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G12   Revision   Session -   ib dp   geography

5/1/2018

1 Comment

 
I ran the last ever revision session for the old specification today for my SL & HL students. Here are the resources that I used. 

The PowerPoint with basic resources can be found below. Some funny memes can be found out there to lighten the mood a little and so were added at key points in the sesson. 

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powerpoint revision
Our first activity was based around linking different elements of the SL syllabus together. Here in Toulouse, as well as the Core, we also study Sport Leisure and Tourism and Hazards as our two core options.  As the students are pretty snowed under with their numerous case studies, I thought a lighter approach was needed and so gathered together 30 random household items (+ one specific item from the Sex Ed kit).  I gave each item a brief introduction before the students had to come to the front to choose their item. 
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The students then had to place their everyday item in the centre of the A3 sheet below and spend 4 minutes writing out a sales pitch to tell me why the item was vital to their IB DP SL studies. After each student had read their pitch, they were then to continue linking their item to different elements of the core and optional units. 


A3 CRIB SHEET FOR THE EVERYDAY ITEM TASK ​
There was some good discussion here RE the Barcelona FC shirt was linked to the Sport, Leisure & Tourism unit but also further to outsourcing (garment factory in Vietnam), sponsorship Qatar Airlines (oild wealth, resource consumption, geopolitics,  and UNICEF links to aid, disparities, MDG's etc. Messi is an Argentinian player and so economic migration was mentioned together with the protest in Catalonia and links to Nationalism in the HL spec.  The condom example proved popular although unsure that the students knew that the major component was rubber and not oil! 

This proved to be a valuable activity and brought out the synthesis required to stitch together the course and allow them to think more widely about A03 type responses in the 10 & 15 mark sections of all papers. It is also proved a point that if they have a brain blank in the exam with a particular case study, they have enough geographical knowledge to 'borrow' a case study from elsewhere and adapt to fit the question. If they can do it with condoms, cars and bananas...!! 

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We then moved onto a piece of work on command terms and a refresher on the A01, A02 and A03 approach in paper 1 & 2. The following worksheet was cut up into slips and the students had to match up the command term with definition. This took about 15 minutes and the students coped surprisingly well with it.  I suppose they should have done given the huge number of essays they've written over their IB careers. 
command term mix & match
We then moved on to a paper that I'd prepared using the revision grids (see below) so show the spread of questions for each unit of work since 2011. I'd identified gaps where I thought questions might be asked later this week and altered previous questions to reflect parts of the syllabus that had not yet been tested. We then had a look at the Core unit and paper 1. The students worked their way through the activities specifically focusing on the yellow highlighted questions. 
Paper 1 - revision booklet & questions
After a short break, we then did the same for Paper 2, namely Sport, Leisure & Tourism. At this point , the SL students were released and we then focused on HL only. 
​

Option E - Sports leisure tourism revision booklet
We didn't do any particular essay practise for Paper 3 as the students have had plenty of opportunity to hone these skills. However, we did repeat the first exercise where I gave each HL student and item and they had to link it to firstly sell it to me and then link to a different part of the HL course using the crib sheet below. The items were a Disney Pixar Cars DVD (in French), a plastic washing up liquid bottle(Colgate but made in France), and an iPhone 4.
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A3 crib sheet for everyday items & hl interactions
OPTION A - freshwater  REVISION BOOKLET (short)
We then had a quick look at some questions spotting for Option A - Freshwater (above). 

Bit of time at the end for last minute questions and a few abbreviations to help them remember the tourism and sport case studies. 

Tourism - R.E.D.R.U.N
Rural Area, Ecotourism, Development Strategy, Remote Areas, Urban Area, National

Sport  P.U.N.C.S

Participation & Success, Urban Regeneration, National League, Contemporary Event, Supporters (residence of)

Kate also shared with us some of her most excellent revision notes for each and every part of the course! We were well impressed! 
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One Child Policy Mind Map
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IB    &    IGCSE   Geography  fieldwork    visit   2018

6/9/2017

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Details:
  • Flights -Toulouse to Berlin
  • Other transport - Metro

Sunday
PM - Urban Change & Evidence of Gentrification 
IB DP & IGCSE (single opter) Geographers 
  • Short orientation around the hotel and planning for the trip 
  • Short lesson recap on spontaneous and organised settlement growth then U Bahn down to Nikolaikirche settlement rebuild to look at how Berlin might have looked and then show differences in Soviet v German architecture. 
  • Then walk to Hackescher Markt to see elements of gentrification in process - repurposed railways arches etc. 
  • Group then walks down to Friedrichstrasse station and either on to view the Reichstag or.... 
  • Palace of Tears - Interactive museum that leads you through a chronological series of events from the building of the wall to the reunification in 1989. Excellent exhibits and many personal accounts of those who were there and lived through it. http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/traenenpalast-palace-of-tears​
  • Some free time built in around historic sites. 

