99% Invisible

 

Another reminder of this podcast series.

There are hundreds of episodes, many of which focus on the story of a particular object or a particular place.

This episode starts with the story of Beechey Island, where the graves of some of the sailors from Sir John Franklin's lost expedition were found.

My friend Val has been fortunate enough to visit Beechey Island on a Hurtigruten voyage - what an amazing privilege.

Plenty here for units on the geographies of stuff....

How has the High Street changed in recent years?

 

This article and interactive from the BBC News website is particularly useful in helping to answer that question and is particularly relevant for our work with Year 7.

Enter a postcode to see which changes have occurred in your local area.

There is also a useful summary showing the changing fortunes of certain shops and services.

The data has been collected by the Ordnance Survey.

Ely High Street mirrors some of these changes to some extent.

Census 2021: How well do you know your area?

These quizzes were previously available for the 2011 Census, and are now back with data from the 2021 Census.

✨IT'S QUIZ TIME!✨
So, you think you know your local area? Now you can test your knowledge in the new #CensusQuiz and broadcast your scores on to your friends and followers on social media!https://t.co/yIf0YfMx6q pic.twitter.com/SHLuFnDw14

— Ahmad Barclay (@bothness) December 2, 2022

The quizzes can be embedded, which makes them particularly useful for teachers who can add them to VLE pages etc.

Union Glacier

Used this classic earlier... 

A very short guide to Union Glacier Camp from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

And here's a film by the film maker...

Behind the Lens: Episode 7 from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

New Pearson support for Primary Geography and History

Mr. Parkinson has been reviewing this new resource from Pearson.

Curriculum making is an important part of any teacher's professional identity: engaging with the discipline, and developing pedagogical practice, while considering the particular nature of the school's context and the young people who sit in front of you to ensure their geographical experiences are not only educational, but also authentic and empowering.

According to Professor David Lambert,

"Curriculum making is the creative act of interpreting a curriculum specification and turning it into a coherent, challenging, engaging and enjoyable scheme of work, it is a job that really never ends and lies at the heart of good teaching."

For Primary practitioners and Secondary alike, developing a curriculum across a key stage is a lengthy and time-consuming process, which may result in several iterations over time. There are a lot of decisions to make in this work, and not all colleagues may have the time to do this within a particular academic year's cycle, or have opportunities to undertake the necessary reading and other preparation to be able to do this work justice.

For this reason, some teachers will turn to ready-made resources and schemes which are provided by a range of organisations. These are probably well known to many teachers, but Pearson have now stepped into this arena with an offering of their own.

Pearson has a great deal of experience in publishing curriculum resources, alongside supporting teachers with preparations for external examinations with textbooks. They have now produced and released a completely resourced scheme of work for Primary Geography (and also History), which includes all the resources that a school would need to begin to move towards a (possibly) new and consistent approach across the lower key stages, supported by planning materials, resources, regular assessment activities and classroom support for teachers engaging with the material for the first time. 

These resources are part of the Pearson Primary Extended Curriculum.

Pearson has spent a year working with staff at Reach Academy Feltham, Jon Hutchinson (Director of Training and Development at the Reach Foundation) and Emily Maule (Director of Humanities and Social Sciences at Reach Academy Feltham) to create a new, whole-school curriculum for Primary History and Geography.

You can take a look at the sample materials and find out more here if this sounds like it might be something to kick start or revitalise the geography in your school.

The resource is provided as a complete curriculum, including what Pearson calls “I know that...” and “I know how...” approaches, which "enable pupils to not only show they know and remember more, but also develop the conceptual and disciplinary knowledge they need to become young geographers."

Pearson's website explains that the new resources adopt a: "pedagogically rigorous approach, validated by the hundreds of classrooms who have clarified their intent, been supported through their implementation and seen evident impact." 

This approach has been trialled in a number of schools across the Reach Foundation before being made available more widely. This has doubtless ironed out many of the problems that are spotted when a new activity is given its first run through in an actual classroom with children.

For each Unit, teachers can access planning materials and lesson plans, resources, printable activity booklets and assessments which can be completed in various ways. The Units are split up into 6 Sessions, with each one ending in a Unit Check Out, which forms a final review check or assessment. There are 3 Units for each Year, suggesting that combining them with 3 History topics would produce a year's worth of lessons. Resources can be located quickly using the search function.

