It's now or never, I ain't going to live forever...

I think these words are very apt for year 11. You have 6 and 1/2 months till your proper GCSE exams.

You may not do as much revision for the mocks but they are very important for two main reasons:

1. They will influence which tier of examination you will be entered for - either higher or foundation
2. The revision you do now will help you later on with the real exams

Tomorrow you will get a pack of information talking about what you need to know, how to revise and answer one or two questions.

Make sure you use the online textbook website:

http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/

Revise...

The 100th post

Well finally made it the 100th post!!

What is happening this week and next week in the Geography department:

Year 7:
It is all about Landscape in a box!! We have had some fantastic ones in already. We will take pictures of each one and the pictures will be made into video of the whole entire year!!

Year 8:
Indian food tasting and the start of the volcanoes and earthquakes topic. This will also include the singing of the world's a grapefruit!!

Year 9
The Newcaslte Urban Regeneration adverts are in full swing and will be recorded using a video camera. There are some fantastic ideas such as big brother, I'm a celeb and a horror movie. I look forwsrd to seeing their work.

Year 10
We continue with our look at sustainable cities and have a go at designing our own sustainable cities. We also look at Cairo and Eco-towns as well.

Year 11
Next week you start your mock exams and I wish each of you all the best with them.

Mr. Still

Geocube and Wallwisher

If you read an earlier blog post you will have seen me talk about Geocube. Well I tried it out with some students today and they loved it. I let them spend ten minutes exploring the site and the different topics.

I then asked the students to create a small powerpoint no more than 4 slides on a topic of their choice (what they can create here is up to them I just chose to play it safe).

After this I asked them to go to:

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/geogrocks

The above website acts as a giant wall where students can 'stick' a post-it to it. I decided to ask the students to write down 3 pieces of information they have learnt from Geocube. Soon we had over 100 posts on the wall.

The students really liked the fact they could see on their computer but also on the whiteboard what they had learnt.

Below is a screen shot of the wall after I tidied it after the lesson:

I asked the class for homework to research 3 facts about volcanoes and earthquakes as this is our next topic and include pictures and possibly video links.

I think this will make an excellent start to the lesson!!

Mr. Still

This week in the Geography department...

Year 11
We continue with our relentless march towards completing your coursework. You need to complete the environmental survey aspect of your data interpretation by Thursday.

Year 10
We continue to investigate life in squatter settlements and also look at the problems caused by rapid urbanisation in poorer countries.

Year 9
We look at the issues in urban areas in richer countries particularly housing, Urban Development Corporations, City Challenge and Sustainable communities.

Year 8
We enter the unpredictable world of teach yourself Geography based upon squatter settlements in India and environmental problems.

Year 7
We continue our rapid push through map skills by looking at how we can measure distance on a map and how we show height on a map.

Mr. Still

Climate lessons from the past 3....

Imperial Angkor - its vast water system was a marvel of engineering - and a cautionary tale of technological overreach!!
Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire which was a very powerful civilisation based in modern day Cambodia about 750 years ago. The city of Greater Angkor covered almost 400 square miles roughly the area of the five boroughs of New York City, with as many as 750,000 inhabitants.

Most were rice farmers and labourers who worked the giant jigsaw of fields. Though, the rainy season usually brought ample water, the ability to store water in great reservoirs called Barays and control its flow gave Angkor an edge in times of drought or flood. But this engineered landscape required constant maintenance. When the water system faltered, so did Angkor's power.

What went wrong?

Any civilisation in South-East Asia is heavily dependent on the monsoon for water. When the monsoon arrived the rainwater was directed into channels and stored for irrigation to grow crops in the futures. The problem was the monsoon weakened and moved south and thus did not reach as far north as Angkor. This meant water could not be stored and a drought started. People from the surrounding areas could not grow food because of the drought and migrated to Angkor. The migrants used more water and eventually Angkor ran out of water. Eventually people moved out of Angkor in search of water and an area in which to grow food.

The lesson here is real - people are being made homeless and have to move to towns and cities that cannot deal with the influx of people and eventually what resources are left are depleted so there are no resources left for anybody. This is happening today. We have to find a way to cope with climate change refugees and the consequential scare resource depletion.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/secrets-of-angkor-3774/Overview

Mr. Still

Geocube!!

I found this the other day and think it is very cool - especially as a research tool or just for an introduction to Geography for students!!


http://www.geo-cube.eu/

Enjoy - Mr. Still!!

Death Knell...

In the early 1800s an Englishman could be hanged for stealing a shirt. By the end of the 1900s, growing concern for individual rights had caused the death penalty to disappear from the United Kingdom and nearly everywhere else in the Western World. Two exceptions are Belarus and the USA, although this year New Mexico became the 15th state to outlaw capital punishment. Death-penalty opponents cite the exoneration of 131 people on death row since 1973 as well as the high cost of capital cases.

Defenders argue that the penalty offers justice and cite some studies that show its a deterrent. The practice is strong in culturally conservative areas - Japan, Saudi Arabia, Texas and totalitarian regimes. Elsewhere, opposition is mounting. Indian activists believe capital punishment is a violation of the right to life. In most countries where the penalty is still legal. it is used less and less.

Death rows - In 2008 there were official reports of 2,390 executions in 25 countries:

1,718 - China 346 - Iran 102 - Saudi Arabia 37 - United States

36 - Pakistan 34 - Iraq 19 - Vietnam 17 - Afghanistan

15 - North Korea 15 - Japan 13 - Yemen 10 - Indonesia

Mr. Still