Evening meal then activities.

Monday 
IB DP & IGCSE (single opter) Geographers 


AM - Berlin Settlement Patterns - Modeling it. 

Walk down to the Spree and then along to Berliner Stadt-Modelle - Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing
 
http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/planen/stadtmodelle/en/ausstellung.shtml 

Spend up to 1 hour in the museum completing background tasks and with talk from planning officer. 


Then walk to U Märkisches Museum and taking U2 to U Nollendorfplatz before changing for the U1 and exiting at U Uhlandstr.

PM - History of Berlin Museum and Bunker Tour


  • Not all of the museum is relevant to us. On the first floor, room 12 is of significance with details of the rapid urban growth of Berlin from 800,000 in 1871 to 2 million by 1905.
  • Following on from that, on the same floor there is some good information about the creation of Greater Berlin in 1920 by the Prussian government.  It is important to note the great resistance to this movement by settlements on the rural urban fringe  fearing that they would be swallowed up and lose their identity.
  • Of course, parallels can be drawn with modern day urbanization  and threats to the RUF in Toulouse and elsewhere. 
  • Following this, students should proceed down the stairs to the section of the museum that details the rise of Hitler and the speed at which policies were implemented that caused disparity within Germany, in particular the treatment of the Jewish population. Students should note the initial policies such as Jewish families being banned from hiring Aryan women under the age of 45 years old and how fast the policies thereafter snowballed.
  • The last section of the exhibition allows the students to explore the construction of the Berlin Wall in the early 60's and the timeline of its existence until 1989 and the reunification.  This is of particular interest given the fieldwork that will be carried out on Day 3.  As the students leave the museum, they should watch a few minutes of the news footage of the fall of the wall. 

Once the tour of the museum is over, the students to tour the underground bunker a short walk from the museum.  This was the reality of Cold War Berlin! 

PM - The Wall 360°
  • This is our last visit of the day. 
  • https://www.asisi.de/en/panorama/the-wall/
  • The Panorama transports visitors to an autumn day in the Kreuzberg area of Berlin. The 1980s alternative scene is booming, where punks, squats, trailers and a petting zoo meet on the streets of SO 36, completely separate from life in Mitte and East Berlin – despite being just a stone’s throw away. The several-metre-wide death strip and its border fences separate east and west, FRG and GDR, capitalism and communism. 
  • Possibility to visit Checkpoint Charlie briefly on the way back to the Metro. 

Evening meal then activities. 


Tuesday - Fieldwork & Data Collection
IBDP & all IGCSE Geography students (31 in total) 

This piece of work will be based around the itinerary offered by Insider Tours and will be run by Nikolai (excellent, knowledgeable guide). 

Survey Types
1. Adjective Pair Survey
2. Index of Services & Amenities
3. Index of Residential Decay 
4. Perception Survey
5. Environmental Survey
6. Conflict Matrix


Stage 1 -  Meet at AM - Meet at Hackescher Market, next to the metro station. This is an excellent location to start the study and would allow students to complete on of their first surveys of the areas. There has been clear gentrification of the area since 1989 with old railway arches being turned into trendy bars, chains food stores with only one original German beer bar. 
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Stage 2 - Cross the road and head up to the two contrasting courtyards. 
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Students could complete comparative surveys on perception and security in both places. Further explanation as to the 75 year laws preventing gentrification and preserving owner rights (in the second courtyard) would be required here.  Particular note should be taken of the graffiti in particular the anti globalization & any spying artwork that adorns many of the walls. There is an excellent alternative bar at the rear of the courtyard that would make an excellent focus for the surveys. 
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​TRAM RIDE

Stage 3 -Schonhauser Allee -  Gentrification centre of Berlin
In this area, prices of property have spiraled out of control to some extent in the past 10 years. Many people have moved in particularly from Stuttgart where property prices are high & those who have footloose jobs are able to work from Berlin whilst enjoying the culture and activities that the city brings. Many traditional residents are still around, noticeably in the apartment block above. This has never been modernised but landlords are able to use property laws in particular "modernisation of apartment" or "aesthetic laws" to carry out work, before hiking up the prices and forcing those people out. The example above shows a block of apartments that has been modernised (green) but the one next door which is in quite a state of decay despite it being right in the centre of this now desirable neighbourhood. 

