Monday, December 18, 2006

The Atmosphere - Global Circulation

PowerPoint presentation to introduce the topic of atmospheric circulation. The resource demonstrates the reasons for atmospheric circulation, the transfer of energy between latitudes and the global pattern of surface winds. Questions for students are included.

Find the SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS Folder

Drawing Graphs with Excel

These resources have detailed instructions on how to use Microsoft Excel to create pie charts and line, bar, climate, hydro and scatter graphs.

Look in the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers Folder.

Construction of hydrographs

This PowerPoint presentation produced by Ollie Bray analyses the reasons for the production of hydrographs, the method of constructing them, analysis of hydrographs, factors influencing storm hydrographs and interpretation of them.

Find this folder:

Scottish Association of Geography Teachers



Sunday, December 17, 2006

Hydrological Cycle Mind-map

Great intro to the topic. This one done by Pam and Simon (Year 12).

Starter for Year 12 river management

Draw/show a 'bad' drainage basin (natural and human causes of flooding) - write down as many solutions ... and their problems as you can in X minutes ?

River Management materials

The manual of River Restoration Techniques is presented in PDF. Check out the UK River Restoration Centre at www.theRRC.co.uk for details.
Their mission statement is to 'promote good practice in river restoration and environmentally sustainable river management'.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

A contrast of 2 hurricanes

http://www.cooperscoborn.com/humanities/studypages/year13/Hurricanesplan2.pdf

Natural Hazards

Excellent site with lots of data about trends in natural hazards
http://www.em-dat.net/
....and one of the downloadable pdf documents
http://www.em-dat.net/documents/Publication/publication_2004_emdat.pdf
Do be aware that the spec is not simply trends over time it is prediction, management and reduction too.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Some tips from Noel Jenkins

If you like the idea of using wave cams, buoys and animations to look at Atlantic weather systems and the resulting effects on the surf, then the ultimate resource is http://magicseaweed.com/
Excellent for A level weather and climate.

San Dune Sucession

C ourtsey of hre99 of SLN fame:

There is some good data on this site if you wanted to do kite diagrams - http://www.sandsoftime.hope.ac.uk/succession/vegdata.htm This is also a useful site - http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/biospher_reserves/braunton.htm


Sunday, December 03, 2006

AS Schemes of work and a model answer

A big thanks to Matt Burdett, who teaches at Cromwell Community College, for these resources.
http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Real time population counter

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/population/
View any countries birth and death rate rise and fall in real time. The deaths come with a brief description like "Adult, 30 - 49 years old (Male)" and it tells you if the birth was a boy or girl.
Interesting!!. But its not entirely accurate...

For example, check out Japan where the number of births is exactly the same as the number of deaths since January 1, 2005. Talk about an organized society!

The figures presented are based on information from the U.S. Census Bureau. Data was collected for the population births and deaths, for the most recent year available. The numbers presented are not real figures, but merely estimates. The notes are also simulated, but are properly dispersed according to the percentages found.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Types of Mass Movement Most Likely to....


http://www.4shared.com/dir/1325773/a2e72133/flows_slides__falls.html

Teaching case studies

Using a chain activity (like dominoes) a case study can be made into a series of questions and answers. Give each student one question and one answer. Start with a question and the person with the answer reads it out and then they read out their questions.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Useful resources for Population topic

The Population Reference Bureau has a plethora of articles, resources and lesson plans.
Click here!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Fancy becoming a vegetarian?


Butcher's shop, 40km north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Movie quiz on river systems


Thanks to Dan Mace for this creative quiz. The photo shows my IGCSE class taking a break from their river study in Chiang rai, north of Thailand. Find in D_Maces's folder.

