Easter...

The Easter holiday has arrived after a second long term where everyone has worked really hard. Yesterday was a really good way to end the term...
The Junior School Assembly was a chance for people to receive prizes, half and full colours and other awards, including some Geography commendations.
It kicked off with a wonderful performance of 'Happy' from King's Voices - really talented musicians at King's.

After lunch, it was the Senior debating competition finals. There was a really high standard of discussion from all the teams involved, and also the questions that followed. Well done to Rebecca and Emily for winning the competition.

To end the day, it was over to the Cathedral for the End of Term service, and a moment of reflection in magnificent surroundings.

With the earlier pressure of the inspection of the school by ISI (the report will be coming out during the Easter holiday), this has been an amazing term. We have had the Big Outdoors Day as another major highlight, and lots of other extras, including lunchtime fun with the Geography Ambassadors.

Now, as the first day of the holiday draws to a close, I'm finishing off the second term's blog posts.

Keep an eye on the blog over the next three weeks or so, as there will be further materials added as the Geography department plans the activities for the final term of the year, and gets ready for what will be a shortish but hectic Summer term.
Plenty more to come...

See you in April, and thanks for reading...

Captain Scott's last diary entry

102 years ago today...

‘Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of our tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write any more.

R. Scott.

Last Entry

For God’s sake look after our people.’

Roses - how bad are they ?

Which is the best for the planet ?
Roses grown under the sun in Kenya then flown to the UK, or roses grown in a centrally-heated greenhouse in the Netherlands.
In the Porta Library there's a book called 'How bad are Bananas' which provides the carbon footprint of a whole range of objects, and it places a value on the carbon emissions of the two options.
This, however, is only part of the story - you also need to factor in other costs and benefits of the transport of roses across the world...

I look forward to reading the responses...

Geography Ambassadors

Another meeting with our Geography Ambassadors for the year this week.

We have a number of projects we are working on, and as the weather improves, we will be heading out more...
Wednesday was spent creating continents out of chocolate, and exploring ideas for using other sweets to represent particular geographical features...

Image: Alan Parkinson

Gaza

Music for the WALLS unit....
What do the lyrics of this song say about the conflict that involves Gaza.... ??

Perfect for Year 9 Risky Places assessment

A few useful places for those who are doing the Year 9 Risky Places assessment this week. It also connects with the Michaelmas term unit on Cities.

The first is an article in The Guardian which is part of a series on cities which face risks. A really interesting story about the red circles which are being placed on buildings in Bucharest. Which buildings have the red circles added ?

This was accompanied by another article, which was a report by insurance firm Swiss Re.
The resources that are created by Swiss Re have been really useful to me over the years, as they are closely linked with geographical processes.

The report lists the 10 top cities which are the riskiest.

10. Tehran
9. Los Angeles
8. Shanghai
7. Kolkata
6. Nagoya
5. Jakarta
4. Osaka-Kobe
3. Pearl River Delta
2. Manila
1. Tokyo-Yokahama

And finally in this trio of great articles from the Guardian comes an article on environmental health risks, which puts AIR POLLUTION right at the top.

Image: Alan Parkinson - Athens

Digimap for Schools - new addition

Digimap for Schools is a map streaming service which has featured here on the blog before.

Remember that all students at King's Ely can access these maps as we are a subscriber. Check each Geography classroom for the user name and password. It's in the Hot Board in N2, for example.

I've been involved in writing the educational materials for the service, which offers the chance to stream maps from the OS Mastermap level upwards

New features are being added to the service over time, and this week a major (and much requested) new addition was made.

This morning (24th March) a new version of Digimap for Schools was released with the exciting new addition of historic maps. These beautiful Ordnance Survey maps published between 1895 and 1899 as the Revised New Series in England and Wales and the 2nd Edition in Scotland, provide an additional rich learning resource and context for exploring how the landscape has changed in the last 120 years.

To view a historic map of your school, street or anywhere in Great Britain, use thenew historic map slider (beside the pan arrows) to fade the current OS map and reveal the historic map underneath.

For help on getting started with historic maps, take a look at the video available in theHow to view historic maps help page.

