KES Geography Department Pilot Geography Blog

Last post...

2008-07-16T10:17:00.005+01:00

This is the 679th post on this blog, and the last from me.

Hope you all have a good summer.

Keep an eye out on your travels for examples of sustainable transport solutions - take pics with your mobiles, pick up timetables etc.

Best wishes to KHCTC staff and students too.

Mrs. Clarke will now take over...

Best of luck with Year 11 - I will be checking in from time to time to see what you're up to...

Mister P

Big Huge Magazine Cover

2008-07-15T12:49:00.003+01:00

Big Huge Labs is one of my top 10 sites.

We used the MAGAZINE COVER MAKER today to start to think about the cover for our coursework portfolio.

Here's my starter effort....

You might also want to read this post on the BBC NEWS website.

KES Car Parking Policy

2008-07-14T14:33:00.008+01:00

I'll put this up here now so that you can have access to it when you need to...

This is the first piece of work that you will probably do next year, but I am putting it here now so that you can think about it over the summer, and also to save Mrs. Clarke a job.

Before you move on to this, you need to have done the research on the various forms of transport that we mentioned, and also consider the factors that put people off using the bus (and other forms of public transport) and how they can be overcome (think of the CARROT and STICK idea that we have discussed before)

These are some problems with the car parking provision at school. Are there any others ? Is this a realistic assessment ? Is it too pessimistic ?

There are some follow up activities to complete now:

A powerpoint will be available on the school network (and SLIDESHARE)

Velib problems ? and a Svalbard story...

2008-07-13T10:29:00.002+01:00

We have been looking at the VELIB scheme in Paris.

Take a look at this useful SCRIBD document too, which contains a useful FAQ on the scheme. You need to consider whether this scheme could work in King's Lynn. If so, how could it be planned to work ? Where would you place the cycle stations ? What potential problems could there be ? How sustainable is the scheme ?

Read this article from the TIMES, which goes through some of the issues that the scheme is now facing.
Does this item focus on the good aspects or bad aspects of the scheme ?

What are the impacts of Velib on encouraging cycling ? Cycling deaths are apparently well down, and there have been a total of 27 million Velib trips.

Also thanks to SLN member Plene for pointing out THIS ARTICLE which has some useful information on SVALBARD: a good focus for an EXTREME ENVIRONMENT.
It starts:

It is forbidden to die in the Arctic town of Longyearbyen.

Should you have the misfortune to fall gravely ill, you can expect to be despatched by aeroplane or ship to another part of Norway to end your days.

And if you are terminally unlucky and succumb to misfortune or disease, no-one will bury you here.

Why do you think that might be ?

Deserts

2008-07-12T18:50:00.001+01:00

May be the extreme environment of choice in some schools...

| View | Upload your own

Thanks to Alan Doherty for presentation via Slideshare

Car Sharing

2008-07-10T12:24:00.005+01:00

While having a mooch in Sheffield yesterday, I saw this car. It was parked near the University, and the old Jessop's hospital (and the Henderson's Relish place).

It was in a bay marked CAR CLUB.

There was a website address called WHIZZGO on the side of the car.

If you follow the website link you will find lots of information about this particular online car club, and see that Sheffield is one of several cities where they have cars which can be borrowed by the hour (or for longer periods)

This is a nice idea for those people who don't want the running costs of owning a car.

GeoSquishing

2008-07-08T13:08:00.005+01:00

Keep an eye out for the summer competition that we are running at KES this summer.

It's called GEOSQUISHING.

Take a picture which looks as if you're squishing a landmark, building, landscape feature or geographical feature between either your fingers or two hands.

There is an e-mail address to send your digital images to.

The winner will have their image made into a mug or mouse mat.

Thanks to Emma J for the prize idea.

We look forward to your entries !

Bus Design Competition: A New Bus for London

2008-07-06T17:29:00.006+01:00

Image from HERE.

London was famous for the Routemaster Bus.
It's the classic bus with the platform at the back with a spiral staircase to the upper deck, and the pole to hang onto as you jumped on and off, patrolled by a conductor who would spiral out a ticket with his (or her) machine. I remember on many occasions getting the night bus from Trafalgar Square back to Brixton and other boroughs...

Image by Flickr user metropilot, and made available under Creative Commons License

And then the Routemaster was removed from the routes - why ??
Apparently there were some issues with the design of the old bus... Do some RESEARCH on this.

Image by Flickr user Annie Mole, and made available under Creative Commons License

Now Boris Johnson, the new Mayor of London is keen to bring back the bus. He wants to phase out the 'bendy bus', and is keen to

This GUARDIAN article outlines the details.

The mayor said the Routemaster had been "fabulous" and its successor should seat at least 72 people and be "green" in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and red in colour.
More details in this BBC item too.

So head over to the COMPETITION WEBSITE, which is nicely designed: A NEW BUS FOR LONDON.
All the details and entry forms are available...

2 lessons to go...

2008-07-04T20:23:00.002+01:00

OK. There are 2 lessons before the end of the year.
They are both in the computer room. You need to do the research for the first part of the magazine...

Next Friday you have an Army day...
Here's a movie on rising bollards...

Car Parking in London

2008-07-04T20:17:00.002+01:00

Car Parking charges.

Hourly rate of parking:

Manchester £4.50
Liverpool £2.00
Central London: 20p an hour...

Why is parking in London so cheap, and how does this relate to the Congestion charge ?

Cycling Proficiency....

2008-07-02T08:14:00.002+01:00

An excellent "Big Question" feature in 'The Independent', which looks at whether we are turning into a nation of cyclists.
There is a very useful graphic which shows the growth of cycling in London, but also points out the considerable gap that still exists between the average distance travelled by car compared to the bicycle.

Introduces an interesting idea of "liveability".

Also, starting this weekend is the world's greatest sporting event.

Sustainable Transport: the start of the next stage of the course...

2008-06-25T18:51:00.003+01:00

Transport is defined as:
The MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE AND GOODS from one place to another.

Sustainability: What is the definition of this term ?

Put them together, and you get Sustainable Transport

So how would you define it ?

Is the car a sustainable form of transport ?

If not, why not ?

1. Research the following methods of transport:

a) Rickshaw - where have they been used, and which cities have they

b) Light Rail

c) Guided bus - this has been planned for North of Cambridge

d) Maglev - a short section of track has been laid in Shanghai between the airport and the city - how fast can it travel ?

e) Tram - the example of Sheffield and its SUPERTRAM network should be looked at - what other cities in the UK also have tram networks ? - produce a map to show those towns and cities which have introduced a tram network

f) Community bus - is there a local community bus scheme ? what is it called ? how does it work ?

g) Car pooling

h) Velib - bicycle hire scheme in Paris

Provide an example of an actual place where each of these have been used, and how successful the project has been (also try to identify any costs, and other issues involved in setting up the scheme)

The BUS is a more SUSTAINABLE form of transport. Why ?

2. Think through the various stages involved in taking a bus journey – try to account for every stage in the journey. Produce this in the form of a flow chart. I will get you started on this...

3. Now try to think of the different problems that could occur at each of the stages, which might put people off using the bus as a form of transport. Remember that not everyone is able bodied and has all their senses working 100%

4. Now try to come up with a solution to the problem that would encourage people to keep using the bus

Where do the following fit into this ?

· Heavy rainfall

· Bus full by the time it gets to your stop

· Electronic information boards

· Kneeling bus

· Bus shelters

· Oyster cards

· Pre-payment tickets

And..... relax......

2008-06-24T16:49:00.001+01:00

They think it's all over....
It is now...

Any thoughts ?

Last minute reading...

2008-06-23T21:34:00.002+01:00

...on cheap T Shirts
BBC NEWS MAGAZINE article and little iPlayer video
Relates to tonight's PANORAMA programme.

A final Tony Cassidy contribution...

2008-06-23T20:56:00.002+01:00

If you get an A*, you owe Tony a pint....

| View | Upload your own

We will use an edited version of this, where we look at OUR PLACE, and also Svalbard rather than Antarctica...

Exam tomorrow...

2008-06-23T18:52:00.003+01:00

Do a few last minute bits of revision tonight
Get a good night's sleep - don't stay up late
Don't forget to bring your equipment with you tomorrow
Set the alarm clock before you go to bed
Eat breakfast !

So don't forget: DGDSE....

And don't forget FUGIS either....

Good luck to all KES students, and good luck to all Kirk Hallam students !!

Final few days of revision...

2008-06-20T20:15:00.001+01:00

Enjoy your weekend, but try to do a few short revision sessions...
Use the blogs
Play Tony's Apprentice mega-quiz

What's so special about Bristol ??

