Healing School Geography Department

Eco-tourism in Kenya

2010-07-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Working towards sustainable tourism in Kenya - KIGO CONSERVANCY - An example of ECOTOURISM.

Kigio Conservancy was set up in 1997 on an old beef / dairy ranch with the aim of providing a wildlife sanctuary and a sustainable eco-tourism destination.

The accommodation at Kigio is in "cottages" built of mud, timber and thatch, using local and reclaimed materials and methods. The furniture is built from re-claimed timber from the ground and there is no electricity, oil lamps are instead used. They have now installed solar panels to help generate electricity.

Kigio has a number of ecotourism activities it is involved in:

- partnerships with local communities - helping to fund and work on community projects
- provides links with local schools with schools in the UK, raising money for new classrooms and other projects (e.g. water tanks)
- partnerships with conservation organisations such as the Tusk Trust - which has involved setting up conservation centre for use by local schools and providing sustainable development education for local communities
- employees local people - e.g. guides and other workers
- conservation activities - e.g. looking after orphaned wildlife - e.g. 2003 relocation of giraffe into the area - including a baby giraffe from the Karen Blixen Giraffe Orphange in Nairobi.

Kenya - Tourism in a poor country

2010-07-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

Where is Kenya?

Kenya is located in East Africa, its capital city is Nairobi and it has a population of approximately 30 million people.

Why visit Kenya?

- it has an attractive climate (tropical) with sunshine all year round, hot and humid at the coast; temperate inland and dry in the NE (rainy season - April-June and Oct-Dec, heavy rainfall in the afternoon and early evening)

- Safari holidays are popular - e.g. in the Maasai Mara / Nakuru National Park - Kenya has spectacular wildlife - including the big 5 - Lion, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Leopard and Buffalo

- Cultural experience - many tourists visit local tribes such as the Maasai to find out more about their lifestyle and traditions

- Coastal Holidays - SE of Kenya has fine sands and coral reefs with spectacular marine life - e.g. Mombassa

Why have numbers of tourists visiting Kenya increased?

Kenya was one of the first LEDC countries to acheive mass tourism and in the 1970s and 1980s there was a rapid increase in the numbers of tourists, particularly following the release of the films Born Free and Out of Africa.

- Tourist numbers have also increased as larger aircraft in the 1980s brought prices of air travel down.

Advantages of Tourism to Kenya:

- Tourism encourages the building of new roads and better communications
- Jobs in tourism have helped develop people's business skills
- Tourism has created all year round jobs for Kenyans
- Tourism is Kenya's biggest earner of foreign exchange
- Tourism has stimulated farming, by creating a demand for local food from farmers
- National Parks have been created - encouraging people to protect the environment.

Disadvantages of Tourism for Kenya:

- there is leakage of income - with a lot of the money paid for holidays never actually reaching Kenya (travel companies and foreign owned hotels get it instead)
- Safari minibuses disturb animals - often getting too close (e.g. can be 30-40 buses around a single animal in the Maasai Mara), they also cause soil erosion as the wheels churn up the grass
- many Maasai are traditionally nomadic, but many have been forced out of the National Parks - losing their land and also losing their traditional lifestyles.
- Hot air balloons in parks disturb animals - by casting shadows and from the noise of the burners.
- Coastal Environments such as those in Mombassa have been damaged - e.g. destruction of coral reefs as tourists step on the coral and also take souvenirs.

Mr. Still

Flickr

2010-04-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

A very short unimpressive post but the point is use flickr to find high quality pictures which are different to other people - much better than just using google

Flickr

Just one of the images I found on Flickr from - Lyndon Firman

Mr. Still

Stumled upon this little gem...

2010-04-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

This little gem as it were is called Newseum. You can access newspaper front pages from around the globe. This is from what has been dubbed Ash Friday:

Click on the picture and it will take you to the website. Check out the archived pages I have put some of the links below. I like it a lot:

Haiti Earthquake front pages

Saints win the Superbowl - not Geography but I like it

Mr. Still

New Iceland photo!!

2010-04-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

Just found this and thought it was awesome - so had to share it

Mr. Still

Iceland volcano!!

2010-04-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

This year has been the year for tectonic hazards. In fact I am thinking of re-writing my 'Risky Planet' SOW to include only examples from the last year. Possibly a stretch but there have been major hazards so far this year - Haiti, Chile & Tsunami, China and now the eruption at Eyjafjallajoekull - Iceland. Maybe the film 2012 has a point?

With lots of stuff flying around the Internet I thought I would post some of the good stuff and where to keep yourself up-to-date:

The trusty BBC website lots of news as the Volcano erupts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8630455.stm

The maps are quite interesting on where the ash is falling and changing wind patterns. This map shows the spread of the ash cloud and flights that have happened today:

Icelandic Blog

OK, now it may not be in English but important part is the webcams - scroll the page and there are quite a lot about the many volcanoes in Iceland

http://islande2010.mbnet.fr/2010/04/eyjafjallajokul-links-liens-a-propos-de-leyjafjallajokul/

Another very useful place to look at pictures of the eruption is Flickr. I will post about the usefulness of Flickr later as it very useful for finding excellent interesting pictures.

These two people have taken pictures of the eruption - have a look and be impressed!!

Steini3 and Helga*

This is one I really like:

Finally a bit of fun - this comes from MSN and is a photogallery of volcanic sunsets!!

http://news.uk.msn.com/photos/photos.aspx?cp-documentid=153092909 - press the play button

Mr. Still

Types of Volcano

2010-04-18T13:59:00.001-07:00

I found this today and thought it was very good. Credit to Mrs. Newlands.

Types Of Volcanoes

View more presentations from tudorgeog.

Mr. Still

Photography Competition

2010-04-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

I recently brought a new camera and thought I would start this again. You to bring in a picture of something to do with Geography you have taken yourself.

It can be on electronic media or printed.

There will be prizes!!

I look forward to your entires!!

Mr. Still

Thought these were cool!!

2010-04-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

The legendary Geographer Tony Cassidy created these and I thought I should share them with you.

Mr. Still

Another video!!

2010-04-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

This video shows the impacts of increased energy use! Very useful for revision!!

Mr. Still

Atolls??