Students to carry out a number of surveys here, comparing both buildings & amenity surveys/property price etc. 

Note that this is the home area of Rammstein - an industrial metal and now world famous music group. There might be some research to be done beforehand on their early videoes & lyrics particularly linking in with this neighbourhood and that the fact that to some extent, their music has been 'gentrified' too as their international fan base has increased. 

​Stage 4 - Walk along Schonhauser Allee before turning left into the former Kulturbrauerei. 
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Old brewery complex that has now been repurposed as an entertainments complex with Dance studios, bars etc. This is an example of a scheme that has been brought about by foreign investment, in the case from Iceland, but many other projects in the area have been funded by Swedish & Norwegian companies too. There is some growing resentment to these 'foreign' owned speculators but Berlin council still has overall control as to who buys what & where and therefore to some extent some 'blame' as far as the far left see it. 

Excellent area for surveys, photography and land use survey (will need plan of the site with each building present for identification purposes). 
Stage 5 - Walk out of the brewery complex and onto Danzinger Strasse. Here is a long and wide artery road where as Nikolei terms it 'yummy mummies and yummy daddies' hang out.  It's a very hip and trendy area with cool bars, world food outlets, very specialist shops and a mixture of childrens toy shops. Perception survey possible on 100 metre stretch of this road but could also be knocked off the itinerary if we are pressed for time.  Interesting to note that Google Streetview hasn't been completed on most of Berlin since 2008. Therefore using this evidence or simply to time slide facility, students could use this to see the development of the area over the last 10 years. Think about producing laminated image sheets before setting off. 
Stage 6 - Long tram ride along Danzinger Strasse, past Frankfurter Tor and to the bombed out buildings on Revaler Strasse. The area is called Urban Spree and has its own website -  http://www.urbanspree.com or @Urban_Spree.  This is a very edgy part of the tour where students are able to see space that has not been developed commercially but has simply been left to the use of a particular demographic. The complex (note the difference between the Brewery & here) includes a 'hipster' swimming pool, concert venues, bars and open air party venues. This would be excellent for the majority of the perception surveys, decay index etc. Students will need 30 minutes or so to explore the area. 

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Lunch Break Opportunity here - Excellent Middle East restaurant just at the exit to the complex. Allow 45 minutes to eat & drink. Food menus available for less than €5.00 including a drink.  Link here to reviews & menu - ​https://www.yelp.com/biz/haroun-al-rachid-berlin 
Stage 7 - Newly constructed (and still under major construction) entertainments complex. This includes the Mercedes Benz. Stop on the corner of Helsingforser Strasse / Warschauer Strasse. Huge amount of renewal of the old industrial river side area / railway sheds to create the Mercedes Benz concert arena. Zoning of clubs, concert venue, restaurants & also the biggest Gay area of Berlin too with a thriving scene (note comparison to Sitges). 

Conflict Matrix could be carried out here as well as a comparison of current level of development v's historical images taken from Google Streetview below (2008) and time slider. 
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Stage 8 - Turkish Quarter - Take the tram along from Warschauer Strasse (crossing into the East of Berlin) station to Kottbusser Tor station (5 minutes). Note to look to the right to see the East Side Gallery (1.2 km original section of the Berlin Wall).  Descend from the station and take a tour through the Turkish market (entrance way shown below on the Google Streetview)

There are currently 500,000 Berliners of Turkish descent making it the highest diaspora population outside of Turkey and the highest in Germany. However, many of the diaspora identify themselves as Kurdish. There have been many years of criticisms from within Germany about the immigration issues and even Merkel has suggested that the diaspora are still not fully integrated. The reasons for this are that many Turks are eligible for naturalisation in Germany however, dual nationality is not permitted. They are second, third and fourth generation, born and bred in the country. However, many also own property in Turkey and use these properties as a base when they return to visit families but also rent out to make money. Strict Turkish laws impede the ownership of property by foreign nationals and so many are reluctant to give up their Turkish passports for German ones as this additional source of income could be put in jeopardy.

