Blankety Blank...

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....

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

A new link on the school homepage.

Euro 2008 - Who will you support ?

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

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

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...

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...