2010-04-18T13:24:00.001-07:00

As part of the our concept driven South Pacific unit we have incorporated the teaching of atolls. These strange carbonate landforms are very interesting and the students like them as you can incorporate a bit of Finding Nemo and playdough.

I found this animation which is useful but has no explanation - wikipedia is actually surprisingly useful!!

This is a strange exciting landform in a part of the world students rarely see and one I particularly like.

Mr. Still

Development Cartoons

2010-04-18T13:18:00.001-07:00

I have been looking at cartoons and using them in the classroom as a way to put different geographical ideas across particularly looking at development.

I am going to set designing cartoons as a homework for year 8 in two weeks time.

Mr. Still

Podcasting!!

2010-04-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

I trialled this a few ago and Mr. McCrae carried out the trial with his year 9 class. I intend to get my year 9 classes to create their own podcasts on the impacts of increased energy use.

I am looking forward to seeing how creative you can be!

I will upload the files onto onlinegeography (link below) so that you can listen to yourselves and your friends.

www.onlinegeography.wikispaces.org

Mr. Still

Few new videos

2010-04-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

I few more videos I have created:

Call Centres - Why have companies such as BT set up call centres in India?

Chamonix - Tourism in glaciated areas: the attractions, benefits, problems and sustainable management

Use them for your revision :)

Mr. Still

Welcome back!!

2010-04-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome back after the Easter break and hopefully you have not had too many Easter eggs.

I was really pleased with the number of people who attended the Geography Easter revision sessions. I appreciate that you have given up part of your holiday and I think you found them very useful from what I can gather from your evaluations!! Your suggestions to improve them have been taken into account including having more food and shorter sessions!!

A few points:

now is the time to step up and really push on with your revision Yr11 and Yr10
Yr11 revision sessions will continue Glacier this week. After that the topics will be determined by you. This means you need to let Mr. McCrae or myself on which topics you would like to go over
Yr10 - This week letters will go out informing about revision sessions which will be Tuesday after school. They will have a consent form on them so make sure you get your parents/guardians to sign them!

I am looking forward to another term with lots of new ideas and a new enthusiasm.

Mr. Still

Year 8 - Parents/Options evening!!

2010-03-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

I hope to see many of you at the parents/options evening on Monday. I have posted the following videos below about Geography at GCSE and possible jobs/careers using Geography.

Geography at GCSE

Jobs and Geography

Below is a link to onlinegeography - the department website with lots of extra information. This very useful for revision for exams.

Online Geography

Mr. Still

Finding good pictures

2010-03-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Finding good, interesting and relevant pictures for lessons or homework can sometimes be difficult so here are a few links to make it easier:

Flickr - very useful. Use the search function to find pictures of what I call real photos taken by real people at real people

Shabi - very useful again. It searches flickr, google and yahoo to find photos most relevant to your search

Geograph - excellent photo database covering every OS map grid square in the country - just type in what you want and if it is in the UK it will find it

Quintura - a visual search engine which brings very good results

My picture of the day:

See what you can find - Mr. Still

Google Earth 3D buildings

2010-03-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

I recently used Google Earth again, to show the location of different tourist attractions. A particularly useful way was to get the students to recognise the tourist destinations as 3D buildings.To view the 3D buildings make sure the 3D buildings layer is turned on or you can download buildings people have made from the Google Earth 3D Warehouse.

Mr. Still

Very interesting website

2010-03-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

I found this the other day and was very impressed. Year 10 and Year 9 should become familar with this for the Globalisation unit which focuses on sustainable energy. The website has information on many small-scale sustainable energy projects across the world.

Women in Nepal carrying cables to help set up wind turbines.

Practical Action weblink

Mr. Still

The Milk Truck

2010-03-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

I thought this was very cool and spent far too long driving round like Jensen Button. I did enjoy driving round different tourist attractions in London but also found some buildings in Grimsby.

The milk truck by the Dock Tower

The milk truck by Blundell Park

Have some fun!

Monster Milk Truck link

You may have to download the browser plug-in but this is very easy.

Mr. Still

Blood Diamonds - Google Earth

2010-03-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

I blogged about this a long time ago and thought I might talk about The Diamond Trade. I will use it with Year 7 this week.

See the link below for lesson ideas from Noel Jenkins

Juicy Geography

Mr. Still

Past exam questions

2010-03-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

The link below has all the past papers for the last three years available for download. You can also download the mark schemes.

I am more than happy to mark any questions you answer.

Exam paper link

Mr. Still

Revsion Sessions - Easter

2010-03-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

Make sure you bring your consent forms back this week for Easter revision sessions.

Year 11 - Monday 12th and Wednesday 14th April - 9am-12

Year 10 - Tuesday 13th April - 9am-12

Mr. Still

What's on this week.....

2010-01-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

Year 11

The majority of classes will start managing resources the final topic of your GCSE. A letter will
also be given out this week to invite you to revision sessions starting in February. Coursework sessions Monday and Thursday after school will continue as normal from this week.

Year 10

We continue with our revision based for your mock exam

Year 9

You have your end of unit test this week.

Year 8

It is all about earthquakes and we look at what happened in Haiti.

Year 7

We look at Las Vegas and Dubai this week.

Mr. Still

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

2009-12-03T10:46:00.000-08:00

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:

They will influence which tier of examination you will be entered for - either higher or foundation
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

2009-12-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-03T10:08:00.001-08:00

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...

2009-11-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

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....

2009-11-15T13:44:00.001-08:00

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!!

2009-11-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

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

This week in the Geography department...

2009-11-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

So another busy week in the Geography starts.

Year 11

The deadline for your coursework is now Friday 4th December. It has been moved back a week as you will miss lessons due to English revision and Enterprise day. As a result of this it is incrdibly important that you attend the coursework sessions on Mondays and Thursdays afterschool.

Year 10

We continue our look at what life is like in squatter settlements through roleplays and creating powerpoint presentations. We will look at what life is really like for the stars of Slumdog Millionaire and try to imagine what life is like for them.

Year 9

Most of you will look at issues for people living in urban areas in MEDC. This includes issues of housing, traffic, sustainable communities and multicultural mix in cities.

Year 8

We will continue our look at India and how it is being affected by its' cultural revolution. We will look at the monsoon as well as Globalisation and how this affects you during your everyday life.