Interesting to note the impact of the recent Ergodan vote and why he was so keen to host political rallies in the city to push through his new legislation.  Also worth noting the satellite dish effect as many of the residents have access to Turkish television through huge satellites fixed to the side of the tenement housing in the area. 

There has been a diffusion of language that has taken place due to the popular hip hop scene that is dominated by Turkish origin singers. New phrases & word combinations have grown from this and interesting to note the comparisons with N.W.A in the USA & N.T.M in France too.  Also, the Turkish that is spoken in Berlin is a fairly antiquated version that was more widely spoken in Turkey in the 1950's. This is some cause for amusement back in Turkey when the German Turks return to their homeland on first pilgrimage etc. Interesting cultural diffusion facets to note although would need German speaker to explain further. 
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Finish & Walk back to Turkish Market
From this point, we can walk back down Admiralstrasse, across the bridge over the landwehr Canal and down one of the only streets in Berlin (Planufer)  to survive the bombardment of WW2. This is a great finish to the walk and gives students an idea of what an affluent neighbourhood of the western Berlin would have looked like originally. 
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Rana  Plaza  sweatshop  mystery  -   magpied   resources  &  systems   thinking! 

2/28/2017

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I've just done quite a simple but effective piece of work with Grade 7 / Year 8 on the next section of their work on globalization (Geography of my stuff). Last week, they spent a little time researching the Primary brand and finding out about the growth of the company. 

A quick search last night found a free GA card sorting exercise which I used as an activity for the first 20 mins of the lesson.  I produced my own flow category sheet to try to show the interrelationships between the categories as opposed to the traditional sorting into columns approach and had this copied in A3. 

The students then cut up the slips (I don't do this) and sorted out the statements into order before a discussion on links, process and systems.  The students then stuck their slips around each section  ready for the video activity. 

I showed them the first 15 minutes of the Journeyman report below (careful, there are some images of bodies in the rubble). This report gives a visual overview of the cards and a lot of it is shot through the camera phones of those affected (another opportunity to challenge disparity & mobile phone ownership in LIC's).  They also see Mr Rana the day before the disaster dismissing any problem with the structure of the building too! 
rana plaza card sort from the g.A
a3 crib sheet for cards
5 w's rana plaza notes sheet
To develop the video task more fully, you could use www.videonot.es to ask the students to write their own captions. That may be a development for the group next year when I have more time. Once the video clip had finished, the 5W's sheet was then given to the students and using both what they had just watched and the stuck down slips diagram, they quickly completed their case study. 

We had a chat about outsourcing and I gave the group a practical example of how the outsourced company can then sub contract again and again until it become really difficult for the TNC to know exactly where their clothes are being made. 

Next week takes us on to good news Geography and what has/can be done to make clothes in a safer environment and to talk briefly about how the concept of circular economy (to be introduced at IB level) can apply to the clothing industry. 

The quote below is a good one for the students to consider as they are completing the work. 
We are not a number — not only cheap labour and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.
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January 10th, 2017

1/10/2017

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Grade 6 (Primary) induction day event / french  school visit showcase 

I have run this lesson twice recently and it has gone down really well both times. The first was for the Grade 6 induction to secondary Geog just before the last summer holidays and the second was for a visit of a local French school to our school for a showcase Geography lesson. 

The game can be found on Richard Allaway's fantastic geographyalltheway.com website and I stole his chance cards as they worked really well as a way of exposing the EAL visiting students to English geographical terminology (with our students translating those words that were a little abstract). 

I started off by showing the following video that introduced the students to the concept of population growth ..... 
We then talked a little about the issues caused by rapid population growth and why population pyramids (age/sex structures) are an important tool in the forecasting of future demographic trends. We talked more about the raising of the retirement age here in France and I showed the students a 2050 population pyramid of France to see if they could work out why. 

The set up & resources (also see photo at base of post)
 
  • Split the class into groups of six
  • Put one A4 worksheet and one A3 structure sheet on the desk of each student with two mini boxes of smarties. 
  • Put one bowl in the centre and pour in two mini boxes of smarties into the bowl. 
  • Cut out the chance cards and place upside down in a pile in the centre of the table. 

