Everything Flows

Categories: Atmosphere, Advanced Higher, Rural

I trust and hope you've all had a decent break. This is the first mid term in ages I've felt that I really managed to forget about work for a bit. I know this maybe wouldn't have been as easy for you with exams coming up, but it's important to give yourself little rewards too, remember. Anyway, tomorrow beckons, so the laptop's out again and I'm sourcing some odds and ends which might be useful...

We talked about thermohaline circulation in the Higher class just before the break. It was one of those moments where when I asked if you understood the concept, there were several nods and 'yes's' but the faces weren't quite so sure. Please feel free to ask me about this again, perhaps at supported study tomorrow. You can also see a google earth file which I found over at Google Earth Hacks which illustrates the motion. The accompanying blurb also tells you a little bit about the impacts of this type of energy transfer. Probably every bit as scientific, but due to its current profile, something you found much easier to understand, climate change is on the agenda for tomorrow. I'm going to ask you to write on a piece of paper one cause of global warming, and I'm also going to ask you to state clearly whether you think global warming is or isn't a problem. I think this is one part of the atmosphere unit where we can move away from the technical and actually talk about an issue which most of you have a strong perception of and viewpoint on. I also want to have a look at the potential (and known) impacts of climate change from your perspective- again, it would be interesting to take a class poll on this. If we get finished on this (double period again), we'll be starting rural. What's the link between a grain of rice, a cow and a wet Glaswegian summer?

I am going to spend a little time with Advanced Higher going over some of the diagrammatical/graphical representations we looked at away back in August. I'll probably start with the flow diagram above, an easy one to begin with, and I'll show you how flow diagrams can be applied to just about anything, geographical or, in the case I'll use, otherwise. We'll then have a go at something more challenging, and more in line with what would perhaps come up in an exam. It's important to remember that in Advanced Higher, it is assumed that you have built up your geographical knowledge over the last three years, and you could be presented with a question on any of the topics studied previously. In other words, don't bin all the old notes jotters...