A series of free sample lessons are provided - you can take a good look at a KS1 lesson on the UK, and a KS2 lesson on Rivers to see whether this might fit with your own existing curriculum, or take it a step further.

Sample lesson plans to accompany the resources can also be seen on the link above.

I've had a good look through the resources and supporting documents for geography.

There are some familiar topics which receive a fresh look, along with some interesting new areas of study - Year 6 will explore fast fashion, for example, alongside carrying out fieldwork. Year 4, for example includes Rivers (with a focus on the Volga), Migration (including a look at Windrush) and Natural Resources (with a located example of Chile and its copper mines).

In addition to the lesson materials there are Concept toolkits, which allow for the exploration of some of the key underpinning concepts of the Units. These concepts include Change and Location and Place. The materials here introduce strategies to organise class discussions, group work and decision making.

There is plenty of support for writing, such as the inclusion of structure strips for some of the key topics when extended writing is required, which are formatted ready for printing. 

Speaking of printing, there is likely to be a lot of printing required to disseminate the very thorough, but lengthy booklets for both pupils and teachers which accompany each Unit. The Year 4 Pupil booklet on the Migration Unit is 31 pages long, for example. Schools would need to factor in a photocopying budget. The booklets are provided in PDF format.

Each pupil booklet starts with a knowledge organiser (you may have your own views on those), and a learning review page to track progress through the Unit. Activities include labelling, cloze text passages, connecting boxes and sorting information as well as writing answers - generally quite short pieces of text, or capturing ideas. The accompanying Teacher booklets will give teachers confidence in what is required, and help pupils through each Session. Pacing is likely to be important here, and the amount of text and visuals may overwhelm some learners.

There is one problematic Unit entitled Slums, which I would not personally use given the language, and could usefully be rebranded as 'Homes: Near and Far', or something similar.

There are differing opinions about the use of the term 'slums' and I understand that Pearson did speak to subject experts and teachers before making the decision to use it. However, they are now consulting with teachers who have bought these resources and will use their feedback to decide whether to update the unit to avoid the term.

One possible omission from the resource is any multimedia material - such as videos which are aimed at use by pupils or teachers - the materials are quite 'static' and a few animations or sound clips with effects would have been helpful for a Primary audience. 

There are some videos included, but these are restricted to teacher briefings for each unit from the project's lead: Jon Hutchinson.

In the video below, for example, he talks about the approach that has been taken and the work that has been done so far, which may sound like something that you would find develops your current practice. If so, it would be worth taking out a trial subscription.

This approach will not be for everyone, but given the nature of the profession, as we reset after COVID19 and face other challenges with recruitment and recent financial crises, support of this kind will be welcomed by many.

The Cambridge Primary Review is also a little cautious of the approach taken by some schools and Trusts, suggesting that  "children will not learn to think for themselves if their teachers are expected merely to do as they are told."

It is the consistency of approach, format of materials and connection with cognitive science that will provide the appeal for many Primary colleagues.

There will likely be different approaches to using the resources which will probably include adapting them or including a few additional resources such as videos or music.

You can request a FREE TRIAL, and this may be a useful first step to see whether the resources are going to be the answer to your current problems, or a support for colleagues.

Trials run for one month - International schools have two months.

The price to access the Primary Geography content is £400-£450 a year. The current increases in energy and staffing costs mean this will require a careful investment decision. Subscription to the content provides school access to the online content for 12 full months from the date of registration. Teachers accessing the resources via a subscription of this kind must of course be from the same school and use their school email addresses.

For those who want to pair up the Geography content with the History content, the price is £800 for the year for both.

I've also taken a look at the Primary History content, and the structure and focus for each unit is consistent with the Geography content, to provide a consistent experience across the Humanities in schools that go for that option, particularly where teachers may not be subject specialists.

There are also supporting Professional Development courses available through to May 2024, led by John Hutchinson for those who want an additional level of support in finding out how to use the resources to the greatest advantage.

To read more, click this link to download an illustrated booklet (PDF)

Thanks to KS2 colleagues at King's Ely Junior for their comments on these resources which helped to produce this post.

GI Pedagogy Multiplier Event - 9th December

We are hosting this event.

I opened up an invitation to an online event yesterday.

It will take place on Friday the 9th of December and will be online.