2008-06-19T15:32:00.002+01:00

Special prize for the first KES student to tell me....
Clue: it has something to do with the work you'll be starting the week after the exam is over...

Welcome to Mrs. Clarke - new blog author...

2008-06-18T20:35:00.002+01:00

I gave Mrs. Clarke an intensive training course yesterday (well, 5 minutes...) and she has posted her first blog post. Mrs. Clarke will be keeping up the blog next year in my absence, and reminding you of the various deadlines. Remember that the Year 11 work is already on the blog in the relevant months (scroll to the bottom of the right hand column...) and also all labelled accordingly.

Here's a nice transport cartoon I came across recently, showing how the transport we use changes with age...

Don't forget to check Tony's blog for the latest and last help with revision....

New post

2008-06-18T13:22:00.000+01:00

Testing this new post

Stripy icebergs...

2008-06-17T12:53:00.006+01:00

These pictures arrived in e-mail attachment today - they're obviously doing the rounds... Anyone know what causes the stripes to happen ?
Post a comment below KES pupils....

As Svalbard melts away (a possible future...) is this going to be a more common sight ?

2008-06-16T16:06:00.002+01:00

This BBC NEWS article is quite useful....

Greenland

2008-06-15T21:01:00.003+01:00

Greenland has a very cool flag...
Of course it's not called Greenland by everybody: Kalaallit Nunaat...
It is an amazing place, and the Wikipedia article has some very useful information.

There is a GREENLAND statistics site here.

Here are some questions for this section of the Pre-Release booklet.
The focus is a place called NUUK. This is also known as Godthab.
Here is the climate information for NUUK.

Why not go here on HOLIDAY. There are quite a few YOU TUBE videos too...

Use this in relation to the work in the booklet...

Location	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Nuuk	-4.4	-4.5	-4.8	-0.8	3.5	7.7	10.6	9.9	6.3	1.7	-1.0	-3.3	1.74	Mean Daily High
	-10.1	-10.6	-10.6	-6.1	-1.5	1.3	3.8	3.8	1.6	-2.5	-5.8	-8.7	-3.89	Mean Daily Low
	39	47	50	46	55	62	82	89	88	70	74	54	756	Precipitation

Here are the questions:

1. What is the precipitation in Nuuk in June ? (1)
2. What is the temperature range in Nuuk ? (2) (for this you need to subtract the lowest temperature from the highest - don't forget that there may be some negative values involved here...)
3. List 6 reasons why tourists might visit Greenland.
4. What makes Greenland an extreme environment ?
5. How might Greenland change in the future ?
6. What was your example of an extreme environment ?
7. Describe how 3 different groups of people are making use of Greenland.
8. Name one group of people who live in Alaska in a sustainable way.

Public thanks to Tony Cassidy again for sending me a very nice FUGIS document to use with this final week of preparation.

Car Sharing on the rise...

2008-06-15T09:13:00.004+01:00

A good article with a video from the BBC NEWS site on the increase in people car sharing.
This will be useful for the Year 11 Sustainable Transport work

With the rising price of diesel, this could well become even more likely.
There is a range of websites that already exist to help people make contact with others.

http://www.nationalcarshare.co.uk/

LIFTSHARE

How is this more sustainable ?

Many thanks to Comrade Cassidy !

2008-06-14T18:55:00.003+01:00

From the time that we started on the Pilot GCSE Geography, we have been lucky to have worked with Tony Cassidy and Ingrid Marston at Kirk Hallam Community Technology College. I would recommend that you continue to follow Tony's blog next year (as well as look at back posts... I will tell you all about the Year 11 work once the exam is over...)

Tony has produced a new version of an infamous resource that he produced using 'The Apprentice' as a guide. This is a MEGAQUIZ....
Remember that in the section on MY PLACE, there may be references to a place other than King's Lynn.....

| View | Upload your own

There are only 10 days to the exam, so you will need to be in TOP GEAR for your revision now...
The final section on GREENLAND will be added tomorrow...

This POST on Tony's blog has the final links to some pre-release assistance that he has added recently...

Pre-Release latest...

2008-06-14T09:16:00.002+01:00

OK, so work experience is now over...
Back to school next week for 2 weeks of preparation...
We will have 3 hours to recap on the booklet, but I hope you have been using these blog posts and can come with some evidence of this. I have to say that there should have been a lot more comments on the blog posts over the last few weeks.

Read Resource 16, and visit a few suitable websites.

http://www.soilassociation.org is an obvious one...

Create a MIND MAP explaining:

What organic farming is.
Why some people say it is more sustainable than conventional farming.

Blankety Blank...

2008-06-12T21:37:00.004+01:00

Gap fill exercise on Bangladesh. Once again, thanks to Penny Parry for this activity...
Do you know your onions ?Fill words in the blanks (Use Resource 9) -

In Bangladesh _______ jobs in the textile and ____________ industries produce items for sale in _______ and __________. Most workers are ___________, aged between _____ and ______, working between _____ and _____ hours a ______.

Unskilled workers take home _____ taka, or £_____ a month, but many are not paid ___ ______. Working conditions are poor: for example __________________________________________ and many managers do not allow _____ _______ to be formed.

(15 marks) - use the information in the booklet.

Bonus point if you identify the person in the picture...

North or South ? If only it was so easy....

2008-06-11T20:14:00.004+01:00

This post refers to Resource 8....This is a world map, which contains some information on the manufacturing of clothing work by a year group who are the focus for the pre-release booklet.
TONY has produced a very nice powerpoint on this resource too, which we shall use next week when the great adventure that is Work Experience is over...

You will notice that there is a solid line which separates what we could call the rich 'North' from the poor 'South', but it is seldom as straightforward as that... Indeed, there is some debate over whether the line is valid anymore given the economic growth in places such as the Arabian states, South Africa, Brazil and China to name but a few...

The line is called the BRANDT DIVIDE, (also known as the North South divide) after Willy Brandt, who chaired the group who proposed the position in the late 1970s. I had a copy of the book when doing my degree in the early 1980s...
Wikipedia article linked to above also offers a suggested updated position for the line (see below)Some questions on this map today:

1. Which continents are in a) the North and b) the South ?
2. How can Australia be in the North, and China be in the South ?
3. Which countries that were in the South on the map in the booklet are proposed to be in the North in the map above (i.e. are now shaded blue) ?
4. How many of 10SR's clothing were manufactured in a) the North and b) the South ?
5. Do a similar survey of 10 items of clothing from your wardrobe and bring the results in when you come back next week ! (this is important)

OS Award

2008-06-10T21:09:00.002+01:00

A new link on the school homepage.

Euro 2008 - Who will you support ?

2008-06-08T16:04:00.004+01:00

Interesting that as none of the UK teams have qualified for this tournament (it's Football by the way) the BBC and other broadcasters are making a lot of the fact that we have pockets of people from different countries living in the UK. There has been a push to support Poland by certain retailers, who are keen to sell products as they will miss out on the bonanza that occured in 2006. The cost could be as much as £2 billion in lost sales.

Some local towns have links with certain places.
The TIMES had a very useful article on Saturday looking at why some retailers are supporting certain countries:

Two years ago the World Cup in Germany helped Tesco to sell more than half a million St George’s flags, 400,000 footballs and 50,000 two-pint glasses in the shape of the tournament’s trophy.

This summer the supermarket is again draping its shelves in red and white: it is backing Poland.

Tesco has brought in extra supplies of Polish snacks and beer at 150 stores in areas with large Polish communities such as Slough, Hammersmith and Glasgow.

“There are three good reasons to support Poland,” a Tesco spokesman said. “They’ve contributed a lot to our economy, they’re underdogs, and they’re in the same group as the old enemy - Germany.”

THETFORD has a large Portuguese community.

Useful GUARDIAN article on a similar theme.

Using BBC's BORN ABROAD site, can you suggest which country these retailers should be supporting ?

An off license in ...
A cafe owner in ...
A sportswear retailer in ... etc.

Also check out the excellent mapping produced by Danny Dorling and co at Sheffield University on their SASI site. There is also the excellent HUMAN GEOGRAPHY OF THE UK site.

Add a comment below - who are you supporting and why ?

Also an interesting article on Liverpool's CAPITAL OF CULTURE status and how it is affecting the city.

Using Resources 4,5 and 6

2008-06-08T15:02:00.004+01:00

Image by iStockPhoto

Whose results are better: Simon or Purdeep's ?

Why are Purdeep's results not going to accurately represent the customer base at Broadmead ?
What other survey(s) could Purdeep have done to get over these problems ?
Suggest three other ways that the information that was collected could have been represented. Which method(s) would you prefer and why ?