Year 7

We continue through the "nitty gritty" Geography of map skills with Grid References and distances up on the menu this week.

Mr. Still

Climate lessons from the past 2....

2009-11-01T11:33:00.001-08:00

This follows on from the first lesson about the people living in Fezzan, Libya.

This week I thought I would discuss about what happened in Greenland about 750 years ago. This time period in Britain was called the Medieval. It was was also significantly warmer during this period as much as 1 degrees Celsuis and thus in climate circles is known as the Medieval Warm Period. In this period wine and olive oil was grown in South East England. It is also believed that the plague spread more quickly due to the heat.

How does this link to Greenland?

Well, because of the higher temperatures the sea-ice had melted and retreated opening up ocean passages to Greenland. On Greenland itself the ice had melted and revealed lush green meadows. People from Scandinavia and Iceland undertook the epic journey by boat to Greenland. They set up towns and villages and farmed the surrounding areas. They also fished the rich Arctic seas around Greenland including Whales!

What went wrong?

Roughly about 600 years ago the climate changed and got significantly colder; as much as 2.5 degrees Celsuis. The ice spread back over Greenland meaning the people could no longer grow crops and rear sheep. Also the sea-ice was spreading and people could not set sail from Greenland back to Scandinavia, so the people starved.

What is the evidence?

Evidence has come from a variety of sources. One of the most obvious is written records e.g. letters being sent from Greenland to Scandinavia and the UK detailing how the ice was growing and food was becoming harder to grow. Another peice of evidence are dead flies. Flies are very sensitive to changes in temperatures. For example warm species will die as the temperature rises and cold weather species will start to grow in number. Scientists found that fly species changed when the ice started to grow.

What drove the climate change?

Scientists are not sure and have linked both the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age to changes in ocean circulation and sunspot cycles.

Useful links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot

http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/1vc.html

The video is about climate change over the last 120,000 years!!

Enjoy!!

Year 8 Tribal Masks 2009

2009-10-31T16:59:00.000-07:00

The video shows the African Tribal Masks our Year 8 students made in recent Geography lesson!!

Mr. Still

Geography on TV

2009-10-31T16:45:00.001-07:00

A new topic for the blog but I think it is important to realise that Geography is discussed in many different forms of media. I think TV is perhaps the most accessible and relevant of all media for our students:

This week:

Life - BBC1 Monday 9pm - shown on BBC iplayer for one week after orginal airing. This week a look at various fish species including sea dragon, fringehead and Hawaiian goby.

Ray Mears - BBC2 Sunday - 8pm - The Company that built a Country - Ray tells the story of the British fur trade company that opened up Canada - shown on BBC iplayer for one week after orginal airing.

Countryfile - BB1 Sunday - 7pm - Matt Baker and Julia Bradbury find out about Alnwick Castle's connection with Guy Fawkes - shown on BBC iplayer for one week after orginal airing.

Charley Boorman: Sydney to Tokyo by any means - In Taiwan, Charley visits the country's largest Buddhist monastery, Fo Guang Shan - catch on on BBC iplayer

Enjoy!!

Mr. Still!!

Climate lessons from the past..

2009-10-31T16:31:00.000-07:00

I intend to blog about this in a series of posts about what past climate change could tell us about what might happen to people in the future. This includes people in MEDCs and LEDCs.

Unseen Sahara - Libya's remote Fezzan Region

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/10/fezzan/steinmetz-photography - the link below takes you to a slideshow which describes how the Fezzan region in Libya has changed.

The images tell an important story about how when climate changes, areas become unliveable for the human race. Between 10,000-2,000 years ago the climate change documented was naturally driven but as a human race we should take note of how climate change has affected human beings in the past. This is especially true of areas considered to be fragile environments like the Fezzan region in Libya as these are areas that are likely to effected first by climate change. Other fragile environments include Alpine areas in the Alps, the low-lying delta country of Bangladesh and areas such as the Arctic. With as many as 800 million people expected to become climate change refugees maybe now is time to act!!

Next week: what the fall of Angkor can tell us.

Mr. Still

Online Geography Updates!!

2009-10-31T16:16:00.000-07:00

Over half term I created pages for Year 7 and Year 8 as I felt you have been a little bit neglected.

There are pages for Year 7 and Year 8. You will find copies of the resources used as well as other information and what you have studied and what you will study in the future.

KS3 Frontpage - http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/KS3+Introduction+page

Year 7 - http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/KS3+Year+7

Year 8 - http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/KS3+Year+8

On a general note there is now a new mulitmedia page with fun and games (105 - including fling the teacher) and websites to help with revsion and homework -http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/Multimedia

Other pages have been updated to include some new resources.

Enjoy!!

Year 11 Coursework and what’s happening...

2009-10-31T16:08:00.000-07:00

Year 11:

Coursework deadline is Friday 20th November. After this we aim to have four revision lessons before you start your mock exams!!

Year 10:

We continue to look at Changing Urban Environments as part of the new AQA A Geography Syllabus. We start to look at what life is like in squatter settlements and the issues facing people in LEDC urban areas. We will watch part of Slumdog Millionaire!!

Year 9:

Most of the classes have now finished Glaciers which was a cool unit but can be complicated in areas; don't worry Changing Urban Environments is easier. We start to look at urban areas in the UK and I get to show my personal favourite moviemaker video, affectionately known as COUZ!

Year 8:

We start looking at India and I am really looking forward to tackling the issues that are evolving in this fascinating and colourful country. India is undergoing a cultural, economic and environmental revolution!! We start by looking at what is India like and hopefully we will do some Indian food tasting!!

Year 7:

We continue to look at map skills - nice gritty Geography. We will look at compass directions and map skills this week. An interesting website you can use to help improve your map skills:

http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/

Mr. Still

Animoto videos!!

2009-10-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

Animoto is something I discovered over the summer and is a very useful and professional looking video creation tool. I have embedded two examples here:

Enjoy!!

http://www.animoto.com/

Fling the teacher - 3 new ones!!

2009-10-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

Recently I have used this activity in the classroom again. Fling the teacher!!

Map Skills - http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+world+ftt.swf

Ecosystems - http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/file/view/tropical+rainforests+ftt.swf

Glaciers - http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/file/view/Glacier+ftt.swf

Enjoy the games!!