Antarctic Schools Pack: A-level EdExcel Geography syllabus based resource


The Antarctic Schools Pack is the first educational resource on Antarctica to have been produced especially for students in the post-16 age range. BAS scientists and technical experts wrote the pack with the assistance of an educational consultant. The Commissioner for the British Antarctic Territory, John White, and the BAS Director, Professor Chris Rapley, launched the Pack at a North London comprehensive school in April 1999.
The Pack contains information on climate change, the ozone hole, Antarctic ecosystems, tourism, environmental issues and other topical subjects. The Pack is focused on the A-level EdExcel Geography syllabus with fifteen topics, each with worksheets and appropriate resources. In addition a 56-page Teachers Notes provides model answers to the tasks set in the worksheets.
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/Resources/schoolzone/resources/SchoolsPack/index.html

Physical Geog Animations, Interactive Exercises

http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geology/howell/goodies/

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Geography is about making connections

Something I've dredged from the SLN archives. Could be used for AS/A Level.
Thanks to Imogen Smith for initiating the idea:
Why not develop a geographical version of when you link two totally random objects together geographically, with the aim of getting pupils to think hard to make linkages and to be able to justify these links eg.
cow dung - cake
The sun - asthma
Feather - plastic bag
Lightbulbs - wate
r

Link them together...!
These could be text, pictures or objects. Pupils could develop this by linking a 3rd item to the two.
An interesting HWK could be to get them to come up with their own two objects. Appeal to their sadistic nature-challenge the teacher to link their objects together!
Here is a possible answer to the above:
Cattle produce cow dung, which is the waste product of grass, which also helps them to produce milk. Milk is bottled and distributed across the country in shops/on door steps where people/factories use as an ingredient in many different types of cake.

You could also use pairs of the same word, with one marked head, and one marked tail, and you could to connect to a super'loop card' exercise, and connect the lot together geographically.
eg.
Light - oil lamp - wick in oil - stored in a - cup.
cup - is a basic consumer tool - at the opposite end of the scale to - cars.
cars - produce greenhous gases - need to sequester carbon - afforestation - wood
wood - afforestastion - increased wealth/reduced erosion - better agriculture- food.
food - surplus leads to - urbanisation with potential for -education using-books.
books - used in education - increases knowledge in - development of agriculture - health.
etc...

Christaller


If he's still being taught somewhere?!? Noel Jenkins had a student who went to the Netherlands to work on Christaller for his Geography project. Here's the piece of work (scroll down the page). Cheers Noel.
http://www.geography.ndo.co.uk/research.htm#research2

Reilly's gravity model

For a succinct explanation of Reilly's gravity model, try http://geography.about.com/cs/citiesurbangeo/a/aa041403a.htm.

ICT work on River Channels and Processes

http://vcourseware.sonoma.edu/VirtualRiver/
Red River in the US is a good case study with real time data http://www.rrbdin.org/about.html
What was the Institute of hydrology:
http://www.nwl.ac.uk/ih/
There is a school liaison officer contact.
This is another lead:
http://www.floodplains.org/

Coasts - Odd One Out

Thanks goes to Jo Wraige (geojo) for this resource - enjoy!

http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Periglaciation starter and coasts PowerPoint

Rob Chambers, a veteran and stalwart of the SLN forum, has kindly offered up these resources. Rob currently teaches at St Ivo School and has recently been on holiday in Kenya - lucky bloke!
Rob's resources can be downloaded at:

http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html


Look for R_Chambers folder.

Monday, November 06, 2006

A2 Periglaciation links


Links courtesy of Rob Chambers:


Animation of Ice Wedges http://www.wiley.com/college/strahler/0471480533/animations/ch15_animations/animation2.html

Permafrost and Periglaciation

http://wps.pearsoned.co.uk/ema_uk_he_holden_physgeo_1/0,10461,2018627-,00.html

Ice Wedge Polygons and Pingos

http://arctic.fws.gov/permcycl.htm

Frost Action and Frost Heave

http://www.pavement.com/Concrete_Pavement/Technical/Fundamentals/Frost.asp

Stone Circles Explained http://www.ucsc.edu/currents/02-03/01-20/patterns.html

Pingo – Canadian Encyclopaedia http://tceplus.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0006300

Thermokarst – Climate Warning as Siberia melts (New Scientist Article) http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18725124.500

Frost Heaving – Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost_heaving

Permafrost – Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permafrost

How rapidly is permafrost changing and what are the impacts of these changes? http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/essay_romanovsky.html

