The Wild Landscapes of Britain...

Just catching up with the Monday night lecture that Robert MacFarlane gave at the Royal Geographical Society on the 14th of April relating to his wonderful book that I have blogged about before: "The Wild Places". I was unable to attend this particular lecture (it being my daughter's birthday), but this is the next best thing...

It's available to RGS-IBG members, and I would recommend that you listen to it.
It's full of humour and powerful images, and introduces a new way of exploring the landscape: "border crossings" as Dr. MacFarlane calls them....
It was also good to hear mentions of some of my favourite authors: Barry Lopez (probably my favourite writer if pushed...), Colin Thubron, William Least-Heat Moon, Roger Deakin, Thoreau and Bruce Chatwin, and mentions of some of my favourite places, such as Camasunary and Coruisk on Skye, Wistman's Wood on Dartmoor, the Burren's limestone, Bleaklow in the Peak District and the wild expanse of Rannoch Moor and other 'emptied' landscapes of Scotland, and also the more local wildness of the Norfolk coast.

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Making Space for Sand

Making Space for Sand is a project I was made aware of recently. The ‘Building Community Resilience on a Dynamic Coastline by Making Space for Sand’ project (also known as Making Space for Sand or MS4S) is one of 25 national projects funded by DEFRA as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCRIP). The programme will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate. The project website has an excellent section outlining the formation of Sand Dunes, particularly within the located context of Cornwall. Sand Dunes are an important part of the coastal defences in the locations where they are found. I am particularly familiar with the dunes on the North Norfolk Coast at places like Holkham. I've previously carried out fieldwork on those dunes with both GCSE and 'A' level students, and also Atkins has provided GIS support and created some visualisations of future landscapes.

Explore the world with the Go Jetters

Really useful post and resource for those teaching Primary Geography . A new set of characters called the Go Jetters who teach young people about key geographical ideas. Geography helps children to make sense of their world. Very young children are naturally curious, and they love to actively explore the world around them, noticing all kinds of detail. That’s why they need to develop geographical vocabulary like the names of places, people and things, and the words needed to describe and locate them. It helps to think of children as little geographers – they each have their own world of private geographies - the places they name for themselves with meanings that only they understand: the dens where they hide out with their friends, special meeting places in the school playground. Whether they’re playing in the back garden, or splashing through a muddy puddle on the way to school, children are intrepid explorers making new (to them) discoveries about the world every sing...

Landscape in a Box - more student examples

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...

"Look at it this way"

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