Archived

I guess I need to formally archive this blog having not posted here for 8 years, although it's still had almost 50 000 visitors in that time, so there's clearly interest in its themes.

See you over on LivingGeography.

50 000 views

Been a while since I posted here, I'm over on LivingGeography now and GeoBlogs on Twitter, but the visits keep ticking up, and we just passed 50 000. Thanks for your interest.

Tweeting case studies

I'm a fan of the idea of taking a historical event, and bringing it back to life by tweeting (in real time if possible) the events that happened, and adding in images and other information to bring the event to life again...

Thanks to Tania Grigg for the tipoff to a live-tweeting event happening to retell the story of the expedition to conquer Mount Everest in 1953....

Follow the Twitter feed... or the hashtag #Everest53
What events / anniversaries are coming up that could be re-enacted ??

How about 33 years after Harry Truman tweeted... "Feeding the cats... mighty quiet here..."

Or 27 years ago today perhaps.... an engineer at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine... "we have a problem"....

Museum of Contemporary Commodities

At the start of the year, I was invited to an event at the University of Exeter, to explore ideas of trade justice, commodities and the stories behind things that are for sale in shops. The idea of MoCC starts by imagining shops as museums, and every product that is for sale as an exhibit in the museum. What would you write on the tag that goes with it to explain its story...
MoCC is the Museum of Contemporary Commodities.
Watch the video to find out more about the project.
This is something I am going to be involved in later this year, as I work on a project with Ian Cook of Follow the Things fame....


MoCC Thinkering Day from Simon Moreton on Vimeo.

What is the future of local ?

Here's Dan Raven Ellison looking moody and magnificent, and buying some bread, in a short film made in association with TED Conversations. Dan will be speaking at a TEDX event in Lausanne in March.
He asks a question about the impact of globalisation on our lives, and what the future of LOCAL is...

#futureoflocal

What do you think local means ?

For example, how local is the meat in this ad ?
70 miles ! That's not local for me....
What about your local regional TV news at 6pm in the evening ? I get news about Northampton and Southend... not really interested in that to be honest...



There are some  interesting responses already on the TED page

Why not check out the INTERDEPENDENCE mapper on National Geographic...
Or order your MESHU, which is an interesting idea.

Some useful themes for Edexcel in this CPD Day in Oxford

I have attended this event several times in the past, and it has always been a splendid occasion.

This year's event is now available to book and there are some good options for GA members to have reduced price bookings. It's a fairly stellar list of presenters.... and me....
Open to state schools as well as Independent schools.

OXFORD GEOGRAPHY TEACHER’S DAY2013

(Organised by the Oxford Branch of the Geographical Association and supported by the GA Independent Schools Special Interest Group)

AT ST EDWARD’S SCHOOL, OXFORD ON THURSDAY 7^th MARCH 2013

10.00 Coffee/Tea/Refreshments on arrival

10.15 Introduction by Dr Garrett Nagle   President of the Oxford GA Branch

10.20   Opening Lecture

Bob Digby – President of the Geographical Association

‘Geographers and some Contemporary Health Issues’

 11.00 to 1pm

Choose TWO workshops to attend (each workshop will be 55 minutes) with exception of workshop 6 for Prep school and KS3 teachers which will last the whole 2 hours 

Seminar/ Workshop 1

Professor Sarah Harper - Oxford University

Population and Old Age updates – update for teaching GCSE and Post 16 Geography students

      Workshop 2

      Peter Price   Head of Geography from Charterhouse and Ewan Laurie

      Head of Geography, King’s School, Wimbledon

      Teaching the new Post 16 Exams – Practical Workshop linking Fieldwork    

      with the new A Levels, Pre  U and IB Curriculum .

      Workshop 3

      Lead by Dr Gareth Hughes – Head of Geography at Radley College with

      Rob Morris (Geography Teacher at Shrewsbury School)- Practical   

      Fieldwork Ideas for the new International GCSE

      (This hopefully will take place outside in the school Grounds –

       weather permitting!)