Think about carrying out a similar investigation in the Vancouver Quarter in King's Lynn (as the town centre has now been 'rebranded'...)Image by Flickr user richgpz600, who also has some other great image sets in the King's Lynn area

You are going to find out how shoppers in the town feel about the new development (advantages and disadvantages) compared with going to a mall like Chapelfield or Castle Mall in Norwich, Grand Arcade in Cambridge or Queensgate in Peterborough.

What aims / hypotheses would you begin with ?
How would you collect data ?
What secondary sources might you use to support your primary findings ?
How would you present your results ?
How would you consider different target audiences for your report ? Who might these different audiences be ?

Signature... Multicultural UK Resource

2008-06-07T18:48:00.002+01:00

Last week they were wowing an audience of millions.

This week, there was an article in the "Daily Mail" which would make a very good resource for use with MY PLACE and also CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY.
It's an article about the 2 people that make up the act "Signature". They explain why they are both PROUD TO BE BRITISH

Velib problems...

2008-06-06T15:30:00.004+01:00

I mentioned the VELIB scheme earlier. This is a good one for Sustainable Transport for Year 11 next year.
It's a scheme which involves renting bikes, which are placed in numerous locations around Paris. One of my FLICKR contacts Evan Austin posted this photo recently.Apparently the lack of maintenance upkeep and vandalism is reducing the 'fleet' of Velib bikes ?

Similar scheme also works in SANDNES in Norway, which I've visited...

Work Experience going well ?

2008-06-05T16:42:00.003+01:00

I hope so...
Stanley - will be popping in tomorrow to see you.

Apologies for not posting for a few days. I had to go down to London to collect an award for excellence in geography teaching...

For today's task, I would like you to answer some questions using Resources 9-11, taken from Tony Cassidy's PRE RELEASE page.

1. Write a list of the working conditions the workers face
2. Write a list of the living conditions the workers face
3. How is the workers' employment connected to their quality of life ?

Also, if you haven't already played the TEACHER INVADERS game, scroll down and have a go and post your score...

First day of Work Experience

2008-06-02T09:26:00.002+01:00

Hope you had a good first day, apart from those who were in school today who I saw this morning...

Look at the two different ways that were used to represent the visitor data: the map and the shaded bar (1 square = 1%) - which do you think was the better way of representing the data ?
What advantages did each have over the other ?

You may also have noticed that the Channel 4 programme "The Devil wears Primark" was replaced by fairly dire 'buddy movie' "Without a Paddle". It will presumably be on at some point in the future, hopefully this side of the exam.

A new month, and a new task...

2008-06-01T13:05:00.002+01:00

For this, you'll need resources 4, 5 and 6

1. How many people were surveyed ? (1)
2. What do you know about the people who were surveyed ? (3)

Start with the obvious e.g. they were shopping in... (or were they ??)

3. What other information would you need to know about the survey to decide how reliable the results of the survey are ? (2)

First day of work experience tomorrow. Enjoy it !

A few more bits for you...

2008-05-31T19:59:00.002+01:00

Sorry to keep you waiting for the next few questions, and to disturb you when "Britain's Got Talent" is on...
Here's the next task...

Imagine you're a...

(this is a common type of question on the Pilot exam..)

Imagine you're an advertising agency who has been asked to come up with a print ad aimed at attracting customers back to Broadmead.
Write a 60 word advertisement "selling" the Broadmead experience.

Next....

2008-05-29T09:35:00.002+01:00

OK. So today's little task uses the responses to questions of a number of shoppers at Broadmead and the Mall.

1. Why do some people like out of town shopping centres but others don't ? (4)
2. Where would YOU prefer to shop and why ? (3)
3. Imagine you had the job of persuading customers to come back to Broadmead. Your target audience will be the customers you identified in question 1.
Make a list of the main difficulties you need to overcome to get these customers back, and suggest some changes that could be made in the Broadmead area (8)

Take a look at the pictures HERE to get a feeling for what is ACTUALLY being done in Broadmead to help bring people back.

What the pre-release materials don't mention is that there is already a major redevelopment of Bristol's CBD going on.
It's called CABOT CIRCUS, and the pictures above shows some of the changes in the area. Flickr once again has some great images of these developments.

Some WEBCAM views here (it was a bit misty in Bristol when I looked...) - POST A COMMENT to let me know what the weather was like when you had a look...

The Devel wears Primark

2008-05-28T16:44:00.004+01:00

Thanks to John Barlow for sending an advance preview of this programme, which is due to be broadcast on Sunday on Channel 4.

Channel 4 Sunday 1 June 2008 9pm

Sales of cheap High Street fashion are booming, but is there a terrible price to be paid for £2 t-shirts and £8 dresses?

Presenter and former fashion model Alexa Chung sets out to uncover what conditions are really like in some of the Indian factories that supply the UK’s leading budget clothes retailer, Primark.

And to find out what life is really like for those making our bargain clothes, Alexa sets up her own fashion ‘sweat shop’ in London’s West End staffed by 15 volunteer members of the public, all budget fashion-lovers.

Using undercover filming, and talking to current and former factory workers, The Devil Wears Primark discovers a number of breaches of Primark’s own ethical Code of Conduct at some of its Indian suppliers and their sub-contractors, including unsafe and unhygienic conditions, workers forced to work overtime for no pay, verbal abuse and even possible child labour.

The investigation questions Primark’s claims to enforce their own code. And in the UK, the programme shows that staff are giving customers inaccurate information about the provenance of Primark clothes and conditions in factories supplying the retailer.

Conditions in Alexa’s fashion ‘sweatshop’ are based on those uncovered in India; in uncomfortably hot and humid conditions, the volunteers work up to 70 hours each in five days, earning on average only 15p per hour.

But after their experiences, how will the budget fashion-lovers feel about buying bargain clothes on the High Street?

Looks like Year 10 pupils should set their videos for this one.

If you haven't already done so, have a go at the TEACHER INVADERS game.

Teacher Invaders

2008-05-27T15:54:00.005+01:00

You will have seen me use several of Andrew Field's CONTENT GENERATOR creations in lessons this year: these FLASH based animations include HALF A MIN, and the PENALTY SHOOTOUT creator.
Andrew has just launched the FREE BETA of his latest TEACHER INVADERS game, which can even be uploaded to VLEs (KES is due to have a Virtual Learning Environment from September)

Tony has already created a quick 20 question quiz for his PILOT groups, so I had a go just now. Click the image below (borrowed from Tony - thanks!) to start the quiz. There are 28 questions which relate to the information in the pre-release booklet.

When you've finished, ADD A COMMENT, with your KNOWLEDGE PERCENTAGE, and your POINTS SCORE, or e-mail with a screenshot - first KES student to do this gets a special prize after half term.

And I hope you're reading these posts DANIELLE !

Pre-Release

2008-05-26T16:51:00.004+01:00

A typical Bank Holiday: windy and damp...

Here's a few tasks for you to do to while away the minutes...

1. Look at Resource 4: the Tax Disc survey...

a) What data did the students collect ?
b) Why would they want to know this information ?
c) Is the data they collected accurate ?
d) What problems are there with using this method of collecting data about where people have travelled from ?
[5 marks]

Here's a useful video to watch to get across the importance of CONSUMPTION of the World's economy. If you follow the link you can watch the rest of the excellent STORY OF STUFF...
It lasts just over 6 minutes, and will make you think... A bit USA centred, but then it was produced in the USA after all...

99% of everything bought in the USA is 'trash' within 6 months...

Quick Quiz

2008-05-25T14:34:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Tony Cassidy for this find. Just put this together...

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mystudiyo.com/act66082/mini/go/pre-release_quiz"&amp;gt;Pre-Release Quiz&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Thanks to 'Bobbyrocks' for spotting the deliberate mistake...
Good to see that people are playing the quiz !

Pre Release 2008 Cont.

2008-05-24T19:15:00.002+01:00

Here's todays little task - after all, it's going to be wet and windy tomorrow...

1. What is the shopping area near Bristol's CBD called ? (1)
2. What is the equivalent area in King's Lynn called ? (1)
3. What direction is Cribb's Causeway from the CBD ? (1)
4. How far is it from Cribb's Causeway to the CBD in a straight line, and along the A4018 ? (2)

Half term and Work Experience

2008-05-23T20:34:00.002+01:00

OK.
So it's the big break now...
It's VITAL that you check in here regularly over the next 3 weeks. I will post a small item each day to keep you ticking over. You'll need to use your booklet and pre-release support booklet to answer the questions and think about the key issues I mention.
Today we were writing a draft letter to the headteacher to suggest that he stock school uniform that was Fairtrade and/or organic certified...

