OneSoil

One for those teaching about food and farming.

An AI generated map of crops being grown in the USA and Europe.

The tragedy of the loss of Erasmus

As a geographer, it's clear that I would only ever see leaving the EU as a terrible decision. 

No country prospers without connections with others in the modern day. Great Britain may have prospered in the past by stealing the resources of other countries and colonising them, but that's no longer an option that sits well with the international community. Interdependence trumps independence.

One of the real tragedies of the proposed deal (which has not been accepted yet by the UK Parliament) is the loss of the ERASMUS scheme. The school where I teach has had significant involvement in ERASMUS, with seven projects, including three I have been personally involved in co-ordinating on behalf of the school. These have involved hundreds of students in visiting a range of countries including Spain, Sweden and Reunion Island (France), and connections being made with academics and colleagues in other schools and universities in a range of European countries.

Prior to that, I also took part in a great many ERASMUS funded projects which took me all over Europe and connected me with hundreds of inspirational colleagues: students, teachers and academic geographers. I was able to work numerous times at Salzburg University, learn from Finnish colleagues about their work in the outdoors, discuss curriculum development with Turkish colleagues in the heat of the Alentejo and walk on an ice-bound lake on the Slovenian border. 

My colleague Esmeralda Salgado (MFL colleagues should follow her on Twitter here) has shared her own ideas of why ERASMUS needs to be retained. A petition has also been set up and is waiting for approval before being available for signing - hopefully before the end of the year.

Read Esmeralda's blog post on the loss of ERASMUS here.

Here's Julian Baggini on his own experiences of ERASMUS.

Thanks to Covid, the neighbours haven’t been round for Christmas this year, and thanks to Brexit, in future we’ll be spending less quality time with our European neighbours too. The walls are going up again and no amount of trade windows can compensate for that.

From what I've seen, the proposed Turing Scheme replacement will not be a replacement. It doesn't include the same features as the original in any way, or focus on all the Key Actions that ERASMUS does, or require reciprocal travel, or target the same people...

I will enjoy the remaining years which are left on the ERASMUS projects we are currently completing - albeit virtually - and fingers crossed for our final application on a project which developed from the Covid-19 pandemic and responses to it. I also hope to continue to be involved, as an external consultant, on future projects, and perhaps there will be some opportunities to be involved on behalf of other European countries.

There will be other unintended negative consequences doubtless. (When you read (and I checked) that the partly cut and pasted Brexit UK-EU deal references Netscape Communicator 4.0 as a suitable web application. It was discontinued in 2006.

 Here's another:

Thanks to #Brexit, the Falklands now faces a 6-18% tariff on EU-bound exports:
—‘The situation for the Falkland Islands is crucial since fisheries contribute some 90% of exports sent to the EU, 40% of GDP and some 60% of the treasury's revenue.’ https://t.co/3CJv8WneL2 https://t.co/uhxG3umLQZ

— Alasdair Pinkerton (@AlPinkerton) December 28, 2020

Here's Professor Alison Phipps from the University of Glasgow:

"Erasmus: the life-mind-heart expanding glorious adventure into freedom, responsibility and myriad ways of knowing and speaking the world. Wanton theft of this peacemongering freedom isn’t so much a deal as a cultural mugging of young people. Cruelty is the point again.” 

Flood warnings on the Ouse Washes

 

View more gauges on Gaugemap.

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading...

Taking the traditional Christmas blogging break.

I shall be back early in 2021. This will involve me in developing some remote learning options for a short while at least, because of the requirement to introduce testing into schools - I shall refrain from commenting on that...

Wishing everyone who has read this blog during 2020 a peaceful break, and a slightly improved 2021 over the ups and downs of the one that is ending...

Image: Ronald Lampitt

Sea defence update

Another update - this time for Y7

We've completed the installation of sea defences in Withernsea on behalf of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, helping to protect the town from the threat of coastal erosion. Look at the difference between the before and after photos!

Read more: https://t.co/Eq3f0Vy4o0 pic.twitter.com/P9NLdywk4G

— BAM Nuttall (@BAMNuttall) December 17, 2020

Ella and air pollution

For those Year 9s who have been following this story as we suggested. The sad story of Ella and her parents' fight to have air pollution added as the cause of her death.

This Guardian article outlines the outcome.

Remember that your teachers will have given you a date by which we would like you to submit your final reports. Data and graphs have been provided based on the 300 data points that Y9 cumulatively collected.

No-kill lab-grown meat

Available for the first time.

Cultured in bioreactors... 

 

A68a on collision course with South Georgia

As mentioned previously, Mr. Parkinson wrote these resources for the South Georgia Heritage Trust which were published earlier in the year.