The historic maps have been scanned from original paper maps and made available courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

Go to the mapping now, and zoom into the area that you are interested in (the slider will not be active at the top levels of zoom) and then slide to the left to go back a century or more....

The importance of UK farming

Useful infographic for Year 7 from the National Farmers' Union.

Risky places...

Year 9 should remember the categories of natural hazard - there were three main types: meteorological, tectonic and geomorphic.
A few days ago was a major reminder that the last of these categories can be as devastating as the first.
A huge landslide in the US state of Washington has covered a square mile of Snohomish County with thick mud.
There are over a hundred people still missing, some of whom are feared trapped in their cars.

Was this classed as a risky place to live before the event ?
Will one single event change the classification of risk in this area for ever ?

Year 8 Assessment Sheet

Remember to keep to these criteria. The work will be marked on one of four levels to provide your mark.

Guidance Sheet Year 8 Roses Assessment

An additional Flower video...

Oserian Farm kenya, place of peace from Oserian Farm on Vimeo.

Thanks to Sam for sending through the link to this useful video for the Year 8 assessment.

Guess which city I spent the weekend in...

Look at the food miles on that...

Angela Morelli's Virtual Water

Angela Morelli's Virtual Water site has undergone a change since last time I visited and has turned into an interactive experience which animates and tells a story as you scroll down the page.
Take a look if you are doing research for the Year 7 menu task.
Also available as an app.

Year 9 Note taking proforma

Useful addition to the Research Diary which everyone has been provided with for the Year 9 Risky Places assessment.
Remember to include a full bibliography with your work.

Note Taking Proforma

Tornado Infographic

Year 9s may want to mention Tornado Alley in their risky world written pieces...
Here's a useful infographic, sourced from here, with credit to Anita Rahman

What does the world eat for breakfast ?

How accurate do you think this is ?
Can you really sum up what a country has for breakfast ?
Does everyone in your group all eat the same ?

A nice food starter....

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

What's on the TV ? A fire....

To accompany our viewing of the e-Wasteland of Agbogbloshie...

Where does your TV go when you've finished with it.... particularly the thousands of old CRT models...

TV Agbogbloshie

Naivasha and flowers...

We have started the research for the Year 8 assessment piece on Valentine's Roses. This is taken from a book by Louise Ellis.

Roses are produced in a number of countries.
The main countries that supply roses for the UK market are:
UK, Netherlands, Colombia, Kenya and Israel.

One of the areas that we have been focussing on is Kenya's Lake Naivasha.

This is an area that has been significantly changed by the flower industry.

Try to find out more about the lake, with stories like this, this one from 2007 (the lake is still around 7 years after the story, but in what state ?), or this video from 2012.

Finally, you could read this article to see how the industry is changing the lives of people who work in it.

You need to provide a balanced story with some points for and against the development of this industry in what is a relatively poor country.


Image of Naivasha above shared on Flickr under Creative Commons license by user MarcProudfoot
Many thanks for sharing...

Image of flowers by Alan Parkinson - you'll be pleased to know that they're still alive as of Sunday the 16th....

The Oceans - a common(s) resource ?

Thanks to Richard Allaway for the link to this resource.
It would be useful for Year 7s who want a particularly good argument for not serving fish in their menu that is 'good for the world'.
It talks about the depletion of fish stocks in the world's oceans, and the link with an idea called the 'tragedy of the Commons'

IN 1968 an American ecologist, Garrett Hardin, published an article entitled “The Tragedy of the Commons”. He argued that when a resource is held jointly, it is in individuals’ self-interest to deplete it, so people will tend to undermine their collective long-term interest by over-exploiting rather than protecting that asset. Such a tragedy is now unfolding, causing serious damage to a resource that covers almost half the surface of the Earth.

Image: Sally Parkinson

Lightning... getting more common...

BBC News story from yesterday had an interesting link to the work that Year 9s have been doing on risk.
It talks about the increasing risk of being struck by, or killed by, lightning.

Lightning is an atmospheric phenomenon, which means that this comes under the category of a meteorological hazard. It's also a fairly worldwide risk - are there any parts of the world where lightning doesn't happen ?
There's a UK Lightning strikes map here.

