"Look at it this way"

Discovering the Arctic

2012-01-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

Changing landscapes is one theme that is expored in the KS3 Toolkit, "Look at it this Way"

I have just written a new module for the Discovering the Arctic website of the RGS-IBG
It is now available on the website - go to the bottom to the SWIPA materials - module 9

Winter Landscape

2012-01-28T12:13:00.001-08:00

Out early on today to brave the ice and mist to take some photos...
This was the second image that I worked on with a programme called Flare for Mac. This was a processed image. Going to try and bring out the trees and rooks that were in the background a little in another version.

Click for bigger version

Image: Alan Parkinson

Images of the UK

2012-01-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

A useful BBC magazine article which asks people from outside of the UK to provide their impressions of the country,
Follow the links to read three short descriptions, with accompanying comments....

Useful for exploring what is the 'typical' (or not) image of England
Links to the lessons in the book...

Normal service will be resumed in 2012...

2011-12-18T04:38:00.001-08:00

I'm going to take a couple of weeks away for Christmas (although I probably won't be able to resist blogging if something important happens between now and the 1st of January 2012.)

I'm going to be doing one or two things over Christmas as well as enjoying the festive cheer

Writing a GCSE book
Completing a major resource pack for the Ordnance Survey
Planning out a Children's book I'm going to be writing
Preparing for CPD events in the New Year
Writing some Online Updates for Harper Collins
Edits and proofreading for 2 books I'm editing that are published in early 2012
Adding new content to my Vital Geography Portal
Preparing some thoughts for new Curriculum consultation
Putting together some ideas for Mission:Explore Food

On 1st of January I'll be back with various New Year thoughts...

Please join me on the 5th of January for my Teachshare on New Year New Geography

It'd be great to have your company at 7pm with your plans for the year ahead for New Year New Geography, and if you are tweeting your plans, please use the tag #nyng

Thanks to Rich Allaway for his early contribution to the tag.

Thanks to everyone who's employed me during 2011, or visited this blog and contributed in some way.

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, AND WISHING YOU A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

Moorland Changes

2011-12-15T10:48:00.001-08:00

I worked on a range of projects for the Royal Geographical Society a few months back, and the final pieces of the project that I contributed have now gone live on the RGS website.

They were part of the Goldsmith's funded FROM THE FIELD project.

The latest module which I contributed was for the KS4 series, and is on the theme of MOORLAND ECOLOGY. It explores the process of moorland regeneration, and its link with the ecology that is needed to make the regrowth productive.

It's worth remembering that all the resources from the Geography Teaching Today website have now been migrated to either the RGS or the GA websites, depending on which organisation was responsible for producing the original content.

If you're after the excellent KS3 RESOURCES they are available here on the RGS website.

If you're after the FIELDWORK resources they're here on the RGS website.

Thanks to Rose Wilcox, PhD researcher from the University of Hull for her guidance and support on the From the Field project and images, and thanks to John Lyon for the images that he contributed to the project as well.

Landscape in a Box - more student examples

2011-12-06T04:14:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Jack Marsh for sending me some examples of 'landscapes in a box'. Landscapes in a box is one of the ideas that seems to have gone down the best of the things that I've shared over the years. The basic idea is to create a landscape within a box, perhaps a burger box (but could also be a shoe box)

This was featured in 'Teaching Geography' in 2009.

Jack used the activity with his groups, and has sent me three excellent images of contrasting images from the students: an Antarctic scene, New York's Central Park, and Paris... Outstanding work !!

If you've used Landscape in a Box, why not share your students' work too...

VITAL Teachshare: Google Earth Placemarks

2011-11-15T02:01:00.001-08:00

My next VITAL Teachshare will be on Wednesday the 16th of November (that's tomorrow if you're reading this today) at 7pm.
It's on ways of customising Google Earth Placemarks...

Click THIS LINK just before 7 to join me. You'll need to allow the download of the plug-in to handle the Elluminate session, which will then allow you to see and hear me, and to take part.

Don't forget to check the KEYHOLE BULLETIN BOARD to get the full range of layers and files shared by Google Earth users. Use the SEARCH function to unearth the goodness....

Plenty of LANDSCAPE related content...

This will be my little contribution to WORLD GIS DAY, which is taking place tomorrow, as part of GEOGRAPHY AWARENESS WEEK.

What are you doing for World GIS Day ?
Why not add a touch of GIS to your teaching tomorrow...

Pennine Landscapes

2011-10-24T11:54:00.001-07:00

A quick blog post on a day spent racing to meet a writing deadline, which I fear may now slip into tomorrow....

Just came across an excellent site on the Pennine landscapes...

WATERSHED LANDSCAPE has a focus on the Pennines near Bradford, just North of the area of the Peak District that I am working on. As the site makes clear, these regions are "rarer than rainforests"..

The site also has a very useful bank of materials for teaching about LANDSCAPES which piqued my interest. Also the WILDLIFE guides and information.

I liked the ideas for using GPS and other geographical tools.

Also materials for Environmental and Land Based Diploma.

There are also links to some useful videos, such as this one:

Will Self on the Rural...

2011-10-20T07:50:00.001-07:00

An interesting feature by Will Self.

There are plenty of things here that Geographers would recognise of course. One recurring theme here is that there are few places that have escaped the hand of man... Landscape as palimpsest is a recurring theme in the work that I do with colleagues.

2011-10-10T13:05:00.001-07:00

I'm always up for new stamps, especially when they are geographical in nature.

Some new Royal Mail stamps are out later this week.

They are the first in a set of 26 stamps, which cover famous places from A - Z

Which A-Z would you choose ?

A = Angel of the North
B = Blackpool Tower
C = Carrick-a-Rede
D = Downing Street
E = Edinburgh Castle
F = Forth Railway Bridge
G = Glastonbury Tor
H = Harlech Castle
I = Ironbridge
J = Jodrell Bank
K = Kursaal (Southend)
L = Lindisfarne Priory

Fits very nicely with Lesson 6 of my GA toolkit book: "Look at it this Way"

Lovely landscapes timelapse

2011-10-09T11:16:00.001-07:00

Landscapes: Volume Two from Dustin Farrell on Vimeo.

Landscapes of the Imagination

2011-09-17T11:59:00.001-07:00

As I may have mentioned before on the blog, I did some work a few months ago for the Geography Collective on the theme of 'the local area'. This was for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC education in the USA, and Dan from the collective went over to Portland to speak to educators from all over the USA.

Now there have been some videos released from the National Council for Geographic Education for the session that Dan Raven Ellison did for the conference, and they are on the GEOGRAPHY COLLECTIVE blog.

Here's the first one and the other two are on the blog...
This is very fine work, and explains the origins of the Geography Collective and our recent work, ideas of geography and showcases projects that Dan and the Collective have been involved with....

Pylons in the landscape

2011-09-16T10:03:00.001-07:00

Pylons are a common feature of the British landscape.
They are not well liked by people, but burying the power-lines that they carry would add substantially to the cost of the infrastructure, and we all use electricity (apart from those of us who life 'off-grid')

Cumbria is the latest area of landscape to be 'threatened' by a new line of pylons.

There is a competition currently to identify the best new pylon design.
Which of the 6 is your favourite ?

I like these ICELANDIC ones personally.
Don't forget to visit the PYLON APPRECIATION SOCIETY.

Discovering Britain - new from the RGS-IBG

2011-08-26T12:39:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Jenny from the RGS-IBG for letting me know about the imminent launch of a new site which offers a fresh look at the UK.

The site is called DISCOVERING BRITAIN.

"We are developing an exciting series of geographically-themed walks across the UK that aim to bring these stories alive and to inspire everyone to explore and learn about our different landscapes."

Look forward to seeing the full site when it appears in just over a month's time....

Landscapes: made by Joel

2011-08-24T08:53:00.001-07:00

I love the quirky paper landscapes of Made by Joel.

Now with added Paris and Sydney.

Town - new BBC series

2011-07-28T13:20:00.001-07:00

Nick Crane series just started.

Some interesting content, if nothing new to a seasoned geographer...
The supporting website, in association with the OU has links to a range of useful additional detail.

Order your FREE BOOKLET

Also check out the opportunity to RUN YOUR OWN TOWN. This is a decision making interactive where you get to run a town and make important choices...

Dartmoor

2011-07-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Spending a few days barn & dog-sitting in a rather fine barn in the Dartmoor National Park.
It's stocked with shelves full of books, WiFi for Spotify and a wine cellar... So it's got pretty much all I need.
One of the books is Ian Mercer's 'Dartmoor', which is published as part of the Collins New Naturalist Library with a lovely cover by Robert Gillmor.
I liked the description of Ian Mercer as "a geographer and naturalist at heart, never happier than when revealing the secrets of a landscape".

The author's foreword begins:
"This book is about my perception of a landscape, and what knowledge is needed as a foundation to that perception..." which is an interesting statement, as it links with some of the ideas in the GA's current CURRICULUM consultation.

He goes on to say "the attraction of true local geography is that it depends upon the wielding of a broad brush much of the time, but allows the display of intricate detail to illuminate corners of the canvas wherever necessary."

Dartmoor has a number of interesting landscape elements: the geology is complex and age-old, there are the tors crowding the skyline with their slopes of clitter below, the mires in the low-lying areas, scarps and plateaux, the 'passes' cut through the peat by early travellers, lines of reaves, the china clay and kaolinite, the leats that were used to drain water towards mills and as urban drains, the commons and forests and the reservoirs.

As soon as I drove up onto the high moor from Moretonhampstead earlier today, over the sheep track (cue the old joke about breaking wind as the car drives over it...) we were into ponies, sheep and shaggy faced cattle with Dutch and German tourists parked up nearby with long lenses.

Opening the OS map of the moor provides plenty of other factors that have changed the landscapes.
The National Park designation, the battle to preserve the commons that has been going on for hundreds of years, and even the military. Large areas of the moor are designated as "danger areas". The military have been using the moor for over a hundred years, often to practice firing weapons.

There were also the tin miners and the stannary towns including Chagford, which I popped into earlier (more shops should be like the Aladdin's cave of Webber and Sons)

There were also the turnpike roads, which converged at Two Bridges. A fine pub garden to sit in, and the track starts from there to Wistman's Wood, which I shall return to later.