      Workshop 5 

      Alan Parkinson (Geography Consultant)

      Connecting teachers - connecting classrooms
        A look at how social media and smartphone apps can help teachers to  

      connect with other colleagues, and open up possibilities for authentic  

      and collaborative learning, and prepare learners for the future workplace.

Workshop 6 for CE and KS 3 Teachers on next page

         Workshop 6   NB Double Workshop– lasts the whole 120 minutes-

for Prep School and KS 3 Teachers only

Gyles Morris  – CE/ KS3 Fieldwork ideas though ‘the Lens of a Camera

with support on how to use the skills in CE Fieldwork from Simon Lewis (ISEB Lead Setter) and Dr Andrew Lee (SATIPS Geography Broadsheet Editor)

This is aimed at giving you new ideas for inspiring your pupils to use photographs and small areas to produce excellent Fieldwork enquiry skills. 

Ideal for Prep School teachers wanting new ideas for the revised CE Fieldwork Enquiry.

(Will be outside along the Canal ) (Restricted to 12 teachers)

1.10 pm  A chance to talk with some Publishers  and look at resources over a glass of wine and a chance to browse all the latest publications.

1.45  A sit down Lunch followed by 10 minutes from Steve Brace of the Royal Geographical Society (with the IBG)

2.45 pm-  3.45pm:  Lecture and Question session

Alan Kinder (Chief Executive of the Geographical Association)

 ‘

Geography and the GA in a time of curriculum change. Where are we, where are we going and how we can support you.’

A chance to hear what Alan Kinder has to say and to question him and to let him know what support you think the GA can give to teachers and the pupils you teach.

3.45 pm Finish

You can attend for £60 if a GA member (£160 if not) and two teachers can attend from the same GA member school for just £75


Let me know if you'd like a copy of the booking form sending to you....

New Year, New Geography

Happy New Year everyone - after 10 days away, I'm now firmly back in the room....

Join me on the 8th of January at 7pm for a VITAL CPD Teachshare, the first of the new year...
New Year New Geography

It's a chance to look ahead to what you have planned, and what might happen in the world of Geography.

I'll be previewing 13 of the things that I'm planning to get up to in 2013, and some opportunities for everyone to get involved...

1. Why not start a 365 project (if you're reading this before the first few weeks of the year are over you have chance to catch up...
I'll talk about my 365 projects past and future...
This year, I'm going to carry on Blipping, and also do a literacy blog at GeoLibrary 2013
I'm also going to be opening the archives (see previous blog post on that ) and have also created some new Pinterest boards to hold those images.

2. Blogging
I'm going to be hopefully breaking through the 5000 post barrier on LivingGeography.... and heading towards a million viewers....

3. Project 1
I USE Stats in Education is underway, and I will be going to Europe at least twice this year, and also spending time creating resources and sharing them as widely as possible. The theme is statistical literacy, which is of great relevance to geography, although this is a project that has relevance across the curriculum.
I'll also continue to be involved in another EU project called digitalearth. The first course, in Salzburg at the end of February is confirmed, and I am also going to Stockholm and Helsinki at the start of February too.

4. The Geography Collective
We're going to have a fairly big year this year. Watch this blog for more details as they emerge...

5. Writing
I am going to be writing another couple of books (at least) this year for a number of publishers, including Collins. I'm looking forward to it... More details here as they emerge - I still have a few contracts to sign. You still have chance to spend your Christmas book tokens on the books I wrote last year. I've also got an idea for another book that I'm writing a proposal for at the moment...

6. CPD
I am going to be working with OSIRIS for the first time, and also leading several courses for the GA as always. I'll be visiting various universities, CPD courses, schools (including Charterhouse) and doing the Independent Schools' conference in Oxford in March. I'm also heading for several cities. I still have plenty of space in my diary (at the moment) so get in touch If you'd like me to work with you...