I organised a face to face multiplier event to share outcomes from the ERASMUS-funded GI Pedagogy project, but this was not able to attract colleagues because of the challenges of travelling and the business of this term.

The plan now is to have an online meeting instead which I hope that people may be able to attend without the need to travel to Ely. 

This will allow me to demonstrate the importance of GIS in the curriculum and the idea of telling stories.

You can also get a sneak preview of the other materials we have produced, including a training course. A chance to have a discussion around GIS too.

Suitable for Primary and Secondary teachers.

I'm going to try again to get this event in before Christmas.

Free tickets can be obtained on Eventbrite.

Octagon lit up for King's Ely campaign.

A story from last week, when we launched our energy saving campaign in school.

Ely Cathedral’s Octagon Tower is illuminated red this evening (November 14th) to acknowledge the fact that King’s Ely has launched a campaign to reflect the climate emergency. 


Our ‘See Red for Crisis at Christmas’ mission aims to persuade every single student and staff member across our 75-acre campus to be more aware about the energy they are using, and potentially wasting, and the impact that this is having on the environment.


King’s Ely already has environmental impact and climate change high on its agenda, but this campaign aims to inspire lasting change amongst our school community and beyond.


We want an immediate response - lights being turned off in classrooms, day houses, boarding houses, offices and communal areas when they do not need to be on, as well as radiators and electronic devices.


King’s Ely is promising to make a significant donation to the homelessness charity, Crisis, and its ‘Crisis at Christmas’ appeal (www.crisis.org.uk) if a positive change is brought about! 

Infrastructure

When asked to define infastructure, I may now use the image here, which was one of my favourite images from Bucharest last weekend.

HMC Blog

A new post that I contributed for the HMC blog. This is part of a series of posts which are being added across the weeks that the COP27 negotiations take place.

I will be sharing another post once the event is over and the final report and agreements are made public. One hopes that this will result in an agreed plan of action.

During the weeks, students have also been exploring the issues in KS2 and KS3.

Time for some hopeful geographies as well.

Iceland Trip with Rayburn Tours

 

As I mentioned in a recent post, I spent five days of the first week of my half term in Iceland. 

This introduced me to a couple of new locations which I hadn't visited before - including the car parks and tracks leading to the recent Fagradasfjall lava flows - and also reminded me of a great many that I'd been to previously before the pandemic and I enjoyed experiencing the power of Gullfoss (and the taste of the ice cream at Efstidalur).

There had been some changes in tourst infrastructure in familiar locations with others being constructed e.g. a nice new toilet block at Thingvellir for visitors, and new paths etc.

I will be working with Rayburn Tours to lead future tours through 2023 and beyond.

I've got a special Iceland blog which will host all the reading and planning I'm doing around these tours, which already hosts the year long 365 blog project which I completed in 2020 (when I was originally going to be visiting four times).

On future visits I hope to head up to the Westfjords to see some additional new locations which are being added to the itineraries, and which I will also visit on a planned visit with my own school during 2024.

Rayburn Tours have also updated their RAYBURN ICELAND SERIES set of resources.

There are two sections of resources:

Unit 1: Natural HazardsSlick looking PowerPoint presentation + Activity Sheet
Classroom Poster
Fagradalsfjall Case Study + Activity Sheet

Unit 2: Energy ResourcesSlick looking PowerPoint presentation
Classroom Poster
Iceland’s Energy Resources Issue Evaluation (Both digital form-fillable and printable versions)

There are many more to come as well:

NEOM

NEOM is a remarkable concept and project which realistically has very little chance of coming to fruition because of the sheer scale of its conception and the cost of building materials and the actual reality of the location where it is.

The website is full of promise.

It promises:


No roads, cars or emissions, it will run on 100% renewable energy and 95% of land will be preserved for nature. People's health and wellbeing will be prioritized over transportation and infrastructure, unlike traditional cities. Only 200 meters wide, but 170 kilometers long and 500 meters above sea level.

The Line will eventually accommodate 9 million people and will be built on a footprint of just 34 square kilometers. This will mean a reduced infrastructure footprint, creating never-before-seen efficiencies in city functions. The ideal climate all-year-round will ensure that residents can enjoy the surrounding nature. Residents will also have access to all facilities within a five-minute walk, in addition to high-speed rail – with an end-to-end transit of 20 minutes.

Here is another view:

Will be fascinating to watch what happens next...

