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.

StoryMap Exercise on Tornadoes in the USA

 

A lovely review of 'Why Study Geography?'

I'm grateful to Thomas Larsen for this really wonderful review of my book, which was published in the US in the 'Geography Journal'. If you are quick, this link will take you to a free PDF download of the whole review - although it can be read on this page too. I am really delighted that Thomas has really 'got' what I was aiming at when writing the book.

Check out Thomas' website as well for more of his work and reviews.

The book is still available to purchase of course. Imagine reading it on a beach this summer.

"Parkinson enters into a personal dialogue with the reader. Reading Why Study Geography? feels like receiving practical life advice from a veteran."

America - how did it become a superpower?

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

Fast Food StoryMap

Year 8 Revision Support 2: USA-Mexico Migration

As Geography teachers at King's, we don't create everything that we use in the classroom. As well as the (very) occasional use of a textbook, we tend to use materials created by other teachers. It's a reminder that as students, we should try to use a variety of sources that we trust. When it comes to resources, we have used a few created by Matt Podbury, who works in Toulouse, France.

He has created a really useful site called GeographyPods, and there are quite a few sections of this website which you could look at to help with your studies. For example, Matt has created some really useful resources on the situation at the US-Mexico border. Check them out here. You'll find the Superheroes pictures that I showed you, to make a point about the connections between migrants and their families back home. This is linked to the idea of REMITTANCES: the money that flows back to the home country, send by migrants. For some countries like the Philippines, this is vital for the country's economy.

For example, consider this statement from Wikipedia:

Migrants sent approximately 10% of their household incomes; these remittances made up a corresponding 50–80% of the household incomes for the recipients.

Take a look at some of the activities and resources on Matt's page.

Also check out the PEOPLEMOV.IN website to see where migrants go to and from....

More materials over the next week... Keep checking back for more...

America

A second cultural reference to the US-Mexico border comes in the form of the lyrics from West Side Story.
Although the gang are Puerto Ricans, many of them would have travelled to the USA via Mexico. It describes some of the barriers which remain even when the physical border has been crossed.
This is an important reminder that this unit is not just about the actual boundaries, but the pyschological borders that remain, sometimes invisible.
I mentioned that some of the alienation and ghettoisation of minority ethnic groups described in the song still persist in parts of urban areas in the UK today.

America - West Side Story

Walls 2: Frida Kahlo

Take a look at this painting by Frida Kahlo, and explore the connections between the image and the stories of the US-Mexican border we have been exploring.

How are the two countries represented ? 

Risky places...

Year 9 should remember the categories of natural hazard - there were three main types: meteorological, tectonic and geomorphic.
A few days ago was a major reminder that the last of these categories can be as devastating as the first.
A huge landslide in the US state of Washington has covered a square mile of Snohomish County with thick mud.
There are over a hundred people still missing, some of whom are feared trapped in their cars.

Was this classed as a risky place to live before the event ?
Will one single event change the classification of risk in this area for ever ?