More flooding misery...

Just spotted these pictures on the Sky News site from Filey, on the east coast of Yorkshire... You wouldn't think it was July...!!

World without people??

What would happen to the world if all the people disappeared? Have a look at this excellent video (thanks David and Val!)...

Turn to 30!

Val Vannet has found this excellent image... Click on the picture to find out what it's advertising, and find out why you should "turn to 30"!!

Busy!!

Apologies for the lack of posts recently...

Yesterday I was in Leeds, listening to Edexcel trying to sell their new A level course which will be ready for teaching from September 2008... If any of you, especially those who've just finished A levels or might be thinking of A level Geography in the next couple of years, are short of something to do and fancy having a look at the new specs, I'd be interested to hear what you have to say! You can find them by visiting the exam board websites (Edexcel, AQA, OCR, WJEC) or come and see me...

I also had a trip down to London last week, for an excellent course about Google Earth, run by GE guru Noel Jenkins... I learnt lots, and also had chance to play with a fantastic "space navigator" . Now that (I hope!) we have Google Earth on the network, 7RPr will be having a chance to find out a bit more about it...

On Saturday, I was at the University of Leeds, for the 21st Century Geography Conference - some really interesting lectures (including regeneration/rebranding in Leeds, and avalanche risk in Iceland), and great to meet up with fellow geography teachers... What I saw of the Geography Department at Leeds looked excellent - worth checking out for those of you thinking of Geography at university!

Supermarkets and their "green revolution"

Walk into any supermarket these days, and you will be bombarded with messages about buying British, and re-using your carrier bags... Part of Marks & Spencer's environmental campaign ("Plan A, Because there is no Plan B") is to encourage its customers to do their washing at 30o instead of 40o.

But why are they doing all this? I've wondered for a while now whether they actually care about the environment or whether it's all just a marketing ploy, and a conversation with one of my Yr9s today, and this really interesting article I've just found on the BBC website reveal that I am not on my own!

What do you think?

Wake up and smell the coffee....

Black Gold tells the story of Tadesse Meskela, on a one man mission to save his 74,000 coffee farmers in Ethiopia from bankruptcy, and follows Tadesse as he travels the world in an attempt to find buyers who will pay a fair price for his coffee.



The film was released on 8th June in the UK, and is showing at the Ritz Cinema in Belper on 30th June and 4th/5th July, and at the Nottingham Broadway from 6th to 12th July.

More information about the film and other screenings here...

Go and see it, and leave a comment to tell us what you thought!

I don't think I want to go camping....

Just checked the Met Office website, in the hope that it would tell me that the rain was going to stop before the D of E weekend away... But instead...

What's it like where you are??

Lights out for London

Lights were switched off across London for an hour last night to encourage people to conserve energy... According to this report from the BBC, if all Londoners had switched off their lights, 380 tonnes of carbon dioxide would have been saved - enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall twice! It was the first time that the lights at Piccadilly Circus had been turned off since World War II.

Are you suffering from teenage affluenza?

Boscastle flooding

The Cornish village of Boscastle, made famous by the devastating flood it experienced in August 2004, is under water again this evening.

Things are not as bad as they were in 2004, due to the new flood defences that have been built since then, but it's brought back unhappy memories for many in the village.

Video coverage from the BBC here and the full story here.

"Iconic Super-Stadium"

That is how the proposed new Forest ground has been described...

Plans were unveiled yesterday for a purpose-built 50000 seat stadium in Clifton, costing £45-55 million. If it gets the go-ahead, the new stadium will "embrace new transport infrastructure developments, the latest in green technology and be a focus for new jobs and events - helping to boost the reputations and economies of both the city and the county". Click on the artist's impression of the new stadium above to link to the Nottingham Forest website, where you can read more about the plans, and watch the press conference where the plans were revealed.

But not everyone is supportive of the idea! Particularly concerned are residents in nearby Gotham are worried that the stadium would spoil their village... Read the story on the BBC news site, where you can also see Mark Arthur's statement at the press conference, and watch a video of what the new ground might look like.

What do you think of the plans? Are you a Forest fan? Do Forest need a new ground? Is the proposed site a good place for a new ground?

(Thanks to Tony Cassidy who blogged about this story yesterday.)

Happy camping??