The island is in the news at the moment, as the huge iceberg which broke off the Larsen C ice shelf in 2017.

It is now only about 50km from the island.

Fens Biosphere Project

 

I am currently putting together an updated unit on the Fenland landscape.

Elements of this will be used in 2021.

This image here is of the 'famous' leaning tree in Ely which I've photographed many times over the years.

The Fens Biosphere project has received funding to support its work and has a new website. It aims to have the Fens declared as a biosphere.

A Biosphere is a special status awarded by UNESCO to a unique and valuable landscape. Biospheres connect people, economies and nature to create a secure future we can all look forward to. They are about developing new ways of living, exploring new ideas and working together.

The key characteristics of the area are suggested below:

The geographical boundaries of the Fens Biosphere have been built around the following key aspects of this landscape:

The peat soils, the ‘black gold’ of the Fens. Within the proposed boundary the dominant soil type is peat, intermixed with silt soils. Peat has become a scarce resource due to ongoing peat loss through shrinkage and fen blows caused largely by intense drainage and farming regimes; there is an urgent need to preserve remaining peat soils.

An important food-producing area dominated by Grade 1 and grade 2 soils; farming and food production are at the beating heart of the Fens. There is a need to ensure farming and the food sector remains vital to the local economy.

Extensive ditch and waterways network: Ditches, the ‘upside-down hedgerows’ of the Fens are renowned for their high biodiversity value, the area being a stronghold for many rare species such as spined loach and water voles.

Internationally important lowland wetland habitats (core areas on map), including Nene Washes, Ouse Washes, Wicken Fen and Holme Fen.

Multiple wetland vision projects, such as the Wildlife Trust’s Great Fen Vision, the National Trust’s Wicken Fen Vision and the expanding RSPB Ouse Fen reedbeds.

Several partnership-led initiatives for landscape-scale conservation in the arable landscape, including the Ely Nature-Friendly Farming Zone and Thorney Nature-Friendly Farming Zone.

Big urban populations acting as ‘gateways’ to the more rural Fens landscape: Cambridge; Peterborough; Wisbech

Historic market towns / small cities in the heart of the area: Ely; March; Chatteris; Whittlesey and Fen Edge towns that will feature in the transition zone such as St Ives, Soham, Ramsey and Downham Market. 

Cutting-edge R&D, digital industries and innovative high-tech and agri-tech businesses – some of which also operate in the Fens – in Cambridge, the internationally recognised centre of academic research, and the Cambridge – Peterborough enterprise zone. 

The number of academic and businesses dealing with sustainability, climate change and agri-tech developments is vast and still growing.

Air Quality Fieldwork

Data collected on the 4th of December.

Air Quality

Year 9 are on to the Air Quality fieldwork investigation task.

This involves them in collecting data using a hand held device similar to the ones here. They were purchased on eBay, and seem to be reasonably accurate.

There are also several sources of secondary data as well as the primary data we are collecting, using Survey123 and ArcGIS Online.

Winterton Beach Cafe

Sharing the story of this cafe today with students. 

Sadly, it will be demolished tomorrow, but you can see in this dune footage just how much sand was removed by recent surges.

Gapminder - time to upgrade your knowledge

I've been answering a few emails for a while now as part of a group of Beta testers for new Gapminder output, and you can now test your knowledge with the new Upgrader for the original Gapminder ignorance test. 

Here's Ola Rosling announcing it.

Introducing the WORLDVIEW UPGRADER! Gapminder's new FREE service for helping replace misconceptions with facts.https://t.co/GGCrfOGPiG#gapminder #worldviewupgrader pic.twitter.com/eZ6whaRsnj

— Gapminder (@Gapminder) November 30, 2020

I will be using this with my Year 8 group later in the week.

Here's my certificate - proof that my knowledge has been upgraded.

Give it a go, or set it as a homework.

High St Shops

Ely Standard content

Special edition on 21st of October looked at how shops were coping with the pandemic.

It focussed on the Independent Shops which make Ely classed as a Border Town according to the survey that we carried out.

Gibbs of Ely

Video

Louise Smith, manageress, said: “It was challenging but we were fortunate to still have the back to school trade which has kept us going and will see us through the winter”.

The Fudge Company

Video

Ely also featured on ITV News Anglia this week, looking at some of the businesses that had opened up, including the new Bagel Cafe in what used to be 'Tea for Two'.

Keep an eye on further changes on the High Street.

America - how did it become a superpower?

A new series starting this Saturday on Channel 5 will provide the answer.

