Which trend?

Listen to the rain...

Summer podcast project coming up... Here's an example of one...






Read the book too...

Year 12 Revision tweets and materials

As we move into the final 7 weeks before the exams, there will be regular tweets on the @KingsElyGeog twitter feed, and also posts here...

Here, for example, is the Pinterest board of stimulus images and infographics.


Follow GeoBlogs's board Population 2015-16 on Pinterest.

Discussion prompt for Year 8

Used with NPR Makes a T Shirt resource

Earth Hour

Did you take part in Earth Hour? Let us have a photo and we'll give you some merits...

Snowdonia Images

Rhyd-y-Creuau

Last weekend was the Year 12 fieldtrip to Snowdonia
We headed for Rhyd-y-Creuau Field Studies Centre.

There's a virtual tour here

Coming up over the next few weeks will be a series of posts with resources and information regarding the field trip and the reasons why we visited Wales...
This will follow up some of the Skills ready for Paper 2 of the AS that we are preparing students for...

Image: Alan Parkinson - click for biggery...

The 2 Euro T-Shirt

Will be using this once again next week as it's Fashion Revolution week....

Tsunami in Japan - 5 years on

A very useful site which looks at the reconstruction of areas affected by the tsunami of 2011

Year 7 Food Waste

Year 7 are currently exploring this idea…
I had 2 students come up with the great idea to feed people before their presentation, and then reveal that what they'd just eaten was made from out of date food.

Mia and Georgie make a point on food waste by feeding us... pic.twitter.com/AsOpc2ZrdA

— KingsElyGeographers (@KingsElyGeog) March 14, 2016

Coming next: the 100 mile menu... 

Healthy options for Cuba

Year 12 have been exploring a range of health related topics in recent weeks. We still have a few months to go before Study leave, and have some topics to cover.

Some useful websites have been shared.

We are going to study Cuba.
We will also use Michael Moore's film 'Sicko'

And here is a very useful Slideshare resource for your revision (or as a way of introducing some of the key themes) - shared by Keith Phipps.

Geography of Health from Keith Phipps

McDonalds - glocalisation of food...

Thanks to Miss Stockings for the lead to another McDonalds resource for glocalisation.

Richard Allaway has previously shared images of meals that he has eaten in various McDonalds restaurants he has eaten in where the standard menu that is familiar the world over (the globalised version) is adapted for the local market (glocalisation) 

According to this very useful Open University page, glocalisation (which Blogger 'helpfully' keeps correcting to globalisation whenever I type it) is related to the following:

‘Glocalisation’ combines the words ‘globalisation’ and ‘localisation’ to emphasise the idea that a global product or service is more likely to succeed if it is adapted to the specific requirements of local practices and cultural expectations. The term started to appear in academic circles in the late 1980s, when Japanese economists used it in articles published by the Harvard Business Review. For the sociologist Roland Robertson, who is often credited with popularising the term: ‘glocalization means the simultaneity – the co-presence – of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies’ (Robertson, 1997, p. 4).‘Glocalisation’ combines the words ‘globalisation’ and ‘localisation’ to emphasise the idea that a global product or service is more likely to succeed if it is adapted to the specific requirements of local practices and cultural expectations. The term started to appear in academic circles in the late 1980s, when Japanese economists used it in articles published by the Harvard Business Review. For the sociologist Roland Robertson, who is often credited with popularising the term: ‘glocalization means the simultaneity – the co-presence – of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies’ (Robertson, 1997, p. 4).

The resource is a food blog called Travelling McDs, which is written by James McGowan who records the meals eaten on his global travels, which are quite extensive.
He has eaten a number of meals which are adapted for the local palate, or to celebrate some aspect of the local culture.
Worth checking out - there are plenty of alternatives to the Big Mac here...

Image: McDonalds at Disneyland Paris - image by Alan Parkinson

King's Ely Seismometer

After a period of testing and calibration, the seismometer which has been installed outside the Physics lab is now part of the British Geological Survey UK Schools and IRIS global seismic networks, and has already picked up the seismic waves from a number of large earthquakes.

There is now a page on the King's Ely website which you can visit HERE.
This will show an updated version of the image below which is a screen grab and is not a live trace.

EasyFood Store

EasyJet was founded by Sir Stelios Haji-Iannou, and the concept of 'no frills' caught on. I prefer EasyJet to some of the other budget airlines, although my next few flights are not with EasyJet as it happens.
Now the concept has been expanded to food. EasyFoodStore is open in North London and has been for a month now, during which time it's had a lot of publicity, and has also changed the way that it operates and prices its food in various ways. Year 7 students considered a few key questions relating to the store, which you will be provided with in lessons. Joanna Blythman's article will challenge you a little when reading it, but persist because it provides a good critique of some of the issues surrounding the concept of selling food so cheap. It ends with a good George Orwell quote:

“We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine gun.”

Coming soon to a classroom near you...

Sample material for @OCR_Geography GCSE B spec now available! https://t.co/94MPJM8p28 #geographyteacher Save 20% with code WK0003733

— Hodder Geography (@HodderGeography) March 1, 2016

 co-written by Mr. Parkinson