There is a lot of useful detail in the book on the role of National Parks and the NPA.

There are mentions of some management of visitors and the landscape, including the DARTMOOR VISION (from 2008) and also the TAKE MOOR CARE campaign, which reduced the speed limit to 40 mph on the unfenced areas of moorland.

There are some useful FREE DOWNLOADS. These include some really useful resources - check them out...

There is also a link with past glacial activity, and periglaciation. This is an important period in the UK's history, and you'll find patterned ground, stone stripes and other evidence of frozen ground on the border of glaciated landscapes.

Dartmoor was also a case study that I used for Edexcel 'A' level as there was a section on a landscape that was the result of GRANITE.
Chapter 2 explores the importance of granite to the landscape, and the volcanic intrusions into the country rock that shaped the prominent features. Also introduced me to the metamorphic rocks such as hornfels.

Later chapters explore the weather and the importance of water, flora and fauna and the various farming practices that have shaped the moors. The moor is an Environmentally Sensitive Area, and has a number of SSSIs.
There are also a few locations where climbing is possible. These include Hound Tor, below which is the famous snack van (popped in there last year): "The Hound of the Basket Meals".

Finally, there is mention of one of my favourite mysterious places: the fern covered ancient oaks of Wistman's Wood. The trees are contorted, and grow amongst a clitter of boulders to a height of around 4 metres. They have beards of ferns and other plants, and lichens. A place of real mysterious power....

All images: Alan Parkinson

Was also reminded of the album cover to the Yes album "Tormato", which features a map of part of Dartmoor, particularly the area around Yes Tor. Check out "Release, Release"...

A recommended read...

Thought for the Day

2011-07-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

"A landscape is the function of structure, process and time"
W. M. Davis, 1884

Coastal fieldwork opportunity...

2011-06-13T00:04:00.000-07:00

On the GA Ning, there's a posting from Stephen Savage, who works at Shoreham Beach Local Nature Reserve.

Since the beach became a nature reserve in 2006, I have been developing an education programme focusing on natural history, coastal geography and maritime history.

Shoreham Beach LNR is a shingle spit with rare vegetated shingle habitat. In fact it was designated a nature reserve to help protect this local and globally rare habitat. The eastern end of the shingle spit forms the harbour entrance, with the Downs to the north and the chalk cliffs and wave cut platform further east at Brighton. Longshore drift deflected the river to the west, in the process creating the shingle spit which is now Shoreham Beach.

We have worked with a number of local primary and secondary schools, providing on-site and outreach sessions and worked to develop links with these schools to provide feedback and suggestions for future development. One area we are planning to develop further is a module that links the River Adur, Shoreham Beach and the coastal waters as one system.

If you would like to know more about using this site as a resource, or you would like to contribute help or suggestions for further development of our programme, you can take a look at our education programme on our new “Education on the Beach” webpage at

http://www.fosbeach.com/education-on-shoreham-beach/

Having lived locally all my life and being involved in the marine coastline for over 30 years, Shoreham Beach has been an exciting project to be involved in...

One to check out if you live and work fairly locally...

A useful location to add to the ideas in Lesson 8: "Living on the Edge"

Richard Long exhibition

2011-06-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

There's a new Richard Long exhibition at the Haunch of Venison in London.

I am in London next week and will make time to go and see it. Seen Richard Long's work in a range of locations over the years: from the Guggenheim in Bilbao to the foyer of DEFRA on Millbank, and various other places...

An artist who very much connects with the landscape.

I used a set of Richard Long postcards as a resource for a literacy exercise, and the way that his works link with mapping is also wonderful.

Last exhibition I saw was 'Heaven and Earth' at Tate Britain in 2009, so I am overdue some more Long work....

South Downs National Park

2011-05-14T01:45:00.001-07:00

All schools that lie within the newly designated South Downs National Park will soon receive an education pack which was put together by the Geographical Association.
It features a range of activities to explore the geography of the National Park, and the idea of landscape as a palimpsest...
It matches nicely with some of the ideas in my KS3 Toolkit: "Look at it this Way", which is available from the GA's online shop.

The pack will also be available to download from the South Downs website from Monday 16th of May....

The Yellowing....

2011-05-09T04:09:00.001-07:00

My KS3 toolkit book "Look at it this Way" has a lesson looking at the "yellowing" of the countryside through increased planting of oilseed rape.

This year, the countryside is turning yellower than ever. There has been rising demand for oilseed compared with cereals, and a growing market for the oil. This means that a larger area has been planted, and the warm, dry weather in April has not damaged the crop as much as it has other crops...

I was listening to Farming Today on the way up to Sheffield today and happened to be passing a large expanse of yellow at the time.

You can LISTEN AGAIN to the programme...

Another bonus of the warm weather in April is that English Strawberries will be ready earlier than usual, and be particularly sweet this year...

MyFarm - National Trust project...

2011-05-08T12:12:00.001-07:00

This could be a wonderful context for teaching lessons 3 and 4 of the toolkit book in particular...

My Farm is an ambitious project that has been announced by the National Trust within the last week (this blog post was ready on the day but has been sitting in draft for a while), and has been getting quite a lot of press and media coverage.
It extends the idea of virtual farming with very popular online games like Farmville (which has tens of millions of players) to an actual farm, part of the Wimpole Hall estate near Cambridge. I have been to the farm myself some years ago when my kids were much smaller...

The website provides some background detail as to how the scheme is going to work. The National Trust are looking for 10 000 people to invest £30 in the scheme, which will allow them to take some decisions relating to the farm. They will vote on a range of issues relating to the management of the farm, although given its organic status and location, there are obviously going to be limits as to what those decisions might be...
I am tempted to go for it, and may well do so in the next few days if I can get £30 together from somewhere....

Here's a map of part of the estate where the farm is located.

All a long way from the old Herefordshire farm game of the late great Vincent Tidswell....

The virtual farmers come from a range of backgrounds judging by the messages that are already appearing on the forum site that goes with it...

The £30 to take part could perhaps be raised by a teaching group / year group, or even taken from a departmental budget as an investment in curriculum engagement.

There are already some farmers who are geography teachers such as this person here:

There is a YouTube video here, one of several from the MY FARM CHANNEL which sets the scene for the first few decisions which will be made once the virtual farmers have been recruited...

A similar sounding project (by name) is FROM MY FARM which provides information about seasonal produce for consumers...

This links through in turn to the BRING BACK SUNDAYS website and campaign which is aimed at getting us eating a Sunday roast again.

#ukcside - the British seaside...

2011-04-28T09:12:00.001-07:00

The seaside is an essential part of the British "cultural landscape"...

Another great collaborative Twitter project response...

Yesterday, I asked colleagues who follow me to provide some descriptions of the British Seaside...
Words that appear larger were mentioned more frequently by the word cloud generator.

First of all a WORDLE - click the image below to be taken to the Wordle page...

Here is a Tagxedo version of the Wordle...
Click for biggery...

Thanks for all the contributors.
What words would you choose ?
How could you use this diagram as a resource in the classroom or for a homework task ?

Doreen Massey Landscapes Essay

2011-04-19T13:32:00.001-07:00

Thanks to @JoeMoran for the tip-off to a Doreen Massey essay on landscape - part of a larger blog project: The Future of Landscapes...
One to make you think... I don't pretend to understand all of it, but there are some nice sections and links to a film project.

GA Conference 2011 - University of Surrey, Guildford

2011-04-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

A number of posts are appearing over at my LIVING GEOGRAPHY blog on the follow-up to the GA Conference 2011.

There were some wonderful sessions.... but enough about me...

Anne Greaves has started to post resources from the conference on the GA WEBSITE.

Image by Bryan Ledgard
Copyright Geographical Association

Plenty of interest for teachers of physical geography and landscapes...

Also a chance to see the GA TOOLKIT books on the GA stand...

Geography Collective and Cultural Olympiad

2011-03-29T02:27:00.001-07:00

Look at it this Way is very much about the concept of PLACE.
We can now announce a new PLACE based project that I'm involved in...

One of the things I'm proudest of in the last few years is my involvement with the Geography Collective, and our Mission:Explore books, iPhone app and other activities...
We can now announce our latest project, thanks to the project leadership of Daniel Raven Ellison.

We are very pleased to say that we will be delivering a major project for the Cultural Olympiad as part of the Discovering Places programme called Discover Explore. Discovering Places is funded by a grant from Olympic Lottery Distributor (OLD) through the London Organising Committee of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). It is delivered by The Heritage Alliance with the support of key partners.. one of which is us.

We will be working closely with The Workshop to create something very beautiful and cool which will be launched this summer.

“The project aims to inspire young people and their families to discover hidden, extraordinary and important historical sites and stories in cutting-edge and engaging ways. The unique collaboration between Discovering Places, The Geography Collective and numerous small and medium scales historic and natural environment organisations will inspire active participation, animate spaces, raise awareness of environmental sustainability and enhance learning by linking up local heritage assets.” The Heritage Alliance

‘We are extremely excited to be working on this cutting edge and creative strand of Discovering Places. This project is going to open up opportunities for children and families to explore and experience places in new ways and have a great deal of fun while thare are at it. We will be uncovering heritage in ways that will demonstrate how inclusive the Cultural Olympiad is and break new ground on engaging young people with the people, places and stories of not only our pasts but our future’s past.’ Daniel Raven-Ellison, Project Director, The Geography Collective

To read more about the Cultural Olympiad, Discovering Places and our project take a look at the Heritage Alliance newsletter here.

Look forward to meeting the rest of the Geography Collective in May to kick-start the project...

FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER !!

Rory's Story Cubes for your Landscape stories...

2011-03-21T12:47:00.001-07:00

During my lunch-time at the Education Show I took the opportunity to do a quick trip up and down the aisles to make sure that I saw as many of the stands as possible and have a chat to anyone who had a geographical connection, or who caught my eye.

One stand I particularly wanted to see was the CREATIVITY HUB stand, where RORY's STORY CUBES were available.

I have these cubes as an iPhone app and also as the infinitely preferable 'real thing', and have used them with many teachers over the last few years to explore the ideas of geography as "writing the earth".

I have used my cubes with hundreds of teachers as a way of exploring creative writing, including my sessions at various conferences. By using a net for creating a cube such as the one below, taken from MATHSISFUN with thanks, you can also add your own cubes...

