Turning Space into Place

 Participatory geographies, Public geographies  No Responses »
May 132012
 

The title of a short presentation for Teachmeet Clevedon featuring students looking creatively at their local area, finding creative, playful and occasionally subversive responses to their surroundings. Witness the extremely incompetent presentation here, thanks to organizer Mark Anderson.

Turning Space into Place

Links to the first and second videos that are not embedded in the presentation.
Unfortunately I ran out of time during the Teachmeet to discuss Mission Explore in the depth that I wanted. Year 7 have been extremely receptive to the initiative and 60 students are members of our group Court Fields Guerrillas. I shall be devising some homework activities for the group to complete over the next few weeks and I look forward to seeing Guerrilla Geography occupying a place in our new KS3 curriculum.

Using the MAGIC GIS at KS4

 GIS, Teaching resources  No Responses »
Apr 162012
 

I remain to be convinced of the merits any commercially-derived GIS software in the school environment, preferring to use the classic product AEGIS 3 and Google Earth. However the MAGIC GIS operated by  multiple agencies to provide the UK with environmental data is quite easy to engage with.

My Year 10 students are being encouraged to learn how to create maps in MAGIC as part of their coursework investigation. Instructions have been posted on my Posterous, and partly reposted below. I hope this information could be useful to others.

A GIS can be thought of as a digital base map over which layers of data can be displayed. GIS offers powerful ways for geographers to analyze spatial data and make decisons. Many jobs rely on GIS technology; one reason why geography graduates are very employable. I’d like you to use the MAGIC GIS to find out a little more about Dawlish Warren as part of preparation for your coursework project.

Before you start, be prepared for your computer to run slowly as you will be interacting with an enormous database buried deep in some high security government bunker.

Follow this link to the MAGIC map of Dawlish Warren

After a while you should be looking at a map of Dawlish Warren. The map will be complicated at first, so here are the basic tools you need to use:

To move the map (panning) click this symbol, and then drag the map..

To change the scale, click the symbol, then click again on the map to zoom in and out on the location you’ve selected.

Now, lets make sense of the map data. At the moment all the available information is being displayed. Click this button to see all the data layers…

This box will appear.

Try turning all the layers off apart from Sites of Special Scientific Interest…
Nothing will happen until you click this button!


If the map slows down or you want to go back to the map with all the layers active, click this button.

Reload the map or click here if you see this message for too long.

While it is common for there to be delays when using GIS, this message also means that data is being collected, so be patient.

Finally, the map tools will let you print off maps, save screen shots, measure distances and a lot more. Just mouse-over the different symbols to find out what each one does.

Now it’s time to get mapping…

Longitude and Latitude poem by Year 7

 Student work  Comments Off
Mar 302012
 

I really liked this poem.

North, East, South and West
These coordinates are the best.
And if you’re not smart enough to know,
Grab a sextant and away you go.

Longitude and Latitude are the way,
Cross the dateline to change your day.
Foward and back, 24 hours,
It’s like some new invented super power.

Harrison invented 5 clocks to tell,
The time on a ship, they sat near a bell.
First he made 3 clocks and they all failed,
Then he made a 4th and it prevailed.

That’s our lesson, easy to understand,
if you don’t get it, please ask for a hand.

by Courtney and Ellie

Voting with mobile devices

 iPad, mobile, Teaching resources  2 Responses »
Mar 262012
 

Poll Everywhere is a great way to collect opinions and votes in the classroom, and in combination with a mobile web device makes a brilliant free alternative to an expensive audience response system. I’ve found that students tend to spend a bit longer considering their responses when they are encouraged to use their phones. Today I finished a role play on the execution of Charles I today with this poll:

Students without access to phones were able to vote free of charge over the web using my personal iPad.

Poll Everywhere has lots of compelling features including Twitter voting, live charts inside PowerPoint, and downloadable results. The free plan allows for a maximum of 40 votes per poll, enough for a typical class. I’ve mentioned SMS Poll, in a previous post, which remains a good alternative.

Coping with Kony 2012

 Teaching resources, video  Comments Off
Mar 242012
 

I’ve reflected on the Facebook-powered viral video Kony 2012 with several classes. The lessons went something like this…

1) Watch the Kony 2012 video until Jason Russell explains the situation to his son.

2) Students have a few minutes to reflect on all that they have learned about the situation in Central Africa and the message of the film.

3) When they have shared their thoughts, I offer them an alternative short film from The Guardian. 

4) I check that students understand the complexity of the issue. I guide them to consider the geography of Central Africa, the difficulty of fighting small guerrilla groups, and the relentless stress on isolated rural communities. Is the Kony 2012 message too simple? Are there better strategies for defeating the LRA?

The aim of the lesson isn’t to critique the Invisible Children organisation – they offer a usefully robust defence of the campaign on their website, but to help students understand a little more about the reality of the conflict. The LRA Crisis Tracker is a good talking point, and more able students may be able to construct opinions about the value of the programs run by Invisible Children. Wikipedia has an excellent article about the Lords Resistance Army.

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