Photo Competition

Found a calendar in my pigeon hole today, and details of a PHOTO COMPETITION which you could have a go at !
The calendar is produced by the Wash Estuary Strategy Group who I have featured on the blog before. They are after images of the WASH.
I have entry forms for you if you want to know more details, but basically:
"The image should relate to/be inspired by the heritage of the Wash. Topics can include for example, wildlife, landscape, historic / cultural buildings, farmers and fishermen at work, local scenes such as people enjoying traditional festivals / fetes /activities."

So get your camera out and make it snappy... The deadline for entries is the 11th of May. See me for more details...

Also check out COUNTRYFILE website, as this weekend they featured THE FENS heavily, and lots on the nature of the landscape in places such as Wicken Fen, which some of you may have visited in Year 8, and Ely.

Apologies...

Sorry to those who I was hoping to meet at the Pilot GCSE day on 20th of March in Birmingham. I feel like I have lost a lot of time with some exam groups due to the demands on my apparent skills since Christmas...
A particular pity not to meet up with Tony Cassidy...
Justin W has very kindly offered to keep me updated with anything I miss, but if you come to read this blog as a result of attending the conference, then please get in touch and let me know what you think, and perhaps let me know of the work you've been doing...
Why not start your own blog ?

Also realised I hadn't explained the red wine in the earlier picture clue, well that's an allusion to the UB40 song of the same name, and that's a link with job losses and unemployment which could unfortunately be the fate of some of the Campbell's employees in the posting below...

No computers again ! Not so souper...

Why a tin of soup ? All will be revealed !

Well, we're now into the 3rd week with computer issues... This is beginning to have a slight impact on coursework, so we're going to need to work extra hard when they're back working again. Of course, that doesn't stop those of you with Internet access and a computer at home from getting on with it !

Today, Mrs. Clarke used the maps with you to explore local changes and come up with some plans. Lessons were disrupted again, this time by the Study support sessions - we will be looking for you to put what you have learned into practice !!

We still need to do a few extra bits on the links between the UK and the rest of the world, and also some more bits on our place, and we're going to do that this week.

The picture clues in the last post were so hard I didn't expect anyone to get the answer right, but it was worth a go. Let's start with BRANSTON BEANS. They are one of the fastest growing brands on the market thanks to their catchy advertising campaign (or is it their taste ?)
Many people have what is called a BRAND LOYALTY to certain brands: they will only buy them, and think that other brands (particularly some of the supermarket own brands are inferior)For many people, Beanz Meanz Heinz...
They even get fan mail


Branston Beans are one of the many brands owned by PREMIER FOODS. They are one of the largest food companies in the world, and have larger operations in the UK than companies such as Nestle.
In August 2006, Premier Foods bought Campbells.
The Campbells Tower in King's Lynn is one of the most famous buildings in the town, and the Campbell's brand one of the most iconic, thanks to the art prints by Andy Warhol (don't say you've never heard of him!)This rather nice pic by FLICKR USER Jane Goth - for which many thanks - let you know if you object to your image being used...

Just months after that, it was announced that the Campbells factory will close before the end of the year, with the loss of around 245 jobs!
Read about the takeover and subsequent closure in this LYNN NEWS ARTICLE.
(You had a copy given to you in the lesson)

The decision was apparently to cut COSTS.
We will be exploring the issues, with the aid of some useful materials adapted from Tony Cassidy.

We will also be doing more about the issue in THIS STORY as well.

Global Links

Just putting together some work for Friday, inspired by some of Tony's work..
What has this:
got to do with this:got to do with King's Lynn ?

Answer on Friday...

The Branston Beans tin by the way is from my very latest favourite site: SEVENOAKS ART, where Dave Sutton kindly makes available some excellent free animated gifs - suitable for powerpoints and blogs. Excellent flag animations, which I shall be using for my new Cricket World Cup resource which will be made this week (I hope)

Mixed fortunes in the East of England

First of all thanks to KGB blog for link to NATURAL ENGLAND. This is a new website which combines resources from a range of other places. The EAST OF ENGLAND section of the website has a range of useful resources including a very useful map.Also some more materials and links.
There was an excellent article in the Guardian this weekend about the contrasting fortunes of two of our 'local' seaside resorts: Southwold and Great Yarmouth.
Read the article HERE.

Also still time to catch Monday 5th of March's edition of Panorama, which featured the Ethical Man who is trying to live an ethical lifestyle as regards consumption.
An interesting idea as we shall shortly be moving on to the idea of PEOPLE AS CONSUMERS.

Weather Pixie

Noticed this little addition on blogs by virtual colleagues Val and Victoria, so added one. Scroll down to see it in the right hand toolbar. It feeds in the latest weather information from RAF Marham.

It seems to have a few timing issues...

Thanks also to Mr. Clarke for coming in again this Thursday to speak to Mrs. Clarke's group.
I will be adding some of the new slides and commentary that he added having learned from his first visit what worked the best...

Svalbard and Northern Lights (the book)

Remember that our Extreme Environment context is a POLAR region called SVALBARD.
One thing that we have to do is to be able to talk about how the region is portrayed in the media, including literature...
One book set in Svalbard: albeit a parallel version is Philip Pullman's "Northern Lights". This has some excellent descriptions of the icy landscape in Part 3 of the book.

Noel Jenkins has consistently produced interesting resources for use with Google Earth, and he has now launched another excellent resource idea using text from "Northern Lights". This is a book I read over 10 years ago. The front cover of the edition I have shows the alethiometer: a very geographical looking device.

The action in the first book ends in Svalbard, but not the Svalbard that we know - one that is subtly different i.e: it has armies of polar bears and witches in a parallel world, which has Norroway and Brytain.
Noel's idea is to use Google Earth to find the locations in the book.
This, as Noel says, is difficult on Svalbard except for the small areas where there are high definition images.
Check out NOEL's PAGE for more.

Noel uses the text to explore the landscape of Svalbard, which is shown in all its glory in the wonderful images of Laurel McFadden at her COLD PHOTO blog.

Also looking forward to the film, which is apparently due out in December 2007.