The best and worst places to be old

Later in Year 7, we'll also be exploring the issue of ageing, and life expectancy.

We are all going to get old at some point (some of us sooner than others) and the Guardian has recently created an interactive map showing some of the best and worst places to be for old people, based on the work of Help Age International.

They have released an index of where it is best to be old, based on a series of indicators.

Click the map to explore the data...

Life expectancy explained...

A great way to visualise life expectancy from David Spiegelhalter.
This is something that I will be making use of for sure.
My copy of 'The Norm Chronicles' arrived today too...

"No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home at Weston-super-Mare"

Kingsley Amis

Risky World

Year 9 will be exploring a unit called RISKY WORLD at the start of the Michaelmas term.

I asked my Twitter network earlier today to send me a risk they had taken... these could be passed to students to develop a continuum of risk and identify which risks we take on a daily basis.

Paul Turner passed me a link to a YouTube video, which I'd forgotten about, made for the Cambridge Ideas series by David Spiegelhalter, who is Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk. The video explores the uncertainties that we face in our daily lives, and how we might reconcile ourselves to some of them. It also reminds us of the useful term micromort: a 1 in a million chance of dying...


Some really interesting ideas in this short video which are worth exploring more.
As part of my preparation for teaching this unit, and also our Year 7 unit: 'Who wants to live forever', I've just ordered a new book that the good Professor co-authored called 'The Norm Chronicles'.
The website to accompany the book goes through a typical person called Norm's life experiences, and talks about risks.....