Mr. P's been to Iceland

The Geography Deapartment have been on their travels this half term...

Mrs. M and Miss. S headed South

Mr. P headed North... to Iceland (not the freezer store) - here are a few geographical highlights.

Temporary placemaking

It has been interesting to see the adaptations to parts of Ely, which are preparing for being used as a location for filming for a new film called 'Maestro', on the life of Leonard Bernstein. An example of temporary place making for geographers...

Image: Sally Parkinson

COP27 Postcards are on their way...

 A few hundred postcards from King's Ely Junior are amongst them...

The @Oxfam team is leaving for #COP27 carrying thousands of encouraging postcard messages for negotiators from UK schools. They all call clearly & creatively for #ClimateJustice. A massive thank you again to all who took part. Your voices will be heard @oxfamcampaigns pic.twitter.com/F2VoeRYdlI

— Oxfam Education (@OxfamEducation) November 3, 2022

A dry year

We had wet break on Thursday on the week before half term.... this is becoming a rarity now...

With little over 60% of the average rainfall for the year-to-date, and a deficit of ~3½ months' worth of rain, this year is currently on track to be one of the driest on record in East Anglia 🏜️ pic.twitter.com/qOD0tnLiab

— Dan Holley (@danholley_) October 22, 2022

GI Pedagogy - come and hear about it

Come along to an ERASMUS+ event at my school: King's Ely, funded by the British Council.

This is a multiplier event for the GI Pedagogy project.

The GI Pedagogy project has involved exploring the pedagogy that might be applied when using GIS to support teaching, using Rosenshines Principles and a stepped model that we have developed, along with a literature review.

We have put together an online course which we'd also like to introduce you to during the afternoon session.

We'll give you a light lunch and refreshments.

Tickets to come along to Ely are free.

They can be booked on this Eventbrite link - there is space for 25 people in total in person.

If you can't make it in person, but would like to join online, let me know and we'll see what can be organised for you. Eventbrite doesn't seem to want me to add a hybrid event.

Polar Flag design competition

The UK Polar Network has an annual competition for school students to design a flag for Antarctica.

This is running again this year, and you have just over a week to register your interest in being involved.

I've done this for the last few years and students love to receive their images of their flags down in Antarctica.

Here's a round up of last year's event.

Google Form to sign up is here - you have until the 24th of October.

Check out the UK Polar Networks resources here too.

Eastenders Credit sequence

We sent off our postcards to COP27 as part of Oxfam GB's Climate Justice campaign.

More on this in a separate post.

I was alerted to the fact that the end credits of Eastenders on Wednesday this week were subtly (ish) changed to act as a trailer for Frozen Planet II.

You can see the video of the credits here.

The new end credits saw London’s East End transformed to show the river Thames bursting its banks with parts of the capital under water in a hypothetical scenario of what London could look like in the future.

It then zoomed out to capture a satellite image of the Arctic and point to the last episode of Sir David Attenborough’s series, underlining the message that the challenge of melting ice in this frozen region could one day affect us all close to home.

GeographySW - Primary newsbites newsletter now available

I've teamed up with Simon and John from the GA Award-winning Geography SouthWest to produce some support for Primary geographers. 

I'll be working with Emma Espley to produce a monthly Primary newsletter and blog, and you can access it easily by visiting the website and clicking the Primary tab.

The September 2022 issue is here now, and we are already working on the October 2022 issue.

Feedback and suggestions for future issues welcome.

Update

October issue now also available.

South America

The first Year 6 topic is South America.

Here's a useful question to ask them, as featured on The Chase.

Gapminder - new upgrader quizzes

 A new set of Gapminder quizzes.

Sick and tired of prejudice about your country?
We just published 196 quizzes to confront common stereotypes.
Search for your country here: https://t.co/2hx1NaQlC3 pic.twitter.com/3xf3qAxJtz

— Gapminder (@Gapminder) September 16, 2022

The National Windrush Monument

This was unveiled in June at Waterloo Station.

We will be exploring more about Windrush with Year 7 after half term.

We have just had delivery of extra copies of 'Windrush Child' for the new Year 7 cohort.

Image: Sally Parkinson

Year 8: Gapminder Misconception Test - why do people generally score poorly...

 Here's Ola Rosling explaining why...

For Year 8 homework help.