Here goes with the first post...
Look at Resource 1 on page 4 of the booklet.

1. What country, region and county is Bristol located in ? (3 marks)
2. Name the river that flows through Bristol (1 mark)
3. How far are London, Birmingham, Exeter and King's Lynn from Bristol in a straight line ? (4 marks)
4. How would a mobile phone made in Germany be transported to be sold in a shop in Bristol ? (2 marks)
5. How would a t-shirt made in Lesotho be transported to be sold in a shop in Bristol ? (2 marks)
6. What do the letters CBD stand for ? (1 mark)
7. Whereabouts in Bristol is its CBD ? (2 marks)

TOTAL: 15 marks

Fairtrade, Cooperatives and Organic

2008-05-20T12:20:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Tony C for providing the backbone for today's lesson, which referred to the final source, and followed on from the video we started to watch last week.

The final source is an ad for a company called HUG, who sell clothing which is "ethically traded".

Click the logo above to go to the HUG website...

A reminder that FAIRTRADE and ORGANIC are separate labels, but may be applied together in some situations.

Useful websites:

FAIRTRADE FOUNDATION

SOIL ASSOCIATION

Question for the potential 'A' grade students (and others who are aiming high...)

Should air freighted food still be classed as organic ? Read the discussions HERE.

Examples of SOCIAL PREMIUMS from Fairtrade ?

The DUBBLE site has some more examples, and also some good FAIRTRADE resources.

Medical Care: paying for health worker, clinic etc.

Improving roads

Sinking a new well

Education: school building, resources, teachers

Access to radio broadcasts - wind up radios etc.

Solar powered storage for vaccines etc.

Also don't forget to book your activities for Activities Days Year 10.

Can I recommend Geo Earth Explorers on the Thursday. It's my favourite price: FREE.

You will have the chance to explore the Earth with Google Earth on the Interactive Whiteboards, and help produce some nice new display materials ready for September and the new school year.

We also finish nice and early - well, you don't want to overdo it just before the summer holiday do you ?

Exam Advice (Continued)

2008-05-17T18:53:00.003+01:00

1. Use the RESOURCES that the exam paper tells you to.
2. PRIORITISE: concentrate your time appropriately
3. JUSTIFY: if you are making a point, back it up with a particular resource
4. Don't just come to a conclusion without comparing BOTH SIDES (if there are more than one...)
5. Make sure that any key words are spelled the same on your exam script as they are on the exam paper.

You should all be aiming for a minimum grade C, and those doing the Higher Paper should be aiming for a grade A.

Pre Release 2008

2008-05-17T16:35:00.003+01:00

The first of a series of posts which will take you through the booklet ready for the exam.

There are 3 sections which relate to the 3 pieces of work that we did.

MY PLACE
Where is Bristol ? What is Bristol ?
How is Bristol linked to the rest of the UK ?
What is Bristol like as a place to live in ? How does it compare with King's Lynn ?

PEOPLE AS CONSUMERS: the impact of our decisions
Why do people visit Cribb's Causeway ?
Where do they come from ?
What impact has the development of the mall had on the surrounding area, and the centre of Bristol ?
What fieldwork could YOU carry out to investigate opinions about the newly developed Vancouver Centre in King's Lynn ?
Why are so many of the products purchased in shops in the UK made in LEDCs ?
What is organic farming ?
Why do increasing numbers of consumers buy organic products ?
Who would you persuade people to pay a little extra to buy organic and/or Fairtrade products

Remember: organic and Fairtrade are not the same thing...

What is Fairtrade ?
How would you organise a Fairtrade campaign in school ?

EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS
What is Greenland ? Where is Greenland ?
What makes Greenland / Svalbard extreme ?
Why do Greenland / Svalbard inspire awe and wonder ?
How are the landscapes of the places similar ?
What are the challenges of working and living in Greenland ?
How do plants and animals survive in Greenland ?
How have physical processes changed the landscape in Greenland and Svalbard ?
How might Greenland change in the future ? (relate to the work that we did on the Future for Svalbard ?)

THE KEY CONCEPTS...
FUGIS

FUTURES: What is the future for the Arctic ?

UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT: How are the clothing / mobile phone factory similar / different ?

GLOBALISATION: How is the future of the Gwich'n people threatened by the oil industry ? What links people in the UK with products made in cheaper locations ?

INTERDEPENDENCE: How are we as consumers linked to other people / places in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world: particularly LESOTHO, GREENLAND and the places on the map in the centre of the booklet.

SUSTAINABLE: Is the Mall / Broadmead / Growth in Organic Farming / Fairtrade sustainable ?

KEY COMMAND WORDS
DESCRIBE
EXPLAIN
DISTRIBUTION
COMPARE
CONSIDER
PRODUCT WEB
INVESTIGATE

Thanks once again to Penny Parry for the structure for this and future posts on the pre-release materials...

Some exam details...

2008-05-16T15:49:00.004+01:00

Farewell to Year 11s - enjoy the 'prom' tonight...

Thanks to my colleague Penny Parry from Rosemary Musker School for her booklet which I shall be using over the next few weeks with Year 10s...
Remember that the exam is on the 24th of June in the AFTERNOON session
It should take place in the Sports Hall, but I'll let you know if there's any change to that...
You will need to bring a BLACK BIRO to write with...

More pre-release posts to come over the weekend...

More of Konnie

2008-05-15T19:19:00.001+01:00

Some more Sky Learning Revision videos with Konnie Huq can be seen by following the link to SKY LEARNING.

Our Big Fairtrade Adventure for Year 10

2008-05-15T16:30:00.003+01:00

In last week's classroom lesson, we were looking at the similarities and differences between the two factories that were in the pre-release booklet: the textiles factory in Lesotho, and the Nokia mobile phone factory.
Tomorrow, we will be using a programme that was broadcast on Channel 4 a month or so back.
It's called "Our Big Fairtrade Adventure" and follows 3 students from a school in Oxfordshire who go to India to try to source an organic and fairtrade school uniform shirt.

We'll use some resources kindly produced by two of my online colleagues: Mr. Rayner's powerpoint, and Miss Walters' question paper, as well as the programme itself.
This will get us thinking about the conditions for the producers of products that we use everyday, and what we can do about it. It demonstrates the concept of INTERDEPENDENCE: that we are connected to people in other parts of the world by our actions, and also the idea of People as Consumers: what we choose to buy makes a difference to other people.

Svalbard: Polar Bears listed as threatened

2008-05-15T16:27:00.002+01:00

The United States has listed the Polar Bear as a threatened species due to the decline in Arctic Sea Ice according to this BBC ARTICLE.
This means that one possible FUTURE that we suggested may well be a step closer to coming true...

Konnie's Revision Tips

2008-05-14T20:49:00.002+01:00

Got an e-mail from Sky Learning to ask me to tell you all about a new video guide to revision they've put together...
Here's a video... (but not if you're looking at school...)

Pre Release 2008 Post 1 - Work for Tuesday 13th

2008-05-10T18:22:00.007+01:00

Flickr User: Joe Dunckley - kindly made available via Creative Commons
Development work at Broadmead Shopping Centre

This is the first of many posts relating to the Pre Release booklet for the Year 10 Pilot examination.

These will continue for the next 2 weeks of term, but crucially, through the half term holiday and the two weeks of WORK EXPERIENCE.
It is important that you come back at the end of Work Experience having done a short section of preparation each day...The first post relates to the FIRST PART of the booklet.
Look at the images above, which are of BROADMEAD shopping centre in Bristol.
This has just had a lot of money spent on it, perhaps to allow it to compete with CRIBBS CAUSEWAY: an Out of Town shopping centre.

Remember the old joke: If you've seen one out of town shopping centre, you've seen "a mall"....
(OK, so I had to explain it to some of you....)

COVER WORK FOR 13th MAY: Apologies for absence - I'm down at the Royal Geographical Society today, so it's for a good Geographical reason...

How does Broadmead compare to the MALL ?
Why did it need to be redeveloped ?
Visit the BROADMEAD website and build up a comparison table between the 2 locations.
How easy is it to get to each of the 2 locations ? - Use the DESTINATION BROADMEAD site.
How have CBDs changed over the last decade ?
Compare BROADMEAD with the new VANCOUVER SHOPPING CENTRE in King's Lynn - source 2 images of King's Lynn's new shops and annotate them as much as possible - paste them into powerpoint and use callouts to add the labels...
Below is a picture of Norfolk Street (in King's Lynn) - how do the shops on this type of street differ from those in the very centre of town ? What has happened to the shops in this image in the last six months ?
What changes would you expect to happen in this area in the future ?