Welcome Back!!

2009-09-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

The Geography Department would like to welcome all our students back for the start of what is sure to be another exciting year at Healing School. We also welcome year 7 to Healing School and we hope they enjoy Geography as much as we do.

A brief breakdown of what is on at the start of term:

Year 11 - Cleethorpes Coursework
Year 10 - Ecotourism and Extreme Tourism
Year 9 - Ice on the Land
Year 8 - The Great Human Race
Year 7 - Passport To Geography

We also want to draw to your attention to an online textbook which will replace elements of the website and be integrated with the schools' new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

http://onlinegeography.wikispaces.com/

Very useful for GCSE revision and coursework

The Geography Department

A little bit of fun....

2009-07-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

Just a little bit of fun for a lesson on the effects of climate change....

GoAnimate.com: Barrack Obama does climate change by cds202

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Mr. Still

Cleethorpes Fieldwork

2009-06-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

Year 10 coursework
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!

Mr. Still and Mr. McCrae

The Geography Department

2009-06-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

Following the schools recent Ofsted inspection our school, Healing School Specialist Science College has been declared 'Outstanding in every category'. This is of course excellent news. The Geography department played its role in the success of the inspection. The inspection said that the Geography department was 'inspirational'.

Mr. Still and Mr. McCrae

Deep Zoom Walkthrough

2009-05-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

I have been really impressed with how well received the Deep Zoom starters have been. They have covered topics such as Fiar Trade, Globalisation, Famine, Ghana and the Long Way Down Map.

Lots of you have been asking 'how do you do that?'

I have written a Deep Zoom Composer walkthrough file on how to create one. It is quite a big file and can be found on the link from the Healing School Geography Department.

Any problems just ask.

http://www.healingschoolgeographydepartment.com/multimedia.php

Mr. Still

General stuff...

2009-05-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Year 11

An amazing free resource that I found by mistake. They are podcasts!! They are free to download so you can put them on your MP3 player and i-pods and then listen to them whereever you are. For example on your way to and from school - on the bus or walking home.

Link to the website.

http://lhs.typepad.co.uk/weblog/geography/

Right-click on the relevant podcast and 'save target as'. It will then download as a MP3 file.

Year 10

I have created revsion pages for you to use and help you with your revision.

http://www.healingschoolgeographydepartment.com/year-10---industry.php

Make sure you use them.

Mr. Still

What's on this week.....

2009-05-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

Year 11
The most important thing is to make sure you do some revision this week. Like Tesco every little helps. You can do this by actually attending the revision Thursday afterschool for an hour. We will cover any topic you want and any points of exam technique you feel you need to cover.

Year 10
On Tuesday you perform your news reports on Sustainable Development and industry. On Thursday and next Tuesday you will look exam questions and techniques. A week on Thursday you will do your end of unit exam.

Year 9
On Tuesday you do your news reports on food miles. On Thursday you have a revision lesson on Globalisation and then the test on Tuesday next week. After that you shall look at Tourism.

Year 8
It is all about teaching yourselves Geography for the first lesson then looking at does money make you happy. Next Thursday you will have your end of year exam.

Year 7
We continue our journey to the bottom of Africa and look at the rainbow nation otherwise known as South Africa. We will look at Racism and the issues surrounding it.

Year 8, hopefully your letters from abroad will arrive soon!!

Mr. Still

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

Earth Day is a day generally celebrated in America and recognises the importance and beauty of the environment. Its' ultimate aim is to raise awareness of environmental issues in a country which is not particularly keen on tackling these issues.

The following link has some stunning pictures from the Boston Globe celebrating both the beauty and threats to the environment.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/04/earth_day_2009.html

Mr. Still

Swine flu and Globalisation...

2009-04-29T13:19:00.001-07:00

The spread of swine flu is continuing and as mentioned before it is perpetuated by Globalisation (see earlier blog post). The BBC has produced a very useful map tracking the spread of swine flu across the globe. It also has a timeline feature where you can view its spread over time (slide the grey bar at the bottom of the map).

Follow the link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8021547.stm

Mr. Still

What do 8H think of Geography?

2009-04-28T03:42:00.000-07:00

I think this is very cool!

Mr. Still

Website update!!

2009-04-27T17:54:00.001-07:00

Some of the more observant among you will have noticed that the Geography department website has undergone some changes. It has a new front page and a whole load of other pages have been updated. All resource and revision pages are currently up-to-date. Especially important are the Year 9 Globalisation pages. Year 10 revision pages will go live on Friday morning.

Year nine Globalisation pages:

http://www.healingschoolgeographydepartment.com/globalisation.php

The website also has a new name. You can still access the webiste using the old address but the new one is slightly shorter.

Website link

http://www.healingschoolgeographydepartment.com/

Mr. Still

Online picture dictionary

2009-04-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

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.

http://blachan.com/shahi/

Mr. Still

Free podcasts

2009-04-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

This is a really good resource as it is free. However, more importantly it is in a format you should all be used to. Most of you will have i-pods and MP3 players. You can download these from the website link given below. In the near future the podcasts will appear on the Healing School Geography Department website.

http://lhs.typepad.co.uk/weblog/geography/

If you have any difficulties accessing these I can download them at school and you can upload them on to your USBs as i-pods and MP3 players are not allowed in school.

Mr. Still

Ho, Ho, Ho and a bottle of rum...

2009-04-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

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.

The link below shows the distribution of the pirate attacks:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8011158.stm

The following link contains an article about what a Somali pirate life is like from the point of view from the pirates themselves:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8010061.stm

I think this is a really interesting issue and one which will continue to only get bigger in time. Just remember that there are often deeper political reasons as to why a pirate my be a pirate.

Mr. Still

Wikis - I like them a lot...

2009-04-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

I have to say how impressed I am with the Year 9 wikispaces project. You should be pleased with your work and I was impressed with patience as sometimes it did not go smoothly. I intend to go back to your wikispaces so keep your usernames and passwords safe. I think every month or so you will create a new page on your wikispace about a topic we are currently studying. For example before half term we will look at tourism and you will create a page about the different types of tourism!!

