Peterborough trials personal transport

This is one that you should definitely mention in your coursework !
Peterborough is trialling personal transport plans.
This BBC article, which you need to read suggests that:

A nationwide brigade of personal transport advisers who call at the homes of drivers thinking of switching to greener forms of travel could help break Britain's dependency on the car.

In Peterborough £750,000 has been spent on giving 20,000 people personal advice to help them use public transport or cycle.

Check the TRANSPORT OFFICE website for more details in this area.

Tom Symonds is the BBCs Transport Correspondent so a search on his name on the BBC site brings up loads of articles which could be relevant. A useful search tip there...

Douglas Mawson documentary on C4

Last night, those doing Antarctica may have been interested in a programme which recreated a journey made by the noted Polar explorer Douglas Mawson in 1912.
Here's a mixed review of the programme from the Telegraph which gives a flavour for the programme, which is repeated on the 3rd of November at 8.35 on Channel 4 Plus 1

Mawson was a Yorkshire-born Australian, who, in the same year that Scott and Amundsen raced each other to the South Pole, led a geological expedition in Antarctica. Having established base camp on the windiest place on Earth, he then took two colleagues on the toughest of the field trips: a 900-mile journey in search of minerals. All went well until one of the party, Belgrave Ninnis, fell into a crevasse and was never seen again. Neither was his sledge, which had been carrying most of the food.

From then on, all thoughts of mineral-discovery were abandoned – and during the long slog back to base, his other companion Xavier Mertz died too, probably from the toxins in the livers of the huskies the two men were forced to eat. Carrying on alone with little food, no dogs and the soles of his feet falling off, Mawson eventually made it home. In Europe, his achievement was overshadowed by the tragedy of Captain Scott. In Australia, he became a national hero.

As far as I could see, all of this was perfectly clear last night – not least because the programme drew heavily on Mawson’s own account. So, why did When Hell Freezes claim that it was “shrouded in mystery”? The answer, naturally, was that some grizzled adventurer of our own time had decided to don some 1912 polar clothes and have a go too. “For one man,” said the narrator supportively, “the terrible fate of Mawson’s party has become an obsession.”

The man in question was Tim Jarvis, who was soon faced with another of the problems with programmes like this: they don’t actually follow the footsteps that closely. Not only did Jarvis take a different route from Mawson, but in these enlightened times, he neither used nor ate dogs. Fairly crucially as well, he had no chance of dying, what with a film crew in attendance and regular check-ups from the team doctor. Of course, I’m not suggesting that Jarvis should have risked his life for our edification – just that his knowing he’d survive meant the whole experience couldn’t possibly be the same as Mawson’s.

No wonder then that, instead of illuminating Mawson’s story, Jarvis’s merely ran in uneasy parallel with it. His toughness was admittedly impressive in itself – but in the context of the documentary it simply got in the way. By the end, Jarvis had certainly proved that dragging a sledge across hundreds of miles of ice on starvation rations is very hard. Needless to say, though, we could probably have worked this out for ourselves.

500 posts....

The last post that I just made was the 500th since the blog started in September 2006.

Can I remind this year's Year 10 pupils that all posts from last year are archived.
Scroll down to the bottom of the right hand column to find 2006, and then select September, October and November and read through what we did last year as a help with what you need to do this year. This is essential for those of you who want to get the top grades. There is a lot of help there, and I won't be spending the hours re-doing what I did last year all over again.

Year 10 Coursework Task B

Here are the instructions for Task B
Move on to this once you've finished your poster...

TASK B

So what do YOU think the future holds for Svalbard? What human and physical changes might occur as a result of global warming? What is your vision for a future Svalbard?

Write a 500-word report to describe and explain your view of a likely possible future for Svalbard.

You may choose to take an overview of the human and physical characteristics of the Islands

OR

You may focus on one broad aspect such as the landscape

OR you may even like to refine your report and focus on one aspect such as ecosystems or even polar bears.

Your intended audience of readers is a group of KES geographers from Years 10 to 13. You may wish to write for another intended audience, consult your teacher.

Folow the ‘Top Tips!’ below to help you.

Top Tips!

• Incorporate the idea of sustainability within your answer: the idea that we need to use resources in such a way as to allow them to remain viable for the future
• Show you understand likely future changes on Svalbard
• Describe and explain these changes.
• Refer to who might be affected by the changes.
• Refer to human and physical changes.
• Refer to local, regional and global implications of this change.
• Present and justify your own view.
• Include diagrams, maps and photos to support your view. At all times make sure that you credit your sources.

Possible aspects to include on your concept map or diagram:

Oceans around Svalbard.

Climate of Svalbard.

Glaciers and ice caps on Svalbard.

Landscapes, landforms and processes of Svalbard.

Land-based ecosystems of Svalbard.

Ocean-based ecosystems of Svalbard.

Human activities on Svalbard.

Culture and peoples of Svalbard.

Scientific exploration of Svalbard.

You could focus on some or one of these in your report.

Polar Bear Site

A new Polar Bear site has been launched by WWF and Canon.
They are monitoring Polar Bears, which have been fitted with radio collars to track their movements. Some of the bears are on Svalbard.
Check out the KIDS ZONE too.

Future Transport Year 11

Future Transport

The third part of the coursework is related to creative ideas about the FUTURE of urban transport.

Today, we looked at the past development, which might give us some ideas about how transport might develop in the future.
What did people from the past think we might be travelling like in 2007 ??

Here's a CITY OF THE FUTURE FLICKR set (can't see this at school)

A great FLICKR set from 1910 showing "what life will be like in the year 2000"

Technology

- materials used and safety involved
- efficiency of engines
- material used for safety and car shell

Different Fuels

- LPG
- Biofuels
- talked about difference in road tax paid by people depending on the car they own - should owners of larger cars pay more road tax (or even more...)

Increased capacity

- Airbus A380 first flight
- Articulated and bi-articulated buses
- Double-decker TGV trains

Increased networks

- more roads / motorways
- more railways (Beeching cuts - research what this involved if you need to find out more...)

Increased speed

- early vehicles moved at the speed of a horse
- what are the average speeds of traffic in London ?
- why manufacture vehicles which can travel at speeds that are illegal on the roads ?

Suitable websites for ideas

1. Some manufacturers of cars are developing new engines - check the TOYOTA Hybrid Synergy Drive.
2. What about HYDROGEN FUEL ?
3. How about a SKYCAR ?

WIKIPEDIA has an interesting article

It's a small world...

...especially when you bump into KES students in the queue for Indiana Jones in Disneyland Paris on your half term holiday !
Thanks to Rob Chambers for pointing out the PENGUINS IN PERIL game.