New Weather and Climate Resource from RMetS

A huge effort has gone into the creation of a 20 session scheme of work, with lesson plans and resources and a teacher guide, which are the work of the Royal Meteorological Society, particularly Dr Sylvia Knight. 

This has now been made available online, and a printed copy of the guide will also be sent to all GA and SAGT members.

The 20 unit explore weather and climate, and are certainly worth considering slotting into any curriculum updates being planned for the next academic year - as many colleagues will be considering.

It's part of the relaunch of Metlink.

This is well worth checking out.

Also keep an eye out for the Metmark award that schools can apply for.

President Biden addressing the African Union Summit

Listen carefully to what he has to say and identify how Rwanda is part of this process. What progress is it making on the priorities that President Biden identifies?

Recorded on the 5th of February 2021 

Rwanda - how to make a word cloud

Starting a short unit on Rwanda with Y9 this week.

One task is to create a word cloud in the shape of Rwanda.

Instructions here by Mr P

Here's the Rwanda outline shape that you need too:

Source: https://vemaps.com/ - well worth a look

Townscaper

I first came across this game in July 2020 when it was on early access on Steam, and sadly not available for iOS. I coveted it. It's created by Oscar Stålberg.

I downloaded it a couple of months ago, and have finally had a few hours to get to play with it, and it's excellent and very calming.

I shall probably be posting numerous screenshots in different locations over the next few days.

There's a GUIDE here, although you can start playing immediately by choosing a colour, scrolling around the existing town and then clicking in different directions. I love watching the seagulls circling and settling on the rooves as well.

Here's the description on Steam. It currently costs £4.79

Build quaint island towns with curvy streets. Build small hamlets, soaring cathedrals, canal networks, or sky cities on stilts. Block by block.

No goal. No real gameplay. Just plenty of building and plenty of beauty. That's it.

Townscaper is an experimental passion project. More of a toy than a game. Pick colors from the palette, plop down colored blocks of house on the irregular grid, and watch Townscaper's underlying algorithm automatically turn those blocks into cute little houses, arches, stairways, bridges and lush backyards, depending on their configuration.

Spine poetry

 A half term activity - take books off the shelves and see what poetry you can create...

Cultural Geography of the Fens

Thanks to Steve Brace of the RGS-IBG for letting me know about this new addition to the Caught by the River website.

It's a short film which has been made by Rowan Jaines as part of her work on the Cultural Geography of the Fens. It focuses on the Cambridgeshire Fens, through which I travel on a normal work day and have done for the last eight years.

This video essay is part of a four-year research project exploring the cultural geography of the Fen region in the East of England. 

The film is made up of a bricolage of clips of the Fen region, scavenged from the internet and put together in a piecemeal fashion so that the images on screen both intensify and disrupt the linear arc of the narration. 

This is a film that aims to show the Fens as haunted by both the past and those things that have not yet come to be.

Youthful populations

Useful for our Y9 topic on Africa - exploring youthful populations, and countries where the median population is aged 19.

New Geography Society: the Shanassy Society

Named after the late Neil Shanassy who was a teacher at King's Ely for many years and Head of Geography and known to many students from his time at the school. Congratulations to the senior staff and all students involved for getting this underway.

Age-Sex Pyramids

 A few issues with these of course, but this is a helpful video,

Population pyramid from Ined on Vimeo.

The population includes males and females of all ages.

To see at a glance how they are distributed by age and sex, demographers use a population pyramid. But, as you will see, it doesn't always have a pyramid shape. And how do we build one?

Crédits
Designed by : Gilles Pison et Sabine Belloc
Multimedia Project Manager : Thierry Jori
Produced by : SO2 Media
An animation of the French National Institute for Demographic Studies and of Cité des sciences et de l'industrie

UK National Parks in 100 Seconds

The new film from our friend Daniel Raven Ellison, with voice over from Cerys Matthews. Premiere was last night, followed by a panel discussion on the future of the UK's National Parks.

Watch the film below:

UK National Parks in 100 Seconds - Preview from Dan Raven-Ellison on Vimeo.

"What do the UK's National Parks really look like? To see what these landscapes are made-up of, let's go on a walk. Each second of the walk reveals 1% of our National Parks and how they appear from above. Are you ready for the UK's National Parks in 100 seconds"

Filmed from above and spoken by Cerys Matthews, this short film will likely change how you think about our National Parks forever.

What could we do to make the most of our National Parks? What do you think?

#UKNationalParksIn100Seconds