Geography of Stuff - e-Waste

Say miaow to Hypnocat...

A piece in the BBC News caught my eye today - always working even over half term of course. Geography never stops after all.

It talked about giving electronic items a repairability rating.

The article also talked about the WEEE directive which we cover when we do our unit on the Geography of Stuff in Year 8 in the Lent Term.

Here's a graphic from the piece looking at what electrical items we throw away the most.

Source: Southampton University - copyright BBC News.

The article uses this graphic from Southampton University.

Last year, the EU adopted Right to Repair standards, which mean that from 2021 firms will have to make appliances longer-lasting and supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.

The UK government has pledged to "match and even exceed EU eco-product regulations" in the post-Brexit era. 

That makes me laugh frankly, when you read the UN report on WEEE and who produces the most.

The article introduced me to Material Focus.

In the UK, the WEEE sector body, Material Focus – formerly the WEEE Fund with funds via the compliance fee part of the UK’s WEEE system, has also carried out recent research. It claimed that the UK economy could save £370 million if all the old small electricals that are “either thrown away or hoarded” were recycled.

They are behind a campaign to Recycle your Electricals, which uses Hypnocat...

This makes the point that there are hundreds of millions of pounds worth of unused electrical items sitting in sheds, garages, attics and under sink cupboards in the kitchens of the UK. The manufacture of these involves the use of raw materials which are in limited supply.

Drawdown in King's Lynn

 Coming to King's Lynn for the next month or so...

This consists of projections which will be shone onto 4 key buildings in the town between next weekend and the end of November. I shall be heading over once the clocks have gone back to take a look at this...

More details here.

The impact of the 2020 national lock-down has shown us that change can be made and some positive effects have been experienced including people commuting less and becoming more aware of their environment… Can this be the beginning of an influential change? The work aims not to emphasize the problems of climate change, but highlight some of the solutions and provide empowerment through awareness.

The project draws on research from Drawdown, a 2017 comprehensive plan to reverse global warming, developed by an international coalition of leading researchers, scientists and policymakers. Their report ranks the top 100 ways to reverse climate change, with #1 being the most effective in sequestering carbon from the environment. To create DRAWDOWN, Sheppee has focused on the most relevant subjects for King’s Lynn, tailoring the solutions to the locality. Read our interview with Sheppee to find out more about what inspired this project.

You can visit the project by touring the sites listed below after dark until 10pm daily, from Sunday 25 October until Tuesday 24 November. We recommend that visitors bring a torch and please do follow the latest social distancing guidelines whilst enjoying the project. Further information about the ranked solutions highlighted at each site will be released daily on social media throughout the project.

• Greyfriars Tower focuses on solutions related to changes to our energy use.
• King’s Lynn Minster considers solutions around reducing emissions.
• The Custom House highlights solutions for water usage and protection.
• St Nicholas’ Chapel relates to solutions for afforestation, restoring our green environment. 

DRAWDOWN is the first of four climate related artworks by Collusion that will be delivered between October 2020 and May 2022 as part of the GAME ON series. GAME ON aims to establish King’s Lynn as a national centre of excellence for cultural innovation in interactive, town-scale projection-based artworks, supported by a networked digital cluster of specialist creative businesses.

The book is worth buying as well.

Worth going to see from Ely I reckon....

Ely Standard

Ely Standard has a special feature on the High Street this week and the way that independent shops are thriving.

There are interviews with the owners of some of the shops that we investigated last week.

The Health of the High Street

At the moment we are in our phase of going out to the High Street in Ely on fieldwork with Y7 students to start the year off with some fieldwork. This has been made possible despite the pandemic through careful planning, small groups, briefing on distancing and fairly quiet visiting times, although Friday was getting quite busy.

Students are also asked to wear masks.

This is a sign that I came across while in Bury St Edmunds last week.

It's an important message for all those who want to buy anything currently. The big multinationsals and Amazon will still be around after the pandemic is over, but will the High St?

Also saw a signed copy of David Attenborough's new book in Topping Books' window.

The address at the bottom goes to the Totally Locally campaign, and provides a range of resources, including a toolkit for those towns that join the movement, and try to encourage people to spend a fiver in their local High St rather than online...

Antarctica Day - flag design competition

This is on the 1st of December each year.

Each year, the UK Polar Network has a competition.

On December 1st 1959, 12 nations signed the Antarctic Treaty, a document declaring that Antarctica would be off limits to military activity and setting it aside as a place for peace and scientific discoveries. Since 2010, December 1st has been celebrated each year to mark this milestone of peace and to inspire future decisions. We hope to extend the celebrations worldwide through our Antarctic Flags initiative, giving new generations the opportunity to learn about the Antarctic Treaty and to share, interpret and cherish the values associated with Antarctica.