Cut out the shapes and add your own words or instructions on the six sides relevant to the subject that you are using them for.

If you were making a set of geography cubes, they might contain instructions. These could be used to add a map symbol or place name, to turn a particular compass direction (to direct a route across an OS map sheet perhaps), or to describe a particular landscape.

I got a set of ACTIONS cubes to mix in with them, and had a chat with Rory - who looks just like his picture on the flyer.

I was also really impressed with the MAX cubes, and a bit disappointed that they were only prototypes and not available to buy - not yet anyway... Follow the link to add your thoughts on whether they should be made more widely available for the particular reasons that are suggested.

Follow Rory and the team on Twitter @storycubes, and read this story from the Belfast Telegraph for some information on what they are planning yet. Some interesting projects to come...

New Zealand: where I'd like to be today...

2011-03-21T10:18:00.001-07:00

My earlier blog post about the Christchurch memorial service was a reminder of the many connections that exist between the UK and New Zealand.
My friend Simon Hathaway, who now lives in Wellington (which is a major improvement on Rotherham) sent me a pack of newspaper and magazine articles this week to add to the other resources that I have gathered to help teach about the resilience of a major city following an earthquake. I was interested to read the 'North and South New Zealander of the Year' piece, which awarded the Supreme Winner to the people of Christchurch... and that was following the earlier September 2010 quake...
There was also a really useful piece from the Dominion Post by Chris Kalderimis on the most useful items to have in a home emergency survival kit, and lots of personal stories.

The #blog4nz campaign is encouraging bloggers the world over to focus on New Zealand for a while, and this post is part of the effort.

Although my work involves me in translating a range of media into resources which can make a difference in the classroom, there is also a lot of personal interest in exploring these distant places, and one area to develop is the impact of tourism in New Zealand.

One of the potential longer term impacts of the Christchurch earthquake is the effect that it might have on the tourist industry on both islands, but particularly the South Island. New Zealand has been on my must-visit list for ever, and I still fully intend to visit one day, although the current financial situation is not making it any easier...

Image shared under Creative Commons license by Boston Public Library
When I was asked to produce a KS3 book for use in the geography classroom, I was determined to get a little bit of New Zealand in there. I chose an iconic landform to focus on: the distinctive Mitre Peak in Milford Sound.

My contribution to the GA's toolkit series included two lessons called "Mountains on my Mind". They involved students applying for a job with a fictional tour company which operated flights into Milford Sound. Students needed to prepare themselves for the job interview by researching answers to the sorts of questions that tourists would have as they flew over the mountains.

Below is a slideshow of images taken by Simon Hathaway, which were used to introduce the lesson - the music is by the band "Suns of the Tundra" - with thanks to Simon Oakes for the remix music track :) - warning: it could get loud !!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

When clicking on the Dominion Post link earlier to create the hyperlink, I noticed a few tourism related stories straight away:

Preparations for the next Rugby World Cup later this year are already well underway, and there was also the story about the filming for 'The Hobbit' movie.

This reminded me of a the tourism benefits of the filming of "The Lord of the Rings" which resulted in a major surge in visitors, and the publication of several guides to the filming locations.

So what would my top priorities be for our family visit to New Zealand, which was going to be 2012, but now looks like being later... My interest in some parts of the country date back to 2007. At the time I was supporting Val Vannet as she followed Mark Beaumont around the world on his record-breaking
I took over from Val over the Christmas and New Year period 2007-8 and followed Mark through New Zealand and therefore spent a lot of time using Google Earth and other sites to trace his route and identify some geographical highlights....
Here is a 'top ten', which provides a taster.... There'll be no bungee though, or white water rafting. I prefer more sedate pleasures...

1. Wellington
We'll be based in the city as that's where friends who've offered us a bed for as long as we want live. But from there we'll branch out. Wellington has plenty to offer the visitor, and we'll explore the hills and the city itself. Plenty of interesting food and cultural highlights... We can get over our jet lag here before exploring further afield in a motor home...

2. Ferry to the South Island (and back)
Looking forward to this trip. We enjoy boat journeys and this is one of the more spectacular ones.

3. Christchurch
As a geographer, I'd be interested in seeing the city for various reasons, but not the least to show that it is as safe to visit as anywhere else along this fault-line. This would not be "disaster tourism", but a genuine desire to support local businesses as well as publicise for geography teachers and students back home some of the longer term ways that 'resilience' manifests itself....

4.Mt.Taranaki / Egmont and the surrounding area
Egmont / Taranaki is an amazing mountain, and the surrounding area has plenty of interest. I am particularly keen to visit places that are as 'different' to the day-to-day as possible.

5. Rotorua
Having visited Iceland recently, including a trip to Geysir and other hot springs, I've had my fair share of sulphurous water, but this is one of those places where the thin shell of the Earth's crust becomes obvious, and for that reason I need to take a look...

6. Milford Sound - I'm torn between driving in, and flying in - perhaps I could do both ? This is one of the great places of the world. When I was younger I visited the Hardangerfjord and other fjords of Norway, and I'm always impressed by huge cliffs and deep water. The waterfalls and jagged peaks are stunning.

7. Moeraki
Always wanted to see the Moeraki boulders, looking like dinosaur eggs on the beach. Moeraki is not too far from Christchurch. The family might not be too impressed if I dragged them a long distance to see "a few rocks", although they are beautiful rocks...

8. Mt Ruapehu and Tongariro
In the same area of the North Island, I used to teach about the eruption of these volcanoes for many years. I like the idea of seeing the peaks and snow fields, and making the link with the 'Lord of the Rings' locations...

9. Franz Josef Glacier
Again, my recent trip to Iceland allowed me to walk on a large glacier, but this has a much different feel to the Solheimajokull ice cap, with its steeper gradient and dramatic crevasses...

10. Shackleton connections
Sir Ernest Shackleton has always been an inspiration of mine, and the chance to visit some of the places where he prepared for his journeys would be a good reason for heading South... Two places on the list would be the grave of Chippy McNeish in Karori cemetery, Wellington, and the port of Lyttleton.

Picture by Simon Hathaway - Chippy McNeish and Mrs Chippy...

I am keen to trace some of the connections with the early Polar explorers, as we prepare for the centenary of Scott and Amundsen's race to the Pole next year. I have no doubt that someone somewhere is planning to tweet their journeys day by day (and if they aren't I though of it first... ;) )

See you there !

Urban Landscape News

2011-03-06T05:41:00.001-08:00

There were 3 or 4 "urban-related" tweets in my overnight feed that I caught up with earlier 'today' while having my breakfast...
Part of my daily routine now is to look at what has happened while I slept, and e-mail any interesting tweets to my e-mail account, so that I have a record of the links, and can follow them up when I have a moment...

This weekend, there has been an urban theme to many of the updates. Several of them were from the excellent @urbanphoto_blog stream... You need to follow them if you don't already.

One led me to the Twisted Sifter blog, from which I got this remarkable image, which apparently shows the suburbs of Mexico City marching into the distance, irrespective of topography.

The images were from Pablo Lopez Luz

I haven't explored the site further, but it seems to have a range of interesting images and other content.
The second site, which was equally arresting is a description of the development of a new (or perhaps not so new it seems) 'city' stretching out into the Caspian Sea from Baku, and called Oily Rocks.

The Liquid Infrastructure blog has the story and more amazing pictures of this complex structure.

Next was the news of a fire in the Garib Nagar slum in Mumbai. One of the houses affected was the home of an actress who featured in the film "Slumdog Millionaire". Of course there were thousands of other people affected too...
This was followed up by another newspaper article on the slums of Mumbai, and plans to bulldoze Dharavi. One to extend into the idea of local politics and ownership of land...

This was followed by a tip-off from Bob Digby to an article on the increased threat that coastal settlements in the UK are likely to face
A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation relates to the idea of Social Justice, and looks at the impact on disadvantaged UK coastal communities.
Click HERE to download the report as a 1.4 Mb PDF file

The possible impacts on East Anglia (as featured in the report) are summarised below...

• Weakening and collapse of cliffs due to desiccation as a result of higher summer temperatures and lower precipitation; also cliff destabilisation as a result of decreasing vegetation cover.
• Weakening and collapse of cliffs due to increased precipitation in winter, which causes more water to penetrate into desiccated cracks.
• Higher rates of coastal erosion from higher sea levels, more frequent storm surges and weakened cliffs.
• High erosion will cause enhanced rates of longshore drift which may pose threats to the major ports of Great Yarmouth, Felixstowe and Harwich.

And finally, was an article by Rick Poynor on the book "Edgelands", which I am reading via Kindle app at the moment, along with some images of these peripheral areas.

So basically, Twitter - thanks to the Flipbook app - has replaced the need for me to buy a Sunday newspaper...

Pylons in the Landscape

2011-03-06T02:43:00.001-08:00

As featured in Lesson 3 in the book...

There are plans for more pylons in East Anglia to connect proposed power stations to the National Grid to improve infrastructure.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has been opposing these developments in some areas of Norfolk.
My local paper has some more on this issue...
It costs 10 times as much to place cables underground as it does to put it over ground.

Check the plans and have your say here.

And don't forget you can also join the Pylon Appreciation Society

Mission Explore Launch Drinks

2011-02-27T09:20:00.001-08:00

Fancy a new way of exploring your local landscapes ??

In just over a month's time, there are two new Mission:Explore books launched on the world by The Geography Collective and Can of Worms Press.
Here are the front covers for those who are interested. They are already available to pre-order on Amazon so make sure you buy at least one copy....

There will be launch events in London on the 1st and 2nd of April, but if you are around in London on the evening of the 31st of March, you can join us at the Old Explorer, just a short walk from Oxford Circus.

Sign up to join us....

Plenty more to come in a month's time...

Edgelands

2011-02-26T06:56:00.001-08:00

Holiday reading...

Took the plunge into KINDLE apps....
An interesting exploration of the urban-rural fringe...
References Marion Shoard's classic article... (click to download PDF)

For a taste of the book, see this INDEPENDENT article...

Olympics 2012 - the legacy...

2011-02-22T12:23:00.001-08:00

The urban landscape of East London has changed for ever...

