Work Experience going well ?

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

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...

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...

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....

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

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

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 !