Fenlandia

This project came my way via Facebook.

Fenlandia is a visionary interdisciplinary initiative, committed to celebrating, preserving, and interpreting the rich cultural and environmental heritage of the Fenland basin in the United Kingdom’s East Anglia region.

This initiative integrates diverse artistic platforms – including visual arts, music and heritage projects – in both conventional and unexpected locations. Unlike district-specific initiatives, Fenlandia seeks to draw upon the entire Fenland basin, representing its rich heritage and ecological significance in a holistic and all-encompassing manner.

Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Congratulations to Rafael

 

An excellent interview with Rafael de Miguel Gonzalez Lazaro published in Spanish, but can be viewed in a translation from the link above.

Rafael was recently awarded the highest geographical honours of the Gilbert Grosvenor Honours from the American Association of Geographers (AAG). This was well deserved.

It means entering the “Olympus” of the greats of geography, which includes Walter Christaller, Yi-Fu Tuan, David Harvey and others.

I've been fortunate to work with Miguel on a whole range of ERASMUS projects over the years, and I hope to be working on something with him later in the year.

A final quote from the interview:

"I want to make a call, above all, to understand geography as a bridge science between the natural sciences and the social sciences, and a fundamental science to understand the current world."

Image source: https://iuca.unizar.es/noticia/rafael-de-miguel-si-nunca-hubiese-sacado-mi-trabajo-de-zaragoza-no-habria-tenido-el-reconocimiento-que-ha-tenido/?fbclid=IwAR1QqkeBVVeON__2V_2U6rgFueM-dmzpZPh_0lJsdJAxqraL5djs7nC2bH8 

Tenemos el enorme placer de informaros de la concesión del prestigioso premio «AAG Gilbert Grosvenor Honors for Geographic Education» a nuestro compañero, Rafael de Miguel de la @unizar
Enhorabuena y nuestro agradecimiento por su excelente contribución a la Geografía pic.twitter.com/RLJNatGLW1

— AGE (@AGE_Oficial) January 11, 2024

All aboard the Windrush line

 

A lot of coverage of this story this week, not all of it positive. 

Londoners have become very familiar with the names of the underground lines, including the new Elizabeth Line (originally Cross Rail) and the Jubilee line (with their Royal choice of names). Now Sadiq Khan has outlined new names for the overground lines to aid discussions about particular routes - Londoners and visitors will quickly adapt to their new names, but there have been some predictable moans about the nature of the names... from the usual suspects.

In Year 7, we study the story of the Windrush generation, through the use of the book 'Windrush Child' from the late Benjamin Zephaniah.

This BBC News page explains what the names of each of the lines means.

Image source: Transport for London

The Windrush Line will run through several areas associated with the Windrush migrants (in London at least).

From Sole to Toe: the story of a boot

A new StoryMap from Timberland: a company with strong sustainability credentials. This tells the story of the iconic yellow boot. It shows the global reach of this single product, which involves people from several continents, farmers and other industries.

Iceland - a new volcanic era

"We just have to go with the flow.”

After centuries of peace, the Reykjanes peninsula has woken up with numerous earthquakes, ground inflation and several fissure eruptions - some lasting only a short time. Various management methods have been tried, but now the town of Grindavik has been evacuated. 

"How, then, is the country going to defend itself? How is it going to try and coexist with the temperamental beast that stirs below?"

For Dr. Robin Andrews, this is a new volcanic era and may require new adjustments. This is an excellent piece for Scientific American.

NEW: Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new volcanic era, featuring years, decades or even centuries of eruptions. How is the country supposed to react?

For @sciam, I looked into the options—from fighting against lava to moving entire towns.https://t.co/fuVQ6Y0gyD

— Dr Robin George Andrews 🌋☄️ (@SquigglyVolcano) February 13, 2024

As the piece says, airborne threats are also airborne:

Noxious volcanic gases may also be a problem—in particular, sulphur dioxide, which effuses from shallow magma. It can be an irritant at best and lethal at worst, especially if it pools in enclosed environments, such as basements, and displaces the oxygen there. Erupted metal pollutants can also leech into the environment, and fine particles in plumes can “penetrate deep into our airways,” says Evgenia Ilyinskaya, a volcanologist at the University of Leeds in England.

