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...
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.
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.
We recently took our year 10 students to Cleethorpes to complete the fieldwork section of their coursework. The coursewrok set out to investigate how the quality of life in Cleethorpes varies in three wards throughout Cleethorpes. 
The students were a credit to themselves and the school. Hopefully this will inspire you to produce top quality coursework!http://www.healingschoolgeographydepartment.com/multimedia.php
Mr. Still
This is very useful in terms of getting great pictures for use in lessons and homework. Just type in what you want to look for and it searches Google, Yahoo and Flickr which saves a lot of time.
When you think of pirates some of you may think about Captain Pugwash or Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. However, piracy is alive and well of the coast of Somalia.A link is provided below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00k36dm/Countryfile_26_04_2009
Mr. Still
This beautiful area of Britain has been made a national park today. The new South Downs national park will spread across Sussex and Hampshire. A lo of the land within the new park was already protected from development because it was classed as an area of outstanding natural beauty. Today's decision makes the South Downs England's 9th national park, bringing the total of areas protected as national parks to 10, including the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, which have equivalent status but are not quite national parks. Scotland has 2 national parks – Cairngorms and Loch Lomond. The BBC has a few pieces on this here too. There are some beautiful pictures also of this are here.
Year 11 it would be really useful to use this in a case study question or a question about how you would protect the environment in MEDCs in the managing resources section of your paper.
Mr. Still
The second takes you to some of the factories in South America, Afirca and Asia.
The next set of pictures are about factories in Europe where information on the parts made and some of the industrial locational factors considered.
All the '.kmz' files for all the google earth lessons can be found at the link below:
http://healingschoolgeographydepartment.synthasite.com/google-earth-files.php
Some teaching ideas:
I have used this to teach about the global car industry. I use a worksheet which the students fill in as the tour progresses. I play some music as the tour goes along. It takes about ten minutes.
For a quick starter I do a quick car recognition test and then discuss how the cars are linked to globalisation.
After the tour I then discuss what the students have found and think about the different locational factors. We discuss why factories are found in LEDCs and why the main part of engine assembly is done in MEDCs. Also look at the specific location factors for a factory and the location of factories in reference to markets and workforce.
You could get the students to draw a map showing the distribution of Ford over the planet.
Students could produce a whole range of information like leaflets, poster etc or create a moviemaker file. Although I intend to get the students to write a narration for part of the tour.
Just some ideas.
Mr. Still
The video above shows a quick run through of how what the zoom looks like run through.
Picture 1:
The zoom starts off as a random postcard with an unusual stamp in the top right hand corner. Here I ask the students if they can tell me what year the second live aid happened.
Picture 2:
You zoom into the stamp and more specifically the part of the globe
from space. I then get the students to guess what country we will be looking at, which is Ethiopia.
Picture 3:
As it zooms in more you can see a picture of a desert in Ethiopia. I get the students to write down to words they would use to describe the desert.
Picture 4:
In the background is a village. I ask the students to compare the houses to their own houses where they live.
Picture 5:
This is the important picture and also a famous one. The photo was taken by Kevin Carter in 1994. It actually refers to the famine in Sudan. The child is crawling towards an United Nations food camp. The vulture is waiting for the child to die. The photo won the Pulitzer prize. Unfortunately Kevin Carter committed suicide three months later as a result of depression. I get the students to write down one question they would like to ask about the picture.
This is the end of the zoom and it had great levels of engagement across all my year seven classes.
Unfortunately I am not sure how to put the file up onto the Internet for people to download.
Mr. Still
Over the holidays I also visited Arundel Wetland Wildlife Trust. This is a 1000 hectare wetland area that has been internationally recognised as one of the most important wetland sites in the UK.
It had to diversify as it was not making any money due to falling crop and meat prices and the rising cost of fuel.
To diversify the farm:
A little useful case study for your exam!
Mr. Still
The latest offering from Year 7. They had to make African Tribal dancers as part of our Long Way Down unit. I think they are very impressive, well done 7R.
I think the effect is quite interesting and will liven up displays in any classroom.Below is the set of basic instructions I gave the students. What I liked about the task was the fact it was so open-ended and the students once they got the hang of them started to produce some good work barring some simple technical problems.
Powerpoint plex - this is a lot of fun and very useful for revision with year 11 but also for having all your previous powerpoints and resources from one unit in the same place. You can also embed word files and excel spreadsheets into the presentation. See next weeks posts for an example of how it works in class.Photosynth - amazing photographic tool - log onto the website - some of the photos are fantastic - we in the geography department will be using it later in the week.
Later in the week I shall add more ideas and tools for use in the classroom including blogging (mirco-blogging) and wordle. I know that none of these ideas are particularly ground-breaking but rather just my experience of trying them in the classroom.
Mr. Still
Mr. Still
Mr. Still
I blogged about this site two weeks ago. Most of the time the camera looks at Gowrie waterhole in South Africa. However during 4am-7am, 14:00-17:00 and 18:00-21:00 the guides at the camp located near by go on game drives to look for the stunning wildlife. This is the time when you are most likely to see it live!
The letters year 8 students sent off to different countries have been sent and hopefullywe should have replies as soon as possible.
The Photography competition is still running. The deadline for the photographs are the last week of term.
Mr. Still
The band originates from New Jersey and started playing bars and gigs in New Jersey. Following the hit single 'runaway' the band got more airplay. This was then spread all across America through the radio. The band started to play more and more gigs across America. This led to a spread of popularity. Over time the band spread across the world now playing in many of the major stadiums across the world.
There is a Geography here:
Hopefully we will have a few lessons looking at these ideas somewhen over the next few weeks.
Rock on, Mr. Still!!
Earth Hour 2009 - Saturday 28th March 8:30PM
At 8:30 switch off everything electrical in your house. The aim is to put out a big message to Governments who burn excessive amounts of fossil fuels which release CO2 and increase the rate of Global Warming. 75 countries and 538 cities have signed up to the agreement to switch off their lights and non-essential electricity use. To find out more log on to:
Do your bit!!
Mr. Still
If you know, write your name, answer and form on a piece of paper and put it in the plastic wallet in the Geography rooms.
Mr. Still
The photo can be of anything geographical. The wackier the better!
Mr. Still
Mr. Still
