Looking forward to the publication of this book by the late Roger Deakin, which comes out in June. It sounds like a fascinating read, and I very much enjoyed "Waterlog".
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I've think I've had a turn... A cultural turn... Have been teaching a lot of Human Geography 'A' level this year for the first time in a while, and also teaching the GCSE Pilot for the first time, and also been drawn into various other projects and general 'stuff', and have been getting very much into some of the themes of (whisper it...) HUMAN geography having always been very much a PHYSICAL geographer. Have been exploring issues to do with urban-rural interrelationships, population characteristics and changes, housing, social history, consumerism, ideas of national identity and cultural diversity, landscape change, trade and more recently immigration. Some fascinating stuff here. Look forward to getting some of this into the new KS3 units that we'll teach. For example, consider my weekend reading: the last chapter of Lynsey Hanley's "ESTATES" and the first of Philippe Legrain's "IMMIGRANTS" (plus some Julian May 'Boreal Moo...
Free Copy of an Inconvenient Truth for each Secondary School in England. Press Release The powerful Al Gore film “An Inconvenient Truth” will form part of a pack on climate change sent to every secondary school in England, Environment Secretary David Miliband and Education Secretary Alan Johnson announced today. The film documents former US Vice President Al Gore’s personal mission to highlight the issues surrounding global warming and inspire actions to prevent it. Mr Miliband said: “The debate over the science of climate change is well and truly over, as demonstrated by the publication of today’s report by the IPCC. Our energies should now be channelled into how we respond in an innovative and positive way in moving to a low carbon future. “I was struck by the visual evidence the film provides, making clear that the changing climate is already having an impact on our world today, from Mount Kilimanjaro to the Himalayan mountains. “As the film shows, there's no reason to feel help...
This is going to be a VERY useful site for people needing to make a sketch of a scene. It's a site called DUMPR which allows you do some creative thinks with FLICKR images in the same vein as BigHugeLabs. For example, I took this picture of the Yours South Lynn village: and this was the rather wonderful sketch that it produced for me: Good eh ?
Back to work this week following half term. Doing GLOBALISATION with Year 13. BBC has just launched a useful section looking at the CAR INDUSTRY What will happen when you slide the slider past 1975 on the diagram below to explore the GM and Toyota assembly plant locations ? Check out the BBC website for more details on this.
Posted about this earlier in the year, but it's now in the shops. A story about chocolate in the usual Charlie and Lola style, looks at growing the beans and making chocolate and buying Fairtrade - complete with a lot of nice stickers, including lots of Fairtrade ones. Go out and buy one or more. £2 from each sale goes to Comic Relief. My son says "I think it's a new thing. I liked reading it. I like the stickers."
Just doing a major sort out, and have finally found time to work through post-it notes I stuck inside a book months ago. It's called "Prairyerth" and was written by William Least Heat-Moon. It describes time spent in Chase County, Kansas and is described as a 'deep map'. It's a collection of quotes, documents, maps, impressions, history, memoir, natural history and of course GEOGRPAHY of the county. One of the quotes caught my eye: "The ideal geographer should be able to do two things: he should be able to read his newspaper with understanding, and he should be able to take his country walk - or maybe his town walk - with interest" H.C Darby - lecture at the University of Liverpool (1946) What do we think of this idea ? Can I also recommend a nice little gift for someone: some sticky page markers from BOBSYOURUNCLE . I got mine from the shop at the Sainsbury Centre at UEA last week. They are perfect for those people who like to mark particular quot...
Michael Hughes SOUVENIRS project. Michael Hughes has created a rather great photography project. The idea is demonstrated at his WEBSITE , and also at the collection of photos over at his FLICKR site. I got in touch with Michael and he's given me permission to reproduce some of the images from the project to give you the basic idea. The basic idea is that you take an image on a postcard or a souvenir of a place like a model or a plate, hold it up, and take a photograph so that the souvenir is overlaid on the real place and takes its place in the view.... Here are some examples that I like. This could be another way of looking at your local landscape, and actually getting out into it, and also perhaps seeing your home town from the perspective of a visitor. Just listening to Joe Zawinul's BROWN STREET CD. Real 'World' music ! Swinging big band versions of classic 'Weather Report' tracks and more...
Flags courtesy of ITA 's Flags of All Countries used with permission. POLAND ! There has been an influx of Polish migrants into the UK since the country joined the EU. An article in the Times this weekend suggested that there should now be more Polish Geography taught as well as more support for the Polish language. I will start a new section on GeographyPages which has some POLAND resources. If anyone reading this has anything to contribute to my POLAND pages: vocabulary, images, statistics, insights, points of view, worksheets or whatever, please get in touch...
The Young Geographer of the Year Competition has been launched at the new website of Geographical Magazine. This year's competition has the theme "CAN RECYCLING SAVE THE WORLD ?" This year's competition has some great prizes. Head HERE for more details, and also check out the free issue of DIGITAL GEOGRAPHICAL .
Geography can take you places.... A few years ago, in my 'A' level classes I had a student called James. As I type this, he's a long way from KES. He's on board the RSS 'James Clark Ross' off the coast of Rothera base in Antarctica. He's taking part in a research expedition called ADELIE . This is aimed at exploring ocean currents around Antarctica and their effect on organisms called KRILL . And here he is in Antarctica yesterday, walking towards the beach where there are (normally) lots of penguins. Check out the weblink above for a photo diary of the trip to what can be a particularly EXTREME environment. oh, and there's been no snow yet....
Thanks to poor timing of concerts and venues, I've once again been unable to see 'The Decemberists' on another brief UK visit. Instead, I'll have to content myself with listening to THIS ARCHIVED CONCERT . Check them out! Also some great Joel Didriksen images. Fast-forward to 1:20.00 for 'Crane Wife 1 and 2' or check out 'The Island' Or check out Radio 4's PLANET UNDER THREAT blog. Another BRIC in the Wall ? Came across this new acronym recently courtesy of Alan Kinder. It stands for the emerging economic powers of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The BBC WORLD SERVICE have had an INDIA RISING series this week, and there is an excellent accompanying website with a whole host of intriguing articles that can help you get a bit of a grip on this teeming sub-continent. Many of India's 360 million people still live on less than 50p per day, so clearly not all of the population is sharing in the boom times... Check out the INTERACTIVE TOUR of the Dh...
New Key Stage 3 Review Get over to the QCA site , and take a look, and make sure you have your say ! Curriculum aims Learning and undertaking activities in geography contribute to achievement of the curriculum aims for all young people to become: successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society. The importance of geography The study of geography stimulates an interest in, and a sense of wonder about, places and helps make sense of a complex and dynamically changing world. It explains how places and landscapes are formed, how people and environment interact, and how a diverse range of economies and societies are interconnected. It builds on pupils' own experiences to investigate at all scales from the personal to the global. Geographical enquiry...
Forces of Nature The National Geographic have an excellent website for those of you investigating the hazards caused by nature. Their ONE STOP RESEARCH site has a series of useful activities and resources aimed at a number of topics. Today, Mr. Dolan made use of their HURRICANES section, which has useful animations and images, along with Val Vannet's "Hard Times for the Big Easy" powerpoint of course. Recommended. SOLUTION TO EARLIER POSER The building illustrated a few posts back was the proposed Manchester Supercasino - Blackpool has lost out. Also check out Louis Theroux's Las Vegas program for more on casino life...