Thanks to John Widdowson for alerting me to the existence of this website from the LEGACY COMPANY, which acts as a tremendous additional resource for those teaching (or planning to teach) about the Olympics 2012. It includes an excellent interactive map with a number of 'layers' which shows the true scale of the Olympic park, and the various developments that are planned.

The GA will be producing a whole range of resources for the Olympics nearer the time, and we have already had a range of Olympics activities including a teacher conference, and of course Bob Digby's ongoing tours of the Olympic Park (there is a chance to take part in one of these on day one of the conference)

There is a large section on the Sustainability of the Olympic site in John Widdowson's GCSE toolkit book, which is now available from the GA shop.

There is also a Top Spec Geography title which is forthcoming, and a KS3 toolkit publication too.
With the opening of the velodrome today, this is a good time to take another look at what is planned for the park, plus there is the ongoing talks about the football future for the Olympics stadium itself.

There is a useful brochure on Scribd which is embedded below...

Future of the Park launch brochure

Human Planet

2011-02-09T08:56:00.001-08:00

Just ordered my DVD copy of this amazing series, which should perhaps be an essential part of every geography department's multimedia library... It should perhaps sit alongside Planet Earth, Coast, and various other DVDs which I bought...

There are so many clips and aspects of this series that should find their way into the curriculum in lower school, as well as supporting many GCSE contexts.
There are 8 episodes in the series.

There are chances to watch some of the previous episodes that haven't yet been broadcast on the iPlayer page

Check out the BBC HUMAN PLANET EXPLORER for more details.
Some fabulous images and other media on the HUMAN PLANET BLOG.

Check out the SURVIVAL SKILLS resource too... splendid..

Following on from last week's FORESTS episode, there's an excellent GUARDIAN INTERACTIVE on the world's endangered forests.

Finally, don't forget that you can get embeddable videos from each programme too, such as this one of the CEMETERY dwellers of MANILA

Robert Macfarlane on landscapes...

2011-01-27T00:25:00.001-08:00

Another beautiful piece of writing (with some wonderful images too) from Richard Macfarlane.
This one is related to some paintings in the Tate gallery

Old travel posters

2011-01-12T11:15:00.000-08:00

Thanks to @hoddergeography for the tip-off to an evocative set of images...

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY has a Flickr set of beautiful old travel posters...
Here's a couple of examples, there are many more by following the link...

Mitre Peak, New Zealand...
I'll get here one day - as featured in my KS3 Toolkit book: "Look at it this Way"....

These would make a lovely way to explore landscapes...

I also really like this Joseph Binder image of Austria. Made even better by the fact that next week I fly out to Salzburg for 4 days to work on a European-wide GIS project.

Images made available under Creative Commons license...

A Frozen Landscape

2010-12-22T08:34:00.000-08:00

Winter either bites with its teeth or lashes with its tail. Proverb

It's a bit chilly out there...

Snow has been falling on and off for weeks now, and I think a lot of people are getting a tad fed up of it...

Started a new Twitter stream yesterday to collate stories of the Big Freeze...

Follow @FrozenUK for the cold weather geographical digest... or add #FrozenUK to your tweets and I'll pick it up and add it when I get the chance...

There is more snow falling as I type this...

Points of View

2010-12-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

A new feature was added to the GA website yesterday, following discussions by the Website Editorial Board earlier in the year, and some great work by the web team.

You can now JOIN THE CONVERSATION..
As a GA member, when you log in you will be able to add a comment to any page of the website and, if you have purchased an item from the GA shop, you can also add a STAR RATING and a comment.

Please feel free to add a comment on "Look at it this Way"...

This development will let us develop more of a community feel to the website (non GA members will have to wait for their comment to be moderated) and if you are logged in you can add an image to your profile.
I have added a comment to the page which contains my WINTER TEACHING IDEAS, so feel free to take a look at that and add your own thoughts...

The snow is falling again outside the window as I press PUBLISH POST...

Google Earth 6

2010-12-05T04:19:00.001-08:00

Many teachers will use Google Earth as a way of exploring familiar and unfamiliar landscapes.

A new version of Google Earth was released recently: GOOGLE EARTH 6...
It includes millions of 3D trees, and other improvements, including better integration with Google Street View

Go to the AMAZON for example, and you can wander the jungle and explore some of the tree species in the rainforest... I'm sure we can come up with some ideas for using this in the geography classroom :)

And don't forget my Innovative Geography Teaching funded project from back in 2005...

Derbyshire Poetry Walk

2010-11-29T02:52:00.001-08:00

If you live within reasonable travelling distance of the Peak District, you might be interested in a poetry / geography / history event being organised by my friend Rob Hindle.

Blitz
A descent in the traces of the first bombing raid on Sheffield, 12 December 1940

Longbarrow Press invites you to join Rob Hindle on a walk in the traces of the Blitz:

Sunday 12 December

Meet at 1.30pm prompt on Platform A, Sheffield Bus Interchange

The walk will start on Hathersage Road near the village of Dore at 2.30pm

Total distance approximately 6 miles. There is an opportunity to join the walk at Cafe #9 in Nether Edge (see below) at 4pm. The walk from this point is a little under 3 miles.

For the 70th anniversary of the Sheffield Blitz, Rob Hindle has devised a poetry walk that will illuminate the attack on the city by German bombers on 12 December 1940. The journey will begin at Dore Moor and end in Fitzalan Square (Sheffield City Centre), with Rob reading and discussing poems that emerged from his original plotting of the walk last winter, descending from the edge of the city to the site in the centre where the most devastating blast destroyed the Marples Hotel. The walk is timed to start in daylight and finish in darkness.

Everywhere the smoke

like ink in water

everywhere fires like marsh gas.

Admission £5 (includes unique CD package designed and produced by Longbarrow Press).
Bus fare from Sheffield central bus station to Dore Moor is approximately £2.50.
Places are very limited and must be booked in advance through Rob Hindle (email: robhindle361@gmail.com, phone 0114 232 2714); early booking is advised. The walk is moderately paced over mostly level terrain and will take 3½ hours or less. Please wear warm, weatherproof clothing. There will be opportunities to rest during the walk, including a stop at Cafe #9 on Nether Edge Road at around 4pm.

GA Conference Programme 2011

2010-11-19T01:16:00.001-08:00

Geographical Association Conference & Exhibition 2011 Programme

Plenty of landscape related sessions, to help you expand your physical geography skills...

Vaughan Cornish : geographer

2010-11-07T12:28:00.001-08:00

Vaughan Cornish was one of the most influential geographers of his time. He was born in the 1860s in Suffolk, and had a career spanning 60 years. He was President of the Geographical Association during that time.

Last Friday, while putting some boxes down in the warehouse at Solly Street in preparation for the official opening (of which more later), I found a brown cardboard box, which was labelled "Vaughan Cornish Original Prints" and excitedly opened it to find about 50 large prints on thick card, several of them stamped as being entered for the 1904 St. Louis photographic exposition. Took a few images of some of them...

Some of them featured pictures of wave forms, an area which Cornish was particularly interested in.
I loved the silvered blue finish on some of the prints, which had faded in the century since they had been made, and then hand labelled by Cornish himself. There was also a print taken after an earthquake in the Caribbean, which I had read about him experiencing (he was injured in the event), and a snowdrift in Manitoba (another area that he was interested in)
Made me re-visit a plan that I had about 5 years ago to write a short book(let) on Cornish, when I did a bit of research about him.
Might be worth rethinking... would be a good excuse to delve into the GA and RGS archives, and also apparently those of the University of Oxford.

There's a good article on Vaughan by Andrew Goudie (another influential geographer) on JSTOR, and the abstract provides a few clues to follow up on his various interests.

I also have a copy of the book "The Beauties of Scenery", which was an attempt of his to objectively evaluate the landscape, and is worth hunting out in a second hand book-shop.

Google Books has a few links such as HERE

SAGT Conference 2010

2010-10-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

There was plenty of "Look at it this Way" running through the two seminars that I presented at the SAGT Conference 2010.

This was the 6th year that I have been up to SAGT, and I'd be happy to come up next year again - I'll probably go with the GA stand even if I don't offer a seminar...

The weather was mixed, and the journey up was not without its delays either, but the actual day of the event was bright and cold, and managed to get some nice pictures taken in the evening, as above - looking along the Clyde from the Crowne Plaza hotel and SECC.

My presentation was part of the overall conference programme, which included a number of familiar names from previous events, and from English geography circles...

I arrived the night before the conference, and over to Hutcheson's Grammar school via a jammed M8 to set up the GA stand. The school was a nice mix of ancient and modern, with a wonderful church for the keynotes. Our hotel was next to the SECC, and the Finnieston Crane and made my way back there eventually after various diversions to meet with Dan and Noel, and out for a meal with Val Vannet at the City Cafe, overlooking the Clyde and the Clyde Arc (or Squinty bridge as it is called - one for LOCATION LINGO there....)

The following day, over to the venue early and set up. Met lots of delegates for chat, Ken and Darren from the Ordnance Survey, who gave me lots of jute bags, and Paul from Mapseeker. John Hopkin: GA president for 2010-11 came up to do the fraternal greetings after the first inspiring keynote from Al Humphreys.

David Rogers, Noel Jenkins and Dan Raven Ellison were among the other seminar presenters, along with Ollie Bray, whose Hodder Gibson book also won an award. Good to see a few of my Twitter followers popping up as well, and gained a few more over the weekend.
Writing the earth

View more presentations from GeoBlogs.

My seminar presentation (or a version of it at least) is above.
Handouts included a copy of "Chop one red onion" from the PGCE Survival Guide, and a range of other resources and maps.
I also read one of Rob Hindle's poems from "Neurosurgery in Iraq".

SAGT Delegate Notes

After the 2 full seminars, it was a final keynote from Alun Morgan.

Earlier, I had collected two awards for the GA's publications: COMMENDED awards to GCSE toolkit and TOP SPEC series...

Out into the sun for the evening, and over to the Granary with Kenny and Akiko for a pint and chat with Ollie.
Another good SAGT experience.
In the evening, did some photography with Noel along the river, and then food, after a 'mystery tour' of Govan....
The following morning it was a simple matter of scraping ice off the car, and a 350 mile drive south...

David Rogers has posted his seminar presentation on his blog already, along with a write--up... Will be blogging about his present later...

