Juicy Geography’s web log
I mentioned the Interactive Climate Map last month. I used it with a class yesterday and devised a simple exercise that I’ve written up on Juicy Geography
Students interpret climate graphs and then quickly design an appropriate costume based on the data in the graph. I sold it as a kind of Project Geography Catwalk and it was very successful!
It is many years since I first got students to produce a collaborative website (see The Unfair Trade story at Juicy Geography) Ewan McIntosh recently mentioned the Magazine Factory, a free online application which lets students publish their work as a web magazine. The teacher takes the role of editor in chief, and the students are the journalists. The magazine can be a one-off project, or edited continuously over the year. Multilingual features allow students from different schools and countries to collaborate on a project.
The Magazine Factory cetainly looks interesting enough for me to consider giving it a trial, once I’ve thought of a suitable project.
Here’s an example magazine: Eye Spy on Europe
It was great to see SLN user Melanie Richards using the photographs of my Year 7 homework to inspire her own students. This is precisely why I continue with the whole blogging lark! Melanie posted an excellent video on You Tube. Her blog Gorgeous Geography is here.
A range of Geography revison “audiobite” podcasts have appeared at the Bitesize site They are quite informal and incorporate sound effects and dialogue by actual actors! More podcasts should be added in due course.
I wrote the human geography scripts so that’s why there is a slight South West bias (check the Sidmouth accent on the Aging Populations podcast!) Here’s one example: download Foriegn Aid.mp3
Since I don’t really listen to podcasts, I’d be interested in feedback. Personally I think they’ve turned out rather well!
After many hours of work, the new version of my static website, Juicy Geography, where I share some lesson ideas and resources is ready. I’ve deleted quite a lot of outdated content, improved the navigation and accessibility and created a dedicated print stylesheet. I can host resources by other teachers on request.
Combining an interesting visualization of the 400,000 victims of the Darfur conflict, with an original approach to fund raising, the Darfur Wall is a great way of impressing the seriousness of this humanitarian disaster on your students.
While researching a lesson I came across a superb case study example of appropriate technology in the region from the Practial Action NGO.
Play the Darfur is Dying game for a glimpse of the daily struggle for many refugees. [Via Tony Cassidy]
Google Maps Transparencies is a nifty little application that I discovered today (via Stumble Upon)
A transparent Google Map is overlaid on top of the equivalent satellite image. The transparency of the map layer can be adjusted and is particularly useful when looking at street level in high definition cities like London. A similar feature has been around for quite a while in Multimap, but this mashup is rather more flexible. The view can be toggled as shown in the screenshots. A very useful application, and no adverts or other distractions either.
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