America - how did it become a superpower?

A new series starting this Saturday on Channel 5 will provide the answer.

Geography of Stuff - e-Waste

Say miaow to Hypnocat...

A piece in the BBC News caught my eye today - always working even over half term of course. Geography never stops after all.

It talked about giving electronic items a repairability rating.

The article also talked about the WEEE directive which we cover when we do our unit on the Geography of Stuff in Year 8 in the Lent Term.

Here's a graphic from the piece looking at what electrical items we throw away the most.

Source: Southampton University - copyright BBC News.

The article uses this graphic from Southampton University.

Last year, the EU adopted Right to Repair standards, which mean that from 2021 firms will have to make appliances longer-lasting and supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.

The UK government has pledged to "match and even exceed EU eco-product regulations" in the post-Brexit era. 

That makes me laugh frankly, when you read the UN report on WEEE and who produces the most.

The article introduced me to Material Focus.

In the UK, the WEEE sector body, Material Focus – formerly the WEEE Fund with funds via the compliance fee part of the UK’s WEEE system, has also carried out recent research. It claimed that the UK economy could save £370 million if all the old small electricals that are “either thrown away or hoarded” were recycled.

They are behind a campaign to Recycle your Electricals, which uses Hypnocat...

This makes the point that there are hundreds of millions of pounds worth of unused electrical items sitting in sheds, garages, attics and under sink cupboards in the kitchens of the UK. The manufacture of these involves the use of raw materials which are in limited supply.

Drawdown in King's Lynn

 Coming to King's Lynn for the next month or so...

This consists of projections which will be shone onto 4 key buildings in the town between next weekend and the end of November. I shall be heading over once the clocks have gone back to take a look at this...

More details here.

The impact of the 2020 national lock-down has shown us that change can be made and some positive effects have been experienced including people commuting less and becoming more aware of their environment… Can this be the beginning of an influential change? The work aims not to emphasize the problems of climate change, but highlight some of the solutions and provide empowerment through awareness.

The project draws on research from Drawdown, a 2017 comprehensive plan to reverse global warming, developed by an international coalition of leading researchers, scientists and policymakers. Their report ranks the top 100 ways to reverse climate change, with #1 being the most effective in sequestering carbon from the environment. To create DRAWDOWN, Sheppee has focused on the most relevant subjects for King’s Lynn, tailoring the solutions to the locality. Read our interview with Sheppee to find out more about what inspired this project.

You can visit the project by touring the sites listed below after dark until 10pm daily, from Sunday 25 October until Tuesday 24 November. We recommend that visitors bring a torch and please do follow the latest social distancing guidelines whilst enjoying the project. Further information about the ranked solutions highlighted at each site will be released daily on social media throughout the project.

• Greyfriars Tower focuses on solutions related to changes to our energy use.
• King’s Lynn Minster considers solutions around reducing emissions.
• The Custom House highlights solutions for water usage and protection.
• St Nicholas’ Chapel relates to solutions for afforestation, restoring our green environment. 

DRAWDOWN is the first of four climate related artworks by Collusion that will be delivered between October 2020 and May 2022 as part of the GAME ON series. GAME ON aims to establish King’s Lynn as a national centre of excellence for cultural innovation in interactive, town-scale projection-based artworks, supported by a networked digital cluster of specialist creative businesses.

The book is worth buying as well.

Worth going to see from Ely I reckon....

Ely Standard

Ely Standard has a special feature on the High Street this week and the way that independent shops are thriving.

There are interviews with the owners of some of the shops that we investigated last week.

The Health of the High Street

At the moment we are in our phase of going out to the High Street in Ely on fieldwork with Y7 students to start the year off with some fieldwork. This has been made possible despite the pandemic through careful planning, small groups, briefing on distancing and fairly quiet visiting times, although Friday was getting quite busy.

Students are also asked to wear masks.

This is a sign that I came across while in Bury St Edmunds last week.

It's an important message for all those who want to buy anything currently. The big multinationsals and Amazon will still be around after the pandemic is over, but will the High St?

Also saw a signed copy of David Attenborough's new book in Topping Books' window.

The address at the bottom goes to the Totally Locally campaign, and provides a range of resources, including a toolkit for those towns that join the movement, and try to encourage people to spend a fiver in their local High St rather than online...

Antarctica Day - flag design competition

This is on the 1st of December each year.

Each year, the UK Polar Network has a competition.