Frozen Planet II

Perfect to accompany our Antarctica unit in Year 8.

A second series of the BBC's Frozen Planet will start on Sunday on BBC1 at 8pm, narrated as always by David Attenborough (subject to schedule change)

It is 11 years since the first series, although I thought it might have been longer. 

Our frozen planet has become a thawing planet in those 11 years, with worrying changes to the landscape, ice masses and sea ice coverage during that time.

This is the fastest changing region of the Earth as a result of climate change, even through around one fifth of the planet is covered in snow or ice.

The first episode opens in Antarctica.

We are likely to see South Georgia at some point I am sure.

The Education Pack that Mr. P wrote for the South Georgia Heritage Trust with Val Vannet is available to view from the link here.

As always with these series, there will be a free poster to order produced in association with the Open University, and experts such as Professor Mark Brandon have been involved in developing the series.

Here's the trailer:

Year #10

It seems like no time at all, but I'm about to start the 10th year at King's and therefore the 10th year of this blog.

Thanks to all those who have followed and reading it.

WWF: Risky Seafood Business Report

'The ocean is the blue heart of our planet and we ignore its health at our peril. Protecting this precious resource should be the top priority of every single fishery around the world, yet for too long unsustainable practices have gone unchecked, draining the ocean of life.' 

Kate Norgrove, Executive Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at WWF 

My favourite meal is fish and chips (with mushy peas), from a decent chippy, of which there are several close to where I live in Norfolk.

We like fish and chips as a nation too.

The recent WWF Risky Seafood Business report says that a total of 887,000 tonnes of seafood was eaten by people in 2019 - the equivalent to 5.2 billion portions of fish and chips. The report can be downloaded from this link (PDF)

It goes into detail on the impacts of seafood extraction on other aspects of marine ecosystems, including the impact on endangered species.

There is also a good range of useful images that would find their way into lessons on the oceans, food production, fisheries and sustainability.

Image source: WWF Risky Seafood Business Report

Updated Gapminder World Health Chart

The first Gapminder graphic that many people will see is the classic world health chart, with a bubble for each country showing where it sits on the graph of life expectancy against income. Mind the gap.

That has now been updated for the most up to date figures (2021) and the new version can now be viewed or downloaded as a PDF from this page.

Image copyright: Gapminder, but they kindly share resources under CC license.

StoryMap Exercise on Tornadoes in the USA

 

Fast Fashion on Radio 4

A BBC Radio 4 programme which explores the area of fast fashion, which is something we explore with Year 8 students.

People online are debating whether contestants from ITV’s Love Island should be signing mega-bucks deals with clothes companies that sell people stuff cheaply and often - so-called fast fashion. Others claim it's a bit rich for the well-off to lecture everyone else about what's in their wardrobe? We’ll look at how fast fashion got turbo-charged, see if the stats on climate change and fashion add up, explore how fashion and social class have interacted over the years, and ask if “sustainable fashion” is an oxymoron.

Thanks to the Dress Code shirt team for the tipoff here.

Really interesting conversations on @BBCRadio4 #antisocial with @adamfleming examining the facts of fast fashion, environment and class. Well worth a listen. 🌍👍 pic.twitter.com/qFrISCTXZl

— dresscode (@dresscodeshirts) August 19, 2022

There's also a Radio 4 Bottom Line programme on the same issue. 

From the design desk to the shop window, how do fast fashion brands deliver the latest trends in double-quick time? Evan Davis and guests discuss fabric, factories and a nimble supply chain.

Yi Fu Tuan - RIP

Cross posting from LivingGeography blog. 

Very sad news of the passing yesterday of Yi-Fu Tuan, at 92. Such an important scholar in so many fields, from geography to Sherlock Holmes studies. pic.twitter.com/nk5wutDvCh

— matthew edney (@mhedney) August 11, 2022

Sad news yesterday of the passing of geographer Yi Fu Tuan, whose work will be familiar to many, and who inspired some of our thinking around Mission:Explore and other work on place, and the idea of topophilia.

I wasn't able to confirm the news, but it appears it is now confirmed.

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Professor Yi-Fu Tuan.

His work has had a profound influence on the way in which we all think about key geographical concepts. He will be sorely missed both by those that knew him well and by the discipline as a whole. pic.twitter.com/zdndOzMCgk

— Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (@RGS_IBG) August 12, 2022

His work has been influential for many - particularly in the area of place and other conceptual thinking.