Melting Russian permafrost could accelerate global warming http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/EnvironmentNewsService/2006/09/07/1800717?ba=a&bi=17&bp=13

Permafrost: A building problem for Alaska http://www.uaf.edu/coop-ext/publications/freepubs/HCM-00754.pdf

Permafrost zones and Permafrost temperatures http://http-server.carleton.ca/~msmith2/permafrost_zones.htm

Permafrost in Canada http://http-server.carleton.ca/~msmith2/current_pf.htm

Permafrost and Climate http://http-server.carleton.ca/~msmith2/permafrost_and_climate.htm

Climate Change and Permafrost http://http-server.carleton.ca/~msmith2/climate_change_and_permafrost.htm

Permafrost – not quite so permanent http://www.sciencepoles.org/index.php?s=2&rs=home&uid=455&lg=en

Permafrost Distribution Map http://arctic.unep.net/index.cfm?issue=&type=1&data_id=9118

Periglacial Processes and Landforms http://uregina.ca/~sauchyn/geog323/periglacial.html

Scientists explain Arctic Stone Circles http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2665675.stm

Permafrost Photo Gallery http://www.uspermafrost.org/gallery/swalker/swalker_gallery.shtml

Geocryology – some great photos including deformed buildings built on permafrost http://www.netpilot.ca/geocryology/photo5.html

Alaska Range http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/tundra/picture.tundra.dena5967.html

Flickr Sets – Tundra http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=tundra

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Give Geography its Place' Campaign

David Rayner and Daniel Raven-Ellison have devoted a lot of their time this year to raising the status of Geography through their ‘Give Geography its Place’ (GGiP) Campaign. The GGiP Campaign has two key aims:

1. To raise the profile of Geography as an academic subject in all forms of the media (newspapers, magazines, the internet, TV, radio, advertising, etc).
2. To increase awareness of the importance of Geography and the vital role that it plays in schools, colleges and universities in preparing young people for life in the 21st century.

The campaign’s website can found at:

http://www.passion4geography.co.uk/

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Chinese mystery and hydro stuff!

Some more thought-provoking resources from Matt Mason:
  • A China One Child Mystery
  • Features of a drainage basin taboo
  • Hydrological cycle Mexican wave

Cheers for these Matt.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The Barriadas of Lima

Stephen Akeroyd of The Robert Manning Technology College, Lincolnshire, has provided a selection of resources on the Geographical Asoociation's site based around the city of Lima.
Migration Story: "This story is aimed at AS students and is used to identify the causes of rural to urban migration (a key factor driving urbanisation in Lima)."

http://www.geography.org.uk/post16he/

Useful Geog sites

http://earthtrends.wri.org/ [searchable database World Resources Institute]
http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/english.html [Encylopedia of the Atmosphere]
http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/home.rxml [meteorology explanations]
http://www.meto.gov.uk/education/cu...roclimates.html [aspects of weather including microclimates]
http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/impacts/index.html [Global Warming]
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwa...b?OpenDocument - excellent example for global warming.
http://www.weatherbase.com/ [stats about weather in every country]
http://www.ucar.edu/communications/q...onnection.html -global warming and el nino
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/history.shtml - excellent hurricane site

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/ [flood risks etc]
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/tcmweb/tcm/crlinks.htm [coral reefs]
http://www.geography.btinternet.co.uk/ [Kay’s Geog page – good links]
http://www.pupilvision.com/ [Another good links page]
http://www.georesources.co.uk/ [And another very good links page]
http://www.geography-site.co.uk/ [a good general site]
http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/Gg_Sec/ [loads of links]
http://geography.radley.org.uk/web_human.html [another very good link page]
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ [nice up-to-date pictures]

http://www.geography-site.co.uk/ [info on case studies etc]
http://www.nationmaster.com/ [graphically very helpful]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main [a useful site for geog articles]
http://www.britanniatrophies.co.uk/geofactsheets/ [geofactsheets]