On December 1st 1959, 12 nations signed the Antarctic Treaty, a document declaring that Antarctica would be off limits to military activity and setting it aside as a place for peace and scientific discoveries. Since 2010, December 1st has been celebrated each year to mark this milestone of peace and to inspire future decisions. We hope to extend the celebrations worldwide through our Antarctic Flags initiative, giving new generations the opportunity to learn about the Antarctic Treaty and to share, interpret and cherish the values associated with Antarctica.

Register by October 31st to take part, and send your flag to a scientist in Antarctica.

An opportunity for other geography teachers

 

Some people ask from time to time what they can do to get more involved with the Geographical Association -  other than the obvious way which is to become a member in the first place.

We have the Phase committees (including Early Years, Secondary and Post-16/HE) and other Special Interest Groups (SIGs) which have a changing roster of members and activity.

There are opportunities to write for the GA's journals: articles and contributions can take various forms and be of differing lengths.

Teachers can also apply to be Consultants to the GA, and work comes through fairly regularly. I've just completed some work with a game design company for example.

There is now a chance for you to put yourself forward to get involved with the journey that I am currently involved with, and apply to be a future President of the Geographical Association. There are also positions for trustees and governing body roles.

Details are published in the GA magazine for Autumn 2020.

OS Maps - a few bits from this week

 OS Maps

Features of OS Maps from GeoBlogs

And a video with Dan Raven Ellison

Life Expectancy Calculator from the ONS

One for the Y8s to consider alongside their work, and also for GCSE folks - how has this changed in the last few years.

Maersk and Containerisation

 For Y8

EU Trade with the UK

Working on a new resource today.

A couple of ONS visualisation tools to see what we trade with the rest of the world:

Open Day

KEJ Geography from Alan Parkinson on Vimeo.

Open Morning Video

Cheeseburger Infographic

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society has released a new infographic and resource exploring the water footprint of a cheeseburger. It can be downloaded as a PDF.

I will make use of this later in the year I think, and it also would make a good large poster if printed.

'Why Study Geography?' - coming soon

The latest book by Mr. Parkinson has almost been prepared for publication and will be arriving on book shelves next month... Here are the details...

Geography is the big-picture subject for our times. It encompasses subjects ranging from the microscopic – how soils form, and how those soils can be protected and managed well to grow food, for example – through to things as large-scale as the future trajectory of megacities and the threat of ever more warming of the planet. Alan Parkinson’s guide clearly and carefully explains why geography is worthy of study, at GCSE, at A level and at university. It is bang up to date. Students, their teachers and parents are all likely to find it essential reading.

Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford

Just ahead of lockdown, I met with Richard and Sam from the London Publishing Partnership about writing a book in a series explaining why students should teach different curriculum subjects. The History book is already published, and others are on the way. The lockdown gave me the time and the inclination to meet a quite tight deadline, and after several drafts, hundreds of edits and tweaks and rewriting, the book is now about to go to print, and is set for publication in October.

The book explores why the study of geography is so important. It looks at how the subject developed, links between school and academic geography, how to apply to study geography at university, the different types of courses, how to make the most of your time at university, what careers geography can lead you into and with case studies of individuals who studied geography and who went on to do interesting things with it, and others who came into a geographical field later. There are also suggestions for how you can develop your geographical thinking, and make the most of your powerful geographical knowledge. Thanks to those people who kindly contributed to the creation of this book, which helped me shape my own thoughts, and has also led to me starting to write another related book to connect with my planned GA Presidential theme for 2021-22.

I think this book would be helpful for several different groups of people:

- for teachers of Geography, who are keen to find out about how the subject developed, and what contemporary geography courses look like
- for parents of students who have shown an interest in studying geography at HE or undergraduate level
- for those staff whose role includes preparing students for UCAS choices and university applications, or writing EPQs and related activities to support a move into academic study
- for those staff who are involved in helping with careers options for those who may want to secure a job or internship or apprenticeship instead of
- for those who simply want a few copies of a book around the place to direct those who they know might go on to study Geography at university to read to find out more...
- as a gift for Y13s who do particularly well, and head off to university (hopefully to study geography)

Please let your UCAS / Careers teachers at school know about the book - great for Options evening as well to have around to show the value of the subject to so many careers.

It would be great to get this book into as many schools as possible. Although the book is UK-focussed, it would also be useful to those in the USA and other countries, including in International Schools and those that follow UK-based exam specifications.

Go HERE to pre-order your copy and if you think you might want a small (or large) order o multiple copies then let me know and I'll put you in touch with the publishers to see whether we can arrange a discount.

And why the beans on the front cover? If you get a copy you'll find out why :)

Heading back to school...

Just a taster of what we've been missing since March...

A Day in the Life of a King's Ely Student from King's Ely on Vimeo.