The D of E group are off for their assessed expedition this weekend... After our last couple of lessons, Year 10 can hopefully predict from the pressure chart below whether it'll be my waterproofs or my suncream that I'll need!


Click on the chart to go to the Met Office website for more clues...

"That map's not right!"...

was a comment from one of my Year 10 students today... So here you are Jonathan!

Well, if you've ever tried (as my Yr7s do each September) to peel an orange in one piece and then flatten the peel, without any gaps, you will know that it is impossible! And, the world being spherical, it is also impossible to represent the world 100% accurately on a flat piece of paper. If you keep the shape of the continents accurate, you distort their size... If you keep the size of the continents accurate, you distort their shape... And so on.

Because world maps have been used by lots of different people for lots of different purposes over time, different factors are important to them, and so we have ended up with several map projections.

You can find out more, and explore some of the main projections on the excellent Mapping our World site from Oxfam.

While we're here, this is another interesting site which allows you to explore a variety of "alternative" projections...


Clouds tomorrow Josh!!

Get your own Geogtastic!

You can now add a mini-version of Geogtastic to your blog/MySpace/etc. Click on the mini Geogtastic at the right-hand side or on the picture.

For the historians amongst you, there's also a mini-version of H-Team (and yes, that came first!).

World's longest river?

Not the Nile, according to new research from the National Geographical Institute of Peru!

Brazilian and Peruvian scientists claim to have found an ice-covered mountain called Mismi, in southern Peru, and, according to them, that is where the River Amazon starts - making the Amazon 6800km long, compared to the 6695km of the Nile...

Click on the picture to link to the BBC coverage of the story...

Wet West Yorkshire...

We might have had a lot of rain in Derbyshire, but West Yorkshire was officially the wettest county today... My dad's just sent me these photographs of the River Aire (just across the road from my old school!)

This picture shows a different view of the same bridge (from Yorksview) on a slightly calmer and drier day...

There's lots of coverage of the floods on the BBC website, and some interesting maps tracking the downpours.

Ooh - and this is post 200 since Geogtastic began on 11th December 2006! Thank you to our 8000+ visitors, and to all those people who point out things for me to write about on a regular basis! Here's to the next 200...

Wet Weather!

As you might possibly have noticed, there's been a fair bit of rain in the past couple of days! The map shows the regions where severe weather warnings have been issued by the Met Office. Click on the map to link to the Met Office website to find out more - Year 10 should be able to explain the causes of the miserable weather!

7RPr should be able to use what they learnt this morning to predict what the effects of the heavy rain might be... Check out the BBC News site for more...

There are also very severe floods elsewhere in the world including China and Australia... Let us know if you find any good coverage, photos, etc.

World Monuments Watch

Do you know where this is??
It is one of the 100 Most Endangered Sites, according to the World Monuments Watch, which aims to protect "cultural heritage" around the world. Their website has an excellent interactive map, allowing you to look at the sites, to find out more about them and to look at the threats they face... Click on the picture to visit the site.

Thanks to GeoDave for the tip-off!

Cloud Photo Competition

The closing date for the Cloud Competition has been extended... You now have until the end of school on Monday 18th June to get your photos of clouds (interesting shapes, colours, textures, patterns, etc.) in, either by email to geogtastic@yahoo.co.uk or on a CD or memory stick to me in Hums. The competition is open to all SHS students, parents and staff, and the only rule is that the photo must be your own...

Keep checking back as well - details of the exciting Geogtastic Summer Postcard Competition coming soon!

Exams...

I'm pleased to say that from the conversations I've had with some of the Yr11s, the exams seem to have gone pretty well so far...

Good luck to Yr13 for tomorrow!! With the new posts and using the labels at the bottoms of posts to look through what I've written about before, there should be plenty of last-minute stuff to keep you going now Lauren!

Tourism threatens Antarctica

An interesting article in an excellent environmental supplement in the Times last week - well worth a read before GGA4 tomorrow!

I thought this was an interesting choice of image under the headline "Tourism threatens Antarctica" as well!!

Some other articles of interest that I found while I was looking for this:

Carbon map of Britain's most toxic cities

Big increase in hurricanes is not caused by global heating

Farming is blamed as birds take flight

Seven Days - baby boom, housing and biofuel

Build on the Green Belt and build now

(And loads more besides - www.timesonline.co.uk - all these came up when I typed "environment" into the search...)