Some of the best ones:

http://grimsbyglobalistation.wikispaces.com/
http://patrickgeography.wikispaces.com/
http://josh2009.wikispaces.com/

I intend to ask for a list of your wikispaces so that I can put a list of all the projects on the blog and website.

Mr. Still

Swine flu and Globalisation...

2009-04-27T17:06:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me when watching the news that the spread of communicale disceases across the globe could be as a result of Globalisation. This is some of the reasoning behind this.

The outbreak started in Mexico and if people did not travel to Mexico on holiday then they would not be in contact with the discease. On return from holiday (the tourists original country) and if they have the disease they can then spread it to other people they come in contact with. Without the process of Globalisation then people would not be visiting different countries.

A map can be found from the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8021547.stm

Mr. Still

Countryfile

2009-04-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

This may appear a little strange but I strongly advise that all year elevens watch this weeks countryfile on BBC iplayer. It was very interesting and focused on the new South Downs National Parks. It looked at:

coastal erosion
hill sheep agriculture
farm diversification

A link is provided below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00k36dm/Countryfile_26_04_2009

Mr. Still

What's on this week.....

2009-04-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

Just a few notices this week:

Year 11:
There is a revision session this week after school on Thursday for all students. Make sure you attend as this will make revision easier in the long run.

Year 10:
In line with other departments in two weeks time you will have an end of unit test on Industry.

Year 9:
You will also have a test on the Globalisation unit in about two weeks time.

Year 8 and 7:
You will both have a test in the next few weeks in line with other departments. The results of which will influence your final report.

Website update:
The website has been updated with a new look. In the next few weeks more pages will be improved and updated!

http://healingschoolgeographydepartment.synthasite.com/

Mr. Still

South Downs finally beocmes a National Park

2009-04-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

South Downs National Park

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

Google Earth - Touring across the world!

2009-04-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

I mentioned this in an earlier post. The following is a little brief description of my tour around the world especially about the global car industry.

You start from spaces view and then click on the blue cars to find out the information.

The first part of the tour starts in Detroit with the global headquarters of Ford.

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

Deep Zoom - famine - how does it work?

2009-04-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

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

What's on this week.....

2009-04-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

Year 11

As Europe said 'It's the final countdown!!' Most of you only have 3 lessons left but some of the lucky few will have 5 left. I want to say thank you to those of you who came to the Easter Holiday Revision Sessions, it was generally thought that they were very useful to all who attended. I intend to cover rocks and landscapes, agriculture and settlement in those three lessons.

VERY important - revision sessions are now open to everyone Thursday after school. We will cover a whole range of topics and it is open to what you want to cover.

Year 10

It's all about the global car industry, formal and informal economy, Tiger economies and sustainable development - so a whole range of topics covered. We have nearly finished the industry unit and will move onto our coursework about Cleethorpes.

Year 9

We will have finished the globalisation unit in three weeks time. Before that we will look at Global Warming, finish off our wikispaces, look at food miles and the consequences of them. We will then move onto to tourism.

Year 8

The development unit is nearing its end and we look at the developing world debt, fair-trade and how countries can help reduce and move themselves out of debt. 8O and 8S will explode their volcanoes on Thursday so make sure your volcanoes are primed!!

Year 7

We continue to follow Charley and Ewan down Africa but take a slight detour to look at the trade in blood diamonds. This was brought to the worlds attention by the film Blood Diamond which starred Leonardo Di Caprio.

Mr. Still

Big Huge Labs - very cool...

2009-04-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

Flickr is a very useful photograph site storing lots of photos by lots of different people. They have these tools found at the link below I have used some for next weeks lessons. Some examples are found above and below.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

Mr. Still

Google Earth - I've finally got there!!

2009-04-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

I must admit when Google Earth first hit the web I was very impressed but never really thought about using it in the classroom. When I became a teacher I wanted to use it in the classroom but struggled to work what I could use it for except for 'just looking at places'.

I have now found some good ways to use it in the classroom

I intend to use it for Friday's lesson with Year Seven for the Blood Diamond lesson. We are going to track the how diamonds are extracted and transported.

I also intend to use it for the global car industry and showing how fair trade works around the world.

I will also use the tour function to show the different places. I will post with more details later in the week and all resources will be available on the website.

Mr. Still

Photosynth - at last...

2009-04-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I like using ICT in my lessons and have stumbled upon Photosynth - check previous blog entries for more info. Basically it allows you to create 3d models of places using photographs, so I thought my classroom and some of the students work might make an interesting composition. You have to download the software to view it but the results are worth it. Some of the really good 'photosynths' are of Barrack Obama's inauguration and of the Pyramids in Egypt.

http://photosynth.net/Default.aspx - link to the website

The Geography classroom - it looks best if you run the 3D slideshow - link below

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=cb1b1213-475c-4f4e-866a-5718e479fd76

Mr. Still

Conservation in action - Wetland areas

2009-04-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

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 is home to over 120 species of bird, duck and goose. It is also an important migration site for Berwick and Mute Swans who migrate to the Arctic to breed in the short winter.

The land was owned by the Duke of Norfolk who gave the land to the Wildlife Trust who converted the small reed beds into a much larger wetland area. The water flowing into the wetland area is checked regularly to look for harmful chemicals. They have built special nest boxes and have a specialised wildife team who look after the site. Wetland areas are very important as wetland areas can purify water and have a yet to be understood role in preventing climate change.

Wetland areas are a very vulnerable habitiat and disappearing around the world. This site is very important and you could use this to answer an conservation related case study question in your exam.

Mr. Still

Farm Diversifiation - Coombes Farm

2009-04-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

Over the holiday I visited Coombes Farm and thought that it would make a great example of farm diversification.

Some basic facts:

The farm is set in 1000 hectares of the South Down countryside
It is a mixed farm - being both arable and pastoral
It has five hundred sheep and 100 beef cattle, it also grows wheat and barley

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:

The farm has special promotions to attract visitors at lambing time through late March to the end of April
In the summer it has guided farm tours, wild flower walks and barn dances
It has a Norman Church with some of the oldest wall paintings in Europe. The farmer renovated the church and opened it to the public
The farm also operates a bed and breakfast

A little useful case study for your exam!

Mr. Still

African Dancers

2009-04-03T00:35:00.000-07:00

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.

