Snowdonia 'A' level fieldwork

I'm currently on another trip - this time to Snowdonia with 6th form students, and colleagues, to do the fieldwork for upland and lowland glaciation. It is not on the doorstep when you live in Cambridgeshire, so we will be exploring upland and lowland areas, in the area around Cwm Idwal, the Ogwen Valley and Nant Ffrancon.

After a night at the Swallow Falls Youth Hostel, we've arrived at Rhyd-y-Creuau, and just back from an upland glacial day in and around Cwm Idwal.

I mentioned the BritIce map, as a possible secondary source.

Hemsby Erosion....

‘I had nine metres of garden five hours ago - now it’s gone’ - residents tell of horror as stormy seas batter coastal village https://t.co/jckDKj2Hro

— Eastern Daily Press (@EDP24) March 17, 2018

Better World Detectives

Tui is the travel company formerly known as Thomson. 
They have made available a suite of resources for KS2 pupils, which involves 6 fully resourced lessons. There is an accent on sustainability, which connects with the company's approach of promoting sustainable tourism.

An e-mail is required to download the resource pack, which runs to almost 300Mb as it includes a range of assets including videos and teacher resources to print off. These are fun, and well packaged materials, with nods to social media use, and themes which will be familiar to many young people. The lessons introduce students to a fictional island first, before exploring plastic in the oceans, coral reefs, and the impact of tourism on local communities and people.

Say hello to the Better World Detectives, and you may find a use for some of these resources within your KS2 curriculum.

Stuff...

We are underway with the Geography of our Stuff unit... This will involve us in exploring the personal geographies of the things that we own.
We also have been creating our Cultural Objects slide with the things that represent our teenage years.
We've followed the story of our uniform, created by SchoolBlazer, and will move onto t-shirts and sweatshops next.
Here's a video to get you thinking...

Check the FIREFLY page to find out more if you are KEJ pupil.

Nutella - go nuts...

Exploring the brown stuff earlier in the week, and why there were riots in French supermarkets earlier in the year.
Exploring the global supply chain, and also the questions which underpin the selection of the ingredients, and environmental aspects such as the production of palm oil, and the certification of this and other products.
I also mentioned a recent story of Tesco sourcing sugar from thousands of miles away despite the store being next to a beet processing plant in Bury St Edmunds.
I then created a Twitter poll, as there was some debate over the pronunciation of the spread's name, and the results of the poll are now in...

OS GetOutside Champions

You can take a first look at the new OS Champions Website here.
It will give you information about all the people who are going to be working with me over the next year or more to encourage more exploration of the UK, with all the additional benefits that being outside brings.
Here's me and my fellow Champions based in the East of England.
We each have a page where we will be posting what we get up to over the course of the year.

Top down or Bottom Up

As part of the Dynamic Development topic... Sheet for recording pros and cons of named schemes...

Top Down or Bottom Up by GeoBlogs on Scribd

Let's go bananas....

Big Mac Miles

To go with the story from yesterday on the 8000 miles travelled by the ingredients.

From CDA Group Ltd

Field to Frier

An excellent and useful video made by Isle of Ely produce, close to where I teach...
It explores the stages in the production of potatoes, which are then sent up to Scotland to be turned into chips...
Involves the weather, the soil, traceability, transport and logistics, and various processes.


Field to Frier from Beard Askew Productions on Vimeo.

The journey of a berry....

The first of a few videos on Food Miles that we use when exploring whether far is really bad...

Primark Suppliers Map

All ready for the start of our Year 8 unit on the Story of our Stuff...

Primark are a company that has some criticism in the past over their supply chain. Now they are trying to position themselves as a more ethical company, and provide more information about the factories where their products are made.

There is an improved focus on transparency in the supply chain, and this includes the production of a map (a tool that other suppliers have also done quite effectively).
The map now has a link through to suppliers.

Arctic vs Antarctica

The Arctic

Just too late for our teaching this time round, but saved here for next time round.
A nice introductory video for an Arctic project from the Wicked Weather Watch website.
With thanks to Emma Espley for the tipoff.

Teachmeet at the GA Conference

The sign-up page is now up on Eventbrite for the Teachmeet which will be held at the GA Conference in Sheffield in April.

I'll see you there... and at the Beermeet afterwards...

The biggest geography themed TeachMeet of the year.

The TeachMeet will take place at Shefield Hallam University on the 6th April 2018. 

The TM will start with introductions at 18.50 with sessions commencing at 19.00 and finishing at 20.00. Drinks and snacks will be available.