Tuesday, 28 November 2023

GeographyGeek Christmas Quiz

This is a traditional end to the Michaelmas Term in our department...

It's here...

The thirteenth Geography Geek Christmas Quiz from Helen Young.

Twelve questions reflecting events in the news this year.

Thanks as always to Helen for sharing this with the geography community.

Thursday, 23 November 2023

Ordnance Survey survey on teacher needs

I've been involved with the OS in numerous ways over the years: as a GetOutside Champion, author of support resources for Digimap for Schools and Digimap for Colleges / Mapstream. Also as an author of articles for Mapping News and other support for various campaigns and activities.

For many years Ordnance Survey has delivered support for education to encourage the awareness and use of high-quality geospatial data in the education sector and since 2020 this has been through an Education Plan, funded through the UK Government's Geospatial Commission (GC).
They are keen to gather evidence about how this has so far supported the work of teachers and consider what more they could be doing in this area. 

They would also like to understand what other training tools geography teachers currently access and the barriers that may be in place when using geographic information systems (GIS).


They are asking for 15 minutes (or so) of your time to complete a short survey. 

The survey is open to all geography teachers until Friday 8 December and the findings from it will help them to consider how to develop the Education Plan.

Wednesday, 22 November 2023

AONBs are now called National Landscapes

From today, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are now called 'National Landscapes'. This is another change which will impact on many printed resources / textbooks / websites and resources that are under construction which focus on landscape management.

This site has a nice interactive map of the 46 areas but currently has the old name.

Check the website for more details.

Some nice graphics on the Twitter feed - check the thread today to kick start the new association and name. 


From the site:

The new name reflects their national importance: the vital contribution they make to protect the nation from the threats of climate change, nature depletion and the wellbeing crisis, whilst also creating greater understanding and awareness for the work that they do.

This is a significant milestone for the UK and the next step in fully realising the National Landscapes’ vision to be the leading exemplars of how thriving, diverse communities can work with and for nature in the UK: restoring ecosystems, providing food, storing carbon to mitigate the effects of climate change, safeguarding against drought and flooding, whilst also nurturing people’s health and wellbeing.

National Landscapes teams have been at the forefront of delivering natural solutions to the main challenges facing the nation for many years. The new brand underscores their commitment to redoubling their efforts and engaging with a wider audience. In 2019, teams set themselves the most ambitious targets for nature in the sector and continue to work to meet them.

By 2030, National Landscapes aim that, within their boundaries: at least 200,000 hectares of the most valuable natural areas (Sites of Special Scientific Interest or SSSIs), which equates to 1 ¼ times the size of London, will be in favourable condition; 100,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside of SSSIs will be created or restored, which is roughly nine times the size of Manchester; and 36,000 hectares of woodland, which is a little smaller than the Isle of Wight, will have been planted or allowed to regenerate. National Landscapes Partnerships will also focus on habitat restoration to ensure the protection of some of our most endangered species and increase their work to help more people to enjoy time spent in beautiful places.

As I thought, when looking at the graphics, each National Landscape has been given a new visual identity / logo.

I will be spending part of my Christmas holidays in the Norfolk Coast National Landscape.

I can see an activity where a list of the areas is shown and students have to identify the appropriate logo - it takes quite a bit of knowledge of the landscape and local wildlife to identify some of them...

Thursday, 16 November 2023

King Charles - food is the Big Issue

The latest issue of the Big Issue has King Charles on the cover. It is a picture taken by Rankin.

It marks the launch of the Coronation Food Project which he is behind.

“To mark my 75th birthday in this Coronation year, I could ask for no greater gift than that the Coronation Food Project creates a lasting legacy to help others – and help the planet.

Food need is as real and urgent a problem as food waste – and if a way could be found to bridge the gap between them, then it would address two problems in one.”

The Coronation Food Project aims to support the supply of 200 million meals for those experiencing food insecurity in the UK. Funded by the King Charles Charitable Fund.

You can get a copy for £4 (or more) from your local vendor.



There are three pillars to The Coronation Food Project:
  • Saving more surplus food.
  • Supercharging food distribution networks to ensure surplus produce can reach those who need it most, through the creation of several Coronation Food Hubs.
  • Delivering a flexible funding programme to support the wider sector and a consortium of pioneering food-rescue initiatives.

We will use this as a discussion context...

MetLink

 MetLink comes from the Royal Meteorological Society.

We will be using some of the elements from the Polar Climate scheme of work. This explores how it can be too cold to snow in Antarctica.


Union Glacier

A highlight of the year is the showing of the Union Glacier film

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

See the full range here.



Saturday, 11 November 2023

Windrush food stories

We are now underway on the 3rd read through of Benjamin Zephaniah's 'Windrush Child'. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush's arrival at Tilbury Docks in London.

I noticed these meals in my local Tesco earlier in the week and wondered about their origins.

I was interested in whether this was cultural appropriation of the flavours of the Caribbean with the Windrush marketing. We have previously discussed the story of Jamie Oliver's Jollof Rice, as featured in Dipo Faloyin's 'Africa is not a Country'.

They were actually created by Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones for Black History Month. They are a tribute to the Windrush Generation.

They feature some traditional Caribbean flavours.

Anyone tried the meals?

Fed - Planet Chicken

This podcast is presented by Chris van Tulleken.

It is called 'Planet Chicken', and focusses on the meat we eat the most.... chicken.


Some useful content for our 'Food for Thought' unit in Year 7

"Our food is our history, politics, economics and culture... family, health, happiness - everything we care about depends on food..."

In the series - Radio 4 - he explores the reasons why there are 25 billion chickens alive right now... and we eat 74 billion of them a year. Chickens live only about 35 days if they are broilers...

Warning: a few rude words.

Wednesday, 8 November 2023

Food

What are the most popular British dishes?

A resource ready for our Year 7 unit on Geographies of Food 'You are what you eat' - to be taught in the next term...



Home...

An extract from Nicholas Crane's book 'The Making of the British Landscape' on how paths were created in a local area...



Sam's Clothes

 Thanks to Ian Cook for leading me to this project from Dr. Jennifer Rudd. We already followed each other on Twitter as it happens.

This looks like my sort of thing. It is based on research, which has been developed into a children's book. I have been sent the various training materials and will take a look over half term. They include a series of lesson plans and associated materials for introducing ideas around sustainability and clothing manufacture.


A copy of the book can be purchased from here.


More on this to come...