Mr. Still

Year 11 - crunch time

2009-04-02T13:03:00.001-07:00

Make sure over the holidays you do lots of revision not just for Geography as this will really help in the long run. Over thr course of the next three days the website will be updated with all the latest revision materials we have used in class.

The website is there to elp you and I have checked all the links to the powerpoints and they all work. It is easier to right-click on the link and 'save target as'. This will reduce download times.

http://healingschoolgeographydepartment.synthasite.com/

Mr. Still

Photosynth

2009-04-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

I mentioned photosynth in an earlier post and hopefully I will upload my first onto their website and post a link to it on the blog over the weekend. It should be quite good although not as good as some of the photos on the site. I especially like the photosynth of the pyramids in Egypt.

Look at the link below:

http://photosynth.net/default.aspx

Mr. Still

Teach yourself geography....

2009-04-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

One of the dricing forces behind the Gepgraphy Department is the belief that students should power their own learning. This is where teach yourself geography comes from. A traditional lesson is made up of three parts - a starter, middle and plenary. The students are split into groups and given different parts, tasks and topics for the lesson. The students then have to come up with ways to teach their part to the rest of the class. Mr. McCrae, my colleague in the department is very good at this type of lesson. He did it with one of his year nine classes and it was a storming success. Hopefully after Easter the students will write up the lesson and discuss what they thought of the lesson.

Mr. Still

Wordle...

2009-04-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

I really like this little application. You can insert all sorts of words and it creates a beautiful word cloud. I have created one for all the words found on this blog. It can be found below:

I think the effect is quite interesting and will liven up displays in any classroom.

Mr. Still

To wiki or not to wki? - that is the question...

2009-04-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

I thought this week being the last week before I would try something different using wikispaces. Effectively a wikispace allows students to create webpages to present their information and are available for students to edit. So, I set my year nine the task of creating a wikispace and it had to contain the following information:

What is sustainable development?
Renewable and Non-renewable resources
What is Global Warming?
The effects of Global Warming?
What is Acid Rain and the effects of it

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.

Wiki Spaces Task
Wiki Spaces Task donotreply168436

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work Education software project

Below are some links to some of the students work. They are works in progress. They have the Easter Holidays to do more to their work and two lessons after Easter Holidays to complete the task.

http://josh2009.wikispaces.com/

http://grimsbyglobalistation.wikispaces.com/

http://gtfckieran.wikispaces.com/

http://geographysite.wikispaces.com/

http://patrickgeography.wikispaces.com/

Again these are works in progress but the signs are encouraging!!

Mr. Still

Parents Evening

2009-03-31T03:27:00.000-07:00

Year 8 parents evening on Monday was a real blur. It was good to see so many students and what was even better was how many of you were really keen on taking Geography at GCSE which is fantastic. If you have any questions regarding GCSE Geography please make sure you talk to Mr. McCrae or myself and we can point you into the right direction. I was especially pleased that you are thinking about careers that might use geography in the future.

http://healingschoolgeographydepartment.synthasite.com/taking-gcse-geography.php

Mr. Still

My experiments continue...

2009-03-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Deep Zoom as I mentioned earlier works really well and I hope to add some onto the blog over the holidays. Powerpoint plex is another tool that worked really well. The students loved this as they could see all the work they had done in the unit but it also made the conventional powerpoint lesson a lot more interesting. See the video file below.

Through my short journey in teaching one issue has bugged me for a while and that is learning objectives, learning aims, learning outcomes, to be able to... (Your school may have a different name). I appreciate they are very important and that we should share what we want our students to learn but in my opinion the way they are put across is often very boring and the students also find this dull. While I will never claim to have the answer to any teaching related point I did find that this worked well last week.

Thanks to Ollie Bray of http://olliebray.typepad.com/olliebraycom/ I came across this website - http://www.lingo2word.com/translatetxt.php?tosearch1=ILY+mor+thn+wrds+cn+dsciB+%7E%3Ao+%21&searcher1=lingo - the website translates normal English into text speech. I tried with some of the classes this week and it worked really well. See the powerpoint below. I showed the objectives in 'text speech' to my year 7 classes and they really liked them and made them engage with the learning objectives.

A couple of other really useful websites:

You will have heard of social networking but give social bookmarking a go. The site is a place where you can store all your bookmarks/favourites in one place. This means you can access your personal favourites from any computer in the world. This saves a lots of hassle as you would usually have a different set of favourites on your different computers, I know I do. Also you can look at similar websites about Geography or any other topic using the tag system.

http://delicious.com/

Bloglines is really useful if you follow a lot of blogs and websites. Once you have signed up to an account you can add all the URLs of the blogs you follow. The website when you log in checks the different blogs and shows you when they have been updated. This saves a lot of time as don't need to check all the different blogs for updates yourself!

http://www.bloglines.com/

Mr. Still

Photography Competition Deadline

2009-03-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Mr. McCrae and myself have been really impressed with the standard of entries so far. It is not too late to enter your photographs. Make sure you hand them to one of the Geography teachers by the end of Thursday.

Mr. Still

This week in the Geography department

2009-03-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

Year eleven

Only 7 lessons left till your exams and revision is coming along nicely. I have been very impressed with the revision resoucres you have created. Hopefully they will help you to improve your final grades. We will look at managing resoucres and also look at rocks and landscapes this week. It is important that we get our exam tecnhnique as polished as possible particularly on case study and physical geography - 'describe the formation of.....' type questions.

Year ten

We continue looking at industry and particularly some of the reasons for the globalisation of it. I intend to approach this through the study of two different mysteries. Materials for which can be found on the Healing School Geography Department Website. A link can be found at the end of the post.

Year nine

As mentioned before life is about experimenting and that is what I aim to do this week. I have used wikispaces before with some year 8 classes as blog type exercise. However, I have decided I want the students to create some vert simple webpages to aid their studies particularly with Sustainable Development and how we can tackle global warming. See a post next month about the success or failure of this idea.

Year eight

The trading game has become my favourite lesson of all time. I decided I would use twitter to run the game. You could just use a word file but I thought it would detach me from the students even more and allow them to really get into the games finer details. It worked really well and I hope to try and find more applications for it in the classroom.

