Published at September 28, 2006
in General.
On Thursday the staff of Kirk Hallam Community Technology College were thinking about the future of teaching and learning.
I delivered a presentation at the start of the day about the challenges that 21st Century teachers face, I think it went well, despite some ICT problems. A slim-line version of the presentation can be found here (7mb ppt), devoid of video resources and with the usual Cassidy spelling mistakes. A list of the presentation websites and some of the books mentioned can be viewed here. (41kb Word doc) We also watched the TED lecture by Sir Ken Robinson, the TED lectures can be viewed here.
We then ‘ broke out’ into several mini sessions.
I also did a little introductory session to blogging, a hand out from the session can be found here. (114 kb Word doc).
Thanks to all those that contributed and for the support in developing the Inset. Staff, please feel free to post any constructive feedback on my presentation or the Inset below.
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Another hot one in H5. Overall I was pleased today, I wanted to really push the group and find out what they are made of, they worked extremely well under difficult conditions and we covered a lot of new concepts and ideas. As a class we are just beginning to get the measure of each other, but I think great things could come. 
I would like you to be a little more responsive, are you finding this course interesting? Are you learning anything? Let me know! Continue reading ‘Changing Perceptions of Antarctica…’
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Your task is to design a poster about the dry valleys of Antarctica.
Your presentation should include
- An image of a dry valley.
The British Antarctic Survey has a short article here. There is also a nice description of dry valleys and some images here. A search of flickr, with the terms ‘ dry valleys Antarctica’, will also provide you with a range of images to look at.
- A image of a ventifact and a brief description of how they are formed. Make sure your ventifact is from Antarctica.
You may find this article at the BLDGBLOG useful.
- A map showing the location of a dry valley.
There is a useful website here with maps of the dry valleys. Click on the link for a closer look.There is a useful map and tour of the McMurdo Dry Valleys here. There are some nice panoramic images of dry valleys here. Please make sure that your images of dry valleys are geographically correct.
- A brief description about why the valleys are dry (Use the notes from our sheet.)
For those of you that want a more detailed description of why the valleys are dry, read this article.
- Around your poster, post some words that reflect the atmosphere that these valleys provoke. (Again use the notes we made in class.)
You may also want to read Paul Doherty’s experience of an Antarctic Dry Valley.
- Make sure your work has a title.
- Please make sure that any images you use have a title, and that you acknowledge their source, by including the web address.
Your work should be printed before the session, ready to hand in on Monday. If you can’t produce a colour copy and want one, it should be with me by Friday.
If you need help, or find any useful links please comment below.
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Not really much to report today, we watched the promotional video for Rob Gauntlett’s and James Hopper’s attempt at traveling from Pole to Pole under manpower. It was a useful introduction, because I was then able to explain the 180 degrees used in the title of the expedition, in relation to our place lesson the previous week; this time I was able to utilise Google Earth. It was also a useful reinforcement of our perceptions of extreme environments, traveling to them just for the challenge.
We then went onto look at isostatic adjustment and the potential impact on Antarctica of the melting icecaps. We then reviewed our Antarctic convergence homework, the majority got to grips with this well.
Finally after organising our folders, we played Grade or No Grade for Antarctic physical features, I found though that our system flash player needs upgrading, but luckily I had already put a version online.
Ok, so we could have done more, but I was tired. 
Tomorrow, changing perceptions of the continent and some dry valley research.
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Rob Gauntlett and James Hopper ,the youngest Britons to climb Everest, are set on a new world record, to travel from Pole to Pole under their own steam, a distance of 17,000 miles. As they travel down the Americas, they intend to highlight a number of environmental issues, on which they will post interactive resources and podcasts. There will also be two special units of work, focusing on the Poles.They hope that the expedition will be an inspiration to other young people.Their website is developing, but there is already a great promotional video. I’m going to use this as part of my recap for my disastrous Antarctica place lesson. The expedition starts in March 2007. Good luck to both.
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Well, we now know our case study is Antarctica and we set about mapping some of the physical and human features of the continent. The work rate of the class was brilliant; with more emphasis on the student rather than being teacher lead.
It was strange at GCSE level to allow students so much freedom with the time, but the quality of work was excellent.
On reflection though, I felt that my explanation of longitude and latitude was poor, basically I let them down. I made the assumption that students would be able to make the jump from a globe projection of Antarctica, to a flat map projection, and then be able to interpret the different lines of longitude and latitude.
So basically from this… Continue reading ‘A bit of mapping…’
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On Thursday the staff of Kirk Hallam Community Technology College were thinking about the future of teaching and learning.
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