All pics by Alan Parkinson, and available on Flickr.

Latest issue of Mapping News now out...

2010-10-06T05:43:00.001-07:00

Always plenty of landscape inspiration and mapping ideas to flesh out some of the ideas in the toolkit series.

And what an issue it is...
It has 2 articles by me in it, which is always a bonus...
One on the new DIGIMAP service for schools, and one on Amanda Hone's Brown Sign blog, which I have mentioned here before.

Also some good ideas from Jeff Stanfield on adding a sporting feel to lessons, and details on the ESRI / GA GIS courses running in cities across the country.

Remember that the journal no longer comes into schools in paper form.

You can view an e-copy, or download a PDF for reading offline (or printing out) at the MAPPING NEWS page.

New Teaching Geography now available for download...

2010-10-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of Teaching Geography is now available to download by those who subscribe to it....

It features a range of inspirational articles on the theme of place by Mark Jones, Eleanor Rawling, Becky Kitchen, Margaret Roberts and others...
Articles range from a teacher visit to Greenland, to the urban re-branding and renaissance of Scarborough...

To add a subscription to your GA membership, or to join (and gain access to the last five years of journals in electronic format) click the JOIN THE GA link.

PLACE is a big theme in Look at it this Way, and the ideas in this journal could feed in to several of the lessons.
Exploring landscapes through poetry is a great way to draw students in, and Mark Jones has provided some thoughtful analysis on this particular tool...

Water...

2010-09-29T03:37:00.001-07:00

For the last 3 or 4 years now, I have been involved in posting something on BLOG ACTION DAY on the particular theme of the year.

The theme this year is WATER.
The Vimeo video sets the scene...

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Change.org|Start Petition

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion around an important issue that impacts us all.

Our Goal

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.

By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action. In 2007 with the theme of the environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices, and focusing their audience's attention on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we covered the theme of poverty, and similarly focused the blogging community's energies around discussing the wide breadth of the issue from many perspectives and identifying innovative and unexpected solutions. Last year, the conversation around climate change brought our voices around the globe to discuss an issue that threatens us all and mobilized tens of thousands of people to get more involved in the movement for a more sustainable future. This year, with the theme of Water, we are eager to shed light on this often-overlooked topic.

GET BLOGGING ON THE 15th of OCTOBER 2010
And come back to this blog, for a posting on the importance of WATER, whether liquid or solid in shaping the landscape....

Cape Farewell: a voyage around Svalbard

2010-09-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

The Cape Farewell voyages aim to bring a cultural response to the issue of Climate Change.

Previous voyages involved Anthony Gormley, and Rachel Whiteread, who was inspired to fill the turbine hall at Tate Modern with white cubes.

When teaching the now sadly ex-Pilot GCSE Geography course a few years back, I used the Cape Farewell pack that the Geographical Association produced.
The blog posts that relate to my studies of this EXTREME ENVIRONMENT are available by following THIS LINK to the blog: you'll see student work and a range of other resources which I hope you might still find useful...
There was plenty on the nature of the POLAR LANDSCAPE and the impact of landscape change due to climate change... and the impact of GLACIATION.

The latest Cape Farewell expedition is going to follow the route shown on the map above, and it has JUST SET OFF... you can follow if for the next few weeks by visiting the CAPE FAREWELL WEBSITE, or following CAPE FAREWELL on TWITTER.

Pylons in the Landscape

2010-08-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

Lesson 3 in the book explores changes in the landscape and their relative impact.

Pylons are often viewed as being a blot on the landscape.

An item for my (relatively) new Iceland blog: NICE LAND ICELAND

A proposal to put a string of pylons shaped like human figures, which would go some way to reducing the visual impact on the landscape of this development...

Or is a pylon a pylon no matter what shape it is ?

The Future of the Countryside

2010-07-31T03:30:00.000-07:00

The STATE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE 2010 report has now been published and can be obtained from here.

It is available to download in various combinations from individual chapters to the whole report.

Would be very useful for those preparing to teach about urban-rural interrelationships, or the changes that might happen in future landscapes.

Handily, all the IMAGES can also be downloaded.

Changes in a landscape

2010-07-31T03:06:00.001-07:00

Image by Flickr user Gee Bee under Creative Commons license

Imagine you look out of your window one morning and notice that the view you have been familiar with for so long has now changed because something has been added / been removed.

This sort of thing happens a lot, but it's always a shock when it's outside your own window.

The Trinity Centre Multi storey car park has been a part of the Newcastle skyline for decades.

It became famous for a scene in the film "Get Carter", with Michael Caine.

Today is the day when the process of demolition starts, and a useful article, with that famous scene was produced by the Daily Mail.

There's an interesting quote from the architect of the building: Owen Luder, who said that Gateshead was "losing its front teeth". As parents know, when your children lose their milk front teeth there's a bit of a shock for a few weeks but then they grow up and looking back at old photos a few years later you think "did they really look like that ?"

In the "Mission:Explore" book there's reference to topocide: the factors which help to "kill" a place...

How does the removal of familiar buildings like this affect a place ??

Landscapes in Sound

2010-07-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

Have been following up something from earlier today about the sounds of Sheffield....

Steel, Peach and Tozers (or Steelos) as everyone called it, was the place where my dad started work in the mid 1950s...

He was a draughtsman before moving into engineering role, and moved to a number of other mills, including Hatfields (now Meadowhall) before finishing at Aldwarke Works, Parkgate almost 50 years later...

I remember doing a photography project on the area between Rotherham and Sheffield and its dereliction in the late 1980s, after the earlier industrial development, with its attendant environmental implications.

Came across an album called THE SONG OF STEEL. Listen to the album on SPOTIFY if you have access to this...

One of the things that also features on the disc is the mention of "beer notes". My dad used to be one of the people who handed out beer notes which could be exchanged at the Temple pub just outside the foundry (which is now a museum called Magna, and also a training centre where I've presented several times...)

BBC Radio Ballads is a sound portrait, complete with songs from artists including the wonderful timbre of Kate Rusby.

There are loads of interviews with people who remember what life was like back then.

This is a wonderful sound portait of a place, and a lost industrial landscape....

Brown signs in the landscape...

2010-07-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

There are apparently 93 different brown signs as shown on maps and roadsigns. They denote locations which are of tourist interest. I know this because I've been following the Brown Sign Way...

AMANDA HONE's BROWN SIGN BLOG is going to document visits to as many Brown sign locations as possible.

Why not explore the BROWN SIGNS in your local area - once you start noticing them, you'll find them everywhere (although I might have an advantage living in a tourist area of Norfolk...)

In the village where I used to live there was an interesting labelling. The brown sign used the generic "FARM PARK" to point to the attraction, which was actually called "PARK FARM": some locals assumed the sign had been made with the words the wrong way round...

One of my nearest brown signs.... picture by Alan Parkinson

Follow Amanda's progress on TWITTER and check out the blog.

These signs, like any road signs are part of the landscape: we don't necessarily notice them. They also sometimes point to landscape features.

One element of rural landscapes is the degree of "roadside clutter" that there is.

Lesson 4 looked at landscape changes...

More on roadside clutter in the next post...

Dad's gone to Iceland....

2010-07-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

New life pushing up through the ash deposits from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano: image by Val Vannet, taken last week

After many years of waiting, it seems like I will finally be going to Iceland later this year.

I will be accompanying teachers on an inspection visit to Iceland in October 2010.

The visit is organised by the Brighton based company TRAVELBOUND

Download an itinerary HERE (PDF download) and I might have the chance to spend a few days with you exploring and curriculum making...

Some of the places that are here are on the lists of places that must be seen when visiting Iceland...

Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik
Hekla
Solheimajokull Glacier trek
Kerid Crater and Thingvellir National Park
Reykjavik
Geysirs and waterfalls
Hellishollar

Why not request a copy of the brochure, or visit the Travelbound website to find out more.

If you'd like to come on the inspection visit, the price is £199, and you will need to do the following:

Contact James Walker on: 01273 265 266 for details.

I will be blogging the whole process of preparing for the visit, as well as creating an online home for a range of curriculum making resources. One outcome will be a unit for KS3 with the title (N)ICELAND ICELAND....

Currently exploring the workings of WORDPRESS to create the new blog, which is now available to view (although there's not much there yet) at (N)ICELAND ICELAND.

If you have been to Iceland and would like to contribute to the new blog in any way, please get in touch.

Special thanks to Val Vannet for the use of her excellent images....

The landscapes here have to be amongst the most dramatic in the world - and of course, I shall be producing a whole host of resources as a result of the visit.

Climb every mountain ?

2010-07-09T09:03:00.001-07:00

One of the chapters that failed to make the "final cut" in the toolkit book was on the theme of Snowdon and the construction of the cafe at the summit.

The mountain has been in the news this week due to some work that has been carried out on one of the main tracks to the summit: the Miner's Track.

The Daily Mail had a slightly different angle on the story...

Another piece from Janet Street Porter could be used as a way of enquiring into changes in the landscape.

"Snowdon is being tamed and turned into a Welsh version of Disney Land"

I also had a Facebook message from colleague Tony Cassidy earlier in the week to say that he was standing on the summit...

Why not take some of the quotes from the article and debate whether the paths should be improved. What is to be gained and lost from this activity ?

'Snowdon is a mountain not a theme park for children. It defies common sense. Next they'll be wanting to put a lift up Everest or filling in the Grand Canyon. It is one of the most preposterous things I've heard of'

Urban Stories new on the GA website

2010-07-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

A great one for re-presenting urban landscapes....

Urban Earth is a project developed by Dan Raven Ellison.

I have blogged about it on numerous occasions before as a way for young people to re-present the urban spaces that they inhabit.

Ben Major has put together a great resource called URBAN STORIES on the GA website.

This suggests some additional ideas for using Dan's original URBAN EARTH walks and images....

Tour of Britain - Norfolk...

2010-07-02T12:50:00.001-07:00

As already mentioned, the Tour of Britain comes to Norfolk later in the year...

Check out the movie...

Tour of Britain movie - Norfolk stage

Consider the choice of images and locations to represent the landscape of the places that the route passes through...

Why not make your own version of the movie ?