Year seven

I am loving the Long Way Down topic and the feedback I have been getting from you guys has been really positive. Last week we started looking at famine and I tried a few new things see a later post and you all seemed really keen on them which is great. All powerpoints and materials can be seen on our website from Tuesday morning. You will perform your news reports this week and hopefully we can record them.

Mr. Still

ICT in classrooms - life is about experimenting!

2009-03-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

The more observant among you will have noticed that I have been trying out some new ICT tools in the classroom. Obvivously you will have seen the blog and Geography department website. I hope you have looked at them and used them.

Another tool is Deep Zoom - very exicting tool - I have talked about this in an earlier post. This tool can result in the 'wow' factor with students.
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

Teaching....it's a funny old game!

2009-03-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Far better, more inspiring and talented teachers have coomented on this issue many time before. The idea of using games to teach students a whole variety of topics. Well this week it is my turn to have a go as it were. I started researching the idea of using different games and simultations in geography. Well there are quite a few that could be used. This is more of a working list.

I think everyone has heard of the trading game from Christian Aid. A lot of fun to teach but can lead to some quite fierce arguements. There are other games from Oxfam involving Chocolate and Bananas as part of fair trade. There are also different ideas relating to trainers and cotton.

Of course there are also things like who wants to be a millionaire, blockbusters and play your cards right (there are also many more) all very useful in lessons.

Another useful tool are simulations on the internet:
http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/TLSF/theme_c/mod16/www.eduweb.com/ecotourism/eco1.html - a game simulating ecotourism in South America

http://www.daversitycode.com/ - useful murder mystery showing biodiversity

http://simcity.ea.com/play/simcity_classic.php - sign up free to play free online

http://www.simsweatshop.com/ - very useful trainer game

Mr. Still

Deep Zoom

2009-03-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

This got me very excited this weekend. Deep Zoom is an application which allows you to zoom in really close on photographs and add other photos in to tell a story. I thought of at least 20 different applications over the weekend. I will use a couple in school this week. The first one is done as a little clip in moviemaker.

You can download the application here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=457b17b7-52bf-4bda-87a3-fa8a4673f8bf&displaylang=en

Hard Rock Cafe - Deep Zoom example - click, zoom znd explore!

http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/

Mr. Still

Year 11 revision materials...

2009-03-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

A very useful website Mr. McCrae and myself found the other day - click on the link below:

http://www.bishopbarrington.net/pages/subjects/geography.html

On the website are podcasts, revision videos and another downloadable revision booklet. This is all very useful stuff for you to use for YOUR revision.

Mr. Still

What on this week....

2009-03-22T10:17:00.001-07:00

Year 11
Well only 8 lessons left till you start study leave. The plan is very simple - over the next 8 lessons we will try to cover as much material as possible. We start with coasts on Monday and half of Fridays lesson and then do a little bit on Rocks for the other part. That will then give us six lessons to cover the other three topics. If you have any questions please speak to Mr. McCrae or myself. Also exam papers can be downloaded from our website. Follow the link below:
http://healingschoolgeographydepartment.synthasite.com/exam-papers.php
(right click on the relevant paper and 'save target as' this will reduce download time)

Year 10
In industry we are carrying on with our case studies on Thursday. On Tuesday we will be looking st Globalisation and the effect that has on industry and people around the world.

Year 9
We continue with our look at changes in resource use over the planet and then reasosn why this happens. Also we will look at China and how that is developing in terms of industry and the environmental probelms that causes.

Year 8
This weeks lessons focus on why countries are poor and the barriers which stop them from achieving a devent standard of living. This will include a mystery lesson and starting on the trading game.

Year 7
This week for most of you CHarley and Ewan ride into Ethiopia. We stop and look at famine by solving a mystery becoming news repoters for a lesson.

Mr. Still

The Crazy Wombat

2009-03-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

Sustainable Development is a key buzz not only in Geography but in politics. This little clip from the Crazy Wombat explains some of the main principles behind Sustainble Development

Mr. Still

A few important updates

2009-03-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

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

What's up this week....

2009-03-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

Year 11

Only 12 lessons left (scary). It does not need to be said that we are up against it. It is imperative that you attend revision sessions as this will be the difference between a 'C' grade or 'D' grade. We look at Glaciation; landforms and human uses of glaciated areas. See the website for the powerpoints and material used in this weeks lesson. Mr. McCrae is doing the revision lesson this week on Managing Resources.

Year 10

We continue moving solidlily through industry this week and mainly focus on case studies primarily on heavy and hi-tech. We will also look a little bit at what Governments have done when industry is no longer profitable.

Year 9

What a lot of hot air, its wind power continued this week. A decision-making exercise and then a look at how and why resource and energy use has increased over time.

Year 8

The development unit is developing nicely and we look at how we can measure how developed different countries are. This will invlove looking at different indicators and playing blockbusters and a generation game conveyor belt flag type game. Also we will play development trumps later in the week. Next week is the week of games!!

Year 7

We continue following Charley and Ewan's journey down through Africa. We stop off in Sudan and Ethiopia this week. In Sudan we create our own animals which have to be specially adapted to live in the desert. In Ethiopia we investgate why the country is so suseptible to famine. We examine the role of drought and human factors.

Mr. Still

Geoparks

2009-03-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

Over recent weeks in year 11 we have been talking about National parks in both the UK and abroad in Kenya and Gambia. Well the next development from National Parks are Transfrontier National Parks and new Geoparks.

Simply a National Park protects one area of a country in a particular country, like the Lake District. A Transfrontier National Park is one that covers many different countries. For example the Great Limpopo Transfrontier National Park. It covers large areas of South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. This new park aims to be at the forefront of conservation and sustainability. Also by covering more than one country larger areas of land can be protected.

http://www.greatlimpopopark.com/

In Europe, Geoparks have been set up to protect geological heritage and sustainable ways to develop it. The aim is to promote the areas for tourism and make sure that there is scope for sufficent economic development. Look at the website, you can use the information to create a case study for your exam.

http://www.europeangeoparks.org/isite/home/1,1,0.asp

Mr. Still

Something a little bit different....

2009-03-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

This is something I have been following for a while. Basically it is a webcam that peers into the African Bush. At different times of the day qualified guides go out on drives to show people about the African bush. You can follow stories about the Mapogos, the Sandy Patch Lioness, Karula and her new Leopard cubs, Ovo and the Judge. There are many more characters to meet.