When the class come in, tell them not to touch or eat the sweets! 
  • Give each student a number 1 - 6 and ask them to fill in the top row of their worksheet.
  • Then ask them to empty their boxes of smarties out and use the colour coding on the pyramid to sort the smarties out into demographic layers commenting on what could cause inbalances. 
  • The spare colours can be put back into their smarties box / eaten if they are hungry etc! 
  • Student 1 picks up the first card, reads it aloud and then acts. The chance cards are excellent and really do get the class going expecially when a large number of smarties (people) are gained or lost. 

The students start to talk about the cards and you will probably hear them applying the theory to real life events too (if they keep up with the news). 

  • Allow the game to play for at least 30 minutes and sit back and watch the Geography in action! 
  • Call and end to the game and ask the students to complete the second side of their worksheet and discuss the final population structure. 

Then lead some questions (if you have time) based on their experiences of the game:

  • What led to a decrease in population? 
  • What led to an increase? 
  • What factors led to emmigration / immigration (very current)? 
  • What factors affected the birth & death rates? 
  • What wasn't fair? 
  • What events can they see in current media / global events? 

That's it! Simple and fairly cheap to set up and very high in calories! 

Keep em away from those blue smarties!!! 

All Richard's original resources can be found on his site here

Good luck with it.   Matt 
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starting  the  day  with  a   flash!!  - geography

11/21/2016

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Just been reading Russel Tarr's blog post about a technique he picked up during the #pracped16 conference at school earlier this month. 

http://www.classtools.net/blog/use-an-image-flash-to-engage-students-with-pictorial-sources/

I'm going to try this out with both of my IB classes this afternoon. G12 are just about to start their work on Malthus and his population theory and so I will be using the first image below. The G11's are just starting on the impacts of tourism on one nation and we'll be focusing on Vietnam. Their image is also below. The students are prearranged into groups and then have 1 second to view the image before the analysis begins (see blog post above for full details). Let's see how it goes. 

I've put together a framework sheet for each group to use. It can be accessed by clicking on the blue tab below. 
geography framework sheet for image flash
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G12 effort after 1 second view!

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G11 effort after 1 second view!

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practical  pedagogies  2016  - reactive  geography

11/4/2016

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Thanks for all for attending the session yesterday up in my teaching room. A the sole teacher of Geography at IST it was a bit of a strange situation to have to many highly esteemed colleagues in my room and the chance to chat a lot about the reactive natures of the subject, associated resources and constraints on us. 

Interestingly, after Alan Parkinson's (@GeoBlogs) session earlier today, I now wonder how I might adapt the reactive takeaway menu to become more of a 'Blockbusters' type system where all students have to hit one key assessment task over the year?? I need to find out more from him during the Pubaogogies session later this evening in Toulouse. 

I have included the main resources from the presentation below and links to other pages on the website where you can find resources to be adapted to your own school situation. 

Useful websites heavily featured are:
Fakebook - http://www.classtools.net/FB/home-page
Blockposters - http://www.blockposters.com/
Simon Jones - http://fr.slideshare.net/jonesy2008
Twister (fake Twitter) - http://www.classtools.net/twister/

PowerPoint Presentation Embedded below. Please note that this has caused some formatting issues. A download of the original file can be made by clicking on the associated blue tab below this embed. 


powerpoint (sorry!) presentation
hurricane matthew 2016 tasks
ebola outbreak 2014  reactive
role cards for dme local issue
migration to the EU S.O.W
reactive geography menu a3
hurricane matthew 2016 display
nepal quake 2015 reactive
cake game resources
migration to eu display
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snakes  &  ladders  development / HDI  style.

4/5/2016

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I've tried out a new idea this week with my Year 9 students who are in the process of studying the Global Development unit of work. Instead of simply playing an old and pre-prepared development Snakes & Ladders game with them, I decided (about 5 minutes before the lesson) to let them design their own to showcase their own interpretations and experiences of global development.  To put it into context, we have already studied a short unit deciding whether we should bin or teach the Brandt Line in 2016. This involved looking at key developmental data for a selection of countries to the north and south of this line and then making a reasoned judgement. 

The conversation that followed initially led to the following rules. 

1. The length of the snakes or ladders  should be proportional to the impact that the factor has on development i.e. the longer the more detrimental/advantageous and the shorter the less the impact etc.

