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.

More USA tornadoes...

Yesterday saw 65 tornadoes "rip" through several US states. The picture below shows what one of the storms did to an electricity pylon in Oklahoma City.

Clicking on the picture will take you to the Newsround website where there are other photographs of some of the tornadoes and the damage they caused.

The Mystery of Easter Island...

...is what 7RPr have been thinking about in their last couple of lessons.

What do you think of these amazing statues? Find out more about the mysterious Easter Island here or by clicking on the picture...

San Francisco bag ban!

Year 8 did some work earlier in the year on plastic bags, and how they affect the environment, so they will be pleased to know that San Francisco plans to be the first US city to ban bags made from petroleum products.

Lots of other countries, for example, Bangladesh, made this move a while back, and in Ireland there is a 9p tax on each plastic bag. Should we be following suit? Or are the biodegradable/re-useable bags that supermarkets such as the Co-Op are now handing out enough?

Leave a comment and let us know what you think! Do you use supermarket carrier bags? What happens to them?

What's going on here?

This picture is of a site near Swansea, and the story behind it will be of particular interest to Year 11 who've just been looking at South Wales.

What's being built here? Why? By whom? And what effects will it have on the area?

(You should be able to find the answer in the news - check out the BBC website.)

Thanks to GeoBlogs for pointing out the story.

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!!).