Mapping Coasts

Categories: Coasts, Industry, s1 and s2
OK, just a response to a query from a higher student who wanted some clarification on some coasts mapping points. I have created a powerpoint for coasts, showing features of erosion and deposition. It was originally my intention to put an all-encompassing powerpoint here for glaciated uplands, carboniferous limestone scenery and coasts, but I have dealt with the initial concern here . If anyone is looking for similar resources for the other two landscape types, please come in and I'll see what I can do. Any of the map images are for educational use only.
Other news from this week....More favelas appearing, not had a chance to download photos yet, but will do this soon. Again, excellent attempts. s3 did a little bit of survey work around the school grounds as an into to the Car industry, which led us into a discussion about industries previously prominent in the UK, a point we are working on just now. s2 assessment tomorrow, and s1 now looking at changes in a favela-Rocinha in the Brazil 200o video.

Our favela

Categories: s1 and s2
Fantastic response from my first s1 constructing their favela dwellings. The lesson went very well, some great teamwork and bargaining. A sense of injustice when some groups had more string than others, and a bit of moaning about some groups getting to the 'dump' first and so on, but only one group never got their house completed in time-The class watched as the 'bulldozers' moved in (4 of the boys!). We have still to test against the elements, and another favela will be springing up on Monday with my other s1 class-Very messy, but really enjoyable exercise!





More pictures coming soon!

Whiteboard Industrial Location

Categories: s1 and s2, Industry














Used the whiteboard to put up some images of industry today-we used an old picture of Govan Shipyards, Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, HSBC bank in Canary Wharf and the West of Scotland Science Park. This followed on from our group activities, where we had a general list of factors industries would consider when looking for a site. The exercise was helpful for reaffirming types of industry and location factors, but also different types of industrial environment. I might try to put a google tour of some of the industrial locations in too.
Have asked s1 (with some trepidation!) to bring in rubbish, cardboard, plastic and so on for our favela dump, from which our groups are going to build a favela dwelling. I know this is not a new idea, but the first time I have tried it. If it is successful, I am going to photograph some of the attempts and stick them here. Maybe a before and after the rain/wind test....Hopefully this exercise will help students understand some of the difficulties in everyday life for the favela dweller. Brazil quiz and rainforest work for s2 tomorrow.

Jigsaws!

Categories: s1 and s2, population, urban, industry
I have started looking at how developed Brazil is with my s1. I am very pleased with the thought they are putting into their answers-some great definitions of development from their own ideas. As a class exercise for the whiteboard tomorrow, I have created two puzzles for the classes to sort out and then discuss the differences-both of favelas. The links are here and here. Good day today for student input, as another couple of excellent Mumbai movies came in from my s3, a good way to learn the case study without too much of textbook-answer type activities. We also started Industry today with a good response to the group work. Tomorrow, we will look at some images on this powerpoint to think about sectors of industry and industrial location. They are really for use with the whiteboard, but all going well, I'll try to capture the screen and post it here afterwards.

All Quiet...

Categories: Atmosphere, Rivers, s1 and s2, Industry
Well, exam leave is underway and the school is extremely quiet at the moment. Remember to make use of some of the links in previous posts for your revision. Here are a couple more. When having a chat with higher on the last day, you indicated that Atmosphere was still a bit of a sketchy area for some, so try this link from geographypages- some links here for air masses, atmospheric circulation, climate change and El Nino. Don't forget bitesize for this topic either. For formation of a v-shaped valley (Higher/Intermediate) a flash animation might help. You might want to use some class time for some of the map questions in your past papers also, so feel free to come in and use the resources. I am starting industry with s3, will probably do a sorting activity based around (possibly) parents occupations to introduce types of industry-reasoning for sorting process etc. Ravenscraig(above) has been in the news of late, may be able to tie this in further down the line when covering changing industry. s2 are finishing 'People in Brazil' and we will start looking at the Amazon now, will probably use the channel 4 TV-rom, 'The Rainforest Experience' over the next few days. May do a 'touchy-feely' box with both s1 and s2 Tuesday, products of the rainforest. I will try to put the google tour for Brazil's migrations here once I've sorted a couple of images.