7. Still High and Dry
Since I was asked to do my GA lecture on flooding last year it hasn't stopped raining and there's certainly few subjects that are more topical at the moment. If you have a good flood story, get in touch and I can squeeze it in there...

8. VITAL Work continues...
I shall be creating materials for the VITAL Geography portal until at least the end of March. The portals are continuing beyond then, but looking forward to continuing this strand of support for colleagues. There were some special codes tweeted by Peter Twining over the Christmas and New Year period for free access. These might still be live....

9. Discovering the World
I have been working on a booklet for Discover the World with John Sayers, Helen Steer and Tom Morgan Jones. It's coming soon....

10. Personal Development
This is the 6th year I will have been a Chartered Geographer. This is coordinated by the Royal Geographical Society. As part of the deal, I have to submit a CPD log which means I need to evidence my involvement in CPD: my own as well other people's. To that end, there are a few things I've got pencilled in to develop my own practice...

11. Photography
As well as my Blipoto album, I'm going to try and reach a total of 10 000 pictures shared on my Flickr account this year.

12. I'm going to get out more, and do more cycling....

13. Winds of Change
Fingers crossed that we won't be unlucky in bidding for a big project that could see me working (almost) full time for a year on a major science-based project involving real-world data.... I'll let you know if and when that happens...There's also a big project bid in

Join me over on Living Geography to read it all - don't forget to subscribe to / follow the blog... or follow me on Twitter: @GeoBlogs

ICT toolkit books...

Preparing some resources for the course on Geomedia in Salzburg that I am leading next week.

You still have chance to get funding to join me for a repeat of the course in February 2013, and the course is likely to run several times during 2013 - I'd love to see lots of you there... you can get your fees, accommodation and travel paid for.

I'm going to be using several activities from two books which I edited, and were published in April this year.

You really need to have a copy of these books in your departmental library.
They have been selling well, and getting good feedback from users.
You can order them from the GA shop - click to follow the link, and remember that GA members get a discount on purchases, and free P&P

Multimedia made Easy by Paul Cornish

GIS made Easy by Bob Lang

Over 3000 members

In 2007, over 5 years ago, I set up the Edexcel NING for the new (at the time) GCE spec . It was, following earlier experiments with my 6th form classes, the first real subject-specific support network using the NING platform to be set up in the UK (unless you know otherwise...)

Five years on, it has just passed the 3000 member mark.

It now bears the name of Jon Wolton at the bottom of the page, as it is funded by Jon and Edexcel who have kindly kept it going as they recognise the benefit of the collective weight of experience, and the quality of the discussions, communication and support that it offers, as well as the resources which are shared.
I'm proud of what I started, and am profoundly grateful to everyone who has taken the trouble to go beyond just joining it, but to contribute to a discussion, share a resource, answer a question or otherwise network with colleagues.
I hope it continues to be useful as we move towards the next phase of specification change....

New from the Field resource

Last year, I contributed two sets of resources to the RGS-IBG's FROM THE FIELD resource. The aim of the resource is to connect researchers in the field with teachers and teacher educators who translate their work into the classroom at an appropriate level.
I contributed a KS4 and a KS5 example.
The website won a GA Silver Award at the GA Conference in 2012.

The newest addition was added by Bob Lang, who worked to translate Jane Labous' work on the sand diggers of Mali into a unit on rapid urbanisation in the city of Bamako.
Splendid work.

Launch of Teachit Geography

One of the final jobs that I completed for the GA was to liaise with Katie and Chris at Teachit to prepare the materials for the launch of Teachit Geography.
It's great to see that the site is now LIVE and is ready for you to REGISTER or SUBSCRIBE to....

You can register to look at the FREE content.

There are currently over 450 pages of resources on the site, and that number grows daily...
I have worked with a list of wonderful people who have contributed resources so far, but you can join them by submitting your own resources.
Resources can be discovered using a simple search process with key words to help you find what you want quickly.

A year's personal subscription is just £15 (see later for a special GA offer...)

