Migration is here to stay

Gaia Vince's Opinion piece in The Guardian makes essential reading. I presume it will be in tomorrow's print edition.

Leaders should finally tell us the truth about migration: it’s here for good https://t.co/QChY5JO0y9

— Gaia Vince (@WanderingGaia) June 7, 2024

The opening paragraph is a useful summary for students of any age on human nature and the artifice of the border.

The state is an invention. 

It’s a bureaucratic tool of governance for an arbitrarily defined landmass; an artifice made convincing through emotive storytelling. 

Although many countries have their “long, long ago” symbolic foundation story, in truth the vast majority of them have only existed as independent constitutions for a matter of decades. 

We, the nationals, are the result of millennia of migrations of ancestral hunter-gatherers, herders, farmers, merchants, students, industrialists; of colonists and colonisers; of people invading, fleeing, crusading, exploring, roaming, slave-trading; uprooted for war, work, fortune and love. 

The dense interconnectedness of the human family, our genetic similarity, means that in terms of our biology, there are no different races. 

We can all claim ancestry from across the world.

Earth - the final episode

 This series concluded last night...

Catch it on iPlayer - particularly this final episode.

In 30 mins on @BBCTwo we conclude our #Earth series . 4.5 (ish) million years in 5 (ish) hours . Only the BBC could/would do this & get the support of >200 scientists @OpenUniversity I’d say it has been the greatest story ever told , and I’d say my final PTC is one of the most… https://t.co/yQXUqVZtgi

— Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) August 14, 2023

New from Alastair Bonnett

A nice new piece on the Geographical blog from Alastair Bonnett.

He references Tim Marshall and his new book which focusses on space, and talks about three new geographical trends which he thinks will emerge in the decade ahead.

The first is 'Virtual and AI Geographies', although he reminds us that reality will generally win out over the virtual experience.

Geography will be able to offer many forms of substitute experience in the coming years – and they will get better – but geography has always been about getting out into the real world, feeling the cold rain and walking in dark and pine-scented woods. It’s the one slot in the curriculum that allows kids to breathe freely.

The second is 'Diverse Geographies'.

The second is our survival... as we face increasing challenges which are of our own making.

Consideration of the relationship between environment, agriculture, what we drink and the species that end up on our plate point to new urban realities and new recipes for geography lessons.

Well worth reading...

Young Geographer of the Year Competition 2023

Around about the time of the GA Conference, the theme of the Royal Geographical Society's Young Geographer of the Year award is revealed. 

The new theme is now revealed.

We always use this competition as a focus for the final month or so of the Summer term, when lessons are often disrupted by trips and other events, and this forms a useful basis for some lovely class work. Students have time to complete their entries over the summer and we then collect them in in September and have an in-school competition judging and then send off the best entries.

The Young Geographer of the Year is the Society’s annual competition which recognises the outstanding work of the next generation of geographers. With its age ranges spanning the primary years to A Level, the competition encourages thoughtful and creative answers to the competition’s theme which is set each year.

The Society encourages schools to run their own in-house competition and then send their top 10 entries into the national competition. The Young Geographer competition has been running for over 20 years and in 2020 over 10,000 young people took part.

The theme for the Young Geographer of the Year competition 2023 is:

A blueprint for the future

The Society invites students from KS2 to KS5 to create their own blueprint for the future. 

They are looking for innovative ideas to address problems in areas such as food production and supply, energy and sustainability, water security, resources, population growth, economic crisis, transport, travel, urbanisation, risk management, trade, environmental management, biodiversity and more. 

Your ideas and recommendations should be forward-thinking, taking into consideration the depth of the problems and the reasons behind them, as well as what can be done to mitigate them. 

Your blueprint for the future could be a design for an eco-city, or a plan to produce and distribute enough food to feed the world. It could be a look at the future of energy and how we can produce enough energy sustainably without harming the environment, or a plan to revolutionise travel and transport in your country or beyond. 

Your plan must be realistic, but we welcome ideas for futuristic strategies and new technologies.

Details of the competition are here.

To get an idea of the standard of entries of last year's winners, head here.

Entering the competition

The competition has four categories.

Key Stage 2 (pupils aged 7-11)

Key Stage 3 (pupils aged 11-14)

Key Stage 4 or GCSE (pupils aged 14-16)

Key Stage 5 or A Level (pupils aged 16-18)

Students should enter the Key Stage category they will be in on 30 June 2023. 

The deadline for receipt of all entries is Monday 2 October 2023 at 5.00pm. 

Entries received after this time will not be accepted. The RGS encourages schools to run an in-house competition and only send their top 10 entries into the national competition. 

All winners and highly commended students will be invited to an Awards Ceremony at the Society in London on Friday 8 December 2023.

The general entry criteria are the same as usual

KS2, KS3 and KS4 students should produce an A3 size poster entry. 

This can be handmade (then submitted electronically using a scanned copy or photograph) or using PowerPoint, Word, Publisher or PDF, etc. KS5 students should produce an Esri Story Map or write an essay – both of which should contain no more than 1,500 words. 

Key Stage 2 criteria: 

Provide your plan for at least one geographical issue, using annotated images, maps or diagrams. 

Key Stage 3 criteria: Provide your plan for at least two or more geographical issues, using annotated images, maps or diagrams. 

Key Stage 4 criteria: Provide your plan for at least three or more geographical issues, using annotated images, maps, diagrams and data. 

Key Stage 5 criteria: Provide your plan for multiple geographical issues, using annotated images, maps, diagrams and data.

Good luck to all those who put together an entry.

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...

Future Food - BBC resource

We have just come to the end of another round of presentations on feeding the world in the future.

The BBC's FUTURE page has a range of excellent stimulus for this theme, which fits with some of the ideas we have encouraged students to explore. Follow the Food has several short films and other information that would be excellent for students researching potential food solutions.

Yuval Noah Harari on the world after Coronavirus

Free to read on the FT website at the moment and well worth a read. 

Future Food

For those who are putting together a presentation on feeding the world in 2050, it's important to use strong images.
There are plenty in this piece in the 'Geographical' magazine on the Future of Food.

Extinction Rebellion Climate Change video

Would you use this video?
How would you use this video?
What messages do we need to be talking about with young people with regard to their involvement in this, and how they might be able to help?

Should we be panicking?

Learning and getting things done in the future...

How many of these technologies might we see at King's Ely in the future?

Thanks to Richard Bustin for the link below

Songdo - our future city .... today ?

We explored the building of the city of Songdo in South Korea. David remembered visiting the areas as the site was being prepared.
The city is built on reclaimed land, so even the ground it stands on is new.
We watched the BBC news item on the city.

We used the BBC Focus article - follow this link then download the attached file, which is a PDF copy of the article.
We looked at the interactive map, which showed the residential and commercial developments, and also the extent of green open space in the city.

Is the city really as good as it seems ?
How busy is the CBD ? 
How fully occupied are the residential areas and business districts ?

Could our cities really be spying on us ?

Your life in Jelly Beans

Another video which I hope to make use of in the unit with the Year 7 unit on risk and time...
It refers to the way that our life is spent... and encourages us to make the best use of it.
It's an American film, and there are references that UK students will need to replace with relevant ones...
The statistics are available to view here.



I like the final section where you are presented with a final few jelly beans. How would you spend those days ? Spend them on something that matters :)

Could be a challenge to try making something on a slightly smaller scale involving sweets...