Gross National Happiness

Categories: Rural , Development and Health, Urban, Population, s1 and s2
As some of my students may not have believed me when I told them this story (off the back of Michael Palin's 'Himalaya'), I have included this link today-Play the BBC Bhutan Video in the right hand side of the page for some Development indicators with a difference. I have been experimenting again with Freemind mind mapping software. I have incorporated/will be incorporating this in to a few lessons. Here is an unfinished map for Extensive Commercial agriculture, an area my higher still have some concerns about. I also want to put the completed Mumbai case study map for s3 and the Edinburgh Case study for s4 here soon. I personally find that sometimes the maps become a little cluttered, but I know that some people swear by this form of revision, so if it works for you... Tomorrow, my s1 will be making some migrant journeys on Google Earth, with Brazil their destination. I also tried a 'Guess the migrant' activity involving students in historical and present day roles the last time I did this, so will resurrect this and put on the blog later.

Apart from the Fetch...

Categories: Coasts, Glaciation, Rural Land Resources, s1 and s2
..there is not much else which connects Dorset to Rio/Rocinha, but that's the focus of today's work. For Higher, I have created a powerpoint to summarise the coastal features that you need to know, along with plenty of named examples, and again, plenty of locations for economic and social opportunities provided by the landscape. I have finished this off with a summary of the themes that questions in the examination are likely to focus on. I have also added Wednesday's Google tour of the Cairngorms, with the missing funicular railway placemark and plenty of images added. It is a compressed file, so you will maybe need to unzip it. s4 are continuing with Development and Health revision, mainly past paper work. s2 are watching the Brazil 2000 video looking at Rocinha and Barra di Tijuca after completing some work from the 'Places' textbook last period, and this will be accompanied by a worksheet with timings.

Push and Pull

Categories: s1 and s2, Population, Coasts, Rural Land Resources, Writing and Assessment, Other
Watched 'Survival in the City' after showing conflicting images of Brazil with s2-First time a class has really been appalled by some of the injustices shown, which was a good discussion point. Using a powerpoint from Noel Jenkins to recap on reasons for population movement and then some work on Push and Pull factors and favelas. S4 have yesterday's work today as we spent longer on past papers and the Docklands Case Study
For Higher-another wiki entry, this time for atmosphere after the movie the other day. Try it out, see what you would change.Have a go at the extended answers for Rural Land resources and Development and Health especially. How about trying a bit of revision using Podcasts? There are some for the Scottish curriculum on Ollie Bray's blog here , Alan Millburn posted some based on the BBC bitesize videos here, and there are some coast podcasts which I flagged up before on geobytes. Finally, I am using a video from a collective pool of clips found on a blog called geographyatthemovies for a bit of National Parks revision and will try to tie this in to Rural Land Resources questions after a quick poll in class today on our revision focus for the rest of the week.

....and today

OK, quick post. Some links for lessons:-
s5/6 Biosphere
www.geographyinaction.co.uk Northern Irish site with some excellent quicktime movies showing dune succession-spotted by a member of the class!
s4 Development and Health
http://www.lifeswitch.org/ swap places with someone in an ELDC
Milking_It help with understanding trade and development
Indicators dustbin activity from Active Geography
s3-shanty town link in last post
s1-may be using www.activegeography.co.uk again if we get an ICT room, if not, moving on to Brazil
My resources
This revision worksheet , for online use with sand dune revision
I have a biosphere odd one out, and a lithosphere/landscapes 6x6 which we used to identify features and linked these to case studies last week, but ourmedia is being troublesome again so will post these soon

Last week...

Categories: Atmosphere, Urban, s1 and s2, Other

Just a couple of resources to stick on the blog. I have posted the atmosphere movie below that we used in Higher last week-took us a while to work through it, but hopefully it is a useful summary guide. We have finished revising coasts, hydrosphere and are now in the middle of biosphere revision ( I will post links to the resources we have used/are using in the next section). s3/s4 both did a Thinking Skills exercise from David Leat's book on Improving Shanty Towns, and here is a link from SLN to a good summary resource. I have been using Settlement activities from Russel Tarr at www.activegeography.co.uk with s1, and made up my own thinking skills exercise , which got a few quizzical looks at first, but quickly became a useful learning activity. Got Pupils to come out to the front in zones, and justify why they were here e.g. 'You have seen better days', Inner City? and so on. Think this would work well with most age groups, and can be adapted for difficulty. s2 working through video/sheets at the mo, so nothing new to post yet.

Watch the video