There are also some 'Whizzy things': interactives which can be used in the classroom, or in planning interesting resources with students. I particularly like the Decision Maker, which would help to visualise DME tasks.
An image bank, newsletter, a chance to save your favourite resources in a favourites area and a Wiki based list of Geography websites completes the package so far.

Here's the information on a special offer for GA members...

Finally, it's worth saying that TeachIt History launches in July...

Digimap - new tools for subscribers

On Wednesday 4th April, EDINA released Version 3 of Digimap for Schools, which included a number of new features and enhancements.

The new tools and enhancements have been developed directly as a result of valuable user feedback we gained from the user survey we ran last Autumn and from talking to teachers at conferences such as BETT and at training events.

New tools and enhancements:

National Grid lines overlay - This new tool allows users to display National Grid lines on screen, over any map at any scale.  Being able to display National Grid lines on the screen is incredibly useful for teaching and learning about grid references.  Grid letters and numbers are displayed clearly, spacing and numbering is scale appropriate and automatically change as a user zooms in or out through the map views.  To view the National Grid line, simply click the button on toolbar.

View a bigger map - Users can now have their map fill their screen!  We have added a full screen option which hides the top, bottom and left-hand panels to enlarge the map area that is visible.  The top toolbar will still be visible to allow you to access the annotations, measuring and other tools.  Expanding the map looks particularly fantastic when teaching a class using a smartboard as so much more map can be seen in one go.  To toggle between the larger and smaller map, click the button in the top right of the toolbar (beside the Help icon)

Alternative print formats - We have added two new outputs for printable maps; JPG and PNG.  These are common image formats (similar to those used for digital photos) which means users can easily insert maps generated from Digimap for Schools into programmes  such as Microsoft Word and Powerpoint.  These new format options are available in the print options panel.

Annotations enhancements - Two new enhancements have been added to annotations; the ability to fade the background map and the option to change the orientation of the toolbar.  The Fade Map option fades the background map on screen and on printable maps to allow annotations that have been drawn on the map to stand out more clearly.  This is particularly useful when you are adding features to a map of a dense urban area.  The Fade Map option can be activated by clicking the new icon in the Annotations Toolbar.  In addition to the ability to view a bigger map, you can now reformat the layout of the Annotation Toolbar to make it vertical. This means it can now sit over the search/print panel without hiding any of the map.


Help and information for using these new tools and enhancements can be found in the help pages, which can be accessed in the service by clicking the Help icon on the top right above the main map window.

The resource pack I wrote for Secondary DIGIMAP subscribers is coming soon.

Don't forget to join the Digimap GROUP on the GA Ning too....

OK, this is for GCSE but..

At the start of the year, I spent rather longer than anticipated putting together a book for Badger Publishing. It brought together some of the ideas I'd been working on for a while, along with a few more that were kindly  lent to me by colleagues (who are all acknowledged in the book, and will also be listed here once I have my hands on a physical copy of the book....)

The book will be useful to those who are preparing students for external assessments, but I would say that a lot of the ideas are transferrable - they are basically good geography....

The book is now available to pre-order (it will be out in April)

GCSE Grade Boosters: Geography Contents

• Introduction – what does a C grade geographer look like, and how can students raise their grade to a C and beyond.
• Memorable geography – a range of geography activities which can be re-versioned for other topics or particular pupils; includes thinking graphs, lucky lines, maps from memory, and ideas funnel to name just a few.
• Students as experts – establishing students as experts and joint creators of resources.
• Enquiries – how to introduce, explore and communicate the Big Geographical Questions.
• Controlled assessment – how to approach controlled assessment, complete with examples to illustrate the support that can be provided.
• Revision techniques – graphic organisers, memory techniques and the power of blogging.
• Help from the examiners – exam specs and question types – where and how marks are gained and lost.
• Memorable vocabulary – key vocabulary for exam success plus techniques for learning it.
• Exciting new tools – word clouds, triptico, google docs and google earth.
• Geography after the exam – why a good grade in geography can take you places.

