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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…

To this…

In vain I tried to get over this by using Google Earth, but could I find lines of longitude and latitude. Help! (Yes, thick I am, the kind folks on SLN have informed me control+l does the job It also makes a huge difference, see below -fool!)

I should have also used Google Earth at the beginning, by adding the country borders and tilting, this would have allowed students a visual interpretation of the change in projection and made the map work much more easier to interpret. I should have also been more rigorous in my approach to atlas use, again the projections were difficult to interpret; from an overhead projection with a close up prospective, to a world map projection, where the continent is just a strip due to projection distortion. I feel very much an amateur.

Alternatively, perhaps it would have been useful to get a paper model of a globe, look at it flat, and subsequently build it to see how the shape of the continent changes. There are lots of free versions on the web. For teachers, there is an interesting set of paper models here. This reminds me of a discussion Jo and I were having on Sunday night about developing ‘ pop-up’ Geography, but more later…

Interestingly for me as a teacher, I have nothing to reference the success of our lessons against, this is my first time as well, and currently I feel like I’m walking in the dark; so feedback folks will be useful! As we finish a new topic, I’m quickly, in some cases, learning new knowledge and preparing lessons that I’ve never taught before. There are few published resources for this course.

During the lesson I gave a brief description of the Antarctic convergence, students have a homework task based on this feature, remember for Monday! I also collected in the perceptions homework, only waiting for two, so a good start, some nice work as well. I was though annoyed that a number of people emailed me their work, fine in extreme circumstances, but this course is about independence, and it is your priority to print your work before the lesson. You can’t take this chance when it comes to coursework!

Next up is isostatic readjustment, also known as post-glacial rebound. The weight of the ice in Antarctica has weighed the landmass down, if the ice was to melt, the land would begin to rise. Well I’m no expert so off to read up…

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