UK & Iceland Energy Mix compared

One for today.

Teaching about Iceland's geothermal and hydropower energy mix today.

For comparison, I will show the current state of the UK's energy mix, using this National Grid dashboard.

I hope students appreciate the massive difference between the UK and Iceland's energy mix.

On the rocks...

“In Greenland, we make all our money from fish and from tourism. For a long time, I have wanted to find something else that we can profit from.”

Malik Rasmussen

A surprising story in the Guardian on a new project, and one which has attracted quite a lot of criticism from some quarters.

Its co-founder Malik V Rasmussen said the ice, which has been compressed over millennia, is completely without bubbles and melts more slowly than regular ice. It is also purer than the frozen mineral water usually used in Dubai’s ice cubes.

From the LinkedIn page

Imagine having the purest and freshest ice in the world straight from the untouched glaciers of Greenland. Nature has formed our ice over millions of years with no pollutants or contaminants. Once harvested, it is immediately packaged and shipped to ensure the highest quality for our customers. Our ice can be used for cooling drinks, preserving food, creating beautiful ice sculptures, and more. By purchasing our ice, you will enjoy its exceptional quality and support sustainable and ethical practices in our harvesting process.

Website

Image: Arctic Ice - Greenland

Free Windrush Resources

Visit the Windrush Foundation website for a whole range of free resources for educational use. These are going to be rolled out over the next year.

A free event will take place to launch these.

SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2024, 7pm to 9pm

This free online event launches a year-long rollout that will offer opportunities to schools in Britain, and elsewhere, first-hand knowledge of the late Sam King’s seminal work. The suite of seven resources will show Windrush as just one, among many other chapters, of British post-WWII history. The resources include more than 500 pages of materials, and feature stories also of the lived experiences of Windrush passengers. Further research and publications will follow.


Members of the Windrush Generation are those who arrived on June 22, 1948, at Tilbury Docks, on the Empire Windrush, but excludes passengers who arrived after June 1948 on other ships or by BOAC (BA). 

The Empire Windrush made only one return journey to the West Indies in 1948.

Windrush Foundation’s seminal education resources will help educators to teach the facts about Windrush and will explain its true meaning. Numerous distortions of the late Sam King’s idea have been publicised over the years and it is hoped that this suite of resources will debunk those falsehoods and conflations.

Get your Eventbrite tickets from this link. I have downloaded the free eBooks.

Thanks to Arthur Torrington for the information.

Practical Pedagogies 3 - a call for session proposals

One of the best events I've attended and presented at has been the Practical Pedagogies events that were held in 2016 and 2018. The first was held in Toulouse and the second was in Cologne.

Russel Tarr is now organising a third running of the event and the call for sessions is now open. I shall definitely be there (assuming my presentation is accepted). I'll be working on this over the weekend.

Workshop proposals for Practical Pedagogies 2024 are warmly welcomed from primary, secondary and whole-school practitioners and educators willing to share their expertise and practices in a friendly, collaborative, international setting. 

Experienced and first-time presenters are equally welcome to submit a proposal!

The special ticket price for workshop leaders is just 75 Euros for the full two days (payable upon the session proposal being accepted onto the programme). This non-refundable fee, which represents a 75% discount on the standard ticket price, helps ensure that people accepted to run workshops seriously plan to attend.

This sum is effectively reimbursed with free access to the coach which brings attendees to and from the venue from central Cologne, and complimentary meal at the evening restaurant function on the final evening, which is always a highlight of the event. However, please note that in order to keep delegate ticket prices genuinely affordable, we are not able to cover any other expenses.

If you go to the website you can now submit a session proposal.

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Fast Fashion

Reducing the impact of fast fashion.

Disasters Avoided

Many teachers will be aware of the book 'Disaster by Choice', which was written by Ilan Kelman.

He was kind enough to offer a session at the GA Conference in my Presidential year, which was well received, and has also been supportive of GA Branch activity as well.

The new project which he is now involved with is called Disasters Avoided.

This YouTube channel is worth exploring. It features a number of videos made by Ilan and colleagues.

They are working on a model for disaster reduction and preparedness.

Ilan also contributed to a Dezeen series.

Lighting up the Nation

From the King's Coronation.

