Geography Club ideas

It's the time of year when clubs are setting up and recruiting eager young students who want to develop their Geographical awareness, and have fun.

This year, I'm running a lunchtime club called Geography Explorers, and also using some of the ideas with a group of Year 6 students.
We are making some geography globes and other craft projects.
I have this book, which looks like offering some really useful ideas, and a car boot now filled with practical stuff to assemble into something geographical...

New GCSE books

The cover design for one of 4 GCSE books that Mr. Parkinson is working on at the moment for publication in 2016 has been released on the Amazon ordering page for the book. Got to love the penguins...

How long will you live for ?

A visualisation by the ONS - useful for Year 12 Geographers who are exploring the idea of life expectancy...

Britain's Biggest Adventures

Bear Grylls new series explores Britain's biggest adventures (allegedly).
As always there's a touch of hyperbole about the whole thing...

There was an interesting article in the Telegraph where he described the reasons why he decided to film closer to home rather than in an exotic location, and it's a reminder of the amazing landscapes we have in the UK. This weeks explored the Cairngorms, which I used for a workshop at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers a few years ago. This used the Robert MacFarlane book 'The Old Ways' and Digimap for Schools.

Demographic Transition Model

We'll be using this today

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...