Is the increasing risk to do with more storms or just more people ?
Worth a read...

Wonderful fund-raising effort...

...and we're already well underway on the next one...
Well done to all involved.

Seasonality... good for the world ?

Year 7s are currently working on their menus that are good for the world...

One (of many) important element(s) of the menu is the seasonality of the food that is included.

For example, we are now approaching the start of British Asparagus season...

Thanks also to Reuben for the query about the 'curly things' that you find on menus...
We had a look to try to find out what they were called, and discovered that they can be found by searching for 'scroll flourish'....
Always learning :)

Pi Day Homework

Wonderful work from Orlando...

Possibly inspired by the Mission:Explore Food preps that we have been doing this term...

Could you sell these houses ?

Year 9 were challenged to write a description that could have been produced by an estate agent...

Falldown and Panic Estate Agents by GeoBlogs

10 000 viewers...

Thanks to everyone who has visited the blog so far...
Plenty more to come during the Summer term and what's left of the Lent term...

Guidance sheet for Year 9 Risky World Assessment

You really need to become familiar with this, and to ensure that you cover all aspects of the work.

Mr. Parkinson's group will be in the Porta library next week for sessions...

Risky World Assessment Year 9

5-4-3-2-1 for 8G1

Three years ago today...

Thinking About A Tsunami 3.0 from Simon Jones

Jenny Odell

Check out this excellent website which merges art and geography. You'll be aware of my interest in mapping and interesting projects and this one explores the origin of all the things that Jenny 'consumed' on the 1st of April 2013

Perfect for Geography of my Stuff investigations...

Read more about Jenny here.

300 up...

This is the 300th post on the blog since I started creating it when I got my current job teaching Geography at King's Ely school.
There's quite a lot of examples of students' work here, and some lesson materials too which you're free to share and use.
KES and KEJ students are welcome to submit work for inclusion here... there are merits available for anything that is featured.

We're coming up to 10 000 views, so thanks for reading.

Some gorgeous Cheddar work...

Remember the work we did on Cheddar Gorge last term in Year 7 ?
Here's some great pieces of work in a similar vein shared by Hannah Ahmet. Might try some of these next time round - what do you think ?

Wonderful YR7 hw on Cheddar Gorge. Leaflets and Lego and cheese model. Peer feedback also given #geog #feedback pic.twitter.com/Njjeyiutzb
— Hannah Ahmet (@Hannahahmet) March 6, 2014

A thorny issue: Valentines' or Mothers' Day Roses...

Some sites for possible research for the Year 8 Essay Task

Where to start with my research.
Guardian article ‘Growing Valentine's Day roses harming Kenya's ecological site’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/14/valentines-day-roses-kenya
Guardian article ‘How Kenya is caught on the thorns of Britain's love affair with the rose’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/feb/13/gifts.kenya
Love Kenyan Roses, BBC article
http://makewealthhistory.org/2009/02/13/the-price-of-kenyan-roses-and-the-tragedy-of-lake-naivasha/

Do Valentine’s the ‘green’ way interactive
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2009/feb/11/green-valentines-day-gifts-environmental-impact
Video link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/01/kenya-flower-industry-worker-conditions-water-tax
Make Wealth History website

http://makewealthhistory.org/2009/02/13/the-price-of-kenyan-roses-and-the-tragedy-of-lake-naivasha/

Remember that there are many other possible websites, and also other type of material.

Vary your search terms: once you are following a particular area of enquiry, you can change the words to focus on a particular aspect, or place...

Pizza...

Here's Alex's USA pizza.

What's the geographical background of the association between Pizza and the USA ?
There are some interesting links with other countries, and also with the idea of poverty and food.

Reminder to all Year 7s to keep completing missions from the Prep book this term - you have 3 weeks left to earn extra merits with your food pictures and other creative tasks...

Garlic Bread ?!

After a range of cookies in different shapes, it was interesting to see (and smell) Orlando's 'Chinese' garlic bread yesterday. A good effort !

Here's the garlic bread...

e-Waste

The Before and After of the things that you own...

E-waste by GeoBlogs

Agbogbloshie Workers' Training Manual

While watching e-Wasteland, fill in the details on this workers' training manual.