Written by  Daljit Nagra.

We’re Lighting Up The Nation

No one’s an island when each is at home

in the hope and glory! Born free – we’re a plucky bunch

of every shade. From the bronze of the Celts

across our Roman roads to Windrush and beyond,

today, just now, the spectacular parades of light

travelling from Windsor to iconic heartlands across the realm

so the kingdom be unified. Imagine Edinburgh Castle

near monuments for Scott and Burns, or imagine

across the waters of Belfast our titanic dockyard

and the blood-sweat, the toil that launched a thousand ships

over there’s Blackpool for Punch & Judy, glad rags

for the tango and foxtrot, and out for a pint of Newkie Brown

by the Gateshead Bridge, that harp of the Toon, the Tyne – it’s all mine

now all Yorkshire beams from the hall of seven-hilled Sheffield,

now my heart’s with the famed anthem, the land of my fathers

at Cardiff Millennium! Everywhere I look, from the golden

miles of Leicester with their chicken masalas and jollof rice

to an eco-haven amid the botanical gardens of Cambridge

like the oasis at Eden with its rainforest under a dome,

to our bold promise of the cliffs of Dover, everywhere I look,

within our shores, I feel a new phase, new chapter must begin,

just now, so let’s light up the nation like a smile!

Daljit Nagra, 2023

Daljit Nagra’s poem was commissioned by the BBC for the Coronation Concert’s ‘Lighting up the Nation’ live sequence. Read by James Nesbitt.

Watch from 1.24.26. 

Sundhnúkagígar Eruption

Of particular interest to those students heading to Iceland in March. 

A cross posting from the Fieldnotes from Iceland blog, which stores some reading and references linked to my work with Rayburn Tours.

This post is likely to be updated over the next few days and weeks - updates will appear at the bottom of the page.

The waiting is over for the residents of Grindavik and the Reykjanes Peninsula in particular.

The eruption began at 10.17 yesterday evening.

Live stream via RUV.

Paul Berry has produced a useful summary.

The eruption appears to be occurring exactly along the old crater line of Sundhnúkagígar (which is an old fissure) indicating that the magma likely exploited this weakness in the crust to find a way to the surface as it neared the surface (as indicated by the frequent earthquakes in the Grindavik area for the last few months).

There will be lots of people concerned about their flights and others who will be desperate to head out there, with flight prices likely to have been hiked with the news. The official line is that there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open.

The Guardian's page of updates.

Brendan Conway was quick off the mark with a web map using Vedurstofan map data. Thanks also to Ben Hennig of course for some quick responses despite the fact that he is thousands of miles away.

🆕 Updated map 03.00
🌋#Grindavík volcano eruption🌋 Reykjanes, Iceland Dec 2023
Map georeferenced using #MediaLayers in @ArcGISOnline#IcelandVolcano
🙏 @Vedurstofan_IMO for map layer via @geoviews
Click Layers > 3 dots > Show properties > Transparencyhttps://t.co/aXo0icv88I pic.twitter.com/qIsEApoFhZ

— BC (@mildthing99) December 19, 2023

A webcam picked up the start of the eruption: 

Byrjunin á eldgosinu á vefmyndavél RÚV yfir Grindavík

0:13 pic.twitter.com/Jx3icbxuxx

— Birkir (@birkirh) December 18, 2023

Some information on the resilience of the population: 

Excellent information about the steps Iceland is able to take manage the impact of tectonic hazards, for those who use it as a #geography case study. https://t.co/C84lLdjUK1

— Denise Freeman 🌎🙋🏻‍♀️ (@geography_DAF) December 19, 2023

Old images of Ely

Looking at how Ely has changed is part of our work on the local area.

This is a useful website for this activity.

Audiobooks on Spotify

If you have Spotify Premium, as I do (I have Spotify's Family plan in fact so that everyone in the family has their own separate account), you also have access to Audiobooks. 

When this first launched there weren't too many, but over the last few weeks, I have discovered there are hundreds of excellent books which would be of interest to geography teachers. I thought about making a list of the relevant books but there are too many of them really...  in fact, quite a lot of books that were on my list to buy. Plenty to keep me going into the New Year. 

If I get a moment and feel the urge over the Christmas break I shall make a list anyway.... watch this space...