Register by October 31st to take part, and send your flag to a scientist in Antarctica.

An opportunity for other geography teachers

 

Some people ask from time to time what they can do to get more involved with the Geographical Association -  other than the obvious way which is to become a member in the first place.

We have the Phase committees (including Early Years, Secondary and Post-16/HE) and other Special Interest Groups (SIGs) which have a changing roster of members and activity.

There are opportunities to write for the GA's journals: articles and contributions can take various forms and be of differing lengths.

Teachers can also apply to be Consultants to the GA, and work comes through fairly regularly. I've just completed some work with a game design company for example.

There is now a chance for you to put yourself forward to get involved with the journey that I am currently involved with, and apply to be a future President of the Geographical Association. There are also positions for trustees and governing body roles.

Details are published in the GA magazine for Autumn 2020.

OS Maps - a few bits from this week

 OS Maps

Features of OS Maps from GeoBlogs

And a video with Dan Raven Ellison

Life Expectancy Calculator from the ONS

One for the Y8s to consider alongside their work, and also for GCSE folks - how has this changed in the last few years.

Maersk and Containerisation

 For Y8

EU Trade with the UK

Working on a new resource today.

A couple of ONS visualisation tools to see what we trade with the rest of the world:

Open Day

KEJ Geography from Alan Parkinson on Vimeo.

Open Morning Video

Cheeseburger Infographic

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society has released a new infographic and resource exploring the water footprint of a cheeseburger. It can be downloaded as a PDF.

I will make use of this later in the year I think, and it also would make a good large poster if printed.

'Why Study Geography?' - coming soon

The latest book by Mr. Parkinson has almost been prepared for publication and will be arriving on book shelves next month... Here are the details...

Geography is the big-picture subject for our times. It encompasses subjects ranging from the microscopic – how soils form, and how those soils can be protected and managed well to grow food, for example – through to things as large-scale as the future trajectory of megacities and the threat of ever more warming of the planet. Alan Parkinson’s guide clearly and carefully explains why geography is worthy of study, at GCSE, at A level and at university. It is bang up to date. Students, their teachers and parents are all likely to find it essential reading.

Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford

Just ahead of lockdown, I met with Richard and Sam from the London Publishing Partnership about writing a book in a series explaining why students should teach different curriculum subjects. The History book is already published, and others are on the way. The lockdown gave me the time and the inclination to meet a quite tight deadline, and after several drafts, hundreds of edits and tweaks and rewriting, the book is now about to go to print, and is set for publication in October.

The book explores why the study of geography is so important. It looks at how the subject developed, links between school and academic geography, how to apply to study geography at university, the different types of courses, how to make the most of your time at university, what careers geography can lead you into and with case studies of individuals who studied geography and who went on to do interesting things with it, and others who came into a geographical field later. There are also suggestions for how you can develop your geographical thinking, and make the most of your powerful geographical knowledge. Thanks to those people who kindly contributed to the creation of this book, which helped me shape my own thoughts, and has also led to me starting to write another related book to connect with my planned GA Presidential theme for 2021-22.

I think this book would be helpful for several different groups of people:

- for teachers of Geography, who are keen to find out about how the subject developed, and what contemporary geography courses look like
- for parents of students who have shown an interest in studying geography at HE or undergraduate level
- for those staff whose role includes preparing students for UCAS choices and university applications, or writing EPQs and related activities to support a move into academic study
- for those staff who are involved in helping with careers options for those who may want to secure a job or internship or apprenticeship instead of
- for those who simply want a few copies of a book around the place to direct those who they know might go on to study Geography at university to read to find out more...
- as a gift for Y13s who do particularly well, and head off to university (hopefully to study geography)

Please let your UCAS / Careers teachers at school know about the book - great for Options evening as well to have around to show the value of the subject to so many careers.

It would be great to get this book into as many schools as possible. Although the book is UK-focussed, it would also be useful to those in the USA and other countries, including in International Schools and those that follow UK-based exam specifications.

Go HERE to pre-order your copy and if you think you might want a small (or large) order o multiple copies then let me know and I'll put you in touch with the publishers to see whether we can arrange a discount.

And why the beans on the front cover? If you get a copy you'll find out why :)

Heading back to school...

Just a taster of what we've been missing since March...

A Day in the Life of a King's Ely Student from King's Ely on Vimeo.

Arnhem changing to prepare for global warming

Arnhem in the Netherlands has realised that it will need to change to prepare the city and its inhabitants for the impact of global warming...

