Scott and Amundsen

It's just past the anniversary of the arrival of Scott and Amundsen and their men in the Antarctic ahead of their attempt on the South Pole. Amundsen had a change of plans, after he heard that Robert Peary had reached the North Pole (his original target).

We will be exploring the journey of the two expeditions after half term in Year 8... 
Consider how the different routes the expeditions chose influenced their success (or failure)

Uganda Marathon

In June 2018, four King's Ely teachers - Alison Stewart, Richard Oliver, Amanda Kippax and TOP GEOGRAPHER Claire Kyndt - will be taking on the Uganda Marathon - An Adventure Like No Other with the support of some of their family members.
The challenge will see them taking part in a variety of volunteering projects and activities in Uganda, culminating in either a full or half marathon in Masaka.
Proceeds from their fundraising efforts will be split equally between the Uganda Marathon projects and Mengo Hospital in the capital, Kampala.
A whole host of activities will be planned between now and June to help the King's Ely team raise as much money as possible and, as you can see from this video, the charities are extremely grateful for our support!

El Nino / La Nina pop-up

Thanks to Ben Newbury for producing and sharing the El Nino pop up here at the TES site.
I used it last week, and it went down very well and we had some great results from it.







You need to download the presentation and the accompanying template.

I had to re-print the two sides of the template as it was not quite aligned when it was printed off. This should be done on card to keep the rigidity in the final pop-up element. The powerpoint is very useful in providing all the steps required.
The students really enjoyed the activity, and there were some great outcomes within an hour. Here's one of them:

Finishing touches... pic.twitter.com/OkEAVXmZ4R

— KingsElyGeographers (@KingsElyGeog) September 29, 2017

Changing Arctic - a 360 degree film

Strap your phone into a VR headset, and watch this movie...
The Arctic is changing. 2016 saw record temperatures worldwide, in some places it reached 20C (68 F) above the average. As a result the Arctic is melting. In 2016 the Northwest passage had an ice-free summer, allowing cruise ships access to one of the most remote places on Earth. This virtual tour is a more environmentally-friendly way to view this majestic landscape, and a stark reminder of the consequences of our environment-damaging behaviour.

Welcome to Antarctica

Used this today... great fun, and introduces some of the sights that tourists in Antarctica have the chance to see...

Hurtigruten comes to Antarctica from Hurtigruten AS on Vimeo.

Union Glacier Hexagons

For note taking and discussion...
Click for biggery...
Stills from the Welcome to Union Glacier film on Vimeo, which has been a central part of our Pole to Pole unit for several years.
See the ALE website for more information.

Halley base

Year 8 enjoyed watching this video while they worked...

Journey South

We've been exploring the effort that goes into getting somebody down to Antarctica to work for the British Antarctic Survey (or other countries' research operations)

Greensleeves

Where would you site this ice cream van to make the most profit on a sunny day.
Work out the time wasted spent travelling from one place to another if you are going to move through the day...
Think about the demographics of your customers...

Stop me and buy one...

ESRI Water Balance App

Thanks to Bob Lang for the tipoff to this excellent app.

https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/waterbalance/

The water balance panel (on the left) shows how much recharge or depletion occurred during your chosen month, and how this compares to what’s normal. The trend analyzer panel (on the right) shows how your chosen variable was different in the same month during other years. This panel also allows you to see the seasonal variation during a normal year (by graphing the average for each month) or aggregate the time series into annual time steps to see the long term trend more clearly.

Teachmeet presentation

Mr. Parkinson presented at a Geography event in Cambridge last night and here's the presentation that he used...

My presentation from last night's event...
Thanks to all those who did a presentation, and those who came along. Good to see some old friends who I haven't seen for a while...
I talked about Curriculum making and powerful knowledge, and the importance of teachers finding their own path and approach as one of the responsibilities of being a teacher...

Bonus points to those who recognise the music score that's in the presentation

TM Perse Alan Parkinson from GeoBlogs

National Poetry Day

Taking part in this today

Theme Park poetry acrostic frame by GeoBlogs on Scribd

The importance of clothing and food in Polar regions

A very useful video from the Scott Polar Research Institute exploring the importance of appropriate clothing in Antarctica. There are some teacher resources to go with this, and several other useful films too...


Clothing in Antarctica from Polar Museum on Vimeo.


Here's another on FOOD... these are great...




Eating in Antarctica from Polar Museum on Vimeo.

Thanks for coming...

Thanks to all those visitors who came along to our Open Day last Friday and Saturday - we had several hundred visitors who saw some of the things we get up to in Geography...
We may see some of you as pupils and parents in the next year or so...

Cake... there will be cake...

We'll be raising money for this cause on Friday this week...
Don't forget your Fairtrade/ Rainforest Alliance chocolate treats... and consider the Palm Oil that goes into them...