Iceland trips with Rayburn Tours

Cross posting from the LivingGeography blog.

I spent five days of the first week of my half term in Iceland, exploring the magnificent landscapes of the country.

This introduced me to a couple of new locations which I hadn't visited before - including the car parks and tracks leading to the recent Fagradasfjall lava flows - and also reminded me of a great many that I'd been to previously before the pandemic and I enjoyed experiencing the power of Gullfoss (and the taste of the ice cream at Efstidalur).

There had been some changes in tourst infrastructure in familiar locations with others being constructed e.g. a nice new toilet block at Thingvellir for visitors, and new paths etc.

I will be working with Rayburn Tours to lead future tours through 2023 and beyond.

I've got a special Iceland blog which will host all the reading and planning I'm doing around these tours, which already hosts the year long 365 blog project which I completed in 2020 (when I was originally going to be visiting four times).

On future visits I hope to head up to the Westfjords to see some additional new locations which are being added to the itineraries, and which I will also visit on a planned visit with my own school during 2024.

Rayburn Tours have also updated their RAYBURN ICELAND SERIES set of resources.

There are two sections of resources:

Unit 1: Natural HazardsSlick looking PowerPoint presentation + Activity Sheet
Classroom Poster
Fagradalsfjall Case Study + Activity Sheet

Unit 2: Energy ResourcesSlick looking PowerPoint presentation
Classroom Poster
Iceland’s Energy Resources Issue Evaluation (Both digital form-fillable and printable versions)

There are many more to come as well:

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.

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...

Landscape ideas...

Some nice ideas for exploring the rural landscape from FACE. Some from my GA colleague Paula Owens here. Go HERE to download your own copy.

"Look at it this way"

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