Earth Day 2009

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...

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?

I think this is very cool!

Mr. Still

Website update!!

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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.....

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

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!

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?

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.....

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...

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!!

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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....

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...

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...

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:

1. What is sustainable development?
2. Renewable and Non-renewable resources
3. What is Global Warming?
4. The effects of Global Warming?
5. 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

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