Cyclone in Oman

Some very good pictures of the flooding and damage in Oman as a result of Cyclone Gonu on the BBC site...

Flooding in China

Thanks to Lauren for pointing out this news story about the floods and landslides that have killed more than 60 people, forced 600,000 people out of their homes, and caused an estimated £284 million worth of damage.

Carbon Neutral Houses

A prototype for the UK's first zero-emissions eco-home has been unveiled today, setting the standard for all new homes in the UK...

Find out more, and take a tour on the BBC website here!

What do you think? Will all homes of the future be like this??

Britain Day??

Of particular interest to my current Yr9 group, who started thinking about the idea of Britishness today...

Ruth Kelly - the Communities Secretary, and Liam Byrne - the Immigration Minister, have proposed that we have a "Britain Day" in order to "promote a stronger sense of British identity and prevent communities from becoming more divided"... More here. They've also suggested that migrants should "earn" their British citizenship through good behaviour, as well as that brilliant test that I've mentioned before and that Yr9 will be looking at tomorrow.

Do you think a Britain Day would be a good idea?
If so, when should it be?
What kinds of things should we be doing to celebrate Britain Day?

The BBC also have a "Have Your Say" section for this topic... Some interesting views on there!

London 2012??

Lots of controversy at the moment around the new logo for the 2012 London Olympics which was unveiled yesterday and the number of people who have signed an online petition to have the logo changed has increased by more than 3000 when I looked at the end of school to more than 28000 now...


There is lots on the BBC website about the logo, what it is meant to represent, etc. - look here. People have also been sending alternative logos in to the BBC, which you can view here and here - interesting that many of the alternative logos include some idea of Britain and or London!

What do you think of the logo? Do you like it - why or why not? What about the alternative ones? Can you come up with a better one??

Edited to add: I've just signed the petition... Less than a minute later, my name was onto the second page!!

Recycle Now Week!

The title says it all... This week is Recycle Now Week... Visit their website for information and ideas about recycling!

Year 13 meet an Antarctic explorer...

If you were asked to name a famous Antarctic explorer, chances are it might be Robert Falcon Scott or Ernest Shackleton... But probably not this man!

The Yr 13 geographers though, were lucky enough to "meet" Tom Crean - sometimes referred to as the "Unsung Hero" of Polar exploration, via a videoconference with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich last week.

Crean, who grew up near Annascaul, a small village in Co. Kerry, was part of three major South Pole expeditions - Discovery and Terra Nova with Scott, and Endurance with Shackleton. Unlike Scott and Shackleton, who both died on expeditions, however, Crean returned to Annascaul, where he married Nell and opened a pub called the South Pole Inn. He died in Annascaul in 1938, from a burst appendix...

Fab cloud picture!!

Just spotted this fab cloud picture taken by soarvalleygeography on Flickr...

And don't forget... get out there with your camera (in between visiting bookshops) and take some cloud pics of your own to enter into the Geogtastic Cloud Photo Competition!! (Scroll down for details...)

G is for...

Geography in Bookshops!

If you're at a loose end over the holidays, then go shopping - and do your bit for the Give Geography its Place campaign at the same time!

Many bookshops have loads of great geography books... But if you want to find them, chances are you'll have to trawl through the Travel, Local History, Natural History, Popular Science, Maps, Reference, Lifestyle, etc. sections! GGiP want to see all bookshops giving geography its place, with proper, clearly-labelled Geography sections containing a good selection of Geography books...

So, what can you do to help??

Visit your local bookshop(s) and see:
- whether they have a Geography section
- whether it is called Geography
- what types of books are within the Geography section
- how long the Geography section is

If you're impressed with what you see, tell them - and take some pictures to send to GGiP (or send them to me)... If you're not impressed with what you see, tell them!

Leave a comment here and report your findings! Thank you!

Water in the Middle East

There is an interesting article (especially for the historians amongst you!) on the BBC website today - Obstacles to Peace: Water - looking at the Arab-Israeli conflict as a conflict over water.

The picture shows the Sea of Galilee, which is the main source of fresh water in Israel.

Thinkingeography...

Thinkingeography is a new website that I have just come across via Alan Parkinson's GeographyPages website... Lots of interesting stuff to explore, including a new competition... Check it out!!