This article outlines some of those changes.

Fish and Chips.... not so British

Thanks to Follow the Things for the tipoff to this site and initiative. It was National Fish and Chips Day on Friday... I celebrated by having them twice...

And a slightly longer version of the same story:

Coasts Virtual Tour - preparing for the new academic year

New on InternetGeography is a virtual tour of Flamborough Head.

I will be making use of this to explore the coast and go along with the DME that I also use from Internet Geography.

ArcGIS Indicators of the Planet

An excellent resource which we shall be referring to during lessons and also form time.

ONS Household Spending Data

One for the Geography of Stuff unit.
This visualisation from ONS explores what people spend their money on.

Webinar on the drainage of the Fens

Free to register on Eventbrite.





Today's Fenland landscape is essentially the creation of the past 500 years, although some evidence of Roman and early medieval attempts at reclamation can still be seen. This talk explores how successive generations have tried to secure the Fens against flooding, from Vermuyden's work in the 17th century through windmill drainage in the18th, steam in the 19th to diesel and electric power in the 20th, and then the major works that followed the 1947 floods.

Throughout much of the period drainage was further handicapped by administrative confusion and conflicts of interest, for example between drainage and navigation and the hostility of King's Lynn towards inland works that could adversely affect the harbour and the Ouse outfall into the Wash.

This outwardly simple landscape of straight lines and great skies has a hidden complexity: every dyke, field, road, railway and building has a rich story to tell, if you know where to look.

Build the Fens in Lego - competition opportunity

Hans on the wall...

Ready for the start of new term.


Hans Rosling is up on the wall with the Factfulness poster next to him.

Made with the Rasterbator website.

This will make a 6 x 3 grid - A4 or A4 portrait. Use the trim lines to trim the pages to overlap and line up each page. Work out your size first...

Gapminder Wall Chart from GeoBlogs

Always on the look out...

..for drone filming in and around Ely to see the city in a different way.
This is excellent

The power of Geography, and why it is needed

Essential viewing...

Ernest Journal

We're big fans of Ernest Journal. A crowd funding campaign to find the 10th issue has been launched.
Details here.

Art and the Fens

Will be taking a look at this and seeing which of the activities we could perhaps adopt for our geographical exploration of the Fens, which I am going to beef up a little in the new academic year so that we ground our work in the local area before extending further.
Kaitlin Ferguson is the artist here.

Geography of my Stuff

Year 8 will remember me talking at length about consumption and the importance we place on it.

Here's an extract from a speech made by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak on the 8th of July.

"Our economy relies on consumption, especially social consumption...

The pubs, cafes, restaurants, hotels and B&Bs that bring life to our villages, towns and cities.

Taken together these sectors employ over 2 million people disproportionately younger, women and people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.

And many rural and coastal communities rely on these industries.

80% of hospitality firms temporarily stopped trading in April and 1.4 million workers have been furloughed, the highest proportions of any sector.

So the best jobs programme we can do is to restart these sectors and get our pubs, restaurants, cafés and B&Bs bustling again.

I know people are cautious about going out.

But we wouldn’t have lifted the restrictions if we didn’t think we could do so safely.

And I’ve seen in the last few weeks how hard businesses are working to make their premises safe.

And if we follow the guidance, and respect what they ask us to do, we can all enjoy summer safely.

In turn, we need to give these businesses the confidence to know that if they open up, invest in making their premises safe, and protect jobs, demand will be there, and be there quickly.

So today, I’m announcing two new measures to get these sectors moving and protect jobs.

First, at the moment, VAT on hospitality and tourism is charged at 20%.

So I’ve decided, for the next six months, to cut VAT on food, accommodation and attractions.

Eat-in or hot takeaway food from restaurants, cafes and pubs;

Accommodation in hotels, B&Bs, campsites and caravan sites;

Attractions like cinemas, theme parks and zoos;

All these and more will see VAT reduced from next Wednesday until January 12th, from 20% to 5%.

This is a £4 billion catalyst for the hospitality and tourism sectors, benefiting over 150,000 businesses, and consumers everywhere - all helping to protect 2.4 million jobs.

But, Mr Speaker, we will go further.

The final measure I’m announcing today has never been tried in the UK before.

This moment is unique. We need to be creative.

So, to get customers back into restaurants, cafes and pubs, and protect the 1.8 million people who work in them…

…I can announce today that, for the month of August, we will give everyone in the country an Eat Out to Help Out discount.

Meals eaten at any participating business, Monday to Wednesday, will be 50% off, up to a maximum discount of £10 per head for everyone, including children.

