Norman Ackroyd RIP

I was sorry to hear this evening of the passing of Norman Ackroyd on Monday: one of our very greatest landscape artists.

He was a remarkable printmaker and artist. He shared the laborious process of making his etchings in several documentaries.

Listen to this programme with Robert MacFarlane.

RIP the great artist Norman Ackroyd (1938-16.09.24): etcher-magician who conjured weather & light from metal & acid; his work constitutes one of the great visual records of this archipelago’s edges.
We travelled together—& I made this programme with him: https://t.co/Y5licHxpcP pic.twitter.com/8bQDR95Fph

— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) September 18, 2024

Here's the first part of a documentary on his method featuring some of his art...

COP 26

Ahead of the COP26 conference, I was interviewed by students from Lesmahagow School in Scotland for part of the Green Room offering.

The interview was used in a newsroom resource.

There's some strange formatting and sequencing of what I said here, but the key messages come through I think..

I also get a mention here as part of the CEN Newsroom.

Not sure about the description here, but I'll take 'prominent scientist'...

BBC Scotland Landscape Animations

Well done to BBC Scotland for continuing to create new content for the Bitesize site for Geographers.

The animations feature 11 different landscapes and landscape features.

🌊🌍🏞️🛤️🌄🏔️🥾Want to go on an adventure around Scotland's incredible landscapes with our animated explorers, Isla and Connor? Take a look at our new videos for @BBCScotLearn here: https://t.co/qFxgzlkAqA#geography pic.twitter.com/pWEG9pt4xB

— Bright Button (@BrightButtonPro) October 15, 2021

Adventure Landscapes

Wild Scotland from John Duncan on Vimeo.

Shown this morning - what landscapes can you see?
How has the filming portrayed the Scottish landscape? Is it always like this?

Scotland's Census

Scotland is sparsely populated right?
We will be looking at the factors which lead to some areas being sparsely populated, and on the basis of the broad look at the population, Scotland does indeed have a sparse population compared to the SE of England...
However, the reality is more nuanced. A choropleth map would shade the whole of Scotland in the same colour if plotted at a national scale. At a regional level, there would be some variations, and a variety of tones depending on the colour ramp that was used.

We will also be using the UK Data Explorer to take a look at some of the Census data from the UK too.

Teaching about (mountain) landscapes...

Connecting with our Adventure Landscapes unit....

My seminars are available to view on my SLIDESHARE page.

SAGT Presentation from GeoBlogs

I referred to Paul Cornish’s useful diagram from the GA’s curriculum planning site, which asks questions relating to the choice of case studies.

Hopefully these move away from ‘the one in the textbook’… and are influenced by student and teacher choice and also experiences.

I used the idea from Doreen Massey’s lecture where she referred to mountains themselves as ‘migrants’ in that they were constantly moving and changing, and how maps are a surface on which millions of stories are told.

The idea of curriculum making came through, as did the idea of telling stories. Geography means 'writing the Earth' of course, and there are lots of opportunities for this to happen in familiar landscapes. I talked about teaching about mountains in the Fens, where the highest point was only 26m above sea level.

I used an extract from Robert MacFarlane's 'The Old Ways' along with 'Digimap for Schools'

There were also some ideas from Noel Jenkins on ‘grabbing’ and appropriating landscapes using Google SketchUp – which he added to with models from the SketchUp Warehouse.
I mentioned Tony Cassidy's Facebook idea with Liz Smith examples.

Dropbox folder of resources was shared with the delegates. Thanks to the fifty or so delegates who chose to come to my session...

If you would like to have access to the main written resource, drop me a line...