Regular readers will know that I always do the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch each year. This year, an additional survey has been added, and will take place during the week of the 8th - 14th June. Visit the website, and MAKE YOUR NATURE COUNT.
Posts
Urban Earth Day - the first hour URBAN EARTH: DAY is a side project of urban earth. The idea is simple, text based and all going well will result in a 24 chapter book. The idea is to gather together a subjective view of our urban habitat through a series of simultaneous global walks. What we sense, feel and think will posted as twitters as we go, creating a spontaneous urban portrait of where we all are. The first walk will take place on a Sunday at 12:00(GMT)... but we will work around the clock. Two weeks later the walk will take place at 13:00(GMT).. until after 24 hours and 24 walks we have 24 chapters of a book... made up of our 140 character twittered thoughts. So you'll need an hour, a city and a mobile phone for this one. How to take part... 1. Set up a twitter account. Have a play. 2. Find a city or urban area. 3. At 12:00AM GMT on 24.05.09 go for a walk. .. If you are in the Solomon Islands, yes - walk at night! 4. Twitter as you go.. feelings, smells, thoughts, prices,...
...is now revealed to the world... CYCLING THE AMERICAS World record breaker Mark Beaumont is cycling from Anchorage, Alaska to Ushuaia in Southern Argentina. He'll also climb the two highest peaks on the continent, McKinley and Aconcagua. Mark climbing near Chamonix - image from BBC blog Also check the FLICKR account.
This is an excellent 'time-waster'... SCENIC OR NOT ? uses the images from the wonderful GEOGRAPH site. Of course, used with students, some questions need to be asked... How are you deciding what is scenic or not ? What sways your score ? Does a building always count against the score / roads / pylons / fences or walls ? Which images are gaining the highest scores ? Are they the 'obvious' ones ? Which other questions would you consider ?
For those who like meaningless milestones (like me...) 'll post the 1000th post on Geography and all that Jazz in just 2 more posts time... Would welcome any comments on the favourite contribution, and will spend a bit of time to look back through the labels, and see what I can unearth from the vaults...
Jamie Buchanan Dunlop has now added an excellent new resource to his Digital Explorer site, based on work with schools on exploring their grounds , and carrying out some investigations. You can download a handbook of resources, plus a whole range of lesson plans, powerpoints and worksheets. This is an incredibly useful resource... Here's the video from the webpage to give you a flavour for what is available... Liking the ideas funnel a lot !
Urban Earth Day Walk Dan Ellison has another plan... Another URBAN EARTH event - but just an hour and you may well not need to go too far to take part... Let's all do this one.... URBAN EARTH: DAY is a side project of urban earth. The idea is simple, text based and all going well will result in a 24 chapter book. The idea is to gather together a subjective view of our urban habitat through a series of simultaneous global walks. What we sense, feel and think will posted as twitters as we go, creating a spontaneous urban portrait of where we all are. The first walk will take place on a Sunday at 12:00(GMT)... but we will work around the clock. Two weeks later the walk will take place at 13:00(GMT).. until after 24 hours and 24 walks we have 24 chapters of a book... made up of our 140 character twittered thoughts. So you'll need an hour, a city and a mobile phone for this one. Who's game? Check out the URBAN EARTH NING to sign up.... Tweet using the hashtag #ueday
Just been browsing an exercise book of mine from 1976 for a reason that will become apparent in a month or so's time... Here's a nice image from the first page of the book. Also interesting to read what I wrote when asked the question: "What is Geography ?" (Don't quote me on this...) "Geography is the study of the earth and what goes on underneath it. There are things that go on underneath the earth that affect the shape of the earth, such as volcanoes and earthquakes, there are also things that go off on the surface of the earth that affect the shape of the earth. There are two main aspects of Geography, one is physical Geography and the other is Human Geography. Things on top of the earth affect the actual shape of the earth such as mountains, valleys, rivers, hills and plains and plateaus. The two main aspects are Physical and Human. The Physical aspects of geography involves the study of such things as the sea or glaciers, the weather affects the shape o...
The 2nd of the GA's Living Geography events will take place in York in June at the Royal Station Hotel. Have just spent an hour or so re-writing my keynote to take account of the things that have happened since the first event in London: notably the rise of Twitter in my personal learning network, and the launch of the Manifesto. Also rewritten my workshop on 'Everday Geography' as there have been a number of major world events since the last conference too. You can book online, or by ringing Lucy Oxley on 01142960088 Big discount for GA members as always. Hope to see some of you there.
A night out in London ? If you are in London on the evening of the 23rd of June, you may want to get yourself over to the Institute of Education to catch David Lambert's professorial lecture. ‘Geography in Education: lost in the post?’ Tuesday 23rd June 2009 5.30pm for 6pm start Jeffery Hall, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL Some say we live in postmodern times. Partly connected to this, a number of schools seem to be embracing a post-disciplinary approach to the curriculum. Geography itself has fragmented, is struggling for its identity and is arguably lost - in the ‘post’. I will not dwell for long on this argument. On the contrary, I will argue that contemporary geography is a school subject of great significance and has a lot to offer children and young people growing up in a confusing, rapidly changing and dangerous world. Well prepared teachers can use this subject in a way that contributes to both their own and their students’ ‘capabilitie...
Out now to pre-order on AMAZON is the book of Mark Beaumont's record breaking round-the-world solo cycle. On 15 February 2008, Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 194 days and 17 hours previously, he had set off from Paris in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18,000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man and his bicycle can endure, camping wild at night and suffering from constant ailments. "The Man Who Cycled the World" is the story not just of that amazing achievement, but of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today. From the early years of his free-spirited childhood in the Scottish countryside, he had been determined to break records, cycling across Scotland and then from John O'Groats to Land's End by the age of fifteen, raising thousands of pounds for charity. After leaving ...
A team from Cornell University has been mapping the location of the most photographed places on earth. The team of David Crandall, Lars Backstrom, Dan Huttenlocher and Jon Kleinberg used a data set of 35 million images taken from Flickr. Download the GOOGLE EARTH KML file to check them out... Check the website for some MAPS SHOWING LOCATIONS of the most photographed sites. Thanks to DavidBittern777 from SLN Forum for the tipoff... Also featured on the WIRED UK website - keep an eye out for the magazine... Images courtesy of http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~crandall/photomap/