Image by Flickr user Joseph McGarraghy

Do they mean us ?

2008-05-09T12:29:00.002+01:00

A new tourist guide to the UK has been produced, and it includes some surprising (perhaps) descriptions of the country and its population.

The BBC ARTICLE includes some extracts from the updated ROUGH GUIDE.

What image does this give of ENGLAND.

Some amusing HAVE YOUR SAY comments already available.
Some of these pick up on CULTURAL ASPECTS of the UK, which would be useful for Year 11s for next year (pay attention Year 10s)

What do you think about these examples from the HAVE YOUR SAY section...
Which one would you MOST or LEAST agree with ?

1. Bacon butties, Sunday roast and chicken tikka massala

2. They missed out, uncouth, uncivil, uneducated, unmannered & prone to mindless street violence prefaced by the words "Wot you lookin at!!" I'd say that most of the world see's us like this, not the 'civilised islands of culture' that the BBC, and this Government like to portray as "This England" whilst happily lowering standards in all walks of life in the name of equality!

3. I think they have it pretty sussed, people buy all these trashy z list celeb mags why ill never know. they are a total waste of trees. People cant go out for a couple of drinks and act normally people just go out to get drunk because their lives are so sad and pathetic. Great britain certainly isnt great any longer

4. For all our overweight, binge-drinking, celebrity-obsessed TV addicts this is still the greatest country on earth. The people are second to none and sure we might not all agree on everything but they`re OUR people to fight with and nobody elses. And watch us all pull together in a crisis. What we have is unique in the world, heritage, history, the london taxi cab, the monarchy, the country pub, amazing countryside, bluebells, morris dancers, the list goes on. Be proud of who and what you are.

5. It describes a minority, the sort they love to parade on TV as though they are typical of society and if you're any different you're tragically old-fashioned.It doesn't describe the majority, who are still hard-working, decent, quiet people - you just don't hear about them, and they assist by not being natural attention-seekers.All nations have both types, it's not unique to England. This is just a cheap publicity stunt for the book. It won't make me feel ashamed to be English.

Up to 100 000 people killed ?

2008-05-08T20:19:00.004+01:00

By Flickr user TZA (Creative Commons) - image credit Google and associated imaging partners

Sustainable Transport

2008-05-07T20:51:00.003+01:00

A recent BBC NEWS story about a car cum plane....

Make sure that you have given me ALL THE AVAILABLE COURSEWORK by Friday at the latest. Some of the folders are still looking a little sparse to be honest....

Year 11 and Year 10 FINAL CALL !

2008-05-06T14:00:00.002+01:00

Need the final work from you for portfolio by Friday at the absolute latest.

Final additions to tasks.
The FUGIS mapping for Year 10's

The MULTIMEDIA PIECES by Year 11 - a lot of you will lose a lot of marks without these - please make sure I have them...

A new patriotism...

2008-05-03T20:43:00.001+01:00

Coming to the end of 'Real England' which I've blogged about several times before...
Good paragraph in final chapter...
"We need, perhaps, a new type of patriotism, benign and positive, based on place not race, geography not biology. One which seeks to make the best of what we are and what we have. A national mission to reclaim the land and the landscapes for all the people who live in them and care about them."

Also check out "Flood", starting at 8.05 tomorrow on ITV, continuing at 9pm on Monday...

Final submissions...

2008-05-03T14:23:00.002+01:00

Hope you're all having a nice Bank Holiday so far !
Just been sitting in the sun marking coursework so far, and some folders need a little more input. Make sure you haven't got any other bits sitting in your book, or on your home PC, or Flash drive that I can have on Tuesday so that I can give you the maximum credit that you deserve...

Remember the list that I posted last week - have you REALLY done ALL of those things ?
(Hint: the answer for some of you is "No"....)

Getting close to Study Leave

2008-05-01T08:22:00.002+01:00

Best wishes to all Year 11 for their summer exams.

Hope that Year 10 exams have been going well too.
Remember that you miss a session on Friday because of exams.

Don't forget to keep checking Tony's blog for Pre-release updates: a new powerpoint on the Clothing section has just been added...

Final additions for Year 11

2008-05-01T08:13:00.002+01:00

Final additions - do you have all of these in the folder ?
We've been asking for these for some considerable time. Please make sure that we have them by the end of the week, as this weekend will be spent marking and preparing folders.

Magazine
Contents page ?
Full definition of sustainability – linked to transport.
Some mention of recent problems with fuel prices, which are another reason for finding alternatives.
A map of King’s Lynn showing what you intend to do to sort out problem areas of the town.
Some examples from other places of attempts to make transport more sustainable ?
Acknowledgements of sources of information ?

Multicultural UK
Full definition of multicultural.
Some examples of what makes UK multicultural ?
Time line of previous arrivals of migrants ?
Reason behind recent arrivals ?
Your opinion, balanced with the 'good' and 'bad' outcomes
What might happen next ?

Globalisation
Full definition of globalisation ?
Explanation of global culture.
Printout of your cultural objects with an explanation of the task, and what geographical bias you noticed.
Some suggestions of where local culture is being replaced by global culture.
Some suggestions of where local culture is fighting back against global culture

Remember the wider definition of culture.

Multimedia Presentation
Dn't want to see any more random Google searching for images of King's Lynn - that isn't what I need at this point...
Need a contribution from you which demonstrates your view of a particular aspect of King's Lynn's cultural landscape, and an appreciation that you realise that not everyone will see the town in the same way: think of how some of these people might view the town: tourists, young people, homeless people, recent arrivals from Europe, old people who've lived in the town all their lives...
You have had 6 weeks to interview people, take images etc.

The Year 11 work is worth 50% of your mark...
Final chances now for honing your final submissions....

And finally:
Check your exercise book - is there anything that could be neatly cut out and incorporated into any of these above pieces as an appendix or supplementary sheet...

Pre Release 2008

2008-04-29T18:24:00.004+01:00

Image by Flickr user left handed male - Creative Commons license

We have been looking at Broadmead and Cribb's Causeway.
Don't forget the resources on TONY's PAGES, particularly the Half a Min game.
Good luck with your exams this week.

Remember that we have another 4 or 5 weeks to work on the pre-release booklet - it hasn't got to be done in a hurry !
I am going over to Norwich tomorrow to meet other Norfolk Geography colleagues to talk about the best ways to prepare you for the pre-release...

Coursework request

2008-04-24T14:36:00.004+01:00

Another request for final pieces to be handed in or e-mailed to us:

Year 11

Sustainable Transport Magazine
Multicultural UK response (including cultural objects)
Global Culture vs Local Culture
Your contribution to the presentation on King's Lynn, and the ways that different groups of people might view the town.

Year 10

Svalbard piece and poster
My Place: improving an area in the town to make it more sustainable (plus pyramid)
People as Consumers

Also a reminder to check out the materials on TONY CASSIDY's blog. Check the tabs at the top of the screen for appropriate resources, particularly the new PRE RELEASE MATERIALS - these are ideal for Year 10 to look at during Work Experience...

The sooner you get this to us the better...
We want to give you the best possible mark...

Special Day today...

2008-04-23T10:04:00.003+01:00

Today is a special day, and is relevant to several of the Pilot GCSE sections - Google is also celebrating it. Can you guess from the image what today is...

Update: St. George's Day - very much part of our image of Englishness, but how English was St. George (according to Billy Bragg's 'England, Half English' he was 'from the Lebanon')

Pilot Pre-Release Materials Lesson 1

2008-04-22T12:43:00.005+01:00

The Cribb's Causeway Mall (WEBSITE)
Broadmead Shopping Centre, Bristol City Centre

You now have a copy of the PRE RELEASE BOOKLET, and the preparation booklet.

I am going to a meeting in a couple of weeks to firm up the questions with colleagues from Norfolk.

Thanks to Tony Cassidy and Pete Flaxman once again for their input here.

First section of the resource is about LANDSCAPES OF CONSUMPTION: the difference between a SHOPPING MALL and a CBD street.

The location is BRISTOL: in the SW of England.

Question to ponder first of all....

Why do people like / dislike the experience of shopping in an out of town mall ?

Use the images and the questionnaire results to answer the question...

Mark Beaumont

2008-04-16T18:41:00.004+01:00

If you missed Mark Beaumont's journeys last week, YouTube has them in clips of course. Here's a bit of the end of Part 1, as he arrives in Istanbul as he crosses from Europe to Asia...