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/ [Volcanoes] http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm [Disaster relief]
http://www.sciencecourseware.com/Vi...iver/index.html [rivers]
http://ndrd.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Natural Hazards resource page
http://www.mantleplumes.org/VolcanicBombs.html - tectonic hotspots
http://www.nativemaps.org/conference...rth_slope.html Alaska and periglaciation

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ [CIA Factbook – statistical country data]
http://www.worldbank.org/data/datab...atabytopic.html [world data eg debt relief]
http://www.mrdowling.com/800nations.html [User-friendly stats on countries]
http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/Demotrans/demtran.htm brilliant site on Demographic Transition
http://www.fao.org/FOCUS/E/Women/green-e.htm Women and development
http://www.foodfirst.org/media/opeds...-greenrev.html Food and Development
http://www.malhamdale.org.uk/malham_cove.htm [lovely site on Malham]
http://www.lake-district.gov.uk/ [good Lake District plus factsheets –downloadable]
http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/planning/tranport.htm [sustainable transport in Cambridge]
http://www.worldbank.org/data/databy...tabytopic.html
very useful if you want world data eg debt relief etc
Web site for weather and climate. Very good for A level.
http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/Resources/T.../contents.html
A version of the CIA factbook but in a more user-friendly form!
http://www.mrdowling.com/800nations.html
http://www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/english.html
Content - Encyclopedia of the Atmosphere (Very user-friendly!)
http://earthtrends.wri.org/
World Resources Institute website, brilliant for searchable databases on all aspects of geog - human and environmental mine of information. You can sign up for regular updates to be emailed to you.

Weathering PowerPoint

Here is a ppt produced by one of my students on a selection of physical & chemical weathering processes.
Downloaded from:

http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Monday, September 25, 2006

Bid Rent Model: creative ideas

Some suggestions from Ian Murray:
I found that I could breathe a bit more life into this by building up the diagram on the board through discussion with the class. You could try having them in groups for whichever land uses you want to include and then through guided Q/A get them to talk through their preferred location- where would they pay most to be. All the time you ensure that the theoretical attractions on a central location are stressed. You could perhaps act as 'auctioneer' revealing the land prices at appropriate places on the graph at appropriate moments. I wonder if they could be given a sum of money to spend and then realise that their choices are limited because other land uses have more money etc.
It's good to extend the graph to create a Burgess model at the end, then of course, consider the real world and the role of centrifugal as well as centripetal forces in the city.
'Is urban geography simply a spatial analysis of capitalism?'"
and:
In one of the old Oxford Geography books there was a simple outline map of a town centre. I can't remember if I made this up or if it was in the book. I gave out each child a card for example dept store £1 million, women's clothes £200,000, Charity shop £2000 and so on so they had one each and the ones with cheap ones had a couple of cards. They wrote down in advance which number plot(s) they wanted and why, we did an auction which I remember as damn hard work cos they got so excited and time consuming, and wrote down the price and land use for each. They could keep buying until money ran out - so dept store could buy a row of plots together. Then debrief, choropleth, map write up. They loved it but this was a long time ago! This would be Yr 8 or 9.
The idea could be developed with plots for sale over a whole city using a map with blank spaces.
Another idea would be to get actual commercial land values from an estate agent and pic up some leaflets to see how the commerial property actually operates.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Animation for Weather & Climate topic

A useful site for A2/IB atmospheric processes. If you have a iwb, plenty of opportunities for discussion: http://geography.uoregon.edu/envchange/clim_animations/

AS Weather starter

Try looking at proverbs with an A level group to get them thinking about weather processes and if they might be true.
Use trhis site for explanations:http://www.wxdude.com/proverb.html

Teaching AS/A2 Level

Some words of advice from "hre99"- a regular contributor to the SLN forum:
"Lots of 'accelerated learning' techniques work really well with A-level classes - and often better than in the lower school. Good, fun starters and plenaries are just as important for these lessons. Variety is the key but so is making sure the students have all the skills and information they need to tackle the exam questions for each topic. Some lessons may need to be more 'formal' - but even 'chalk and talk' is much more interesting these days with the use of PowerPoint. If you want students to make notes from discussions make sure you tell them and show them how to do this. Other lessons can be more challenging - difficult sorting tasks, mysteries, problem solving, mini-enquiries, preparing for presentations etc. To make sure content is covered sometimes I just give out handouts, but it’s more important to make the students responsible for their own learning so I get them to write up the content using a variety of sources at home. Notemaking in lessons is a waste of the lesson - its something the students can take care of in private study - though they will need guidance at first."