Imagine that this is like the 'official' manual that new employees get when starting work, but with a dark twist... 
A chance for focussed, but creative writing. Try to think yourself into the workers' shoes....

Agbogbloshie Workers’ Training Manual

Cleaning up the mountain...

An interesting story on the new proposals that are facing those who wish to climb the world's highest mountain: having exerted themselves and paid the fees to reach the summit, they are going to be asked to bring down some garbage with them...

Everest has been progressively littered by those who have climbed it over the decades, sometimes with the ultimate piece of litter: themselves...

For more on Everest, check out Matt Podbury's excellent Geography Pods site for a unit on the mountain.

Tsunami aftermath

Starter for Year 9 lessons next week, in advance of research and writing task....


Aftermath - The Japanese Tsunami from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

The Human footprint 'visualised'....

'Welcome to the Anthropocene' Earth Animation from Globaïa on Vimeo.

Start thinking of some ideas...

King's Ely Geographers will be having a go at this competition in the Summer Term this year.
There will be a school-based competition to identify some of the best answers, which we will then enter into the full competition....
Time to start thinking of some possibilities, and how you are going to present this - there is a range of possible formats that could be used...

YGOTY.pdf

Eyjafjallajokull.... reminder of the slides we used...

2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull revisited from TonyCassidy

What are the benefits of tectonic activity for people living in Iceland?
Do they outweigh the risks... or is it not a case of balancing out the gains and risks ???

Thanks to my colleague Tony for sharing...

Questions for Naasra - working in a graveyard for computers

We have introduced you to a place called Agbogbloshie
It is near the city of Accra on the coast of Ghana.
Naasra is one of the people who are making a living there... just.

Her picture is included in a photo story which was published in the New York Times.
The picture can't be reproduced here for copyright reasons, but you should take a look at the sequence to get an idea.

Re-watch the BBC CLICK sequence (it's only 4 minutes long) to see the impact of illegal e-waste imports on the soil, the atmosphere and the people of this place.



Also check out this Andrew McConnell photo essay and further links, many of which tell a similar (and in many ways familiar) story.

Is any of your family's old electronic waste here?
Can you be sure that it isn't?

From sea to plate...

An interesting set of photos in the Guardian follows the story of a turbot from sea to plate.

We explored the different ratings on some fish for their sustainability.
Cod has a rating of 4, which means stocks are low, and other fish could be eaten instead.
Turbot has a rating of 3 if line caught, so is a better option.

This illustrated photo story approach could be used in other projects, for example our research of our items that we have been carrying out.

Pictures by David Tonge

Hurricane Katrina

Year 9 will be exploring the fourth of their three natural hazards next week: weather hazards.

The question is: 'Why do people continue to live in areas which are at risk ?'

Hurricane Katrina is one event that we will look at briefly.
How are people affected by this particular hazard...
We will be using some materials from a Boardworks presentation - you can also find a huge range of additional material online - this was a hurricane which gained a huge amount of media coverage...

What other weather hazards are there ?

Should it be on the menu ?

An interesting article from Jay Rayner from the weekend's papers will be hitting Year 7 classrooms next week.
I have a copy of Jay's book on food, and this article is apparently a new chapter... and very much in keeping with the rest of the book.

It describes the background to the launch, by Pizza Hut of a huge pizza which contains ten cheeseburgers in its crust. The pizza contains more calories than the recommended daily intake for an adult, and also large amounts of fat. I would imagine this is not intended to be eaten by one person... though it might be...

We will explore the issues that Jay touches on in the article.
These include Food security, food miles, food waste, the role of supermarkets and the impact of our diets on health and obesity, including the rapid growth of type-2 diabetes cases in China, for example.
Should this Pizza be on the menu ?
You can help decide...

Should it or shouldn’t it be on the menu by GeoBlogs

Tetley Tea Bags... another story to follow..

As we've gone through the term, we've been uncovering the stories of the foods that we eat and the products that we buy.

Tetley Teabags can now be added to the list of products that have a story worth exploring it seems, with allegations of child labour and low wages in some of the plantations supplying the tea for the bags.

