Is anyone going to the National Rural Dimension Conference in Warwick on Friday?

I’ve been invited to speak about how the new Rural Dimension specialism can be supported by the Geography curriculum.  K.H.C.T.C has been part of developing the new specialism, a great deal of work has been done at the College through a number of avenues and curriculum areas, supported especially by the work of Mrs Blundell, Mr Wright, and recently departed Mr Spalton.

I shall especially miss the presence of Mr Spalton at the conference, who was supportive of my last presentation for the South-East Partnership Group. I’ve worked hard on updating my presentation, but I’m worried about a repeat of the famous sheep on acid routine.

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Watched Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond, the film is set during  Sierra Leone’s civil war in 1999. The title refers to diamonds that are mined in war zones and then sold to fund conflicts; though the diamond trade is now strictly regulated, it is estimated that 1% of diamonds mined come from conflict zones. Once processed and fashioned into jewellery, the consumer has no knowledge of the diamond’s original location. The film reminded me of Noel Jenkins’ work on the subject, a great example of a product web and interdependence.

We also have historical links with Sierra Leone, it being an ex-colony, British forces are currently present in the country advising the government on the development of its armed forces.

The film has an adult rating, due to its disturbing scenes of civil conflict, so it’s one for parental permission, trailer below.

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Thanks to Tom Biebrach for highlighting this carbon footprint calculator from the W.W.F. (that’s the environmental group ).

My footprint is 3.08 planets, how do you do?

Nice to see some Geographers excelling during Sports Day this afternoon, congratulations!

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Mrs Thorne recommended ‘White Darkness’ by Geraldine McCaughrean, I’m enjoying it at the moment and would make great reading for students and teachers studying Antarctica. For students it is a way Antarctica is represented in popular culture. The story revolves around Sym, a somewhat troubled child who is an expert in Antarctica, even more troubling is her imaginary friend, Captain Oates. Sym goes on a trip to Paris with her eccentric Uncle Victor, but the trip takes an interesting turn as the trip destination is not France, but Antarctica. There the adventure begins, Sym’s knowledge of the environment and the experiences of Captain Oates prove invaluable.  

There are some great descriptions of the environment in the book

Also a nice quote from Victor about teachers, including Geography teachers…

‘What teachers don’t understand is that the body of learning is still growing. They reckon it stopped the day they came out of College.’

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Two videos to support the LiveEarth event on the 7th of July. The first is basically an advertisement, Morse code is used by people to warn of the coming climate crisis.

The second is two opposing views of climate change by children, would make a great little starter or discussion point.

I’m reserving judgement on LiveEarth for the moment….

Hat tip Houtlust.

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Nice tour of Antarctica, direct link, from Vidipedia, there are some nice Geography videos on here.

Hat tip Russel Tar.

Tends to like Firebox better than Internet Explorer

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For Teachers and Educators…

One of the areas I have been working on over the last half-term is co-ordinating teaching and learning at my College.

As part of sharing our practice with other educators I have now set up the CITAL-TAL blog, please be gentle it is currently under construction.

You can read a ’snap-shot’ of our practice and other projects within our teaching and learning newsletter, which will be published half-termly.

Much will not come as a surprise for my online Geography colleagues, in fact, many are credited with ideas.

We are keen to have conversations with other educators across the world, whatever the subject specialism or age range. Please feel free to leave comments.

If you have a teaching and learning co-ordinator at your establishment, I would be grateful if you could pass on the link. This is a new role within our College and I’m keen to discuss it with others.

We now have a Research and Development Group, as a group we are keen to visit schools involved in innovative projects or just to see good practice. Of course, you are welcome to visit us!

Many thanks

Tony

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I had a quick look through the coursework today, people seem to be heading in the right direction, I have a bit of a worry about mapping, but we’ll discuss this Monday.

As part of people as consumers, you will investigating the impact of your purchasing power on other ‘places’ and peoples in the world, three main themes of the course here, interdependence (our links with other places), globalisation (particularly with reference to TNCS/Multinationals and their impact on our consumption patterns and consumer landscapes, but also their impact on the environment and the lives of people that produce their products.) and also sustainability (Can we keep up this rate of consumerism? Who does it impact upon?). We have already somewhat looked at this, with our decisions over energy sources impacting on Antarctica and our choice of Tesco over independant shops, changing the face of the High Street.

This topic though will focus more on individual choice. In preparation you might want to listen to the ‘Cost of’ series, from the B.B.C. documentary archive. The first is about the people who produce cotton for t-shirts, the second is about the production of coffee. You can download these for your MP3 players. Both are good examples of product webs.

Also check out the excellent revision movies on Geography Rocks, great work from Miss Sumner and students!

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 The statistics from the Human Footprint programme shown on Channel 4 on the 26^th April 2007. There is also a nice human footprint flash calculator to have a play with¦

Remember these are averages, per person over a lifetime of 78.5 years. Averages only tell us about typical behaviour. The figures will vary greatly between individuals.