Businesses will need to register, and can do so through a simple website, open next Monday.

Each week in August, businesses can then claim the money back, with the funds in their bank account within 5 working days.

1.8 million people work in this industry. They need our support and with this measure we can all eat out to help out.

How does this connect with what we explored about the Story of Stuff, consumption habits and the reasons why we buy what we do...

Ely - 1943

An excellent British Pathe film from 1943
Some familiar locations which look just the same now in and around the school.
We will be exploring ideas of place and changing place in the new academic year when we are able to get back into the classroom.

Places of Meaning - Departmental Photo Competition

Congratulations to all who entered our competition on the theme 'Places of Meaning' - images plus text to identify places with additional meaning during lockdown... pic.twitter.com/rA7Gbe3SID

— KingsElyGeographers (@KingsElyGeog) July 1, 2020

The new urgency of Climate Change - Al Gore

Important for our geographers to watch this.

"Getting informed consent from 7.8 billion people who have no voice and no say, who are subject to the potentially catastrophic consequences of this wackadoodle proposal that somebody comes up with to try to rearrange the entire Earth's atmosphere and hope and pretend that it's going to cancel out the fact that we're putting 152 million tons of heat trapping manmade global warming pollution into the sky, every day that's what's really insane."

New from TED for June 2020.

An important interview with Al Gore.

I remember 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

The coronavirus brought much of the world to a standstill, dropping carbon emissions by five percent. Al Gore says keeping those rates down is now up to us. In this illuminating interview, he discusses how the steadily declining cost of wind and solar energy will transform manufacturing, transportation and agriculture, offer a cheaper alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear energy and create millions of new jobs. Stay tuned for a lively debate about geoengineering and hear Gore's thoughts about how humanity can create a clean, prosperous future through a focused global effort and a generation of young people committed to change. 

(This virtual conversation, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson, was recorded June 23, 2020.)

Celebrate the Fens - Photo of the Fens near Manea

Taken from the train - click for full size. One of my favourite images and was used as the basis for a book cover by a publisher.
One of the images we shared as part of the Celebrate the Fens Day last weekend.

Digimap for Schools

Don't forget that there is a help area for Digimap for Schools.
For example, if you want to add labels or text boxes here are the instructions.

Year 9 Revision

National Park City challenge

Thanks to Kate Stockings who kindly got involved in a challenge that we set our Y7 students earlier in the term by recording a short video for us.
I noticed a section in a piece she wrote about wanting to become a London National Park City Ranger.

“I’ve learnt that the city is vast and yet intricate; it is open and yet increasingly private and it is friendly and yet intimidating. To navigate our city, you thus need knowledge. You need knowledge of where you can go freely, of where you can go safely and of where you can go to explore, to ramble, to learn and to be inspired. It is through giving people this knowledge, which I’m hoping to do as a London National Park City Ranger, that we will achieve the goal of making the city greener, wilder and more beautiful.” 



Kate has now shared the work on her blog so that others might be able to use the idea.

Here are the further questions that I challenged students with.

London Questions from GeoBlogs

Year 9: Keeling Curve Animation

Watch this as part of your revision

Sheringham Storms 2013

Dylan is in Year 5, but I am looking forward to seeing his geographical skills develop as he moves up through the school. Here's a video he made, which was shared on the school's social media feeds today. Top work Dylan!

Dylan - Year 5 - 2013 Sheringham Storm News Report from King's Ely on Vimeo.

Mapping this Moment

Nate Padavick's Mapping this Moment has been mentioned before. It is one of the extension opportunities on Firefly.
Well done to Aoife for sharing her map of her travels in Rome. I love it.

Temperature Anomalies

Been exploring these with my Year 9 group this week as part of our work unpicking difference between weather and climate. We explored how climate can be represented and showed them some excellent graphs which had been produced and shared by Weatherquest and other organisations.

Today there is a further reminder of just how anomalous that temperature anomaly is, with Siberia experiencing a veritable heatwave.

https://t.co/jH1kYY0rGy

— IpswichGeog (@IpswichGeog) May 23, 2020

Thought for the Day

"I think you can travel less and travel better.

If we have to be confined to travelling in the UK, it's not a bad place to travel - there are all sorts of wonderful places - and different landscapes and different sorts of atmospheres - Northern Scotland, Cornwall.

Go to places and learn more about them, enjoy them more….

Look more carefully

Look more thoroughly

Learn to enjoy your own country.”

Michael Palin, 3rd May 2020

Slow Ways - logo design competition

Earlier in the year, I joined the team of people who has been creating Slow Ways routes: walking routes to connect up the UK's towns and cities and other large population centres. These follow public footpaths and bridle ways and avoid busy roads.