Grapheety!

Another excellent site pointed out by a "virtual colleague"...

Grapheety is a site which allows you to add tags with photos, stories, interesting info, etc. about a particular place...

And as the only place tagged in our area is Nottingham Forest Football Club, it's high time we got all signed up and started putting some interesting stuff on there!!

Click on the picture to link to the site... Sign up, and get some interesting East Midlands stuff posted!

Photo Competition!

Thank you for all the excellent entries to the photo competition - and apologies for taking so long to announce the winner.... well done Josh, 8NSq, who took this fab photo of Carr Naze Point near Filey, on the Yorkshire Coast.

With half-term fast approaching, it's also time for the new competition... This time, we'd like your CLOUDS photos! For some inspiration, check out the Cloud Appreciation Society website... The closing date is Friday 15th June, the competition is open to all SHS students, staff and parents, and entries can be emailed, or brought in on a CD or memory stick...

Get snapping!!

And while you're out with your camera, why not take some pictures to send to Geograph or try some GeoSquishing?!

Oh no!!

Yet another excellent distraction from working/cleaning...

Flickrvision is a world map that updates every second to show you the latest photos that have been added to Flickr, and where in the world they were taken! Hours of fun...

Mini Geogs...

Alan Parkinson (Geography Pages man) introduced the idea of MiniGeogs a couple of years ago... Here is one of my not-so-brilliant attempts... Can you work out what it's meant to be?!



Visit GeographyPages to look at some other examples and make your own... Send them in - geogtastic@yahoo.co.uk - and I'll post the best ones... Who knows - there might even be a prize!!

The Mend of the World...

5th June is World Environment Day... Click on the banner above to find out more...

And leave a comment to tell us what you will be doing to help the Mend of the World!

Who ate all the pies?!

And what effect will it have on their eco-footprint??

According to an article in the Guardian yesterday, the eco-footprint of today's FA Cup Final is likely to be more than 3000 times the size of the Wembley pitch, and each fan's eco-footprint will be ten times bigger than it would have been if they had stayed at home to watch the game!!

Click here to read the story and find out why...

South Georgia...

...is looking a bit chilly today!!

Click on the picture or use the link on the right to check out the webcam...

Have you spotted any more good webcams yet??

Where does the sky become space?

Find out the answer to that and lots of other questions with the Earth Guide - another great spot from Tony Cassidy.

Coastal Erosion

Some interesting - and rather worrying - clips from Look North about erosion on the Holderness Coastline, sea level change, etc.

Good revision for Yr11 and Yr13!

"I survived the Folkestone Quake!"

That's the slogan on t-shirts that are being sold to support the Salvation Army to thank them for their help for people made homeless in the recent Kent earthquake.

The picture above shows Sam Millen, who came up with the idea... Click on the picture to find out more...

What do you think?? Good idea??

Year 13!!

An interesting Chinese proverb from Scottish geography teacher friend Val Vannet on her Higher Geog Blog...

And loads of useful stuff for Year 13, both for A2, and for those of you who are resitting AS modules...

GeoJuice!

Another great spot from GeoBlogs - GeoJuice is a new site with loads of superb geographical photos...

I am rather liking the "Random Image" feature... One of them is below... Where is it and what does it show??

Geogtastic in GA Webwatch!

Thanks to Alan Parkinson (GeoBlogs) for the mention in Webwatch in the GA Magazine!!

And if you're here because of the article, welcome! Leave a comment and say hello!

Great Britain in 2050??

What do you think Great Britain in 2050 will be like?

The Ordnance Survey are running a competition, with the theme "Mapping the future of Great Britain" to find out what you think... And you could win yourself an iPod Nano, and your entry might be used for the OS corporate Christmas card!

More details here...

Thanks to Emma for letting me know about this!

A very helpful man by the name of Noel Jenkins!!

I've pointed out Noel Jenkins' very useful summary of the idea of levels marking before, but as some of the Yr11s at today's revision session who are not in my group and who have not been fortunate/unfortunate enough to listen to me wittering on about it for months were unsure about it, here it is again... http://noeljenkins.wordpress.com/2007/01/13/level-marking-at-gcse/

And while I was looking for that link, I noticed that Noel has got LOADS of useful information/links/resources on his blog for GCSE students... http://noeljenkins.wordpress.com/ . His last few posts are GCSE related, but to check that you have seen everything, click on the Yr11 label at the bottom of one of the posts, and that will take you to a page with all the Yr11 posts...

