If you can’t think of a way to get this clip into a Geography lesson, there’s no hope for you 
Danny MacAskill returns in a short film that features his sublime riding skills set against in a backdrop of inspirational locations in Edinburgh and the Highlands and Islands.
In response, students could be challenged to select locations for a similar film that would show off the best of their local area.
(Via Mike Deere – Facebook)
Nov 172010
Nov 072010
I’ve written up a one-off lesson sourced almost entirely from different Facebook friends over the past few weeks. The film Free Fall got me wondering whether it was an authentic portrayal of a free-dive or just a piece of art. The questioning process provides a satisfying 15 minutes of geographical enquiry.
The lesson was extended to examine a couple of other web-based resources including an extraordinary piece of Daily Mail math-mangling.
I can only spare a few minutes to Twitter each week and can’t help feeling slightly guilty when I harvest good ideas and tips from conversations without giving much back. Even worse, I can’t remember who it was that shared a tip for managing group work situations, but it’s simple and effective and my Year 7′s find it a great motivator.
Secretly nominate one student to be the Mystery Student. The class knows that if the group containing the mystery student achieve their objectives, work sensibly and stay focussed for the lesson, then all students will receive a small reward at the end.
This tip has probably been around forever, but it’s new to me!
Interpreting climate graphs
Teaching resources
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Oct 062010
This week I’m republishing an old post that featured the Interactive Climate Map. I’ve used it this week with Year 8 in conjunction with with a simple activity that I’ve written up on Juicy Geography
Students interpret climate graphs, and then design an appropriate costume based on the data in the graph. I sold it as a kind of Project Geography Catwalk and it’s been very successful once again.
Sep 302010
Around this time of year I like to teach the essentials of weather forecasting to Year 8. I always cover the basics of the relationship between air pressure and weather; the objective being to arrive at a point where students can create their own forecasts using the BBC synoptic chart as their sole source of information. The pressure chart is available from the tab above the map, and the isobars can be animated through a four day prediction, allowing the students to make multiple forecasts.
Originally I used a web page from Juicy Geography as a weather studio background, but happily there are now better alternatives. The most recent one I’ve come across, via GMM, is a Google Earth based interactive weather map background.
I’ve tried to work out who the developer is, so I can thank them, but I haven’t had any success yet. It appears to be a work in progress, and I can’t figure out how the option to add your own logo works. Undoubtedly it’s a very useful classroom tool, especially in conjunction with a pocket video camera. Once the symbols have been added to the map, it will play through an animated tour of the UK, forcing students to make very concise reports in a limited amount of time.
The live weather layer in Google Earth, with the real time cloud and rainfall display, provides an additional source of data for making close-range forecasts of the next few hours. Here’s how to find it:
This year I’ll get students to complete two forecasts, both short and long range, and as usual, I’ll film them, ready to play back the recording on the day of their predictions. Students do find this an interesting and rewarding experience.
Dimensions
Google Maps, Teaching resources
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Sep 232010
A new term, a new resolution to get back into sharing stuff, and a little time to explore some recent online resources. Let’s kick off with…
BBC Dimensions is all about illustrating the scale of events, places and objects by creating overlays over interactive maps of the local neighbourhood. For example, the pressing question as to how much of the school grounds would be swallowed up by one sweep of a deep sea trawler’s net is answered thusly:
Other overlays juxtapose events such as the Gulf oil spill, the Bhopal chemical accident and the Chernobyl radiation leak in an immediate and compelling way. RE teachers can demonstrate the distance covered by pupils if they walked the route of Hajj Pilgrimage in the local area, while lessons on WW2 might be enhanced with an illustration of the blast radius of a German SC500 bomb landing on the classroom. History, Science RE and Geography curricular links will be obvious.
I worry that being a prototype, this fantastic visualisation tool will be quietly sidelined next time there’s a round of budget cuts, so if you find it useful, it might be worth leaving feedback for the developers.
May 312010
I’ve been tangentially involved with BBC Class Clips for some time. I thought I’d share some ideas for using short clips in the classroom as I’m preparing a short INSET presentation.
1. Write a short critical response in You Tube style, or following more formal guidelines.
2. Play “stop the video” Give students three questions in advance and get them to pause the video when the question has been answered.
3. Turn the sound off, so that students can write their own voiceover. This could be recorded using Audacity.
4. Pause the video: guess what happens next?
5. Remake the video using Flip videos (could be done in puppet or stop motion style).
6. Embed the video in a PowerPoint or blog post.
7. Give students a selection of clips, they have to choose the clip that best represents the theme.
8. Sum up the video in 3 words / 3 sentences / 3 paragraphs.
9. Use the video as source material for completing a writing frame.
10. Get students to write down 5 words associated with the video. Save to a shared folder and analyze the contents with Wordle
And a naughty bonus, just because you can…
Geo-locate the video (BBC class clips can be viewed directly in Google Earth) Here’s the procedure:
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