America - how did it become a superpower?

A new series starting this Saturday on Channel 5 will provide the answer.

Superpowers - Part 3 - Russia

We are going to move on to explore how Russia has changed as a Superpower.

There are various maps we will use. Some of these are taken from the Atlas, and others from Prisoners of Geography (the younger person's version)



This is a cartogram from Ben Hennig showing where the majority of Russia's population live in the west, in the European area of Russia (west of the Ural Mountains) - it is one of many new cartograms showing the population density for each country.

Superpowers - Part 2

Hard and Soft Power is the focus for this lesson and activities.

We started by defining these terms, using examples.
The basic difference is between coercion and persuasion, and we provided some analogies to situations like classrooms.

I found this an interesting example.

Superpowers - Pt. 1

Superpowers is our new Year 9 unit, which was started last week with most groups.
It starts by defining SuperPowers and moving on to how they exert their power.
This can include military, economic, political and cultural power.
Some of this power is Hard and some is Soft.

British Council report on Soft Power, particularly cultural power (PDF download) is a useful resource to explore what we mean by this term.

Superpowers and the Arctic - further planning

New Statesman article.
Makes good reading for our unit on Superpowers in the next half term.

Superpowers and Conflict - some planning

After half term, we are going to be exploring a new unit on Conflict connecting with the idea of Superpowers.

This is a development of our existing unit, but with a new focus and some new resources.
I've mined a few bits from Google Drive, TeachitGeography and some earlier work by Simon Oakes.

This weekend, the Guardian published a piece by Simon Tisdall on the possible new superpowers of the next part of the 21st Century.
This is a timely piece for us.

We also have a class set of the new illustrated version of 'Prisoners of Geography'.

We'll be exploring the Arctic and have Klaus Dodds' book, and will look at Russia's interests in this emerging resource frontier...


Will share the resources that I contribute and some outcomes in the next half term.

A few links from the 

Fair Observer - a new 'Cold War' in the Arctic?  




Is it time to draw borders on the Arctic Ocean? - an excellent Vox piece.
Russia has interests in the Arctic, and is building a fleet of icebreakers.



I've also started a new Pinterest board.

One real concern for many is that Russia is taking climate change seriously and preparing for the implications of it, spending many millions of pounds, whereas the USA has a climate denier in charge.... strategically a bad idea.