Don't forget though, not everyone is doing the same course as us (OCR 'C') - just because something is covered on a revision site doesn't mean you need to know it... If you spot something you are concerned about, check your course overview sheet, or come and see one of us!

Noel is also doing some work with his Yr 8 students about personal geographies.... Well worth a read anyway, but of particular interest to Yr9 who are looking at some similar ideas, particularly the concept of place and "My Place"...

Enjoy!!

Etna Eruption...

Hot on the heels of the weekend's earthquake in Kent (which you will no doubt know all about by now!) Mt Etna is erupting as I type... Click on the picture to read the story from the Telegraph website... There is also some video footage on the BBC website.

Year 10 - Boscastle

A few links to help you with your homework...

Boscastle Cornwall - Boscastle Village website, with various flood photos, information about the rebuilding/regeneration, and about the area in general.

TintagelWeb - loads of pohtos, taken during and after the flood.

Museum of Witchcraft - the Boscastle Witchcraft Museum, and lots of its artefacts were badly damaged in the flood, and they kept an interesting and comprehensive diary of the clean-up.

Geobytes GCSE - a useful summary and lots of links on Rob Chambers' blog.

GeographyPages - lots of useful links about Boscastle and other floods (and everything else geographical!)

And loads of articles on the BBC website... type Boscastle into a BBC search!

DME - Antarctica

Those of you in Year 11 who are sitting/re-sitting the DME will know that it is about Antarctica, and will have already done lots of research... However, the following websites (which are in no particular order) might still be of use to you! Let me know if you find any more that are good!

Discovering Antarctica
Cool Antarctica
International Polar Year
British Antarctic Survey
Australian Antarctic Division
Classroom Antarctica

More to come about the DME after I've been to a brainstorm meeting tomorrow...

Some historical geography for you! (Or geographical history...)

I found this nice site yesterday... www.oldukphotos.com - to quote GeoBlogs, "It does what it says on the tin!"

Does this look familiar?!

GCSE Bitesize

In case you missed them last time, the GCSE Bitesize programmes are on again this week... Set the video!

Human Geography

Wednesday 25th April - 02.00 - 04.00

Physical Geography

Wednesday 25th April - 04.00 - 06.00

Global Issues

Thursday 26th April - 02.00 - 04.00

Also, don't forget about the Geography podcasts on the BBC Bitesize site...

Tour the EU in a minute!

Particularly useful for Yr11 who will be looking at the EU next week, and for 7RPr who are looking at Politics in their Citizenship lessons...

Thanks to Helen Nurton for pointing this out.

Cliff Erosion in Action...

... AND the BBC using the word GEOGRAPHERS!!




Thanks to Adam Lawson for this "remix"!

Sainsbury's plastic bag ban...

If you are shopping at Sainsbury's on 27th April, don't expect the usual orange plastic carrier bags...

In a bid to encourage more of us to re-use more environmentally-friendly bags, Sainsbury's are banning the disposable carrier bags (of which they get through 1.6 billion a year) for a day, and instead will be handing out "Bags for Life" - normally 10p each - to customers.

Click on the picture to read more about it... and then tell us what you think... Why just one day? Will it work? Do you/your family already use re-useable bags?

On Wednesday next week, Sainsbury's will also be selling the much sought-after "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bags, designed by Anya Hindmarch. Find out how to get your hands on one here.

Geography on TV

There are lots of programmes on TV this week that look as though they might be of interest to the geographer...

Sunday 15th April
- Francesco's Italy Top to Toe - BBC2 - 7.00pm
- Superstorm - BBC1 - 9.00pm
- The Science of Superstorms - BBC2 - 10.00pm

Monday 16th April
- Shopping the Supermarkets - BBC1 - 7.30pm
- Super Typhoon: Perfect Disaster - Ch5 - 8.00pm
- Cutting Edge - Meet the Foxes - Ch4 - 9.00pm

Tuesday 17th April
- Climate Change: Make a Difference - ITV1 - 7.30pm

Wednesday 18th April
- Natural World - BBC2 - 9.00pm

Friday 20th April
- Unreported World - Ch4 - 7.35pm

For those of you who - unlike me - have more than four and a half channels, it's worth checking the listings as there are some interesting sounding programmes on More 4, UKTV History and UKTV Documentary.