Thought for the day

2010-07-02T06:41:00.001-07:00

‘The best views are views of familiar things, like cities and farms and bottlenecked freeways. So set aside the beauty of sunsets, the majesty of mountains, the imprint of winds on golden prairies. The world beneath our wings has become a human artefact, our most spontaneous and complex creation … The aerial view is something entirely new. We need to admit that it flattens the world and mutes it in a rush of air and engines, and that it suppresses beauty. But it also strips the facades from our constructions, and by raising us above the constraints of the treeline and the highway it imposes a brutal honesty on our perceptions.’ – William Langewiesche, ‘The View from Above’.

Psychogeography by the sea....

2010-07-02T04:29:00.000-07:00

An interesting exchange on Twitter a couple of weeks ago...

Led me to some nice work on Hunstanton.

It's the work of Tina Richardson, who is a Cultural Studies PhD student at the University of Leeds. She has been exploring areas of Hunstanton. They are mapped using techniques that relate to the idea of "Psychogeography"....

ARCADES PROMENADES is one of the outcomes of Tina's work.

Don't forget my earlier early-morning virtual tour of Hunstanton that I did 2 years ago.

Gone to Glastonbury

2010-06-22T11:43:00.001-07:00

Updates via Twitter @GeoBlogs until Monday :)

Picture by chelsea steve on Flickr - CC licensed

Cotswolds Landscapes

2010-06-12T04:16:00.001-07:00

Been sent another book via the Cultural Geography blog...

This time it's a book called "The Cotwolds: a cultural history", written by Jane Bingham, and part of a new OUP series called "Landscapes of the Imagination"

Will take a look when I get a moment, perhaps on the train to London tomorrow...

Plenty on the relationship between the landscape and the people who encounter it in various ways...

Rawding on the Rural

2010-06-12T03:23:00.000-07:00

A number of e-mails and other circumstances have led me to revisit a presentation that was delivered by Charles Rawding of Edge Hill University at the GTE conference at Madingley Hall in Cambridge earlier in the year.

An excellent introduction to looking at the use of the countryside, at a time when the new government is looking at the way that farmers manage the landscape...

Follow the link to see lots more GTE presentations...

Urban Landscapes....

2010-06-08T11:15:00.001-07:00

Image copyright Stephen Walter

Part of the British Library's "Magnificent Maps" exhibition, which I shall be visiting next week...

The ISLAND by Stephen Walter

This page now has an interactive zoomable map which allows you to see the neighbourhood detail which forms part of the whole map. These are stories and personal geographies...

The Island satirises the London-centric view of the English capital and its commuter towns as independent from the rest of the country. The artist, a Londoner with a love of his native city, offers up a huge range of local and personal information in words and symbols. Walter speaks in the dialect of today, focusing on what he deems interesting or mundane.

Could you and your students create other "islands" of your home town or city ??

Notes from a Small Island

2010-06-04T03:02:00.001-07:00

Have been accompanied on my travels for the last week by Bill Bryson via a 10 CD audiobook version of his "Notes from a Small Island" borrowed from the library (don't forget your local library !)

I've been developing some activities based around his travels, and the impressions that he gives of some of the cities he visits, compared to the views of others, and also the changes that might have occurred since he visited them in 1995 (which is about the time that GCSE students would have been born, so handy for thinking about changes "in your lifetime"...)

You can also find a range of video clips from the accompanying TV series on YouTube of course, such as this one...

Plenty of cultural geography inspiration, as well as the chance to discuss the nature of the British landscape.

Bill Bryson is currently the President of CPRE: the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Teachers TV

2010-05-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

Apologies for going "off topic" for a moment...
Although obviously the weather does have an impact on the landscape...

The three programmes that I recently consulted on for Teachers TV were added to the website on Friday...
There are 3 programmes in the series.

Each was developed by Beth Newell and colleagues at Brook Lapping from original ideas which we discussed in an Italian cafe in Cambridge last year...

Each programmes last for 15 minutes

The first one: Today's Forecast, follows a line across the country from east to west and interviews a number of people whose jobs are dependent on the weather...

The second: The Great Storm tells the story of the 1987 Great Storm, but from the perspective of the storm itself...

The third: Degrees of Change is based on a specially commissioned poem by Mark Cowan and explores the possible impacts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 degrees of warming in the future...

I'd love any feedback if you watch them, and particularly if you use them in the classroom....

National Trust Soundscape

2010-05-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

The National Trust has released an album of sounds recorded at National Trust properties. The sounds have been assembled and turned into an album by Jarvis Cocker, in association with the National Trust, and make for an engaging soundscape...

Visit the site and download your own copy...

How about making a soundtrack album for your school grounds and premises ?

City of Staples

2010-05-14T03:10:00.001-07:00

A nice art piece
Made from thousands of staples...

A very different "urban environment"... thanks to the Daily Mail once again...

The city was named Ephemicropolis

Watch the VIMEO VID below of the city being made...

The making of Ephemicropolis from Peter Root on Vimeo.

100,000 staples arranged over 40 hours.
To see photographs go to www.peterroot.com/index.php?/projects/ephemicropolis/

Ordnance Survey Mapping News

2010-04-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

The latest electronic edition of the Ordnance Survey's MAPPING NEWS is now available on the OS WEBSITE.

It features a range of very useful articles on a range of topics.

There is also an article called "LOOKING AT LANDSCAPES" which I contributed to the issue, and is well worth reading...

Bill Bryson on the British landscape...

2010-04-04T09:32:00.001-07:00

Image by Alan Parkinson: Castle Acre Castle, Norfolk

An excellent article in the Times magazine a couple of weeks ago which I have just got round to blogging...

It features Bill Bryson interviewing David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown about their policies on the countryside in advance of the General Election...

I used a Bill Bryson quote at the start of my book "Look at it this Way" from the speech that he gave when he took over as President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) in June 2007

The Times article begins with this excellent paragraph which would make an excellent discussion piece, or perhaps the script for a video / presentation to be put together by students, along with appropriate images....

Nothing – and I mean, really, absolutely nothing – is more extraordinary in Britain than the beauty of the countryside. Nowhere in the world is there a landscape that has been more intensively utilised – more mined, farmed, quarried, covered with cities and clanging factories, threaded with motorways and railway lines – and yet remains so comprehensively and reliably lovely over most of its extent. Wherever you are now, you are almost certainly no more than an hour away, if that, from the heady smell of dung and hay, and the glory of a landscape that is sumptuous, productive and divine. You are the luckiest people in the world to have that. Luck, alas, won’t be enough to keep it.

You can also follow the CPRE on Twitter

Take a look at the article and you'll find plenty of other inspiration for work which looks at landscape change and the management of the countryside.

Bear with me....

2010-04-03T14:14:00.001-07:00

I know this is too wide, but want to have the option of playing this (wifi permitting) next week at the GA Conference...

After that it's back to business as usual....

Landshapers Resource for South Downs National Park

2010-04-02T05:59:00.001-07:00

The South Downs was designated as a national park yesterday, as I blogged about at the time.

Having investigated the blog a little further, I've come across a resource that would be useful for those teaching about LANDSCAPE.

Here is how the project is described on the website:

‘Landshapers’ is an oral history project which tells the story of the South Downs through the people who live and work there. A joint undertaking between the South Downs Joint Committee, Natural England and Hampshire County Council, the six audio visual files help explain how this landscape has been, and continues to be, shaped by man. These stories cover a wide range of themes intrinsically linked to the unique landscape we see today, all presented by a variety of local experts and accompanied by evocative and inspiring images of the South Downs. These are impassioned and personal accounts by the narrators based on their own background and experience. The audio files can also be downloaded onto mp3 players and are intended to accompany a number of walks in the South Downs where these themes are relevant. It is hoped these narratives will enhance your experience of the landscape as you explore it.

The LANDSHAPERS resource can be viewed by clicking the link...

South Downs National Park

2010-04-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

The South Downs was officially designated as a National Park yesterday...

Check out the LEARNING ZONE with Nibbles the Sheep....

A useful section on PROTECTING THE LANDSCAPE.

It includes the very useful LANDSHAPERS audio resource which I shall investigate in more detail and blog about later.....

Urban Landscape Explorations

2010-03-31T13:53:00.001-07:00

The Mission : Explore book is finally out in print and available from tomorrow....

Buy as many copies as you can !!

Come and see us at the GA Conference

Very flat, Norfolk

2010-03-23T03:50:00.001-07:00

Thanks to those who came along to my lecture last night at Easton College, near Norwich.

It was my Presidential lecture for the GA Norfolk branch, and a joint event with the Royal Geographical Society and thanks once again to the Stannards for their hospitality and organisation.

The presentation I used is below, although you won't get the full story of course without the 50 minutes of me talking over it...

Very flat, norfolk

View more presentations from GeoBlogs.

There were some interesting comments after the lecture with respect to the (inevitably) partial nature of the presentation: some areas of Norfolk were not featured to the degree that others would have expected, and perhaps reflects my own knowledge and experiences of the county.

There was little mention of Broadland, and nothing on Breckland, although I passed through both within the last fortnight.

Also some discussion on the political importance of place, and some of the potential future changes in Norfolk's landscape...

Thanks to all those who contributed to the lecture, particularly those who told me their "5 words that they thought of..." the results of that can be seen within the presentation....

Landscapes - Mapping living geography....

2010-03-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

Some wonderful maps drawn by illustrator Christoph Niemann, who provides illustrations for the New York Times and a range of other journals are available HERE.

I particularly like the island below, which would fit well with those in the ATLAS OF EXPERIENCE and fit very well with the idea of LIVING GEOGRAPHY.

Image copyright Christoph Niemann (let me know if you want the image removed and a link added instead)

A new way to view the landscape....

2010-03-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

Images copyright Google

Google Street View has gone national

A huge update of Google's photography means that over 90% of the UK is now covered by the high resolution, 360 degree imagery along most roads in the UK

That doesn't just mean in urban areas - the cars have obviously gone along most roads in rural areas, and have captured many of the UK's most stunning landscapes...

One of the first things that people would do perhaps would be to look at their own house, and the houses where they used to live....

Just done that myself, and you can see the house where I lived between 1977 and 1988 (ish) above, tho' it didn't look like that at the time...