Food Stories

2008-04-15T21:07:00.002+01:00

A few stories related to food in the news today.
First was the announcement of Tesco's huge profits of £2.8 billion....
This article in the BBC NEWS reports further.

Just been reading in "Real England" (which I've mentioned before) about the planning battle in Sheringham that I have also reported elsewhere before... The Real England blog is worth reading as it is updated regularly with interesting stories and links, such as THIS ONE to the Daily Telegraph's lead article on the continued decline of RURAL ENGLAND, particularly useful for AS / A2...

The second story relates to an item to be on tonight's NEWSNIGHT about the shameful amount of food that we waste in the UK, despite all the issues related to food security and food costs...
This BBC ARTICLE has more details, and would be a good basis for debate.
"Is it wrong to leave your crusts ?"

Householders chuck out 6.7m tonnes of unwanted food every year at a cost to us of £8bn. That's the equivalent of chucking out one bag of food for every three that we buy.

Around 40% of that is fresh fruit and veg - nearly 4.5m apples, and more than 5m potatoes and 1.5m bananas.

Oh, and a final new BBC NEWS article is saying that SEA LEVEL will rise much faster than previously forecast... Anyone want to buy a house near the Norfolk coast ?

Multimedia Presentations: Year 11

2008-04-15T20:55:00.003+01:00

These need to be in by the beginning of next week ideally. Mrs. Clarke and I need to mark and moderate your portfolio of work. You had some examples shown to you, and this blog contains other ideas, but we need to avoid 'spoon-feeding' you as this will lower your mark. You are in the final term of Year 11 and shouldn't need a lot more saying to you about the importance of this work.Reminder for Matthew and Aaron (and any others using Movie Maker) that if you need to convert files into various formats so that you can put them into movie maker, you should try ZAMZAR. I always use this to convert files, and strip the mp3 track off YouTube movies. Reminder that I have a guide to using Movie Maker that you can use...

Pilot GCSE in the news

2008-04-14T19:56:00.002+01:00

The media are finally realising that Geography has changed, and THIS BBC NEWS article which I picked up earlier: "Tesco studies in Geography GCSE" featuring on the OCR exam board, who are responsible for administering the Pilot GCSE.
The exam specifications are all changing from 2009, so the Pilot will be disappearing and reappearing in a new slightly altered format which is described in this article. It's nice to have been in at the beginning...

Coursework Deadlines !

2008-04-13T16:31:00.002+01:00

THIS WEEK IS THE FINAL FULL WEEK THAT YOU HAVE TO PRODUCE ANY REMAINING COURSEWORK.
LETTERS WILL HAVE TO GO TO PARENTS AT THE END OF THE WEEK (particularly for the Year 11 students, not so much the Year 10s) AND UNFORTUNATELY DETENTIONS WILL HAVE TO FOLLOW FOR SOME OF YOU IF THE COURSEWORK DOES NOT COME IN.
This is now getting serious, as the Pilot is mostly marked on the quality of the coursework. All the details have posted on numerous occasions on this blog.
Please help yourself get the best possible mark...

Commercialism and Young People

2008-04-08T18:39:00.005+01:00

Young people are asking for their views on COMMERCIALISM.
BBC News site has all the details.

A recent poll carried out for the Children's Society suggested that most adults in the UK did believe that children's well-being was being damaged because childhood had become too commercial.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: "As parents we all worry about new influences, and feel pressure to buy the latest toys for our children.

"I want to know if advertising and shopping, and other influences such as media and entertainment, marketing and promotion, commercial websites, and sponsored events are affecting our children's lives in any way.

"I want to know what these things are telling young people about how to behave, what to believe, and what kind of person to become."

It's important that you take part in this, by clicking THIS LINK and answering the questions.

You might also have an extra day to revise for Geography on the 24th of April.

Extreme Penguins

2008-04-02T16:13:00.001+01:00

Pre Release 2008

2008-04-02T15:59:00.004+01:00

The inputs have already started from Tony C and Pete F.
The first aspect is about the difference between in town and out of town shopping and the effect that a large shopping mall like Cribbs Causeway can have on a place. Also need to consider the difference in the PATTERNS OF CONSUMPTION that are involved, and the fact that each of these places is what we call a LANDSCAPE of consumption.

Tony has put up the first of a few planned HALF A MIN games on the KEY TERMS from the pre-release booklet.

The Arctic is also now warming up so quickly that IGLOOS are becoming a thing of the past...

Car Footprint

2008-04-01T10:21:00.002+01:00

Useful for Sustainable Transport

from National Geographic website

100 Countries

2008-03-30T21:08:00.000+01:00

Since my NeoVisitors counter was zeroed in November, have watched the visitors mount and today had a visitor from my 100th different country. You're all very welcome. If you're reading this from outside the UK, please add a comment below...

GA Conference Workshop 2008

2008-03-30T11:33:00.001+01:00

GA Conference 2008 : University of Surrey, GuildfordJust sorting out my luggage and various pickings from the conference, which was based in the AP building of the university. This was one of the dry moments, there were lots of wet ones...

Will post more details later in the week once I have more time, but just wanted to make a link to the BLOG of the TEACHER's TOOLKIT workshop which I was particularly involved in.
Alan Kinder opened the session, then 4 of the authors talked through some of the ideas...

Thanks to those who came along to the session...

Some local stories...

2008-03-26T16:43:00.003Z

I'm sure you've all been logging on to check the blog.
Just to remind you that:
a) Year 11s - you need to have given me the Sustainable Transport newspaper, response to multicultural UK, newspaper article on Global Culture or not, and finally the contribution to the multimedia "installation"...

b) Year 10s - you need to finish the 3 small pieces of coursework for the year, ready for the first week back after Easter.

Also a few local stories.
First of all, check your lottery tickets !

There's a ticket which won almost £1 million that was bought in the King's Lynn area and has not yet been claimed.

Also Post Office closures have been announced for this area, and there are several of them in the local area. More on this to come soon...

Multicultural Britain - Year 11

2008-03-19T19:36:00.005Z

Here's what looks like a useful book for this section....Called "Real England" by Paul Kingsnorth, it's on my TO BUY list...

Here's the description:

We see the signs around us every day: the chain cafes and mobile phone outlets that dominate our high streets; the disappearance of knobbly carrots from our supermarket shelves; and, the headlines about yet another traditional industry going to the wall. For the first time, here is a book that makes the connection between these isolated, incremental, local changes and the bigger picture of a nation whose identity is being eroded. As he travels around the country meeting farmers, fishermen, and the inhabitants of Chinatown, Paul Kingsnorth will refract the kind of conversations that are taking place in country pubs and corner shops across the land - while reminding us that these quintessentially English institutions may soon cease to exist.

There is also a REAL ENGLAND blog, and you can read Paul's JOURNALISM and other writings on his website.

Has links to a number of relevant sites for us such as:

Here's a section which shows the relevance for our CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY unit. It was taken from a short extract in the Daily Mail a few days ago:

I discovered that the country I love is disappearing, its culture and character being wiped out.

Those in favour of globalisation argue it is a good thing for us to cast off our narrow, parochial past. Our communities are no longer geographical, they say, but communities of interest. Barriers are broken down by mass media and technology. Rootless, we gain freedom. Placeless, we belong everywhere.

This is nonsense. Placelessness and rootlessness do not create contentment, but despair.

Ask a tribal family whose land has been stolen for a logging concession. Ask an alienated 20-something working in a call centre in any of the world's mega-cities. Ask a pensioner who no longer understands the country she lives in.

All around us, we can see the steamroller flattening out our lives. This street market is closing down, that corner shop disappearing. People feel something is wrong, but they just don't know how to stop it.

They moan to each other in pubs and write letters to local newspapers. But if they bother to complain, they are fobbed off. It is patronisingly explained to them that these are small, insignificant local matters, of no import in the grand scheme of things.

They must think about wider issues such as economic growth or the War on Terror. If they persist, they are called "Luddites" or "nimbys".

The subtext is that no-one has the right to defend the place where they belong. We should have better things to do with our time.

Well, I believe there are few better things to do. This matters — a lot.

And, though it's unfashionable to say so in polite company, I've realised that it is England rather than that political construct, Britain, that matters to me.

Not because I'm a jingoist who think it's better than everywhere else. Not because I don't like foreigners or have a visceral desperation to win the World Cup. Simply because it is my country, the place I was born and grew up in and where I belong.

I know its landscapes and history and feel connected to both. I couldn't write about Scotland or Wales in the same way, because I am not part of them and they are not part of me. For better or for worse, I am English.

But we are a confused people these days. Recently, a Scottish nationalist was telling me how successful the Scots have been in creating a renewed sense of national identity since devolution.