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Microclimate Most Likely to..

A worksheet on the above:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Drainage Basins and their Management

Some great AS/A2 resources developed by Rich Allaway on his site. Cheers Rich!
The lesson is on the Bradshaw Model. It has a PowerPoint presentation and a worksheet which includes some essay question practice.


You can find the lesson here:

http://www.geographyalltheway.com/ib_geogr...dshaw_model.htm

Weather Depression thinking activities

A big thanks goes to Matthew Mason (aka MatMacMas) for sharing these resources:

For the weather in a depression mystery you need to have done a memory map on the weather changes associated with the passage of a depression, and then you can launch the mystery. You need to change the parent's name to that of a student you get on with. The premise behind the mystery is that Mrs Borgerson's washing machine has broken down and she is going away on holiday. The washing machine gets mended but the tumble dryer is knackered so she puts her washing out on the line to dry. But she is unfortunate enough to put her washing out as a depression is passing and has to keep bringing it in because of the rain.
http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Earthquake prediction

A Word file containing recommended weblinks. Useful for A2.
http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Water on the Land (AQA A)

Thanks to Dan Mace for these excellent ideas :

For homework I asked the students to write a mix of crossword and cryptic crossword clues for all those key terms in the hydrological cycle. When they came back the next day, they had to write a story of the passage of a raindrop, in pairs, using those terms. Having talked through the 5 key factors (climate, vegetation, soil, bedrock, human activity) they had to swap their stories, and write 'What if' statements throughout - e.g. what if the vegetation was oak trees instead of grass, then… OR what if the rain fell in a city environment instead of a field etc etc.
Finally - 'Making Animals' - if they could redesign South Africa to avoid the problem of overland flow etc, how would they do that - i.e. the ideal river catchment. This provided the context of the lesson - the problems faced by South Africa/Lesotho.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Request!

Please could you send me any AS/A2/Higher/IB resources (worksheets, PowerPoints) or ideas you are willing to share. This blog can only work if we share - so far no one has sent anything to me but there have been 71 downloads of the resources I have made available. Please give as well as take.
Thanks
Paul

Plea for resources/ideas!

Please could you send me any AS/A2/Higher/IB resources (worksheets, PowerPoints) or ideas you are willing to share. This blog can only work if we share - so far no one has sent anything to me but there have been 71 downloads of the resources I have made available. Please give as well as take.
Thanks
Paul

Psammosere case study

An excellent Studland sand dune PowerPoint courtesy of "fkhan", a member of the SLN forum:
Download at:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Creative idea for Hjulstrom Curve

Thanks to Alan Parkinson:
SINK OR SWIM exercise.
Provide a particle size and a velocity, and the answer they need to shout out within 10 seconds is "SINK!" or "SWIM!"

Cartograms matching activity

Thanks to "edge" of SLN Forum fame for this idea. As she says "This is a really useful set of cartograms showing the world map distorted to represent various issues e.g. world popualtion, child mortality etc. Well worth a look. Initial ideas are to use the maps with A level groups to provoke discussion, perhaps as a matching exercise with the various maps and their titles muddled."
I've put together the resources in Word. Can be downloaded at:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html

Monday, September 11, 2006

Odd One Out - Plate Tectonics

Download the Word document here:
http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.htm

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Interesting blog

Check out Val Vannet's Scottish Higher blog. Some interesting ideas for post-16 geog.
http://www.highergeogblog.blogspot.com/
Please send in your contributions.

Most Likely To...

Here is my 1st contribution: a "Most likely to..." on flood hydrographs.
http://www.4shared.com/dir/787269/e28119cb/sharing.html