Year 10 Homework - Flooding

Year 10 homework this week is to research an area in the UK that is prone to flooding. Which river(s)? Causes? Effects (don't forget to consider social, political, economic and environmental impacts)? Responses/management?

The picture shows part of one city that has major floods fairly frequently and would be a good example to use - where is it, and which river is this?

Enjoy the holiday - and don't forget to take lots of geographical pictures (especially from Egypt - you know who you are!!).

£90 million needed for East Yorkshire sea defences

Just spotted this report in the Yorkshire Post about the need for £90 million to be spent on sea defences to protect towns along the East Coast of Yorkshire. This stretch of coastline is the fastest eroding coastline in W. Europe - at a rate of more than 2m per year in places.

Year 10, 11 and 13 know all about this already, but for those who don't... Much of this stretch of coastline is made of boulder clay, which is softer - and therefore less resistant to erosion - than coastlines elsewhere. This means that homes and livelihoods that have been built on the cliffs are at risk of falling into the sea - and many have already done so.

Sea defences are controversial, because they are expensive to construct and maintain, they are not particularly attractive, and it is often said that they might solve the problem in one place, but make things much worse further along the coastline.

There is another article from the Yorkshire Post here, and clicking on the image above will take you to a gallery of some rather alarming photos that have been sent in by readers.

GCSE Revision

As I know my Yr10 group will be busily revising all weekend for the exam on Thursday, here are a few sites to help you out. Also useful for you conscientious Yr11s who've recently had your mock exam results back....

GCSE Bitesize and S-Cool both have revision notes and questions so you can test yourself...

Alan Parkinson's GeographyPages has a good revision section.

Rob Chambers' school website, GeoBytes, has loads of revision bits and pieces and Rob is also blogging for his GCSE students: GCSEGeoBytes.

And don't forget about SAM Learning.

Let me know if you find any other useful sites by leaving a comment or emailing geogtastic@yahoo.co.uk. Don't forget though, that - assuming you've been completing classwork and homework thoroughly - your exercise book is the best place to revise from...

Tips and things to remember:
- make sure you know your case studies, and make sure you know where they are! Check your maps that you should have been labelling as we've mentioned new places...

- maps... if your map skills are a bit shaky, get practising - be sure that you can read/give 6-figure grid references and that you know your east from west!

- them proper words that geography people use... otherwise known as geographical terminology! Get revising those geographical terms - and use them!

- I've just been reading Noel Jenkins' blog for his students, and amongst the many useful and interesting things on there, I noticed this post about Levels Marking at GCSE. This is something I've struggled to explain clearly to you in the past so if you're still confused, get over to Noel's blog and read about it!

Collecting your pension from the pub?!

That might be the case for elderly people in rural areas, if the threatened closures of 2500 Post Offices (announced last Thursday) go ahead.

It is claimed that the post office network is unsustainable, because more and more people are doing their banking, bill-paying, and buying TV licences and road tax via the internet, and so small rural branches in particular are likely to have to close. But many of these small rural Post Office are viewed by their customers as a vital part of the community...

One suggestion has been that "Post Office Outlets" could be set up for small rural communities in pubs and village halls.

But it's not just the rural Post Offices suffering - it was announced back in June that 6 major Post Offices were to close and their services transferred to nearby W.H. Smith's stores.

Click on the picture below to link to Thursday's story about the closures on the BBC website. Whilst you are there, have a look at some of the other related stories, and people's views on the issue.




What role(s) do you think Post Offices have in small rural villages?
What impacts will these closures have?
What are the possible solutions?