It puzzled him, he said, that the English couldn't do the same. "Why can't the English talk about their identity or culture?" he asked.

I didn't know what to say, because I don't understand it either. The English, perhaps uniquely among European nations, are becoming almost a de-cultured people.

From our high street shops to the vocabulary we use, we are becoming a cheap and nasty imitation of the worst of consumer U.S.

We have lost sight of who we are and where we have come from. We can't sing our own folk songs or, increasingly, cook our own national foods. We sneer at morris dancers while we sip our skinny lattes.

The English — or the intellectual classes, at any rate — have long been renowned for this kind of rootless shoulder shrugging. George Orwell was railing against it 60 years ago. Taking "their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow", he wrote, the average Left-wing intellectual "has always felt there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings".

Not much has changed (though suet puddings are making a comeback in gastropubs). Mention Englishness to intellectuals today and you can still count the seconds before they start on the horrors of Britain's imperial past.

They are much happier hymning the virtues of ethnic minority communities — communities that, ironically, draw strength from their strong sense of cultural identity.

Discussions — let alone, God forbid, celebrations — of English identity are regarded with immediate suspicion, while those of virtually any other community on Earth (except the U.S.) are welcomed as positive displays of ethnic diversity.

"Multiculturalism" often seems to involve the celebration of every culture in Britain except the largest one — English culture.

This self-denial has had two dangerous consequences. One is that the Far Right has been able to colonise Englishness, conflate it with whiteness and make us all even more nervous about discussing it.

The other is that the door has been left wide open for what remains of the English landscape, both physical and cultural, to be trampled over. If we don't know what England is, or what made us, or what we value, then we don't know what to protect.

Paul also tackles the DISAPPEARANCE OF THE ENGLISH PUB

The LOSS OF ENGLISH APPLES

Interesting and challenging stuff !
Read it and ADD A COMMENT BELOW so that I know that you have !

Pre Release Materials 2008

2008-03-18T13:11:00.002Z

Here is the introduction to this year's Pre-release booklet.
Read this carefully. We will be spending around EIGHT hours of time on this, and you will get a copy in April when we come back after Easter.

600th Post

2008-03-18T11:04:00.002Z

OK.
So we're getting close to Easter.
You need to get cracking whether you're in Year 10 or Year 11...
Lots to do, and time is trickling away as I type this....
Check the blog for lots of advice from this time last year...
Follow the link from the bottom of the right hand column.
Thanks to all who visit, and comment on, the blog posts.

Pre Release Websites and Year 11 Final call...

2008-03-17T20:37:00.004Z

On the reverse of the pre-release booklet is a list of websites, so if you want to get ahead of the game, may be worth checking these out...

1. CRIBBS CAUSEWAY: this is a large shopping mall on the outskirts of Bristol, which is being compared to the shopping in the city centre itself...
2. WAR ON WANT
3. CLEAN CLOTHES
4. Pictures of NOKIA MOBILE PHONES being manufactured
5. WEATHER INFORMATION on any location
6. GUIDE TO GREENLAND - one of the only sites I've ever been to with a .GL domain
7. HUG: makers of FAIRTRADE clothing.

You will get your copies of the booklet in the next lesson.
We are meeting with other Norfolk colleagues later in April to discuss the questions as we have done in previous years....

Also been contacted by Pete Flaxman, another colleague who does the Pilot and runs the Superhoops blog. He will be helping us too...

For Year 11.
You really need to get moving now on coursework. Some of you are basically not going to get your target grade, and may even be withdrawn unless I see some real movement by Thursday!

I am going to leave this to you now: I have given you endless ideas for formats and content, and there are plenty of details on this blog.
It is up to YOU to make the effort and spend the time to produce the coursework.

Pre Release Materials 2008

2008-03-14T12:30:00.003Z

The booklets arrived in school yesterday, and got hold of them today, so will spend some of the weekend scanning and creating documents for you, as I did for last year's cohort.
There is obviously a focus on PEOPLE AS CONSUMERS, with a bit of EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS thrown in as well.
I like the idea of the mobile phone link.
The FAIRTRADE page looks a little out of place at the end, rather than being tied in with the globalisation of production section.
I wonder how accurate the tax disc survey is at accurately identifying visitors ? - but then I suppose that's perhaps the point of the question...

Will then start to add sections once we have our meeting with other Geography colleagues in Norfolk shortly after Easter.

Final People as Consumers Coursework - Year 10

2008-03-14T10:29:00.002Z

a) Work (in groups if necessary) to collate the raw primary data from the questionnaires.

b) Present this data in graphical form. (To gain top marks try to: Use three different types of graph for three different questions or types of data. Use ICT to present the graphs and data).

c) Write a brief description of, and comment on, what the graphs show about pupil consumption and possible consequences – OR BETTER STILL! – annotate the graphs to make them into LIVING GRAPHS.

Remember that I showed you the electricity consumption graph with annotations to explain the spikes: e.g. the waffle iron...

STAGE 3

a) Use annotation, colour shading, symbols and arrows to show the possible ‘geographical reach’ or in other words, the spatial consequences/impacts of the pupil consumption patterns that you have discovered.

b) You could focus on showing the consequences suggested by one of your graphs or of one of the questions, or you could try to show a range of consequences of pupil consumption.

c) You may use the base maps provided or you may design your own ‘impacts web’. The base maps will be given to you next week, but they are basically a choice of map of either the UK, Europe or the World, on different scales.

YOU SHOULD HAND IN THREE ITEMS AS YOUR FINAL COURSEWORK – ON OR BEFORE THE 11th of APRIL

1) Brief written justification of the primary data collection methods

2) Graphs with brief written comment, to show your findings

3) Annotated maps or ‘impacts web’ to show the Geographical Reach of the consumption of KES pupils. This relates to the places which your consumption reaches or affects.

HOW TO BE BRILLIANT …..

Try to show you understand these key concepts, use these words as often and as appropriately as you can.

Uneven development
Interdependence
Globalisation
Impacts of our actions

Aim to achieve work that matches these descriptions:

Select and use more complex and appropriate skills, approaches and techniques to collect and analyse primary data and questions/issues with little guidance (i.e. use a number of types of graph and diagram appropriately, design your own data collection method well).
Clearly communicate with a good understanding of the intended audience (i.e. use good and detailed annotation and map techniques).
Make selective and appropriate use of ICT information sources and systems (do some graphs using Excel, use ICT to organise information, use the internet to find helpful information).

Work for 13th March - Year 11

2008-03-12T11:14:00.001Z

As you may have noticed, I'm not in today.
You MUST finish off:
a) Personal response to Multicultural UK (including Cultural Objects)
b) Newspaper article: are we moving to a globl culture

Then carry on planning your contribution to the group piece on the CULTURE of our place.

Windows Movie Maker is available on the machines, and a guide to how to use it is available.

Coming up to 600 posts....

2008-03-10T19:19:00.002Z

Since the time we started this new course at KES in 2006, I have been posting almost daily on this blog some guidance and help for students in Year 10 and 11 who are doing this GCSE.
I have made contact with people around the world and we've had visitors from over 100 different countries...

What have been the most useful / interesting / informative posts out of the 600 ?
Why not take the time to browse through the past posts...

Add a comment below please.
Will write a special 600th post over the Easter holidays...

Banksy and Tesco

2008-03-10T18:29:00.003Z

Image by Flickr user Maggie Jones

Banksy is an artist who specialises in adding public artworks to the sides of houses and other buildings in urban settings. He is very secretive, and his artworks are sometimes painted over by people who don't realise they are art. His latest work is of 2 children saluting as a flag of Tesco (in the form of a carrier bag) is raised.
What is this trying to say about the impact of Tesco on our lives ?

Svalbard in the news again...

2008-03-10T18:10:00.004Z

...this time it's the opening of the SVALBARD GLOBAL SEED VAULT (SGSV)

This is a store house where a small number of all the world's seeds and their DNA is going to be stored.
The Seed Vault is designed to hold samples of every type of seed. There are thousands of grey boxes all neatly labelled. They are stored beneath the permafrost at temperatures of 20 degrees below zero.
The vault can withstand a nuclear explosion or earthquake.

It's also know as the Doomsday Vault: the idea being that if some future catastrophe kills all plant life, the seeds in the vault (or Ark) will help to revegetate the world.

Longyearbyen is less than 1000km from the North Pole.
A range of images, courtesy of Mari Tefre / Global Crop Diversity Trust are HERE.

An INTERACTIVE look inside the vault is here too.

Can you think why the vault is located in this remote, extreme location ?