There was a useful post on Simon Haughton's blog which suggested some geographical ideas for how the newly expanded Street View could be used in the classroom. Here are some (more):

1. Previewing a journey that is going to be made / risk assessments for fieldwork

2. Carrying out VIRTUAL FIELDWORK in an unfamiliar area

3. Investigate change over time in a local area

4. Clone Town / Land use surveys

5. Remodelling the models: transects from town centre outwards to test their validity

6. Comparing distant locations (Primary)

7. Taking a trip to the seaside

8. Play the "When were the images taken" game: look at clues in the state of buildings, traffic and people in the area, to see whether you can work out the time of year, or time of day, or day of the week when the cars must have taken the images...

My street was photographed in Summer, on a week-day judging by the images, but further towards the centre of the village the images turn to autumn...

9. Do a N, S, E and W, or 5 minutes in each direction from home etc.

10. Most URBAN fieldwork could be done in a slightly adapted way using the images, perhaps supported with some Flip video filming / audio files ? (remember that this is NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR REAL FIELDWORK which MUST continue....)

I have been updating a presentation I used last year, when Street View was limited to just a few major cities, which provided ideas for geography teachers on how they might use Street View in the classroom. Will share that here when it is complete....

Predictably, there has been a little kerfuffle in the Daily Mail...

Read the article and comments for a variety of views on the role of this sort of technology...

And just to show another feature: the maps can be embedded into blogs...

Drag the YELLOW PEGMAN onto the map in the appropriate place, and the Street View images will appear....

Can also be viewed on my iPhone, which is remarkable really... The UK in your pocket....

Here's an example:

The Isle of Skye near the Quiraing

View Larger Map

Urban Landscapes

2010-02-26T00:08:00.000-08:00

Nice image by Richard Allaway from his recent trip to Hong Kong...

Lost landscapes ??

2010-02-20T02:59:00.001-08:00

This is a website which stores images of OLD POSTCARDS.
They are of a particular vintage and feature the photography of John Hinde Studios in particular.
Nostalgia for those of a certain age...
I like the fact that it also includes the text of any writing that was on the postcard that is shown when the copy was discovered.
Would be good for looking at past, present and future of the tourist destinations depicted...
A lost landscape ??

Changing Norfolk landscape...

2010-02-19T10:59:00.001-08:00

Image by Flickr user Sami Taipale made available under Creative Commons license

Image by Flickr user zaser made available under Creative Commons license

There was a lot of comment locally this week and last, when BIRDS EYE announced a major decision on their sourcing of peas. (Link to the EDP article)

There was a posting on the local PICKENHAM POSTS blog regarding the decision.

This will not only have an impact on the landscape, but take away a lot of regular contract income for local farmers.

It is also a break in history as the area has been providing peas for freezing for decades.

Following a link to the BIRDS EYE website also led me to their CHANGING PLATES report. (Link leads to PDF download)

This would make a good resource for those looking at cultural change in the UK and the changing importance of families sitting down around a table to eat a meal together...

More on this to come...

Hedgerows in the landscape

2010-02-15T01:18:00.001-08:00

A nice new resource for younger pupils looking at HEDGEROWS from HEDGELINK.
From the FACE newsletter, which is worth subscribing to...

Landscape of change...

2010-02-13T06:10:00.001-08:00

One via my blogroll: an incredible painted landscape in the USA called SALVATION MOUNTAIN.
It's the work of Leonard Knight.
Here's a FLICKR slideshow of CC images of the rather weird and wonderful location...

An extreme example of human impact on a landscape...
Why not make your own mini Salvation mountain ? Ask permission from your parents first though...

North and South American Landscapes

2010-01-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

Picture by Ollie Bray (I think...): Mark is the one on the right... :)

Mark Beaumont speaking tour.... Starts in March 2010

CONGRATULATIONS TO MARK WHO HAS FINISHED HIS TRANS-AMERICAN CYCLE !

Mark's CYCLING THE AMERICAS blog is here for all the latest on his current challenge, which is going incredibly well. He has summited Denali and Aconcagua, and is now cycling the final leg down to the end of his pan-American adventure. There are some spectacular images and video on the blog.

Mark's website is HERE.

He comes to King's Lynn on the 27th of March 2010

The other dates can be found here:

MARCH
Tues 16th DURHAM Gala Theatre 0191 3324041
Wed 17th CHESTERFIELD The Winding Wheel 01246 345 334
Thur 18th BOLTON Albert Halls 01204 334400
Fri 19th HALIFAX Victoria Theatre 01422 351158
Sat 20th MORECAMBE The Platform 01524 582803
Sun 21st HAYES Beck Theatre 020 8561 8371
Tues 23rd TUNBRIDGE WELLS Assembly Halls 01892 530613
Wed 24th SOUTHSEA The King’s Theatre 02392 828282
Thur 25th TAMWORTH Assembly Rooms 01827 709618
Sat 27th KINGS LYNN Arts Centre 01553 764864
Sun 28th LOWESTOFT Marina Theatre 01502 533200
Tues 30th BARNSTAPLE Queen’s Theatre 01271 324242
Wed 31st EASTBOURNE Congress Hall 01323 412000

APRIL
Tues 20th BUXTON Buxton Opera House 0845 127 2190
Wed 21st BARROW The Forum 01229 82 00 00
Thu 22nd MALVERN Malvern Theatres 01684 892277
Fri 23rd BRECON Theatr Brycheiniog 01874 611622
Sat 24th CARDIGAN Theatr Mwldan 01239 621200
Sun 25th LOUGHBOROUGH Town Hall 01509 231 914
Tues 27th MIDDLESBROUGH Middlesbrough Theatre 01642 81 51 81
Wed 28th WAKEFIELD Theatre Royal 01924 211 311
Fri 30th STIRLING Albert Halls 01786 473544

MAY
Sat 1st ABERDEEN The Lemon Tree 01224 641122
Sun 2nd INVERNESS Eden Court 01463 234234
Tues 4th SOUTH SHIELDS The Customs House 0191 454 1234
Wed 5th LEAMINGTON SPA Royal Spa Centre 01926 334418
Thu 6th EPSOM Epsom Playhouse 01372 742555
Fri 7th TELFORD The Place 01952 382 382
Sat 8th FELIXSTOWE Spa Pavilion 01394 282126
Sun 9th CAMBERLEY Camberley Theatre 01276 707 644
Tues 11th SKEGNESS Embassay Theatre 0845 674 0505
Wed 12th BURNLEY Burnley Mechanics Theatre 01282 664 400
Thur 13th RHYL Pavilion Theatre 01745 33 00 00
Fri 14th DERBY Assembly Rooms 01332 255800
Sat 15th STAFFORD The Gatehouse Theatre 01785 254653
Sun 16th RADLETT The Radlett Centre 01923 859291
Tue 18th HIGH WYCOMBE Wycombe Swan 01494 512 000
Wed 19th WESTON SUPER MARE The Playhouse 01934 645 544

Look at London differently...

2010-01-21T05:22:00.001-08:00

Georgie is a gorilla on a mission: a MISSION : EXPLORE LONDON mission...

Georgie is going to be in London this Saturday: the 16th of January and wants to carry out some special missions...

For more information see: GEORGIE NEEDS A MISSION on Mission Explore website...

Why not suggest a task for GEORGIE ??

You can send via TWITTER with the tag #GMission or #Gorillamission

If you add a comment here with a mission I'll make sure they get passed on too...

Many of the suggested missions allow Georgie to explore the URBAN LANDSCAPE of London.

Landscape and Art

2010-01-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

Another Twitter tip-off...

Patrick Kelley produces a range of excellent art / landscape / design resources on his website which are well worth taking the time to look at...

Snow again...

2010-01-06T09:04:00.001-08:00

Had another snowy transformation of the landscape over the last few days thanks to some huge falls of snow in South Yorkshire, where I spent Monday night - Wednesday lunchtime. It rather messed up my original plans, but that's the British weather for you...

iPhones and LANDSCAPE ?

2010-01-04T03:01:00.000-08:00

Image by Alan Parkinson

For those who haven't heard (or are even remotely interested) I finally decided just after Christmas that what I really needed in my life was an iPhone. I opted for a 16Gb 3GS version in glossy white.

There are many reasons why I finally succumbed to the ever-so-shiny phone.

One of my thoughts was that I had seen geography colleagues using it in interesting ways in the classroom, and outside the classroom (the latter perhaps more than the former) and needed to investigate these by actually using them... and then reporting on them...

There were already some useful posts on the use of iPhones which have been building up over the last year or so since the 3G version of the phone was introduced.

Teachers using iPhones

Noel Jenkins posted an interesting thought on his DIGITAL GEOGRAPHY blog giving his thoughts - he hadn't got an iPhone at the time, but has now.

He has put it to good use with his QR CODE FIELDWORK work: WELLINGTON STORIES.

Had the pleasure of seeing Noel present this work down in Somerset at the end of last year.

Ollie Bray had already posted a series of posts on iPhone in education, originally posted back in 2009

Post 1 of 5 had information on an app called MIND MAKER: a mind mapping app

Post 2 of 5 had a post on TRACK ME app, which uses the GPS capability of the iPhone

Post 3 of 5 on iGLOW (which had a useful tip for adding a new ICON on a screen)

Post 3.5 of 5 on a SEISMOMETER app (which I downloaded)

Post 4 of 5 had information on Geography Fieldwork apps

Post 5 of 5 had information on an app called EARTHSCAPE

I also asked my PLN via Twitter, and got some recommendations. for apps.

Some of the websites which I use regularly also have iPhone apps, so I checked those out as well: FLICKR is my photo sharing APP of choice, and I also downloaded COOL IRIS for viewing them. Also the ANIMOTO app for watching videos I've produced, such as the movie for "a different view", and also Rain Today.

Image by Alan Parkinson

I also started a new iPHONE GEOGRAPHY GROUP on the GA Ning.

Here's the first page of the APPS I have so far. Got a 2nd page underway...

There are also some excellent features as part of the phone itself:

CAMERA and VIDEO CAMERA - obviously useful for story telling and fieldwork...

COMPASS - map orientation etc.

NOTES - no more clipboards

MAPS (using the built-in GPS) - endless potential here...

iTUNES and the iPOD settings for music and video and podcasts (including educational podcasts)

CLOCK: choose the WORLD CLOCK and add a range of cities that you are studying (quicker than the ones up on the wall...)