Primary Geography research report published

A rather comprehensive research document focussing on Primary Geography has been published and is being hosted on the GA website.

What are the indicators for high quality #primaryGeography?
After nearly three years of work, our team from @EYPPC_GA are delighted that this ‘free to access’ piece of #research is now published on @The_GA site. https://t.co/RYeN0mrL8D

— Dr Paula Owens FRGS (@Primageographer) July 27, 2022

The research was based on the GA's Primary Geography Quality Mark, and looked at outcomes from this. I'm delighted to have been part of the moderation team for the Quality Mark for quite a few years now - at least eight I think. I've also been part of the Secondary Quality Mark moderation team since the beginning - going back to before the Action Plan for Geography.

Click the link to download the report as a PDF.

There's an excellent authoring team for the report:

Professor Simon Catling – Professor Emeritus of Primary Education, Oxford Brookes University, GA President 1992–93 

Kate Glanville – Senior lecturer in geography education, Birmingham City University 

Jeremy Krause – Education Consultant, GA President 2001–02 

Jen Lomas – Primary school teacher and geography subject leader, London 

Dr Paula Owens – Geography Education Consultant, previously GA primary lead 

Steve Rawlinson – Geography Education Consultant, GA Former President 2015–16, Primary Geography journal Board Chair 

Dr Sharon Witt – Geography Education Consultant

This will be of particular value to those schools which are applying for the PGQM in the future, as it provides a wealth of information about the feedback given by moderators and what we are looking for in top quality Primary Geography. Congratulations to all the author team.

Our Place in Space - coming to Cambridge

I've been following the latest installation by Oliver Jeffers. It allows people to find out their Place in Space: to put Earth into its context.

"The only place where... stories are told."

Astronauts have the 'overview effect' when they look down on the planet and Oliver wanted to show the scale of the Solar System.

Oliver has created a walk way which starts in Cambridge and ends in Waterbeach and will be installed from the end of July to the end of August.

See more details here. 

If you can’t get to Cambridge this summer, there is a free app which allows you to follow the walk virtually. Download it from this link.

One of the aims of the walk is to consider scale – an important idea in geography too. 

 There are also teaching resources to download exploring some of the ideas, which may be of interest even if you don’t follow the trail. Let us know if you take part with your class, or perhaps your family.

The trail is about humanity's place in the solar system.

The route will take it through Cambridge.

What's done is done, what's yet to be is clearly yet to be. In other words, sandwiched as we are between the "everything" that is behind us and the "zero" beyond us, ours is an ephemeral existence in which there is neither coincidence nor possibility.”

Haruki Murakami

There's a lovely free illustrated app by Oliver Jeffers as well, where you can take a virtual route if you can't get to the location where the walk is installed.

Listen to Oliver taking a walk with Clare Balding on her programme 'Ramblings'.

I shall be taking the walk.

Fun in the Sun?

I have been collecting imagery of the days when temperature records were broken and have started to put together a Pinterest board of imagery. This will be used in the Michaelmas term when we explore the geography that happened this summer.

One of the most interesting aspects of the media coverage has been the slight shift in narrative. 

This followed the fires in a number of locations during the worst of the heat at the start of last week. 

There has been plenty of information on this in the media.

Download a copy of the Saffron O' Neill paper that I have mentioned a number of times in previous blog posts here. It is an accessible read and will be referred to in my teaching in the new academic year.

Reading FC and Climate Stripes

Today @ReadingFC and @ReadingFCWomen unveiled their new home kit for the 2022/23 season, incorporating the climate stripes on the sleeves and shorts.

The stripes used on the kit represent changes in temperature in Reading since the club was founded in 1871.#HoopsForTheFuture pic.twitter.com/W8jFYmFHk5

— Ed Hawkins (@ed_hawkins) July 25, 2022

 Looks like Reading FC are joining Mr. P in wearing the climate stripes.

An interesting development - the university teaming up with a local football team.

This tells the whole story and also has a close up of the kit.

“The bold stripe design, which features on the sleeves of the new home shirt, was first created by the University of Reading’s Professor Ed Hawkins in 2018. Each stripe represents the average temperature for a single year, relative to the average temperature over the period as a whole; shades of blue indicate cooler-than-average years, while red shows years that were hotter than average. And the stripes on the home shirt specifically track climate change in Reading across the full 151-year existence of Reading Football Club.