Fieldwork Follow Up ready for Coursework - Year 10

2008-03-10T16:11:00.003Z

Having collected some data last time, we now need to do some follow up work to bring together the final piece of coursework. As we have already explained, time is tight, and we need to finish this off before the end of term.
This lesson is important (aren't they all...)
You have a number of items to complete during this lesson:

1. Produce a summary of the answers that you obtained. If you did a CLOSED QUESTION, add up the total and turn it into percentages.
If you did an OPEN QUESTION, label the different responses that you received.

2. Produce at least 3 different types of diagrams to show the answers to 3 of the questions.
If you have an old version of EXCEL, you can use the CHART WIZARD.

3. Write a brief summary of what the diagram tells you about the results of that particular question

Here are the details from the COURSEWORK MARKING SHEETS that we will use when we mark your whole portfolio.

Primary Data Collection

Level 1 (0-1 marks)
Candidates can select and use a limited range of basic skills, approaches and techniques to collect primary data following precise instructions.
ICT information sources are used (non-selectively)

Level 2 (2-3 marks)
Candidates can select and use appropriate skills, approaches and techniques to collect primary data, with some guidance.
Opportunities for using ICT for collecting and recording data are recognised.

Level 3 (4-5 marks)
Candidates can select and use a wide range of skills, approaches and techniques to collect primary data with little guidance.
Able to make selective and appropriate use of ICT.

Need to produce a short piece of work which discusses the following question.

What are the patterns of consumption of people in Gaywood ?

Remember that by 'patterns of consumption', we need to answer the following sorts of questions:

How do people get to the shops ?
How often do people go to the shops ?
Why do they go to particular shops ?
What is the impact of the Tesco store which is in Gaywood on the surrounding small shops ?
How far do consumers act on issues such as Organic, Food Miles etc.

Feel free to use the images that I have placed on the blog in an earlier post to add to your work.

SO WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO BY THE END OF TERM ?

You need to produce a printed fieldwork report (which could take the form of a powerpoint presentation) which has the following components:
1. A title page with an image (don't spend a lot of time on this)
2. A map to show where we went (can use an online mapping site: credit the source), and where you stood.
3. A description of the technique that we used to collect the data, and any issues that we found with collecting the data.
4. The data presentation section (which you hopefully completed earlier)
5. A conclusion which includes the answers to the questions above.

Cultural Presentations - Year 11

2008-03-10T12:51:00.002Z

Group-developed multimedia piece.
Extract from Mark Criteria for BAND 3 for ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVE 3.

The candidate displays a broad range of skills and initiative in gathering and selecting a wide variety of information from an extensive range of written, visual and other sources.

Displaying initiative, the candidate produces an appropriate newspaper feature that communicates a thorough knowledge and understanding of cultural geography.

Individually or collaboratively, the candidate produces an appropriate, well planned and inventive multi media presentation that clearly shows how a place may be represented in different ways.

The candidate clearly understands that people’s knowledge of places and environments is often gained from the media. The candidate offers evidenced and detailed explanations why these representations may not always be accurate.

Svalbard in the Guardian - the Sun returns !

2008-03-08T14:39:00.004Z

Svalbard was on the front page of the Guardian today.

The northernmost town in the world: Longyearbyen has today seen the return of the sun !
They have had three months of darkness.

Read the article here.
This is a great resource for the Year 10 Pilot students, as it shows the impacts of living in an extreme place.
Read the article, and try to summarise the issues here.
Remember Laurel's COLD PHOTO blog for some great images.

Gaywood Data Collection - Year 10

2008-03-07T16:36:00.006Z

Here are a few images from our trip up to Gaywood today. It was a bit quiet today, but we managed to get hold of quite a few people - thankyou to those people who took a few seconds of their day to answer the questions, and to Mrs. Clarke for coming out with us. Well done to some of you for your tenacity, like Karolina chasing people across the car park...The Gaywood ClockCoral BookmakersOne sign of the multicultural nature of King's Lynn: this sign on the library door. (A useful one for Year 11 doing their Cultural Geography work !)Tesco Gaywood: what impact has it had on the local consumer landscape ?One of those 'punning' shop signs...
Gallianos: popular with KES students...

Bowers Butchers - can Tesco claim the same ?

Remember to carry on asking any adults the questionnaires, and collecting as much data as you can for next Tuesday's lesson in B1 - BRING THE QUESTIONNAIRES WITH YOU !!

King's Lynn: Our Place - Year 11 Cultural Geography

2008-03-06T10:28:00.003Z

Group multimedia piece.
What are YOU going to contribute ?
Remember the suggestions:

Image set
Interviews with residents from years gone by and today to compare
Details on CULTURE can include food, religion, music, crime, homelessness, immigration, clothing, the Mart, cinema and TV representations of the area etc.
Artefacts: objects which 'represent' the town
Video footage - perhaps shot on mobile phones
Text based pieces

The library and tourist information centre would be too useful PHYSICAL places to visit as well as the usual VIRTUAL suspects...
This HAS to be with me

London Freewheel 2008

2008-03-05T19:50:00.003Z

The event that was held in 2007 is being held again, and I just registered...
Why don't you sign up too ?

Who do we think we are

2008-03-04T17:40:00.003Z

Alerted to this via an RGS-IBG newsletter.
A new website which explores issues of identity, diversity and citizenship. Familiar themes to Pilot GCSE Geographers !!

Who do we think we are? (WDWTWA)

Is a new, DCSF-funded education project designed to engage primary and secondary school teachers in the exploration of identity, diversity and citizenship with their pupils - in their schools, local communities and nationally. The project is a direct response to the recent Curriculum Review on Diversity and Citizenship, undertaken by Sir Keith Ajegbo, which recommended that all schools participate in a high profile, national event - titled Who do we think we are? Week - where the main activities would be

"…investigations and celebrations by schools of pupils’ histories and their community’s roots and of the national and global links that they can make.”

A new consortium of partners has been set up to help support the delivery of Who do we think we are? week - led by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), the Historical Association and citizenship consultant Paula Kitching.

Key areas of work include:

The design and launch of a new website – www.whodowethinkweare.org.uk - structured around four WDWTWA themes:

School and community
Relationships, belonging and faith
History and settlement
'Britishness’, national identity/values and the 2012 Games

The creation of an online database and ‘Ideas Hub’ – signposting existing resources and support for the learning and teaching of identity, diversity and community
Curriculum Development Programmes to support targeted work with schools and young people in four local authorities: Barking & Dagenham, Bradford, Bristol and Cheshire
The development and promotion of the national, week-long WDWTWA activities programme (23rd-28th June 2008) - during which schools will be encouraged to collapse timetables and explore identity and diversity as cross-curricular concepts - through subject 'join up', extensive on-site enrichment activities and off-site visits to museums, archives and community-based projects, etc.

Check out the website: more to come at the end of March 2008

One to watch...

Quote Unquote

2008-03-04T13:01:00.002Z

We're still after quotes for the Options Evening presentations next week.
If you want to tell us briefly what the course has been like so far, and how different it has perhaps been to the geography you have done before, please add a comment below. All comments gratefully received, and a small prize for the ones we feature on the night...

35 000 Visitors

2008-03-03T20:54:00.001Z

34 990 of them from non-KES students probably ;)
You're all very welcome - feel free to add a comment to let me know that you've visited and found the blog useful !

NAR OUSE REGENERATION AREA

2008-03-02T19:49:00.001Z

Nora....New handout (an 8 Mb PDF file) downloadable from the Lynn News homepage.
Useful for Year 10s considering MY PLACE, and also some ideas for Year 11s for our KING's LYNN multimedia extravaganza...

Simpsons Britain Episode - Tony needs your comments

2008-03-02T16:32:00.003Z

Tony needs our help. He has a posting on his weblog HERE, which follows a request from an American called Nathan who is asking for our opinions on whether we think the episode really captured what it is like to be British.
Have the Simpsons got Britishness right ?
Spend 5 minutes (no more) of the lesson this week in the ICT room typing a comment to this post with your thoughts. Make sure they are appropriate and are accurately spelt !

Sustainability Pyramids Gallery

2008-02-29T21:14:00.003Z

Here are some of the pyramids for the "My Place" section showing the sustainable nature of your schemes.
The base was the location. The 4 sides were 4 aspects of the environment you wanted to change, with the base of the sides of the pyramid being the current situation and the top the stage you wanted to have become once the project was finished.
Great work everybody !!

Our Place - Year 11

2008-02-27T11:30:00.002Z

Start thinking about the contribution you can make to the group's multimedia piece.
Pictures
Sounds
Videos
Artefacts
Written pieces ?