From Sole to Toe: the story of a boot

A new StoryMap from Timberland: a company with strong sustainability credentials. This tells the story of the iconic yellow boot. It shows the global reach of this single product, which involves people from several continents, farmers and other industries.

A new resource for teachers from Mr. P - Buffaload and Supply Chains

Here are the details of how to get a copy of a new resource which I have been working on for quite a while - since before COVID19 in fact. 

After three or four drafts, the final version 1.0 is available.

It is connected with a local logistics company based in Cambridgeshire called Buffaload. 

Just prior to COVID19, Buffaload CEO Ross Taylor and other colleagues met with myself and other teaching colleagues at King's Ely to talk about the school's involvement in an event that was planned to take place in Ely Cathedral, from memory to coincide with the installation of one of Luke Jerram's GAIA pieces. There was to have been some exciting elements of the event.

The company aims to become carbon neutral, and has already led the way on the use of technology in this area including the use of double decker trailer which reduce the overall number of deliveries that are needed. They work with supermarkets such as Tesco and Co-op and also deliver for local companies such as G's Fresh.

They have a real interest in the environment and are working towards becoming carbon neutral across their extensive operations, which requires quite a lot of coordinated activity and the application of different methods of working.

We explored a number of contexts related to their work and I saw the potential for a resource on their work. I had already worked on a logistics resource some years earlier. This was a major resource produced in association with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. 

It can still be viewed on the GA website here.

Lesson one: Supply chain

Lesson two: Road haulage

Lesson three: Railways

Lesson four: City bikes

Lesson five: Buses and coaches

Lesson six: Shipping containers

Lesson seven: Internet shopping

Lesson eight: Humanitarian relief

The new resource has a focus on the operations of Buffaload - an authentic context compared to the previous activity (see Lesson 2 Road Haulage in the CILT resource) which was based on a fictional company named after a former teaching colleague - although actually I'm really pleased with this particular activity as it happens.

There are a few accompanying resources here as well:

An album of images that can be used when teaching using the resource. They are the images provided in the resource by Buffaload.

A PPT which could be used to help guide the teaching with the resource will also be provided shortly.

The first version of the resource is embedded for reading too.

Buffaload Resource Final v1... by GeoBlogs

Follow the link here to go to a PDF version that may be better for you to download.

If you do use any part of the resource, or have any feedback on them, or suggestions for improvement, please get in touch by comment, or through the usual methods e.g. Twitter DM.