2. The 1-100 board works well in conjunction with the HDI league in that it is measured on a scale of 0-1. Countries can therefore be placed on the board in their current position or real world events assigned to countries (e.g. Syria was up to 0.63/64 on HDI in 2011 but has dropped back to 0.59 since the conflict started. On the board underneath, the Syrian civil war could be attributed to the snake on place 64 taking the county back to place 60 in 2013)

3. No current situation or country should be lower than square 35 on the board. This place represents the current position of Niger on 0.348. Similarly, no country should be placed higher than square 94 as this represents the current positioning of Norway. 

4. Anything lower than 35 on the board could be a historical event, such as the Black Death, colonization, de-colonization, war, energy found. More than one group labelled the long ladder from square 28 as the industrial revolution in a named western country.  The other option was to incorporate previous work on uncontacted tribes (link here) into this lower third of the board to show impacts of first contact etc. 

5. Anything higher than Norway on the board has to be an imaginary future scenario. Knowing what we do about Norway and wealth generation, many groups used the snake in square 99 as oil supplies being depleted in the future and the country taking a step backwards in terms of HDI league placing. 

So, all in all, we had quite a varied game in scope as well as in geographical and historical accuracy. A mixture of real words events (snakes, ladders & flash cards) together will 2016 placings of example countries on the board linking to HDI ranking has given the students something to think about. All that is left is for both Year 9 classes to swap and have to play the game later this week. 

Anyone got a dice? 
snakes & ladders example board   1-100

Year 9 designing their Development / HDI - Race to the top snakes & ladders game with flash chance cards. #istlive pic.twitter.com/X7BaRcfqJw

— Matt Podbury (@MattPodbury) April 1, 2016
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reflections   on  the   ice  man  -  joint   project

11/9/2014

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Better late than never, but a few reflections on the joint history/geography project using Alan Parkinson's 'Ice Man' text.  All the work that I put together can be found by clicking here. It is likely that the content will change slightly before the next delivery in September 2015. 

I work closely with the Russel Tarr, history teacher down here in Toulouse. He has been the driving force behind the majority of the cross-curricular stuff that goes on in the school and is always very keen to work on joint projects. 

The focus of the enquiry is the Ice Man book written by Alan @GeoBlogs Parkinson and we invested in 30 copies for the geography department. We decided that it would be an excellent way of starting off Y7 humanities at secondary school and give us both an early assessed task to grade as well as testing group work, ICT and decision making skills. 

Russ created a series of mystery lessons that he delivered for two weeks before the Y7 students were handed over to me to continue the story.  You will be able to read about Russ' lessons and his evaluation of them on his blog in the next few days (I'll add a link when done).  

To launch the event, we both got into role by dressing up as Scene of Crime Investigators / Breaking Bad characters and bringing the students into the crime scene before explaining what we had found. Again, this linked in to the first chapter of Ice Man and the students then started their mystery to discover the origins and age of the body using resources that Russ had designed.


Two weeks later and when the historians had finished with their theories and written up their essay, the students were handed over to me to start the geography part of the work. Three key questions were designed and the students started off by reading the first few pages of the text before completing their Police Report activity, using their German language skills. 

The work then leads on to glaciation and studying the Google Maps for evidence of U-Shaped valleys etc. The students really liked this part and seemed to understand the processes when explained in a simple fashion. I must admit that I don't really do anything else glaciation based at KS3 or KS4 and it has given me a few ideas of how we could revisit the topic in Year 9 and combine with a visit to Gavarnie in the Pyrenees. More about that another time though. 

We used the example of the victims of the Indian airways Alps plane crash in the 1950's to explain why, under normal conditions, debris and bodies will move downhill under a glacier. There is a section on the video that shows some scientists pulling the leathery remains of a passenger from the glacier, fifty years later and quite unrecognisable as a human being. When compared to the images of Otzi in the book, the students began to think about why this process hadn't crushed him beyond recognition. I had to utilise my awful sketching skills at this point to put together a help sheet with a diagram of the location of Otzi's body under the ice and within the confines of the gully. 

One possible other cross-over that we could exploit would be to make a link with Science next year. Clearly, DNA testing, carbon dating and body decomposition could give a nice additional element of collaboration and is something that I am keen to explore with my colleagues next year. 

