Sun rising at the South Pole from today!

#Equinox! The Sun is now rising at the South Pole; Sun crossing celestial equator heading South, tilt of Earth's axis perpendicular to Sun pic.twitter.com/X619PfL9Av

— The Antarctic Report (@AntarcticReport) September 22, 2017

Isn't celestial geometry amazing...

GCSE Blog - essential for Year 10

Year 10s - you need to visit this blog regularly...

Not fake news... we've been featured on CNN

Last week I spoke to a journalist from CNN about the work that we did last academic year with the Open University related to Google Expeditions and VR. We worked with Shailey Minocha from the OU and colleagues, and later that year I worked as part of a consultancy project to author some resources to accompany some of the Google Expeditions to turn them into lesson resources.

I spoke to the journalist for about half an hour with some perspectives on the technology, and the piece has now been published on CNN.

Hurricanes - a natural disaster?

There has been no shortage of stories in the news over the last few days regarding the arrival of Hurricane Harvey, followed by Irma and Maria. Flooding has of course hit other places: a mudslide in Sierra Leone, flooding in Bangladesh and Nepal and other areas.
Some people have suggested that it is wrong for these disasters to get less coverage than Harvey, but it is inevitable given the location, and the ability to capture and share imagery of the flooding.
A few phrases to remember when learning this topic are:

Resilience
Resilience is the ability of a system to maintain certain functions, processes, or populations after experiencing a disturbance.
Or to bounce back to normal.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

This is an approach to managing risks which aims at reducing them in advance in preference to coping after they have happened.

Is Hurricane <name>  a "natural disaster"?
Clearly the hurricane is an atmospheric system which developed over warm water. Some would argue that the pace of formation, and scale, and therefore the nature of the impact and the place that was affected, was influenced by warming oceans and surface temperatures (climate change)
Explore some different viewpoints on this, including the nature of the housing that has been built as Houston has sprawled outwards.
Also consider the importance of federal aid, and insurance.

One to follow, and develop further....

Time for Geography

Time for a new school year. Time for Geography.
There are plenty of high quality resources available here at the very nicely designed Time for Geography site.


There are videos on Coasts, Rivers and Glaciation as well as Geog Topics, and some additional resources for those who register too.
Well worth a look - Year 7s you could learn something here...

New flag for N2

New flag just arrived to replace the Brazilian one that's flown behind my desk for the last year in N2.

Which place is this flag representing?

Ely from the air...

Theme Park Geography

We are preparing to teach a unit on Theme Park Geography for the first time in the coming term, which was shared with us by Garry Simmons and Elen Harris, and can be downloaded by Teaching Geography subscribers / GA members from this link here.
There are some excellent resources to download, and we will be adding a few extras to connect it with our location and students, and the way that we generally introduce and develop student work.
Here's a nice video to get students into the mood as they enter the classroom....

A Day at Disneyland from Mike Alcoran on Vimeo.
'A day at the Disneyland Resort'
*Best viewed in HD*

Produced by: UNEEKFM (http://www.uneekfm.tumblr.com) & MKE (http://mikealcoran.com)
Edited by: Mike Alcoran
Shot with: Canon Rebel T3i (Sigma 10-20mm f/4, 30mm f/1.4, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8, Rokinon 8mm) and pure imagination.
Music: "Make it Whole" - by QNQP (https://soundcloud.com/qnqp)

A new option for Arctic and Antarctica from ESRI

New page, which has been added to some existing web apps, featuring the Arctic and Antarctica.
Click here to see the Arctic and Antarctic apps.

Then click here to be taken to the new Landsat Explorer App.

The Earth.... in a nutshell...

Remember to opt for 'A' level Geography next...

For all those just collecting GCSE results.

Congrats to all getting #geography results today! Here's why you should study it at #ALevel. #GCSEResultsDay2017 https://t.co/Lq1X91PFL7 pic.twitter.com/J7rQclIIGS

— RGS-IBG (@RGS_IBG) August 24, 2017

Congratulations on exam results....

After some excellent 'A' level results, it was the turn of Year 11 (and some younger students) today...
GCSE success for many starts lower down the school of course... it's a real team effort. Congratulations to everyone.

Congratulations to all our #GCSE students for another excellent set of results! Read the full report here: https://t.co/ZrRGq75RrV pic.twitter.com/Irt2opO3E0

— King's Ely (@Kings_Ely) August 24, 2017

The Explorer by Katherine Rundell

This book has come into my social media feeds several times. It's getting excellent reviews.
It has been written by Katherine Rundell, and is called "The Explorer".

I bought the book earlier this week. "The Explorer" is about four children who have to survive when the plane they are travelling in crashes into the Amazon jungle.
The story is about survival, but also the dynamics between the characters. There's plenty of great moments, and I also liked the description of maps:

"Goosebumps rose on his arms. Fred knew the power of maps. They gestured to hidden things. They were line drawings of the world's secrets".

A few years ago, I wrote a book for Collins called 'Extreme Survival', which featured the story of Juliane Koepcke, a young woman who survived a plane crash into the jungle.
The book is well worth taking a look at...
We may look at using it as a set text at King's.

There's also a resource pack available from Bloomsbury (PDF download) for KS2.

Here's the author talking about the inspiration for the story...

The Forgotten Celery

Will be using this for our Food unit in the new academic year... a nice starter... and stimulus to write a story of your own...

Iceman Movie

A new movie reimagining the last days of Ötzi is opening next week with its premiere.

Mr. Parkinson wrote a book about him a few years ago, called 'The Ice Man', which is still available to buy.

There is plenty of note in the story, and Year 6 and other students have already been introduced to the story of the Ice Man in Geography lessons....

The film is described as follows: 

On August 8th at 9:30 pm the movie “Iceman” directed by Felix Randau will be presented to the world at the Locarno Festival. On the “Piazza Grande” the audience will follow closely the fictitious story about Ötzi’s last days and hours.

With Jürgen Vogel in the title role, the film speculates on what might have happened on the Tisenjoch some 5,300 years ago – when Ötzi the Iceman was murdered by an arrow striking him in the back. And above all, why? Director Felix Randau focuses in particular on bringing to life Ötzi’s last few days and the circumstances which could have led to his mysterious death.

Synopsis: 5,300 years ago in the Neolithic Age. An extended family is living peacefully beside a stream in the Öztal Alps. Their leader Kelab (Jürgen Vogel) has been charged with guarding the holy shrine.
Whilst Kelab is out hunting, his settlement is attacked and the entire tribe is murdered, including Kelab’s wife and son. The sacred shrine of the community is also taken away. Consumed by pain and anger, Kelab now has only one goal: revenge!
Kelab is now set on tracking down the perpetrators. During the course of his Odyssey through the mountains he is subjected to all the dangers of nature. A tragic error now makes him into the one that’s hunted. Finally Kelab has to confront not just those who murdered his family, but his own demons. Will he give way to his urge for revenge and thereby turn from victim to offender? Or will he succeed in breaking the eternal cycle of violence?

I hope that this makes it to the UK.
Here's the trailer: