Palm Oil: the Grease of Empire

We are currently teaching a unit on Food - Geographies of Food, or Food for Thought. 

Palm Oil is a ubiquitous substance which can be found in far more than just chocolate biscuits. Max Haiven's book is in our departmental library.

This article explains the reasons why it replaced whale oil and continues to be used in huge quantities.

GA National Fieldwork Fortnight 2023

 

After the sucess of last year's National Fieldwork Week, the event is back again with some tweaks. The event was organised by the GA, particularly thanks to the work and energy of Paula Richardson, and formed part of Mr. Parkinson's GA Presidential year in 2021-2.

It is now a fortnight - between the 26th June and 7th July 2023.

This year's theme is 'Environment'.

I'll be heading out - in fact I was discussing a trip with colleagues yesterday - and I hope you will too, and share what you get up to with the hashtag which we'll remind you of nearer the time.

1953 East Coast flooding - a new resource

 A new resource I've written.

This got slightly delayed by other factors, but is now available ahead of next week's anniversary and commemorations which will take place along the coasts which were affected. I know there is a service and exhibition in both Snettisham and Hunstanton and aim to visit them this weekend, and then locations further round to the south of Norfolk and the Broads.

The Environment Agency - one of the GA's strategic partners - published a useful image of the flood defences as they were back in 1953 on a Pinterest board and it is shown below.

Download the resource below:

1953 Flooding - 70th Anniversary from GeoBlogs

More to come on this over the next few days. Look back at the posts from Southwold at the start of January as well for more related content to the floods, or search this blog using the search box top left.

There is also an associated Pinterest board.

I shall be out and about along the coast this coming weekend in a number of locations and will share some pictures in a Flickr album which I will share here.

I know there are permanent memorials in Hunstanton and Snettisham, and a search revealed one in Harwich. I would imagine there are others and would love to hear about them or see pictures of them if you know of one.

Global Garments

 A useful video for our work on fashion and stuff.

A short @timeforgeog video looking at Global garments: geographical imaginations, branding and attachment 🌍 | developed in partnership with @chestergeog @PortsmouthGeog | @DrHarrietRidley @CarolineEDay @Collins_R_C https://t.co/HN1ai3ksa0 pic.twitter.com/ExT6nexrP3

— Time for Geography (@timeforgeog) January 22, 2023

Look up

It turns out that Cambridgeshire is a UFO hotspot, according to the local paper.

If you do see a UFO, there is a reporting website here.

Oymyakon: Pole of Cold

The destination of the Pole of Cold expedition, led by Felicity Aston. Also visited by Nick Middleton in one of his TV series on extreme locations.

Brutal.

The coldest permanently inhabited settlement on Earth, Oymyakon (Russia), just dropped to an unforgiving -61.0°C (-77.8°F).

One of the coldest moments in recorded history in this part pf the world for this early in the winter. pic.twitter.com/144CGfuli9

— Scott Duncan (@ScottDuncanWX) December 13, 2022

Ben Zephaniah video for Year 7

An interview with Ben Zephaniah where he talks about a key point in the book we are reading with Year 7.

New LGBT+ Census 2021 data released

Cross posting from LivingGeography blog.

The BBC article here talks about the new Census data which was released this week.

Many people have been waiting for this release as it is the first time that particular questions were added to the official Census form and therefore data was collected at a national level.

I mentioned this in a previous post, which considered whether it was time to reevaluate the traditional population pyramid with its gender binary structure.

The article provides a useful summary of related terms. See below:

LGBT+ is an "inclusive" way to represent all the different identities in the longer acronym but here's a breakdown of what each of the letters in LGBTQQIAAP mean.

L - lesbian: a woman who is attracted to other women

G - gay: a man who is attracted to other men or broadly people who identify as homosexual

B - bisexual: a person who is attracted to both men and women

T - transgender: a person whose gender identity is different from the sex the doctor put down on their birth certificate

Q - queer: originally used as a hate term, some people want to reclaim the word, while others find it offensive. It can be a political statement, suggest that someone doesn't want to identify with "binaries" (e.g. male v female, homosexual v straight) or that they don't want to label themselves only by their sexual activity

Q - questioning: a person who is still exploring their sexuality or gender identity

I - intersex: a person whose body is not definitively male or female. This may be because they have chromosomes which are not XX or XY or because their genitals or reproductive organs are not considered "standard"

A - allies: a person who identifies as straight but supports people in the LGBTQQIAAP community

A - asexual: a person who is not attracted in a sexual way to people of any gender

P - pansexual: a person whose sexual attraction is not based on gender and may themselves be fluid when it comes to gender or sexual identity

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-33278165

There are maps of course which can be used to explore the data for any particular area.