The outcomes of the work were mixed. I had some top class examples of work, but likewise, I also had some submissions where the students had answered the questions literally as they were structured, each response with one or two lines of text. An improvement next year will be to come up with a crib instruction sheet to help with the responses, ensure that maximum detail and understanding are included and give some sort of expected word count for each section.  I will also keep examples of good work to show the current Year 6 what a good report would look like, whilst not letting them actually read the contents. 

At the end of the geography and history lessons, we were lucky enough to be able to link up with the author of Ice Man - Alan Parkinson, who kindly answered questions posed by our Year 7 students and gave them some solid advice about writing reports and researching work from an authors viewpoint. They really enjoyed this and it is the first time that I have attempted a Google Hangout in a classroom environment. We had a few technichal difficulties with the weather over in the UK, but the kids absolutely loved it (even though they all use Skype and Facetime extensively), there's something quite special about a live link up in the classroom using the IWB.  Alan blogged about his chat with us on his Living Geography blog here. 

So, all in all, an incredibly rewarding experience but the outcomes for geography, in some cases, were below expectations. Differentiating, streamlining and further collaboration are all targets for improvement for next year. 

Let's cook @russeltarr & @GeoBlogs ! pic.twitter.com/wDU6PTjTij

— Matt Podbury (@MattPodbury) September 8, 2014

New evidence in the #Otzi mystery for Y7 history/geography crossover project. #historyteacher #geographyteacher pic.twitter.com/zE56K4dHhF

— Matt Podbury (@MattPodbury) September 16, 2014

#istlive pic.twitter.com/Mn8qQyeI5a

— Matt Podbury (@MattPodbury) September 25, 2014

@GeoBlogs marking the first of the #otzi reports. Looking promising. pic.twitter.com/Fenz4xuyKh

— Matt Podbury (@MattPodbury) November 2, 2014

Nice bit of extra research too into #Otzi mystery linked to #albedo although we didn't go that depth! @GeoBlogs pic.twitter.com/4ENorsqzEp

— Matt Podbury (@MattPodbury) November 2, 2014
3 Comments

how  the  ebola  virus  started  - hans  rosling  Video

9/22/2014

1 Comment

 
A short explanation from Hans Rosling about the reasons for the spread of Ebola in central Africa. Should be talked about extensively as part of all current IGCSE, IB & A level teaching of the subject. 
1 Comment

washing  line  geography  - #poundlandpedagogy

9/22/2014

5 Comments

 
Year 7 have just finished off their washing line geography - making connections between us - piece of work. This was a newly designed piece of work that I have used to launch secondary school geography for the new Year 7 students. The original idea was inspired by the Geography for a Pound session that I attended at a GA conference in Derby a couple of years ago in a session run by Tony Cassidy, Alan Parkinson & John Sayers. Amazingly today, just as I was putting the finishing touches to my display,  Briley Habib tweeted that her class had produced a cross section of a hurricane for the grand total of £3 too! 

The activity is based on the mini scheme of work here on geographypods.  It is still a bit rough around the edges and needs the worksheets and instructions altering to make more Year 7 friendly but the concept worked really well and the students were focused and worked hard on the whole process.  The main thing to avoid are connections that are superficial like we both like Coca Cola or too many personal attributes. Year 7 will go down this route unless you give them strict rules about the number of times they can use each category in the activity.  Mine ran out of steam somewhat in places and fizzy drinks, monkeys & pasta made an appearance and it's something that I'll work to remedy next year ... somehow! 

However, some great connections came out like we both have iPhones and they are made in China, we both have shoes made in Vietnam, we can both speak French & English or we have both have a €1 coin from Ireland. The aim was to bring out a whole series of interconnections that covered language, technology, culture, place, experiences etc etc. I think that my Year 7 class did this well in the initial post-it note activity and I was also impressed by how well they categorised the post-it display into some of those titles above without any prompting from me. 

Hopefully, these connections have allowed the students to see at an early age that the old categorisation of geography into strictly human, physical and environmental sub disciplines are perhaps outdated in nature and we should be viewing and celebrating our experiences as unique connections that are truly global.  The Y7 actually quite a lot about this stuff and are keen to explore them further. Facebook and other social media would add an extra dimension to the work but I was mindful that Y7 shouldn't have a profile until they are at least 14 years old.  Perhaps, when we come back and visit this display in Year 13 (Global Interactions for IB) in 2021, those students still here will laugh at the amount of progress that we've made since the "well old fashioned" days of the iPhone 6!  We'll see. 
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