Let me know if you spot anything else that I've missed!

Live Earth

Registration to be in with a chance to buy tickets for Live Earth London is open until tomorrow at midday...

The Live Earth website describes the concerts - one in each continent, all on 7th July 2007, as...

"a monumental music event that will bring together more than 2 billion people to combat the climate crisis. Live Earth’s 24 hours of music across 7 continents will deliver a call to action and the solutions needed to answer the call. Live Earth marks the beginning of a multi-year mass persuasion campaign led by The Alliance for Climate Protection to move individuals, corporations and governments to take action."

But there has been no shortage of controversy about the events... Are pop stars (whose carbon footprints must be pretty big) the best people to be spreading the message about climate change? And how green can it be to be running concerts of this scale across the world?

Find out more about the concerts, how they'll work and how environmentally-friendly they'll be on the Live Earth London website... What do you think? Are these concerts a good idea? Will they work? And most importantly, will you be trying to get tickets?!

Crisis in Darfur

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google Earth have launched a new project today, to increase awareness and understanding of the conflict and violence that have resulted in more than 300,000 people being killed and about 2,500,000 people being driven from their homes in the Darfur region of Sudan since 2004.

If you already have Google Earth, then the Darfur region should be highlighted. If not, you can download GE here.

The BBC coverage of the story is here, and you can find out more about the project from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum website.

Sites of Meaning...

Have you ever noticed a strange inscription as you wandered round the White Peak? We've spotted several - including the two in the photographs (Bradford Bridge and Rowlow Brook) - on field trips and D of E walks.... But I never knew why they were there...

Well, these are two of the seventeen Sites of Meaning... Seventeen sculptures were placed around the village of Middleton-by-Youlgreave as part of a Millennium project... Local sculpters were commissioned to create the markerstones for the seventeen sites, and the verses were written by school children from Middleton and Youlgreave.

Do you have photos of any of the other sites? Do you know of any other similar markers around the area, or similar projects elsewhere in the country?

Interesting things to do with Google Earth...

Noel Jenkins has just pointed out this superb new blog with lots of really useful and interesting files. Amongst them, there are several Cold Environments related ones that will be of particular interest to Yr13, the Indonesian "mudvolcano" that I've posted about before, and a tour of some of the world's crop circles!

Fancy a flatpack house?!

You've had the beds and the bookcases, the desks and the doormats, the tubchairs and the tealights... But soon, you'll be able to go the whole hog and have an Ikea home! BoKlok (pronounced "book look", apparently, and Swedish for "smart living") dwellings are already popular in Scandinavia (the one in the picture is in Denmark), and now planning permission has been granted for 36 BoKlok apartments in Gateshead. They should be completed by the end of the year, and each of the 2- or 3-bed apartments is likely to cost less than £100,000. The answer to Britain's housing problems??

Click on the picture to find out more... And then vote below - would you buy one??

Get Free Opinion Polls

Answers to the mysteries...

I've just realised that I've posted at least two mystery questions and not answered them! So...

This place, which I discovered via Geograph in Google Earth is the remains of Farnah Hall near Duffield. It was described in White's 1857 Directory of Derbyshire as "a large elegant mansion situate in a fine park"! Have you ever been there, or do you know any more about it?

This one, which should be of particular interest to Yr 11, shows the construction of a distribution centre just outside Swansea for Amazon. The first phase is expected to be completed in October this year, and will bring 1200 full-time jobs and a further 1500 temporary jobs around Christmas time to the region. The picture will take you to the full story from the BBC.

Solomon Islands tsunami...

At least 13 people have been killed by a tsunami which hit the Solomon Islands last night, and the death toll is expected to increase. The earthquake that caused the tsunami measured 8.0 on the Richter Scale and struck about 215 miles northwest of Honiara - the capital of the Solomon Islands.The Australian government and RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands) are providing help and emergency supplies, but some of the islands are very remote and so it is difficult to assess the extent of the damage.

Clicking on the map will take you to the BBC coverage of the tsunami.