquiry learning.

What does GBM mean?

It is designed as a foundation for learning and research.

What is the 3D White Relief Map Editor?

It can add hydrology, infrastructure, and historic-site information, and export data for 3D printing.

What is the Water Network?

It is an important viewpoint for understanding human settlement and urban formation.

What is the Coastline Time Machine?

It helps learners understand relationships between past environments and human activity.

What does it mean to learn history from terrain?

Learners consider how geographic conditions shaped historical choices.

What does it mean to think about history from place?

Terrain and environment become the premise for reading history.

What is the basic attitude for learning history?

Create GBM emphasizes the factors behind events rather than memorizing isolated facts.

Where should I look first in terrain?

These features help infer the conditions under which people moved, lived, and made decisions.

What is slope colouring?

It helps learners intuitively understand land use and ease of movement.

What matters most in terrain analysis?

They help reveal the conditions under which human activity became possible or difficult.

How should monsoons and ocean currents be read?

They influence agriculture, transport, settlement, and culture.

How is Create GBM different from GIS?

Create GBM is centred on helping learners pose questions.

How is it different from ordinary maps?

It helps learners read terrain as a condition behind history.

How is it different from 3D map viewers?

Viewing is the starting point, not the endpoint.

How is GBM different from 3D Terrain?

It becomes more powerful when combined with historical information and primary sources.

Who is Create GBM for?

It supports a wide range of learning stages.

How does it support inquiry learning?

It encourages active learning by making the conditions behind a place visible.

How does it support fieldwork?

Learners can connect what they see on site with terrain and map evidence.

Can it support disaster education?

It can support evacuation planning and reasoning about location.

Has Create GBM received any awards?

• Visitor’s Award — Geo Activity Contest, G-Spatial EXPO 2026

  Awarded on 30 January 2026. The entry set out to build an open-innovation base for colour 3D relief-terrain teaching materials that integrate history and geography education, and was submitted as 玉川大学教育学部濵田英毅ゼミ with 工学部デザインサイエンス学科メーカーズフロア (the Hamada seminar of the Faculty of Education, Tamagawa University, with the Makers Floor of the Department of Design Science). It appears in the exhibitor and award list published by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. Source

• Gakujoken Award — Reiwa 8 Learning Digital Teaching Materials Contest

  Announced on 23 June 2026. The contest is run by 公益財団法人 学習情報研究センター (Gakujoken); of 36 entries, one received the Gakujoken Award. The winning work is “Create GBM: a history × geography platform on which learners turn their own region into 3D teaching material”, entered by Hideki Hamada (Faculty of Education, Tamagawa University). The ceremony is scheduled for 21 August 2026. Source

For official announcements and details, see the news archive (/en/news) and the public pages of the contest organisers and the university.

Where has Create GBM been exhibited?

• G-Spatial EXPO 2026 Geo Activity Contest — finalist exhibit, Visitor’s Award

  28–30 January 2026, Tokyo Big Sight East Halls 7 and 8. Organised by the G-Spatial EXPO Steering Council with the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun as co-organiser. The project exhibited and presented in the finals and received the Visitor’s Award. Source

• Geo Exhibition 2026 (ジオ展2026) — exhibitor

  28 April 2026, Otemachi Mitsui Hall, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Organised by the Geo-ten Executive Committee. Seventy-two companies and organisations exhibited; the booth was registered as 玉川大学濵田研究室 CreateGBM (Hamada Laboratory, Tamagawa University). Source

• Education AI Summit 2026 — session moderator / exhibitor

  7 August 2026, First Members’ Office Building of the House of Representatives, Tokyo. Organised by 一般社団法人 教育AI活用協会 (AIUEO). Create GBM exhibited at the summit, and Hideki Hamada (Professor, Tamagawa University) moderated the “Education AI Vendor Summit” session. Source

• 探究EXPO ’26 (Inquiry EXPO ’26) — exhibiting in September 2026

  12 September 2026, Koriyama General Gymnasium (Horaiya Bonz Arena), Koriyama, Fukushima. First edition, organised by the Fukushima Prefectural Board of Education. Create GBM plans to exhibit among the university booths at this showcase of high-school inquiry projects. A public exhibitor list has not yet been published. Source

These appearances present the project as an inquiry-learning platform across geospatial, geography, education-and-AI and high-school inquiry communities.