Here's Brighton for example:

And here's Norwich - closer to home...

Use these to explore your own home area.

Some more thoughts here:

The latest census data is here, looking at sexual orientation and gender identity in England and Wales

Let's dive into the data 🧵 #Census2021 https://t.co/lyX4s98BRNhttps://t.co/R3syuHCbDX

— Matilda Davies (@matildakdavies) January 6, 2023

Antarctic Tourism

This piece in 'The Guardian' by Peter Hannam is well worth reading by Year 8.

We have been exploring the impact of tourism in Antarctica and this provides some useful perspective on this issue, and also some excellent images to show the juxtaposition of the landscape and the visual impact of cruise ships and tourists with their high visibility clothing.

Happy New Year

And we're back in the room for 2023 with more tales from our classrooms in Ely.

99% Invisible

 

Another reminder of this podcast series.

There are hundreds of episodes, many of which focus on the story of a particular object or a particular place.

This episode starts with the story of Beechey Island, where the graves of some of the sailors from Sir John Franklin's lost expedition were found.

My friend Val has been fortunate enough to visit Beechey Island on a Hurtigruten voyage - what an amazing privilege.

Plenty here for units on the geographies of stuff....

How has the High Street changed in recent years?

 

This article and interactive from the BBC News website is particularly useful in helping to answer that question and is particularly relevant for our work with Year 7.

Enter a postcode to see which changes have occurred in your local area.

There is also a useful summary showing the changing fortunes of certain shops and services.

The data has been collected by the Ordnance Survey.

Ely High Street mirrors some of these changes to some extent.

Census 2021: How well do you know your area?

These quizzes were previously available for the 2011 Census, and are now back with data from the 2021 Census.

✨IT'S QUIZ TIME!✨
So, you think you know your local area? Now you can test your knowledge in the new #CensusQuiz and broadcast your scores on to your friends and followers on social media!https://t.co/yIf0YfMx6q pic.twitter.com/SHLuFnDw14

— Ahmad Barclay (@bothness) December 2, 2022

The quizzes can be embedded, which makes them particularly useful for teachers who can add them to VLE pages etc.

Union Glacier

Used this classic earlier... 

A very short guide to Union Glacier Camp from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

And here's a film by the film maker...

Behind the Lens: Episode 7 from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

New Pearson support for Primary Geography and History

Mr. Parkinson has been reviewing this new resource from Pearson.

Curriculum making is an important part of any teacher's professional identity: engaging with the discipline, and developing pedagogical practice, while considering the particular nature of the school's context and the young people who sit in front of you to ensure their geographical experiences are not only educational, but also authentic and empowering.

According to Professor David Lambert,

"Curriculum making is the creative act of interpreting a curriculum specification and turning it into a coherent, challenging, engaging and enjoyable scheme of work, it is a job that really never ends and lies at the heart of good teaching."

For Primary practitioners and Secondary alike, developing a curriculum across a key stage is a lengthy and time-consuming process, which may result in several iterations over time. There are a lot of decisions to make in this work, and not all colleagues may have the time to do this within a particular academic year's cycle, or have opportunities to undertake the necessary reading and other preparation to be able to do this work justice.

For this reason, some teachers will turn to ready-made resources and schemes which are provided by a range of organisations. These are probably well known to many teachers, but Pearson have now stepped into this arena with an offering of their own.

Pearson has a great deal of experience in publishing curriculum resources, alongside supporting teachers with preparations for external examinations with textbooks. They have now produced and released a completely resourced scheme of work for Primary Geography (and also History), which includes all the resources that a school would need to begin to move towards a (possibly) new and consistent approach across the lower key stages, supported by planning materials, resources, regular assessment activities and classroom support for teachers engaging with the material for the first time. 

These resources are part of the Pearson Primary Extended Curriculum.

Pearson has spent a year working with staff at Reach Academy Feltham, Jon Hutchinson (Director of Training and Development at the Reach Foundation) and Emily Maule (Director of Humanities and Social Sciences at Reach Academy Feltham) to create a new, whole-school curriculum for Primary History and Geography.

You can take a look at the sample materials and find out more here if this sounds like it might be something to kick start or revitalise the geography in your school.

The resource is provided as a complete curriculum, including what Pearson calls “I know that...” and “I know how...” approaches, which "enable pupils to not only show they know and remember more, but also develop the conceptual and disciplinary knowledge they need to become young geographers."

Pearson's website explains that the new resources adopt a: "pedagogically rigorous approach, validated by the hundreds of classrooms who have clarified their intent, been supported through their implementation and seen evident impact." 