All interesting information for people as consumers….

The statistics.

Food and drink

Milk- 15,951 pints

To produce this amount of milk for the population, 2.1 million cows are needed, eating 100 kilograms of grass a day.

Meat- 89% will eat meat. 4 head of cattle, 21 sheep, 15 pigs, 1200 chickens and 13,345 eggs.

Potatoes- 2327kg

Bread- 4283 loaves

Fruit and Vegetables - 5272 apples, 10,866 carrots

95% of our food is imported.

Food packaging - 8.5 tons

Chocolate - 8.2kg a year, 10,000 chocolate bars in a lifetime.

Bake Beans - 845 tins.

Alcohol- 10351 pints, 1,694 bottles of wine, 0.7% of the world@s population is drunk now!

Tea- 74,842 cups in a lifetime.

Human Waste, Waste and Sewage.

Wind -1-1.5 litres of gas a day, 12-25 times a day, 35,815 litres!

Toilet rolls- 4239 to cope with 2,865kg of faeces.

Sewage- 150 litres per day per person, but also disposed of across the country in a day are 2.5 million tampons, 1.4 million sanitary towels, 700,000 panty liners and 270,000 condoms.

Nappies- 3,800

2.5 billion disposed of each year, largest contributor to landfill, take 500 years to decompose, at age five we will have produced more carbon dioxide than that of a person in Tanzania over their lifetime.

40 tons of waste sent to landfill sites over a lifetime.

Relationships with others.

Language- average vocabulary is 25,000 words, only 4% of the English Oxford Dictionary.

We speak on average 4,300 words a day, more for women, less for men. 123,205,740 words in a lifetime.

People will know 1,700 people over a lifetime.

We will have 300 people in our social group at anytime.

Partners- 10 different partners, 4,239 times having s*x, about 2 times a week!

Love - we will fall in love 3 times.

Marriage - 11.5 years, 70% will attempt a marriage once.

Personal Hygiene

7163 baths in a lifetime, 1 million litres of water.

656 bars of soap, 198 bottles of shampoo, 272 deodorants, 276 tubes of toothpastes, 78 toothbrushes, 411 skin care product , 37 perfumes, 35 tubes of styling gel, 25 bottles of nail polish, 21 sticks of lipstick, 11,00 tampons/sanitary towels, 5.6 bottles of fake tan!

Shower gel components take 800 years to disappear from the water system.

We wash our hair 11.500 times in a lifetime.

Wealth and Spending.

£1,537,380 spent in a lifetime.

Housing, food and clothing £552,772, tax £286,311, leisure and entertainment £236,312.

Consumer goods

3.5 washing machines, 3.4 fridges, 3.2 microwaves, 4.8 televisions, 9.8 DVD players, 15 computers.

240kg of fossil fuels, 22kg of chemicals, 1.5 tons of water needed to produce a home computer, externality (doesn’t reflect their true cost, in relation to the environment.)

£920 spent per person on the average Christmas.

628 Christmas gifts received over a lifetime.

8 cars per person.

Clothing

Clothing market is worth £23 billion in the U.K., £385 per year spent on clothes, £3,222 pounds spent on clothes over a lifetime.

500 litres of water and 40g of pesticides needed to produce a t-shirt.

570kg of chemicals added to the water system through washing clothes.

Travel

197 miles walked per year, 15,464 miles in a lifetime.

We will drive 452,662 miles in a lifetime. 135,950 litres of petrol will be need.

59 foreign holidays.

737 tons of carbon released into the atmosphere.

Information and Culture.

Television, 148 minutes a day, 900 hours a year, 2944 days in a lifetime.

533 books read in a lifetime.

3% can’t read in the U.K., 40% choose not to read, more households own two cars than two novels!

Newspapers read 2455. 1.5 tons of paper

24 trees will be used to make the books and newspapers you need.

Religion

6 acts of worship a year, 390 over a lifetime.

Democracy

You will vote in fifty elections.

Health

Cigarettes - 77,000 over a lifetime. 1/3 of all cancers are from smoking.

Vomit- 2 times a year, five buckets over a lifetime.

314 visits to the doctor.

30,000 pills in a lifetime.

Tears shed 61.5 litres.

104,390 dreams in a lifetime.

Death

1700 people we know¦

305 die of heart disease, 179 stokes, 111 flu and pneumonia, 99 from lung cancer, 92 from lower respiratory diseases, 63 from dementia, 49 cancers of the colon, and 32 from breast cancer, 10 from suicide, 9 in road accidents, and 1 in a fire.

1 in 3 will know a person who has been murdered.

Not that you should worry about this….

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RadicalGeography is still active, but I’ve decided to slim it down and go for a thematic layout, it was looking a mess and I want it to reflect the new Key Stage 3 changes and Pilot course. My aim is to upload new resources as I teach or create them. All old links are now dead, apologises in advance for the inconvenience.

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