The idea is another initiative from Daniel Raven Ellison.
The project now needs a logo.

The Slow Ways will be a network of 7,000 walking routes that connect Great Britain’s towns and cities as well as thousands of villages. People will be able to use the Slow Ways to walk between neighbouring settlements or daisy-chain them for longer journeys.
The first draft of the Slow Ways routes have been imagined and created in lockdown by hundreds of volunteers from across the country.
We now need a strong visual identity for the Slow Ways. In the future this might be used on signage, waymarkers and maps. For now, it will be used on the website we are creating as well as t-shirts, posters and in other places.
That’s why we’re organising this competition. We’re looking for a strong symbol for the Slow Ways that will give them a clear identity. You can see some examples of symbols used on trails around the world on this Twitter thread.

We are looking for a symbol that:

• is a snail or snail inspired
• is clear, bold and timeless
• can be stencilled
• can be easily adapted to one colour, but you can be as colourful as you like
• would look good big or small, on a map, waymarker, sign, pin-badge, t-shirt or poster

A snail was suggested by a Slow Ways volunteer and this has turned into a much-loved idea. Snails are slow and humble explorers that carry their homes on their backs, leave trails, are found nearly everywhere and, unknowingly, will actually share the Slow Ways with us. They also have a very distinctive and identifiable shape.

As well as having their symbol used for the Slow Ways, there will be a prize of £250 for the artist(s) of the winning design.

A judging panel will shortlist designs and pick the final winner. The panel will be made up of volunteers who have helped to draft the Slow Ways network and relevant experts.

Why not have a go and submit your entry using the link on this page.

IB DP Webinars

During this term of lock down, Richard Allaway and Matt Podbury have been doing a double act to support the global IB DP community.
Think 'Reeves and Mortimer' rather than "Laurel and Hardy'....

Richard's site: Geography all the Way has a fantastic range of materials for teaching a whole range of age groups. Most areas of the site, which has built up over many years, remains free, and the IB area is one of the few areas that is subscription based, but well worth the small amount to gain access - think how much money you're saving by not using glue sticks, photocopier etc.

Similarly Matt Podbury has a wonderful site: GeographyPods which is largely free, but has a relatively new IB area which is behind a paywall to help support the development of further new materials for the wider teaching community.

Both sites are well worth paying the small subscription fee from departmental budgets.

You can watch a repeat of each webinar on this link here. 
You will also see that there are links to the earlier webinars and associated references.

It was good to see so many people joining in. I managed to speak to colleagues from France, Switzerland, Guernsey, UK, Brazil, Poland, Canada, Qatar, North Cyprus, Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands, Philippines, Cambodia, Norway, Switzerland, Ghana, India, Poland and Kazakhastan.

For ease, here's the first run through of the slide deck, which I think was the best one.
I didn't realise I'd be seen alongside the slides on the recording so excuse any gurning...



Feedback welcome.

The Slides themselves can be viewed here.

Full disclosure: as I contributed resources / ideas to both sites, Rich and Matt have kindly given me a free subscription to access their sites, which has allowed me to see their contents and comment on their usefulness for IB colleagues.

London - choose your own question - score points

London Questions from GeoBlogs

Antarctica

London - where does it end?

"London goes beyond any boundary or convention. It is illimitable". 

Peter Ackroyd

One definition is to use the Greater London Authority (GLA) Boundary.
The M25 runs around this boundary and follows it for short distances, with one small area extending beyond the M25.
Where do you think London ends?

May 12th - Mass Observation Diary task

Write a diary on the 12th of May and you can be part of the Mass Observation Archive.

Details from the Mass Observation website.

Since the 1930s, ordinary people have written to Mass Observation about their experiences of key events including the Munich Crisis, Blitz, rationing, Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, Falkland’s War, September 11th 2001, and Brexit.  This is how you can help us create a record of the pandemic:

Become a Mass Observer

Our panel of Mass Observers are currently writing about Covid-19 and are keeping diaries documenting their experience of the pandemic. You can sign up to join them here, there are no criteria for becoming a writer. As a member of the Mass Observation Panel, you will receive our special Directive on Covid-19 and future Directives on a range of topics such as mantelpieces, gender and Brexit. You can choose whether you just respond to the Covid-19 Directive or respond to more Directives. 

Keep a journal of your experience of the Covid-19 pandemic 

Please get in touch, if you would like to submit a regular diary but not join the Mass Observation Project Panel. We ask you to take a look at this document which explains some points that you may want to consider before sending your diaries or reflections to the Archive. Please also consider keeping a diary on 12th May.