A Telegraph article for you to read with further information.

The Story of my.....

Sheet to help research your chosen item...

Follow the story from the origin to its creation.... and then beyond....

The story of my... by GeoBlogs

Young Geographer of the Year Competition

Look out for details on how King's pupils are going to be entering this competition...
Geography Ambassadors will certainly be involved...

The theme for this year's competition, run by the Royal Geographical Society, in association with 'Geographical' magazine is now available:

How can Geography help you ?

Details of how to enter are HERE

Pupils are asked to relate the value of geography to a number of different settings. The significance of both human and physical geography could be considered at a variety of different levels.  Pupils should demonstrate how geography can support their everyday lives, improve their understanding of the world’s people, places and environments and help to prepare them for life beyond school.

We want to hear how geography, be it the knowledge young people learn, the understanding they gain, or skills they develop, helps them in different aspects of their lives. This help might be at many different levels:

• At school
• At home with your family
• When you travel and go on holidays
• When you think about current events at home or abroad
• Whether it will help you with further study, perhaps at university
• Or lead to a particular career you would like to do

We are interested in answers which might look at both the serious and the fun sides of geography and particularly want to see how entrants can relate the value of geography to a number of different settings.  We welcome applications which, as appropriate for the age range, recognise the value of both human and physical geography. 

For the all categories appropriate and accurate geographical vocabulary should be used and we will provide additional credit for entries which use primary data collected by the student, alongside
secondary data.

The competition has four categories: 9-11(Key Stage Two), 11-14 (Key Stage Three), 14-16 (GCSE) and 16-18 (A Level students).

If you're a new teacher, you can also submit some resources on the same theme for the Rex Walford Award.
Download guidelines here (PDF)

Eyjafjallajokull....

How do you say it ?
Here's the video that refused to play this morning... on how to pronounce it...



Thanks to Tony Cassidy for the use of some resources that he created today.
You can access them by going HERE.

There's a 3D model that some groups have printed off and made as well.

Here's a rather good ITN video here from a helicopter... risky flight...

2nd week of Fairtrade Fortnight..

A well written piece in the Guardian's MONEY BLOG on the cost of buying Fairtrade...

Also a tweet related to our banana work...

As a nation we'll eat around 13.7 million bananas today! Support the farmers who grow them http://t.co/5RCTNBszsw & RT
— Fairtrade Foundation (@FairtradeUK) March 3, 2014

Flipped Classroom and School on Cloud

This is one for the teachers from King's and other schools who are reading this post....

I'm heading to Athens in 3 weeks time to lead a workshop on the cloud and apps...
It's slowly taking shape, and I'm using inspiration from a range of colleagues both real and virtual. I got a few further ideas over the weekend, from a conference that was taking place in Dublin, and also from some Australian colleagues...

How are you using Cloud-based applications in your teaching ?

I'd be happy to receive any suggestions for other great Cloud-based resources that you think I should know about, particularly if you've used them in the classroom...

Any uses of Google Docs, Linoit, Triptico Cloud etc. ??

Remember our risky cliff viewer picture...

The risk just got bigger...

Same location as the picture of the two women leaning over the cliff at Birling Gap.

Image: Becky Pook - taken 1st March 2013 - shared via Twitter

A recipe for....

Nice work by a student of Paul Berry.

What else could we write a recipe for ?

Ready, steady.... cook...

There is no 'away'...

Where does your e-Waste go when you've finished with it...
The likely answer is that it makes a further journey.. probably to a place like Agbogbloshie.
There's a range of articles on the rubbish dump near Accra in Ghana, where a lot of items from the UK are recycled.
Also check out this clip from the BBC's Click programme:

Do French horns come from France ?

As part of the 'Geography of my Stuff' unit, we're going to be investigating the story of objects that are important to us.

Rebecca's item is her French horn... but where do they come from ?

What questions do we need to answer to unpick the story of the item...

Where was the ore for the brass mined ?
Which metals are involved ?
Who shaped the metal - a person or a machine ?
Where was the instrument designed ?
Which companies manufacture and market these instruments and where are they based ?

These are just the starting point for our research....
What other questions can you think of, and which item are you going to investigate ?