Humans use space as a lens to navigate and make sense of the world, thus successfully applying spatial concepts is an important life skill. Spatial thinking and developing spatial concepts are core components of school Geography curricula. Teachers teach geographical skills systematically aligning to the curriculum; however, students can struggle to understand and apply some spatial concepts and less is known about how students use conceptual skills in open-ended tasks. Set alongside a larger study (Kriewaldt et al., 2021), this paper reports on how young people were challenged to employ and develop spatial thinking during an open-ended task situated in place. We examine how students approached two challenging geospatial concepts: scale and slope. This article argues that Year 7 students were less consistent and precise in applying scale than the Year 9 cohort, with Year 9 students more advanced in awareness and comprehension of slope than those in Year 7. As well, it points to the actions of teachers to foster the long-term understanding of geographical concepts.