Internal Migration

A very detailed and valuable resource, shared by our American chum Seth Dixon.

Poppyfield

A visualisation of conflicts since the turn of the 20th Century, with the poppy symbolising the scale, length and severity of the conflict.

Poppyfield is an impressive visualisation, and we used it with Year 9 students to identify conflicts for further research.

Center Parcs: a model for adventure?

Year 7 are designing a leaflet for their proposed adventure / activity centre in the landscape. This has to connect the idea of adventures with that of the landscape...
I've been showing the Center Parcs brochure as a model for what they might be able to produce. There is a connection here between the activities that are offered, and the environment that surrounds them. As a regular visitor, I think there's a lot to be said for this sort of holiday for young people.
And of course, Mission Explore is an essential part of their education.

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.

Global Goals - World's largest lesson

We'll be using these materials this week with as many groups as possible.
The new UN Sustainable Development Goals were approved by the UN on Friday, and are now available for discussion.

There is a lesson plan, and some materials here.
Find out more here too.

We'll also be sharing this on the Open Evening later this week.


The Worlds Largest Lesson Introduced by Malala Yousafzai from World's Largest Lesson on Vimeo.

Come and see us...

Open Morning on the 26th of September, and Open Evening on the 29th....
Check the school website for more details.

Syrian Crisis.... in a nutshell

Essential viewing for Year 9, 10, 12 and 13 in particular...

The first few minutes is particularly useful in identifying the underlying causes of the current migrant crisis involving Syrian asylum seekers.

Census Song

Via Rob Chambers

Starting next Tuesday in N2 - come along!

Geography explorers club from GeoBlogs

One for Year 8

This Timeshift programme on Antarctica...

More barriers going up...

A very useful map from the Economist showing some of the current boundaries that have been put up between different parts of the world. Click a country to see where the border lies, and the reasons for its creation.

Thanks to Miss Kyndt for the tipoff for this.
Make sure you follow the @KingsElyGeog twitter feed for more like that...

Migration images

I'm grateful to Duncan Hawley for sending through these images that he took a couple of weeks ago in Budapest. I was due to be present at the same conference, but ended up in Bruges instead. The pictures were taken at the main railway station.

Year 9, 10, 11, and 12 geographers in particular should be able to discuss the circumstances which have led to these scenes.

Images: copyright Duncan Hawley

A Sky News film to watch

600 up...

This blog is now 600 posts old... it's already developing nicely to support students at King's and elsewhere.
Use the search function top left to find posts on specific topics.

Who owns Cambridgeshire?

This Private Eye map shows the land in the UK that is registered as being owned overseas.

Some parts of Ely are registered overseas, including areas close to the school itself. How much of London is actually 'owned' by overseas companies or individuals?

Urban patterns

Year 10 are underway with Population students, and we used Ben Hennig's rather splendid images and mapping (and also with Year 12)
Here's a map from the Independent's i newspaper, which is a great website and Twitter feed to follow for all King's Geographers.

It shows the country where the largest city houses the most people within the population of that country. So Singapore, for example is 100% urbanised and holds 100% of the people of Singapore.