Writing by community groups, schools or other groups. 

We would really welcome contributions from school children and wider community groups. This could be a journal, drawings or writing in any style to record your experience. You could also take part in our 12th May Diary Project. 

You can send in your contribution individually or as a group. Please see our guidance notes which explain some points you may wish to consider before sending in your contribution to the Archive.

12th May Diary Project ‘10th Anniversary’

The Mass Observation Archive is conducting its annual diary writing day on the 12th May 2020. This is the 10th anniversary of the modern project. We anticipate that this 12th May will be unlike those captured over the last 10 years and welcome contributions from people of all ages across the UK. Whether or not the UK is in lockdown, please consider keeping a diary. For more details visit our 12th May page.

Format of documents

We welcome physical and electronic responses to all the opportunities listed above. A list of formats that we can accept can be seen in our guidance notes. We ask that you retain any physical records until after the lockdown period.

Don't forget to include the following statement:

I donate my COVID-19 reflections to the Mass Observation Archive. I consent to it being made publicly available as part of the Archive and assign my copyright in this work to the Mass Observation Archive Trustees so that it can be reproduced in full or in part on websites, in publications and in broadcasts as approved by the Mass Observation Trustees. I agree to the Mass Observation Archive assuming the role of Data Controller and the Archive will be responsible for the collection and processing of personal data and ensuring that such data complies with the DPA.

More information about this statement can be found here.

I shall be setting this as work for my students.

Michael Palin on Post-corona travel

Michael Palin was on the Andrew Marr Show this morning.


He was asked about what travelling might be like in the future as we come out of lockdown and lose our holidays. How should we cope with that.

"I think you can travel less and travel better.
If we have to be confined to travelling in the UK, it's not a bad place to travel - there are all sorts of wonderful places - and different landscapes and different sorts of atmospheres - Northern Scotland, Cornwall.
Go to places and learn more about them, enjoy them more.
Find out more about your own country.
It's going to be very difficult for people right across the world to actually travel again as we did before until we find a vaccine. Nobody is going to pack people into aeroplanes as they did before.
No cheap and cheerful flights around the world.
It's going to be very difficult to see the rest of the world. So narrow your horizons is not necessarily a bad thing.
Look more carefully
Look more thoroughly
Learn to enjoy your own country. 
Travelling is not necessarily as exotic - it can be local but can still be as interesting and inspirational."

ONS Map of Covid-19 casualties

As Senior schools begin to explore the geography of the Pandemic... this ONS map is revealing the geographical patterns of fatalities. Remember that each dot here is a person, people, families whose lives have changed forever.

Climate Change - Dan explains

Here's Dan Raven Ellison - geography legend - explaining the Greenhouse Effect - the gases that make the plane warmer than it would normally be.
Year 9, watch this before todays's lesson on TEAMS.

London - city of many mysteries

Questions taken from 'The Information Capital' by James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti.

"I can never understand why Londoners fail to see they live in the most wonderful city in the world"

Bill Bryson

Week 1-3 of Lockdown Learning

Work is set on Firefly for Y7 and Y8
London and Extreme Geographies are the topics.
Year 9 are doing the Changing Climate topic from OCR B Geography.
Further guidance for that is available in the OCR delivery guide.

Young Geographers - studying Geography is important!

If the conference was going ahead as planned, one of my contributions was to do a session for the Young Geographers' strand.
This didn't form part of the final eConference.

As I knew the conference was cancelled, I didn't spend the day or so needed to finish it off, but have put in some notes of what I would have said. If I am called on to do this session next year it will all have changed anyway, so I thought I'd share it as part of my contributions to the eConference.

I've shared it here for you to view / fillet as required to help with transition perhaps for Y11 / Y13 students over the coming weeks.

Planned obsolescence

Year 8s explore the 'Story of Stuff' and one of the themes in that programme is how manufacturing shifted towards a model where customers were sold products which were designed to last just long enough that they would be prepared to buy a replacement without complaining that it hadn't lasted very long.

This excellent piece in the Guardian starts with a quote from Nathan Proctor of the 'Right to Repair' campaign.


"Imagine you showed someone a smartphone 20 years ago. You said: ‘Here’s this thing, it’s going to be awesome, and it’ll cost $1,000. But the manufacturers are going to glue the battery in, and you’re supposed to get rid of it when the battery wears out.’ You would have thought that notion was completely bananas."

This sort of effort is now increasingly important, but will perhaps have stalled because of Coronavirus.

"Astonishingly, according to EU research, the average lifetime of desktop printers is a mere five hours and four minutes of actual printing time."