“The shirt itself is made from Eco-Fabric – 100% of which comes from recycled plastic bottles. That innovation is part of a wider series of initiatives undertaken by our Official Technical Partner as part of their ‘Macron 4 The Planet’ campaign, which is committed to introducing new eco-sustainable products the the market.”

Stuff

"[Mother Earth] weeps and implores us to put an end to our [consumerist] abuses and to her destruction.”

Pope Francis 

"[Mother Earth] weeps and implores us to put an end to our [consumerist] abuses and to her destruction.”

Pope Francis urges world leaders to act on climate change and extreme weather https://t.co/UiQWRJ9eLO pic.twitter.com/EiKAYUiX9c

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 21, 2022

The hottest places to live #2

I've previously shared a link during the heat of earlier in the week, which may well return before summer is out.

This BBC article looks at people living in the hottest parts of the country.

This is defined by a data set which is called the Heat Hazard Score.

This could make a useful secondary data set for an NEA.

I will also refer to this when we start back for the new academic year.

Enter a postcode to get a score. I put in my school postcode first, and got a score of 2.

The website also tells you the heatwave threshold for each postcode.

For East Cambridgeshire, this is when temperatures in the postcode area hit 28°C or higher for three consecutive days.

Use Google Street View to explore locations which have a score of 4 or 5 to see what their characteristics are.

This article has an interview with Richard Flemmings, the CTO of 4 Earth Intelligence, who captured the data and created this layer.

Also explore the impacts of heat on transport with this ESRI StoryMap made by the UK team along with the Met Office.

Bill McGuire on our near futures

An important and powerful piece was published in yesterday's 'The Guardian' newspaper.

It was written by Bill McGuire, who is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and a climate activist.

It was written ahead of today's record temperature being reached, with over 40 degrees C at Heathrow Airport by midday.

There are many impacts outlined here which we have been teaching about in geography for many years.

Progressive climate breakdown will affect everyone and insinuate itself into every aspect of our lives. Transport and energy infrastructure will succumb repeatedly to the onslaught of extreme weather, making otherwise straightforward journeys increasingly problematical, and power outages a normal part of daily life.

I am all too aware of this particular impact, as travel issues meant that I was unable to get to Paris for IGU this week, with Eurostar sold out or too expensive. The train I was due to catch took 6 hours eventually to make a two hour journey...

The hottest places to live #1

This BBC article looks at people living in the hottest parts of the country.

This is defined by a data set which is called the Heat Hazard Score.

They are made for the OS by a company called 4 Earth Intelligence.

The potential heat hazard score for small geographical areas - known as a Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) - was calculated by 4 Earth Intelligence, who measured the average land surface temperature over a sample of days in the past three summers across Great Britain.

Deprivation data was taken from the latest English, Scottish and Welsh Indices of multiple deprivation (IMD). Each IMD is the nation's official measure of relative deprivation, or poverty, and is weighted heavily towards income, employment, education, and health.

The scores range from one to five, and provide an indicator of how likely it is that an area will experience high temperatures during hot weather, when compared with other areas in the surrounding neighbourhood.

As the BBC article explains, there are certain things factored into the calculation, such as the presence of water and vegetation.

A statistical method was used to standardise land surface temperatures, which involved combining satellite images for different dates over the past three years. The temperature data was then adjusted to consider the different average temperatures of each region, to highlight hotter areas across the country, while accounting for varying climates. Five is the highest score.

Normalising the temperatures of each region before calculating the score means the data highlights hotter areas in different parts of the country, despite having different climates.

This ONS report, one of several which were produced during COVID, explained that one in eight houses has no garden. This means no opportunity for shaded outside space...

It would be great to have a subset of data available for educational purposes, perhaps for a city such as Leeds which has a river and parks, and is also an OCR A/B Case Study city.

Geographies of Home

Geography starts at home, but what and where is home?

A key project to influence the thinking of this topic has been the Stay Home Stories project involving Alison Blunt from QMUL and part funded by the RGS-IBG.

We will refer to this in our work in the new academic year.

I have been loaned a copy of Alison's new book and it's excellent.

After HOME, we will also be looking at AWAY, with an entry for the Royal Geographical Society's Young Geographer of the Year competition.

They're hotter...

BBC News.