Soar Valley Geography

Following your lesson on the advantages and disadvantages of the green revolution, you might be interested to read this post from the BBC.

You could always click this link to download the podcast that goes with the article.

Click here to take the survey

How are peoples’ wishes different? Do they change depending on where you live in the country? Does age or gender matter? What do you want? What would you change? What is acceptable and what is unacceptable? 

A team of geographers aim to find some basic patterns to show what people dream for and where. It will also discover what you think is most unacceptable in life and if some parts of the country think that kissing in public is more acceptable than others….

You must be in Britain and in KS3 (Years 7, 8 or 9) to take part in this research. The data collected will end up playing a part on some of your geography lessons!

Click here to take the survey

Hello Y9! Please feel free to use the comment funtion below to add your initial reflections on the trade game we played during this weeks lesson. What was the game like from your perspective?

After our spectacularly disappointing lesson with the laptops… :( 

Click here for the worksheet you need to help you use Nation Master, Worldmapper and Gapminder to complete the most recent assessment task, good luck!

Hello Y9! Here is the mind map I showed you at the end of the lesson to help you complete the mind map for this topic.

 (Click the thumbnail for a larger version)

Here is the Tourism assessment sheet to help you set out your work and get an idea for what you need to do for each level. There are some really helpful weblinks on there so do have a look!  

It might be helpful to post weblinks or pose questions on the blog rather than emailing me directly as others might benefit from seeing what you ask. Good luck!

The geography@work Student Award for Geography Filmmaking
It’s competition time for Year 9 students!

I found out about this the other day and think we should enter. The task is to make a 60 second film on the theme ‘Do you really know where you live?’ A rather cheeky selection of prizes is on offer, and could be really cool to make. Your film may even end up being shown in a cinema, Nice! The instructions for entering are here, come and see Mr Renshaw if you fancy submitting a video.

Click this link to download the mystery cards

Following the advice from the legendary Mr Ship, if you would like to add music to your completed movie on the issues surrounding trade, you can obtain copyright free music from the following sites…

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/
http://www.mp34u.com/
http://www.muzic.com/
http://www.mpfree.com/registration_b.asp

Big thanks to Adam Lawson for suggesting these sites on the Geodocs project.

Hello Y9! Why are some countries rich and some poor? Massive question which we are exploring at the moment. We are starting to look at some of the issues surrounding global trade. In geography this week we have looked at the impact of US subsidies on African cotton farmers and the massive tariffs imposed on Bangladesh when they attempt to export their manufactured garments to the US. For many LEDC’s the current rules regulating trade are not helping them to improve the quality of life for their citizens.

So what can you do? A small step that you can take that would make a difference is to sign the petition organised by OXFAM which will be sent to world leaders. Your name on this list shows that you do care and that you can make a difference. Click the image to open a link to the site.

If you do sign the petition, please take a second to leave a comment which explains why you chose to do so. Your words may encourage someone else to sign up, you might make an even bigger difference!

Following on from our investigations into development indicators, we had a look last week at why averages like GNP per capita are not always the best way to investigate levels of development.

By calculating the differnce in wealth between richest and poorest 20% in selected countries and then drawing proportional maps, we realised that averages hide the difference between the rich and the poor. One of the more “unequal” countries we investigated was Brazil. This photograph taken in a Brazillian city is a great example of the difference between the rich and the poor that an average like GNP per capita would conceal. Click the photo to see a larger version of the image.