This approach has been trialled in a number of schools across the Reach Foundation before being made available more widely. This has doubtless ironed out many of the problems that are spotted when a new activity is given its first run through in an actual classroom with children.

For each Unit, teachers can access planning materials and lesson plans, resources, printable activity booklets and assessments which can be completed in various ways. The Units are split up into 6 Sessions, with each one ending in a Unit Check Out, which forms a final review check or assessment. There are 3 Units for each Year, suggesting that combining them with 3 History topics would produce a year's worth of lessons. Resources can be located quickly using the search function.

A series of free sample lessons are provided - you can take a good look at a KS1 lesson on the UK, and a KS2 lesson on Rivers to see whether this might fit with your own existing curriculum, or take it a step further.

Sample lesson plans to accompany the resources can also be seen on the link above.

I've had a good look through the resources and supporting documents for geography.

There are some familiar topics which receive a fresh look, along with some interesting new areas of study - Year 6 will explore fast fashion, for example, alongside carrying out fieldwork. Year 4, for example includes Rivers (with a focus on the Volga), Migration (including a look at Windrush) and Natural Resources (with a located example of Chile and its copper mines).

In addition to the lesson materials there are Concept toolkits, which allow for the exploration of some of the key underpinning concepts of the Units. These concepts include Change and Location and Place. The materials here introduce strategies to organise class discussions, group work and decision making.

There is plenty of support for writing, such as the inclusion of structure strips for some of the key topics when extended writing is required, which are formatted ready for printing. 

Speaking of printing, there is likely to be a lot of printing required to disseminate the very thorough, but lengthy booklets for both pupils and teachers which accompany each Unit. The Year 4 Pupil booklet on the Migration Unit is 31 pages long, for example. Schools would need to factor in a photocopying budget. The booklets are provided in PDF format.

Each pupil booklet starts with a knowledge organiser (you may have your own views on those), and a learning review page to track progress through the Unit. Activities include labelling, cloze text passages, connecting boxes and sorting information as well as writing answers - generally quite short pieces of text, or capturing ideas. The accompanying Teacher booklets will give teachers confidence in what is required, and help pupils through each Session. Pacing is likely to be important here, and the amount of text and visuals may overwhelm some learners.

There is one problematic Unit entitled Slums, which I would not personally use given the language, and could usefully be rebranded as 'Homes: Near and Far', or something similar.

There are differing opinions about the use of the term 'slums' and I understand that Pearson did speak to subject experts and teachers before making the decision to use it. However, they are now consulting with teachers who have bought these resources and will use their feedback to decide whether to update the unit to avoid the term.

One possible omission from the resource is any multimedia material - such as videos which are aimed at use by pupils or teachers - the materials are quite 'static' and a few animations or sound clips with effects would have been helpful for a Primary audience. 

There are some videos included, but these are restricted to teacher briefings for each unit from the project's lead: Jon Hutchinson.

In the video below, for example, he talks about the approach that has been taken and the work that has been done so far, which may sound like something that you would find develops your current practice. If so, it would be worth taking out a trial subscription.

This approach will not be for everyone, but given the nature of the profession, as we reset after COVID19 and face other challenges with recruitment and recent financial crises, support of this kind will be welcomed by many.

The Cambridge Primary Review is also a little cautious of the approach taken by some schools and Trusts, suggesting that  "children will not learn to think for themselves if their teachers are expected merely to do as they are told."

It is the consistency of approach, format of materials and connection with cognitive science that will provide the appeal for many Primary colleagues.

There will likely be different approaches to using the resources which will probably include adapting them or including a few additional resources such as videos or music.

You can request a FREE TRIAL, and this may be a useful first step to see whether the resources are going to be the answer to your current problems, or a support for colleagues.

Trials run for one month - International schools have two months.

The price to access the Primary Geography content is £400-£450 a year. The current increases in energy and staffing costs mean this will require a careful investment decision. Subscription to the content provides school access to the online content for 12 full months from the date of registration. Teachers accessing the resources via a subscription of this kind must of course be from the same school and use their school email addresses.

For those who want to pair up the Geography content with the History content, the price is £800 for the year for both.

I've also taken a look at the Primary History content, and the structure and focus for each unit is consistent with the Geography content, to provide a consistent experience across the Humanities in schools that go for that option, particularly where teachers may not be subject specialists.

There are also supporting Professional Development courses available through to May 2024, led by John Hutchinson for those who want an additional level of support in finding out how to use the resources to the greatest advantage.

To read more, click this link to download an illustrated booklet (PDF)

Thanks to KS2 colleagues at King's Ely Junior for their comments on these resources which helped to produce this post.