Random musings from the GeographyPages bloke...
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I have been preparing resources for a joint SfE / GA conference which was being organised for the new GCSE specifications, but has unfortunately been cancelled.
One focus area was that of Avalanches
What pedagogy could be used to teach about avalanches ?
What approaches to delivering 'content' so that it sticks, and becomes part of the learning process, and can also be assessed in a way which allows students to achieve ?
The first area that has to be tackled is to look at the specs and see what will be part of the assessment.
Edexcel ‘A’:Avalanches and their management
a. The physical and human causes and effects of an avalanche in a named location.
b. Prediction and prevention of the effects of avalanches by forecasting, the design of buildings and defences, planning and education.
So let's choose a location first of all.
Where would be appropriate ?
The Alps are a popular ski destination, and have been for many decades. There are many ski resorts, and the area is also a possible case study for other elements of geography: it could be used to deliver work on climate change, impact of transport network enlargement with the tunnels beneath the mountains, glaciation, impact of tourist development.
Wikipedia page has useful maps....
Check out an old favourite: the VIRTUAL MONTANA site for more on the Alps.
Narrow it down to a region of the Alps, based around a particular resort that has an avalanche risk, and has perhaps managed it in particular ways.
To protect skiers, resorts will employ PISTEURS. These are people employed either full or part time to keep an eye on the snow condition, and the development of the SLAB.
They may well use explosives to clear small accumulations of snow before they have a chance to develop into cornices or larger accumulations.
If we look at the second part of the specification section, it refers to prediction and prevention. This is an opportunity to introduce the HAZARD RISK EQUATION, which forms part of some 'A' level specifications, such as the new Edexcel specification.
There are a range of AVALANCHE RISK flags which are used in areas.
These flags could be generated in advance of the lesson...
Here are some that I created and placed on SLIDESHARE in advance of the conference....
Teachmeet Review By the time we got through the door, there was hardly a seat to be had: so I stole someone else's. Ollie Bray had been throwing something together at the last minute, and with a minute to go he started copying a 180 mb video file from a memory stick and kept his fingers crossed that his name wouldn't come out first (as it happens, he was the last person up!) Check out my FLICKR images of TEACHMEET. Grabbed some free beer tokens, and a seat with John Davitt , who had a stuffed camel with him, for reasons that would become clear later. Image of camel by Flickr user cloudberrynine - Humph is sat on a pile of GA Magazines, which is nice... Around 250 people had signed up, and there were also others following on the flashmeeting, and a large MONITTER display showed the Twitter 'tweets' that had the relevant hashtags #tmbeet09 etc John showed us the LEARNING SCORE resource. This is a very powerful resource, which visualises the planning of a lesson sequence...
It's official, so I can tell everyone now... This was me at the Advanced Google Earth day put on by Jamie Buchanan Dunlop at the RGS-IBG yesterday. Thanks to Yvonne, my partner for the day ... Any idea what's going on here ? Answer to come shortly...
Question: Should Geographers use a Sat Nav ? Shouldn't a road atlas and a mental map be adequate for navigating to unfamiliar destinations ? Well, yes... Until today I would have agreed, but then with my new job and all that, and having to find my way to numerous new places in the middle of major cities, I went to Halfords and managed to get an extra bonus deal on a Garmin StreetPilot C550 which has British and European mapping, speed camera alerts (although I never speed), integrated traffic alerts and rerouting around problems, an mp3 player with SD card slot, and Bluetooth connectivity so that it can act as my hands free kit... I'll let you know how it works later in the week when I have to find a Travelodge on some industrial estate in the North of England...
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