Also came across George Burgess's GCSE GEOGRAPHY revision app: GEOREV.

Might also check out the CLINOMETER, the GPS Cardinal, the RULER PHONE app, a Swiss Climate Change walk app, GEOTagging, We can take you there etc.

Got the BUMP app too - if you meet up, then feel free to BUMP me... Might get a chance at BETT in a couple of weeks time...

OK, so my iPhone adventure is underway...

A lot of these apps seem to have possibilities for exploring and capturing details on, or providing details about, the landscape.

David Rogers has already posted about the opportunities available through a range of apps which display WIKI posts....

Scotlands Places

2009-12-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

Scotlands Places has some excellent resources on the country.

A changing landscape...

2009-12-21T08:05:00.000-08:00

Pieter Bruegel: Hunters in the Snow (1565)

One of the really rapid changes that can happen in a landscape is a fall of snow... In a few hours, the landscape can be changed utterly and made magical... This is what happened in West Norfolk over the weekend and the snow is still here...

Below are some images I took yesterday in and around my village...

Melting snow is also the unveiling of the old landscape, and sometimes with slush, it looks quite drab after the sparkle of snow...

BORDER CHANGES on the border between Switzerland and Italy are part of this melting and its impact on the landscape.

See you in the New Year with more supporting material for "Look at it this Way"....

Very flat, Norfolk

2009-12-20T06:30:00.001-08:00

Just got my RGS-IBG Bulletin for Spring 2010.

Some good events coming up, and discovered that I'm featured on p. 20...

This is my lecture at the Norfolk GA branch in March, when I'm exploring ideas of PLACE in the context of Norfolk...

I'll be using a few articles from the Autumn 2008 issue of GEOGRAPHY.

Remember that if you're a GA member, you can download the last 5 years issues of the journal(s) you subscribe to.

I'll be trailing some elements of the lecture over at the LOOK AT LANDSCAPES blog in the next few months. Also plan to write the lecture up and produce a resource that other colleagues can use on the meaning of "place"...

Guardian Country Diary

2009-12-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

Image by Alan Parkinson

A great source of writing about the landscape and our relationship with it can be found daily in the Guardian's COUNTRY DIARY column, which has been going for over 100 years.

These are also available in an ONLINE ARCHIVE, which has over 3000 entries.

As a taster for how good these are, I read a small section of some recent entries at the Suffolk Literacy session I have blogged about earlier on this blog.

There are 2 recent entries: one on the Lake District by Tony Greenbank, and one on Wenlock Edge by Paul Evans, which were written at the time of the Cumbrian floods.

The Paul Evans diary entry has a wonderful description to start it off:

"It's raining.

There's a saturation point where the soil can't hold any more water and turns to gravy.

We're past that.

There's a point where boots and jackets that were once waterproof let you know they are no longer.

We're past that.

There's a kind of equilibrium, where the amount of water in the environment seems equal to the amount of water in your own body.

We're past that tipping point too....."

Wonderful writing...

Tweeting the Urban Landscape

2009-12-13T08:02:00.000-08:00

Dan Raven Ellison has launched a new project URBAN TWEET DAY.

URBAN TWEET DAY is a side project of URBAN EARTH.

The idea is to record our perspective on our urban lives and habitat through an online stream of tweets that describe urban events and experiences as they happen.

By the end of the urban day we will have created a collaborative narrative - a descriptive portrait of urban life..

To take part all you need is:
1. The ability to Tweet (www.twitter.com)
2. To be in an urban area on Saturday 9th January 2010
3. To include #utday in each of your related tweets

We'll then be able to search the tweets to reveal our story.

Please do spread the word around, the more of us the better.. and leading up to the day, add the URBAN TWEET DAY Twibbon to your Twitter profile picture. If you don't already, you can follow us on Twitter here.

Any questions, thoughts or ideas?

Writing about Landscapes...

2009-12-10T04:02:00.001-08:00

Are you sitting comfortably ? ... then I'll begin this post...

One dark morning, a middle aged man got up at 6am so that he could set off to drive 80 miles south to the Suffolk coast and arrive in plenty of time to work with some teachers from the county. He was going to spend the first 90 minutes of a Geography conference to talk to 40 colleagues about Literacy in Geography and Geography through Literacy...."

Was there a happy ending ? Read on to find out...

The presentation that I used on the day is available from SLIDESHARE, and is embedded below...

Suffolk Literacy Session

View more presentations from GeoBlogs.

Thanks to James Woolven for adding the various resources to the Suffolk Geography page of the Suffolk Learning Hub....

On the day, I also gave an update on GA projects. There was a range of other sessions: Colin Breeze presented a session on the work he had been doing on the flooding of 2007, and shared a comprehensive range of activities on the theme of flooding.

Also heard a useful phrase from the Suffolk Advisor for Humanities: Dale Banham.

He used the phrase "iceberg questions" - will come back to those in a later post...

For the same session, I asked my Twitter network to tell me about a book which they thought had excellent descriptions of LANDSCAPE. These were the results of the consultation....

Tynemouth – Thomas Hardy's "Return of the Native" – Egdon Heath

Isle of Islay – Iain Banks' "Espedair Street", Ferguslie Park, Paisley

London – "Bone People" – Kerry Hulme

Bedfordshire – "Waterland" – Graham Swift - description of the Fens

Newcastle – Wainwright’s Guides to SW Lakes

Portsmouth – "Touching the Void" – Joe Simpson – mountain landscapes

Sheffield – "Jamaica Inn" – Daphne du Maurier – moorland in Cornwall

W. Midlands – "Sunset Song" – Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Brighton – Sebastian Faulks – "Birdsong" and "Charlotte Gray"

Ipswich – "Around Ireland with a Fridge"

Ashford, Kent – Paul Theroux – "The Great Railway Bazaar"

Scotland - "The Lord of the Rings"

On the same morning, David Rogers was using John Davitt's Learning Event Generator to work with students on the Copenhagen Climage change conference, and challenged them to create some Army chats, which he then shared through Twitpic...

Thanks to Dale Banham and all the delegates and presenters for their work on the day.

Changing Landscapes

2009-12-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

William Least Heat Moon is the author of a number of travel books. One of those: Prairyerth is described as a "deep geography", and is a resource I've used many times.

This CNN INTERVIEW provides a range of nice insights on how the landscape of the United States has changed during the time that he has been travelling.

I have ordered his latest book as part of my Christmas treat.

Glaciers

2009-12-05T12:59:00.000-08:00

Lessons 9 and 10 of the book are on the theme of glacial landscapes around Milford Sound in New Zealand.

One useful supporting resource is contained in the recently launched DISCOVERING THE ARCTIC resource from the RGS.

This has a range of interactives including a useful one on managing the movement of glaciers by changing levels of heat and snow. Worth visiting the site !

On the bestsellers lists...

2009-12-02T04:32:00.001-08:00

"Look at it this Way" is the 4th best selling title in the GA Publications list since September 2009, and it only became available in November 2009...

Diversions...

2009-11-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

Images of Castleton area by Alan Parkinson and Simon Hathaway

Lesson 3 of my toolkit looks at the impact of a road closure on a settlement.

It is based on the closure of the road below Mam Tor near the Peak District settlement of Castleton.

At a session in Gloucester yesterday, I talked about the connection with the settlements in Cumbria which have been affected by the closure of bridges following the unprecedented rainfall in the area over the weekend. There is lots of potential here for exploring the impact of sudden change, and the long term nature of that change...

I have uploaded an old resource of mine which I developed for use around the same time, but which didn't make it into the toolkit.

This is a "most likely to" activity based in the same area of Castleton in the Peak District. I used this extract numerous times throughout my teaching career, and it found its way into many a textbook and mapskills task...

Castleton Most Likely To

View more presentations from GeoBlogs.

This is another extra edition for those who buy the book or have an interest in buying it...

The book is available to buy from the GA ONLINE SHOP.

Careers in Geography

2009-11-21T02:40:00.000-08:00

The last blog post was about an activity in my Geography Toolkit book: "Look at it this Way"...

Lessons 9 and 10 are related to a job interview for a tour company operating in the area around Milford Sound.

SEASIDE TOURS

Great work by Richard Allaway - job interview in East Yorkshire.

This format by Richard was the original inspiration for the activity in the book.

Great for those teaching about coastal processes and landforms in the UK....

Suns of the Tundra

2009-11-16T01:12:00.000-08:00

Suns of the Tundra

Lesson 9 and 10 has a starter movie made using music from a band called Suns of the Tundra. The music is a specially provided instrumental mix of a track from the album 'Tunguska', called 'Capricorn Gone'

This is a rather cool band as they feature a GEOGRAPHER as singer and lead guitarist, in the shape of Simon Oakes.

Check out the band's MY SPACE page for more. New EP now available.....

The lesson is a "double lesson" task, which involves preparing for a job with a company called Milford Vista Tours.

At the top of the blog post is a "bonus resource": a letterhead / logo for the tour company. More additional resources to be added to this blog. Keep coming back for more...

Ghost Forest

2009-11-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Paul Cornish for another interesting tip-off.
This time to a GHOST FOREST.

Ghost Forest is an original and ambitious project by Angela Palmer that seeks to raise public awareness of the connections between deforestation and climate change. It involves taking a series of 10 rainforest tree stumps, most with their buttress roots still attached, from a regulated, commercially logged tropical rainforest in Ghana. The tree stumps will be presented as a “ghost forest” firstly in Trafalgar Square in London, and then in Copenhagen to coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference in December.

Ghost Forest Art Installation. Trafalgar Square, London. U.K.
16-22 November 2009

http://philipcarrgomm.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/ghostforestb.png

Pity I'm not in London until the week after...

Would love to hear from anyone who manages to see the trees in situ....

The Road

2009-11-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

"The Times" this Saturday named Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" as the book of the decade. I have no problem with that nomination: this is an incredible book, and the plot and setting are utterly compelling.

Not sure what to think about it being made into a film. The trailer is HERE : film opens tomorrow in the USA.

There has been much discussion about the setting, and comparing it to real places, and plotting the route that the father and son take....

The descriptions of the post-apocalyptic landscape are bleak and unremitting, but also entirely convincing...