Enjoy, Mr. Still

Geography Matters!!

2009-03-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

Globalisation resource Year 9 and 10

2009-03-10T14:26:00.001-07:00

Globalisation

View more presentations from John Barlow.

Geography Right Here, Right Now!!

2009-03-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

What's on this week.....

2009-03-10T14:05:00.000-07:00

Year 11

Only 14 lessons left till you go on study leave. So make sure you go to the revision sessions on a Thursday after school for about an hour. This week we take a romp through glaciation particularly landforms and their formation. Make sure you complete your revision material homework. Also I have put some of the past exam papers onto the website. Make sure you right click on the link and 'save target as'. This will be quicker in terms of download times.

Year 10

Well you have studied four units of your course already. Three with Mr. McCrae and myself and one with Mr. Strange and Miss Jones. The next unit is industry. Look at the later psots for some useful material on this topic.

Year 9

Globalisation is a funny unit as we now move onto look at energy and different sources of it. We have finished off looking at NICs and will start looking at energy on Thursday. Next week we will complete a decision-making exercise on wind power in Cumbria

Year 8

Lots going on this week. Two groups will explode their volcanoes this week. Others will finish their Ghana brochures and hopefully present them to the rest of the class.

Year 7

We continue following Charlies' and Ewans' journey down through Africa in the Long Way Down. We arrive in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia looking at issues surrounding water scarity and the River Nile. Other groups will look at life in the Desert and design your own animal or plant especailly adapted to live in a desert environment.

Mr. Still

Geography+Music - whats the link?

2009-03-04T11:33:00.001-08:00

Bono, Bon Jovi and the Beatles are all linked - through Geography of Course!!

If you think about it the spread of each of the artists music across the globe is definiately Geography. Lets take Bon Jovi (some of you may of guessed I this these guys are awesome!!)

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:

You can map their spread across the world - all years
The ideas surrounding globalisation - which is the spread of ideas across the planet - year 9
Issues of rich/poor, levels of development - year 8

Hopefully we will have a few lessons looking at these ideas somewhen over the next few weeks.

Rock on, Mr. Still!!

Life or something like it...

2009-03-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

Well, its World Book Day tomorrow. It may some to a great surprise but there are actually many books you could read to help you with your studies!!

The Coram Boy – Jamila Gavin (Slave Trade and Ocean travel)
The other side of truth – Beverley Naidoo (Immigration set in London and Nigeria)
Journey of 1000 miles – Ian Strachan
The long way Down - Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor
The long way round - Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor
Dominoes and other stories – Bali Rai (What it is like to be living in Britain today told through different cultural voices
Caught in the crossfire – Alan Gibbons (Life in a northern English town for a Muslim boy after 7/7)
The Lost World – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Lost in the Jungle – Yossi Ghinsberg
Kingdom Come – J.G. Bullard
Fearless – Tim Lott
Comfort Herself – Geraldine Kaye – Set in Kent and Ghana – good descriptions of the difference in lifestyle and expectations even though this set in an England of the 1960s. Comfort is a child mixed marriage
The Pearl – John Steinbeck

This is just a small sample. Enjoy!

Mr. Still

2nd Rant - What are you doing for an hour at.....

2009-02-23T14:31:00.001-08:00

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:

http://www.earthhour.org/

Do your bit!!

Mr. Still

Comic Relief!! - Make a difference today!!

2009-02-23T14:18:00.000-08:00

Well I have not had a good rant about a topic in a while. So here it goes, Comic Relief is on FRIDAY 13TH MARCH. This is perhaps the biggest single event for raising money that makes an actual difference in the world. I have seen some of the projects myself and they make a real difference to some of the poorest people in the world. Even if it is just buying a red nose you can make a real difference. Buying one red nose can provide enough food to feed a child for 5 days!!

Make a difference. If anyone is doing something to raise money for Comic Relief let me know!!

Mr. Still

More and More people are realising the importance of Geography......

2009-02-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

Enough said!

The Geography Challenge - week 2

2009-02-22T15:08:00.000-08:00

Where is this place?

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

Young Geographer Photo Competition

2009-02-22T14:59:00.000-08:00

Are you a budding Photographer? Do have an eye for a great photo? Can you make the a landscape come alive?

Then why not enter our Young Photographer Competition. If you are out and about and take a great photo using a digital camera about anything Geographical then put it on a USB stick and show Mr. Still or Mr. McCrae.

At the end of each half term we will judge the best three photos. The winners will win prizes.

The photo can be of anything geographical. The wackier the better!

Mr. Still

International Links

2009-02-22T14:53:00.000-08:00

As part of developing the Geography department at Healing School we have embarked on various projects with different schools across the globe. The aim is to broaden our students horizons so that they can gain an insight into different cultures and environments. We hope to write letters to different schools, send emails and depending on timezones webcam links.

Hopefully we can talk to schools in Ghana, Zambia, Turkey and India. Hopefully there will be more over the coming weeks.

We are very excited about this project and we hope you students will be to!!

Here are some links to videos about different schools

This is a video about the school in Zambia we will be writing to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTwpIDASWk4&feature=channel

This video is about education in Ghana at one particular school:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSxnvdxlrFI&feature=channel

Mr. Still

This week in the Geography department

2009-02-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

Year Seven

We are starting our unit of work based upon the Long Way Down, the big motorbike ride by Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor. We aim to follow their journey down through Africa and look at a whole range of issues relating to Africa. Some of the topics involve Water, Aids and Tourism.

Year eight

See later post

Year nine

We move on from Globalisation to look at how industry has changed over the past 3o years in this country. Through deindustrialisation in the UK to how the British Government has tried to encourage new businesses to settle in this country.

Year ten

We have a revision lesson on Tuesday before our end of unit test on Hazards on Thursdays lesson. Powerpoints for revsion can be found at the link below:

http://healingschoolgeographydepartment.synthasite.com/gcse---tectonics.php

Year eleven

We have one more lesson on managing resources. Then a revison lesson and the test after that. We will then start revision lessons. I am glad that so many of you are coming to the revision sessions as hopefully they will help you achieve the grade you are capabel of.

Mr. Still