"Once there was a mountain called Peak XV...."

Public Service Broadcasting telling the story of the expedition that conquered the mountain for the first time...

And here's the StoryMap that we used - which used to be hosted by National Geographic.

Census Data and Centenarians

 

A new visualisation on the ONS website today explores the growth in the number of centenarians flagged up in the latest Census.

There are now almost 14 000 people who are aged over 100.

A few other facts:

Centenarians still only represent 0.2% of the total population.

Male centenarians in 2021 had outlived their life expectancy at birth by four decades and female centenarians by three decades.

Two in five centenarians lived alone; one in five lived in private households with other people; the remaining two in five lived in a communal establishment.

A higher proportion of male centenarians were married than female centenarians; this is because of the longer life expectancy of females and because men, on average, marry women slightly younger than themselves.

Investigate the map yourself here. One of the areas with a higher than average percentage of centenarians is local to me: the North Norfolk coast.

New Polar maps from the British Antarctic Survey

The Arctic and Antarctic are changing so rapidly that the maps need updating regularly. This work is completed by the British Antarctic Survey. I have one of their maps for my department, but perhaps need the latest now to replace it (or for comparison).

Today our cartographers released new Antarctic and Arctic maps - with lots of changes to these fast changing and fragile places:

🧊 ice sheet loss
🌊 new sea ice data
📌 using indigenous town names in the Canadian Arctic#WorldOceansDay #climatechangehttps://t.co/GNfe2F5BEF

— British Antarctic Survey 🐧 (@BAS_News) June 8, 2023

The BAS have just released some new maps.

News here.

Leonard Parkinson of the Maroons

 

The last half term has seen the second running through with Year 7 of our reading of 'Windrush Child' by Benjamin Zephaniah.

The British Library has a piece which explores a little more about the history of the area around Maroon Town.

Slavery made a huge impact on much of the world, and continues to do so through the legacy of colonialism and the campaign for proper reparations. Many landowners in the UK 

Maroon Town is an important place in the book. It is where the main character in the book was born and where the spirit of 'Nanny of the Maroons' who is featured on a Jamaican banknote. I came across this image of Leonard Parkinson, who was one of the Maroon freedom fighters. 

The main character in the book is called Leonard (we don't find out his surname), but it would be interesting to know whether he was named after this person.

Source: http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/item/1227

If you haven't seen this UCL map before, this is also an important resource for exploring local connections with the slave trade.

It's produced by the Centre for the Study of Legacies of British Slavery.

London

I've been finishing the year off with a unit on London and a city's stories.

London attracts many visitors from around the world. I liked the look of this map.

When looking at the significance of London in geography, students annotated a tourist map to highlight key features and show the importance. I think next time I’ll get the highlighters out to show whether they are socially, politically, economically important etc. pic.twitter.com/sPceU5jT0w

— Chorlton High School Teaching Team (@ChorltonTeach) June 22, 2022

Here's the origin of the original map.  (A large JPG which can be zoomed into) and showing the area of London I visited last weekend.

GeoGuessr

I've just sorted a PRO subscription to the GeoGuessr site for the department. Several students requested it a while back.

I used to play this when it first came out in 2013. It was developed by Anton Wallén, and was originally free, but has moved to a subscription based model and now has a thriving community and a whole range of boards and challenges, including trying to identify countries in a streak as well as a daily challenge.

There is also the option to create your own map using the Map Maker tool.

There are lots of sites giving tips on how to identify countries from a range of clues.

It also makes use of Google Street View, which doesn't cover the whole world of course. A map of the coverage is here.

Interestingly, the game gained a lot of additional popularity during lockdown when people started playing it as a way of 'travelling the world'.

This article looks at the value of playing the game, particularly during lockdown.

There are some very sophisticated groups out there such as GeoTips, who have their own Discord server for keeping track of activity and World Record attempts.

There are also Twitch streamers who play the game live, perhaps in Battle Royale mode, where you compete against other players to identify locations the soonest.

Any other GeoGuessr tips and ideas welcome.

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

ArcGIS Atlas Collection - great for home learning

Need an Atlas but not got one in the house?

Check out the digital atlases.

Shared by the ESRI UK Education Team.

A new collection of digital atlases for use in lockdown learning.

Access them all here.

Don't forget that the GA also has its Geography From Home section ready to help as many return to remote teaching for a few weeks at least.

OS Maps - a few bits from this week

 OS Maps

Features of OS Maps from GeoBlogs

And a video with Dan Raven Ellison

What3Words are coming to King's Ely after the half term break...

We are going to be signing up the school after half term with new signs.
They have been provided by What 3 Words, who have addressed the whole world into 3 metre squares.
We've had N2 signed up since February.
This is particuarly useful for such things as drones, and the emergency services.

The signs have appeared in school during half term, and will be placed in important locations around the school before being properly unveiled in a few weeks' time.

National Map Reading Week

It's a pity that it's during the school holidays as we normally do a big push on this at school, and it's sometimes been later in the year.

It's National Map Reading Week, so try to get out there this week with an OS Map and try the downloadable guides.



Perhaps this is the week to do a trial of the OS Maps app - it's excellent...

Merits available to all KEJ pupils who send a picture of them outside with an OS Map.

Great work by Johnny Eaton

6th Form lecture by Ben Hennig

We are very fortunate to have Ben Hennig coming to speak to the 6th form on June 21st. This will be a special occasion as Ben is world renowned for his cartograms which help people see the world differently. He has won numerous awards, and is currently working at the University of Oxford, which is ranked as the number one university geography department in the world.
He has also completed a project with Mr. Parkinson, as he produced the maps for LondonMapper in association with Professor Danny Dorling, and Mr. P wrote the educational materials.

Ben Hennig Poster for Lecture

A food map to explore

I was sent a link to this food map over the half term.
Click for the large version

I think the Fens is also a fabulous food region, and Year 7 are going to explore what we produce in our area that could go on a similar map which we can create over the next half term.

Keep food miles to a minimum by researching local food producers.

Here's a few that spring to mind:

Corkers Crisps
British Sugar - refineries for beet in the area go to make Tate and Lyle and other granulated sugar
Breweries e.g. Elgood's and other micro-breweries
Waterland Organics - veg boxes etc.
Fenland Celery (blogged about previously) - G's Fresh Ltd.

What else can you find ?

We also have to organise a few other food related things, such as some cooking.

Remember that the first few weeks when we come back are Fairtrade Fortnight.

And finally, I hope your food Missions are coming along nicely!!

Antarctica for £1...

Well, slightly more...
A trip to Poundland to pick up a few items earlier...

They included some washing lines, rubble sacks, washing up sponges, coat hangers, paper cups and other blue things to make a visual representation of Antarctica and its major features.

These will be made outside on the playground, or in the Morbey Hall, depending on the weather.

Students will be in groups of four, and given a score depending on how creatively they use the equipment they are given (and other material of their choice)

Instruction sheets below...

Antarctica Map Making Challenge

London's Foodprint...

The area that is needed to provide London with its foodstuffs.... a hungry city...
This map by my friends from City Farmers shows London's 'foodshed'....
Good for our work on the Geography of Food in the new term, but also relevant to the work on Cities for Year 9

Wonder how big the circle will be for Christmas turkeys...

A dying art ?

Something to practise over half term...