Culture Mapping Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A teachers’ team project in which five members and a coach from one municipality identify, record and document the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of their community in a portfolio, then stage a cultural exhibit built only from that portfolio, marked out of 100 across the two parts.

Culture Mapping is a project-and-exhibit competition rather than a performance. The idea behind it is cultural mapping: a systematic way of identifying, recording, classifying and analysing the cultural resources of a community, the things that show its historical, economic, social and geographical importance. Those resources are usually sorted into two kinds. Tangible heritage is what you can touch, such as old buildings, tools, textiles, boats and written records. Intangible heritage is what people do and know, such as songs, dances, festivals, foods, crafts, stories and local beliefs. A team has to show both kinds.

On the printed rules of the school-division event behind our template, the class is open to elementary and secondary school teachers of the division. Each municipality may send exactly one team, made up of five members and one coach, all from that municipality. The work runs in two parts. Part A is the portfolio: a compilation and documentation of the tangible and intangible heritage assets the team has identified in its community, handed in by a published deadline with a received mark from the records section as proof of the date. Part B is the cultural exhibit: a creative display of the highlights of the mapping, set up on the competition day and based only on what is in the submitted portfolio.

A round therefore has two moments. The portfolio is judged on its own, before the day, on content, on the evidence that the team really went through the mapping process, and on how the finished portfolio is organised and presented. On the day, the team sets up its exhibit, with only team members allowed at the exhibit site during judging, and the panel walks through it, scores the display and then interviews the team. Items shown at the exhibit that are not found in the portfolio are not counted, which ties the two halves together. The team is also responsible for the safety and security of any heritage items it brings and for clearing the exhibit afterwards; tents are needed only if the venue is outdoors.

The rules print no time limit for this class and no ages, so the eTalenter template leaves the time unset and carries the class as a team entry for both genders with a maximum of 100 marks. It sits in the teachers’ group, and the template ages for that group (22 to 65) are placeholders that a coordinator should replace. Organisers run a class like this to turn local knowledge into a record that outlasts one contest, to bring teachers closer to the heritage they teach about, and to give each municipality a reason to document what its people already know.

Where Culture Mapping is run

In eTalenter’s data this class is carried by one template: the culture and arts competitions of a school division in Bohol, in the central Philippines, where it is the teachers’ project event beside a teachers’ folk-dance contest and three learner events (two ensembles and a song-and-dance class). Events are competed from district level up to the division, and the winners represent the division at higher levels. That is the only template carrying this exact item, so the page makes no wider claim; heritage-documentation and exhibit-style classes exist in other places, but under other names and with other rules.

• Philippines (Bohol)

Key facts

• Team entry for teachers: five members and one coach, all from the same municipality, and only one team per municipality; no language is set
• Two parts: Part A Portfolio (50) and Part B Cultural Exhibit (50), together marked out of 100
• The team must present both tangible and intangible cultural heritage assets of its community
• The exhibit must be based only on the submitted portfolio; items shown that are not in the portfolio are not counted
• The portfolio is handed in before a stated deadline and must carry the received mark of the records section; only team members may be at the exhibit during judging; no time limit is printed
• Idea starters, not rules: a map of a coastal village showing its fishing tools, boat-building and sea-related songs; a walking route of old houses and a market with a recipe or craft from each stop; a harvest-season calendar pairing each festival with its food and dance; an oral-history wall where elders’ stories sit beside photographs of the objects they describe

On eTalenter, Culture Mapping is filed under Others and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Culture Mapping is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100.

What judges look at in Culture Mapping

What a Culture Mapping panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Part A Portfolio (50 of the 100): judged on its own, with three printed blocks of its marks, content, process and output; the portfolio is the larger half of the evidence for everything the team shows later
• Content (50 percent of the portfolio): correctness of the heritage data, authenticity from reliable sources, completeness of data and quantity of items; a long list of poorly sourced entries loses to a shorter list that is accurate and complete
• Process (20 percent of the portfolio): evidence, by pictures or videos, that the team actually went through the mapping process; photographs of interviews, site visits and recording sessions earn these marks, a tidy list without proof does not
• Output (30 percent of the portfolio): presentation for artistry and creativity, organisation, and punctuality of submission; a late portfolio loses its punctuality marks, and an unorganised one costs the larger organisation block
• Part B Cultural Exhibit (50 of the 100): presentation (40 percent), organisation (30 percent) and interview (30 percent); the display must show artistry and creativity and responsible use of indigenous materials
• Organisation of the exhibit: relevance to the concept, orderliness and completeness of data; the panel checks the display against the portfolio, so anything that is not in the portfolio is wasted effort
• Interview (30 percent of the exhibit): appeal of the team, the ability to answer questions, wit and confidence; all five members should be able to speak about every item

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Culture Mapping under Scoring Setup, or start from how judges’ scores are collected and tabulated in eTalenter.

How to prepare for Culture Mapping

How entrants and their teachers usually get Culture Mapping right on the day:

• Read the printed rules first and write the fixed items on one sheet: five members plus one coach from one municipality, both tangible and intangible assets, a portfolio deadline with a received mark, an exhibit based only on the portfolio
• Start with a list of candidate assets in your municipality and split it into tangible and intangible; check that the final selection shows a real balance of both before you begin recording
• Treat the portfolio as the master plan: for every item record what it is, where it is, who keeps it, when it is used and where you found the information, and use reliable sources such as elders, local records and published histories
• Capture the process as you go, with photographs or video of interviews, site visits and recording sessions, because the process block cannot be rebuilt after the fact
• Fix the submission date backwards from the printed deadline, allow time to have the portfolio stamped as received, and hand it in early; punctuality is a scored line
• Design the exhibit from the portfolio’s strongest items, with a clear route through the display, labels that match the portfolio wording and indigenous materials used responsibly
• Practise the interview: agree who answers which topic, rehearse hard questions on sources and dates, and keep every member able to speak about any item
• Plan the day: who carries and guards heritage items, who sets up, who stays with the display during judging, and who clears it afterwards, since only team members are allowed at the site
• After a district loss, ask for the criterion marks and rework the weakest block first; low content marks mean better sources and more complete data, low process marks mean adding dated photographs of the work, low interview marks mean more rehearsal

Frequently asked questions

Is Culture Mapping judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is cultural mapping?

On the printed rules it is a systematic way of identifying, recording, classifying and analysing a community’s cultural resources or assets that show the historical, economic, social and geographical importance of a site. The assets are classified as tangible, such as buildings and objects, and intangible, such as songs, dances and customs.

Do we have to show both tangible and intangible heritage?

Yes under the printed rules: the team must present both tangible and intangible cultural heritage resources or assets.

Can we put items in the exhibit that are not in the portfolio?

No. The exhibit must be based only on the contents of the submitted portfolio, and items shown that are not found in the portfolio are not counted.

Who can enter and how many teams per place?

On the printed rules it is open to elementary or secondary school teachers of the division, as one team of five members and one coach from the same municipality, with only one team per municipality. If your own event prints different eligibility, follow that.

Is there a time limit?

No time limit is printed for this class, so the eTalenter template leaves it unset. If your event sets one, enter it on the competition when you install the template.

How is it marked?

Out of 100 across two equal parts: the portfolio (50), judged on content, process and output, and the cultural exhibit (50), judged on presentation, organisation and interview. The finer printed sub-marks are kept in the registration rules rather than the template’s two criteria.

Want the full judging picture? Read how judges’ scores are collected and tabulated in eTalenter, or browse every others competition item.