Author: Alan Parkinson an experienced and award-winning teacher with an international reputation for creative and innovative teaching. He has worked with thousands of teachers at hundreds of CPD events in the UK and Europe. This title draws extensively from the experience of successful schools around the country.
Featuring:

• A wide range of activities to make the topics covered memorable. Activities can be used for class, group, pair and homework tasks. They can be versioned by you for other topics or particular pupils
• Support for exam preparation including a distillation of examiners reports to pinpoint common errors and show
• how easily marks are lost and gained, as well as revision and memory techniques that have been shown to work
• Help with controlled assessment and how to approach it to get the best results
• The key vocabulary for exam success plus techniques for learning it
• 80 page photocopiable book with re-versionable activities on accompanying CD-ROM. 

A perfect gift for Easter.... :)

Catlin Arctic Survey

Earlier this year, I followed the progress of the latest expedition of the Catlin Arctic Survey.
The team were exploring the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, and then drilling down through the ice to carry out a range of experiments aimed at exploring aspects of the ocean waters, which are at the heart of the Earth's oceanic circulation.

Digital Explorer's Jamie Buchanan Dunlop was involved in the expedition, which involved camping on the ice.

Now, I've been asked to get involved with the project by producing some teaching materials related to the work that the good folks were up to while camped out on the ice.

The explorer Pen Hadow was involved, as were a number of scientists and colleagues with a range of useful skills and experiences. They were also using some interesting equipment, including Niskin bottles and sensors called "peepers". While they were on the ice they also had a Twitter chat with my friend and colleague Kenny O' Donnell and his students.

Image: Catlin Arctic Survey

Watch out for some resources for KS3 and KS4 which will emerge on the website before too long...

Flood Management CPD with Simon Oakes at the RGS

This could be a really useful evening !!


The Royal Geographical Society is putting on an evening for teachers to update their knowledge of Flood Management, presented by the rather wonderful Dr. Simon Oakes...
It's the next best thing to seeing my 'High and Dry' lecture :)

Subject Knowledge Updates are a series of evening sessions each focusing on a different theme, covering the basic information for teaching that topic and providing up to date case study material and resources. The next session in this series looks at UK Flood Hazard Management.

The DfE Schools White Paper 2010 The importance of Teaching highlights a need for subject knowledge to be included in CPD:

“It is also vital that we give teachers the opportunity to deepen their subject knowledge and renew the passion which brought them into the classroom”.

This UK Flood Hazard Management Subject Knowledge Update will:

• Provide up to date and new case study material and information.
• Give an overview of the key facts and information that should be highlighted when teaching UK flooding.
• Help teachers who have not taught UK flooding for a while, or never studied it, to teach it effectively and confidently.
• Provide some resources and case studies for you to take away for use at KS3, KS4 and KS5.
• Encourage enthusiasm to teach UK flooding and give ideas of how to link it with other topics and themes. 

About the session

This course is aimed at all teachers with an interest in (i) up-dating their teaching of UK flood hazard management for 16-18 teaching and (ii) developing innovative fieldwork incorporating some of the latest ideas in studies of flood plain risk management in the UK.  Recent events – including the 2007 floods that brought £3bn losses and the devastation of Cockermouth in 2009 – will be explored as background to new developments in flood hazard management and water policy (including a look at hi-tech flood warnings and the growing importance of the EU Water Framework Directive).  Attention will be paid to the demands of the new AS/A2 examinations and there will hands-on activities too during the evening. Curriculum connections with the teaching of climate change will be highlighted where appropriate – including consideration of whether or not recent extreme weather events in the UK are symptomatic of a genuinely changed climate.

About the presenter

Dr Simon Oakes’ post-doctoral research includes consultancy work for DEFRA and the Environment Agency while working with Middlesex University’s Flood Hazard Research Centre (focused on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive and the likely effectiveness of ‘hi-tech flood warnings); he has also worked as DfE climate change curriculum advisor for Geography.  Simon has been the lead writer of the Royal Geographical Society’s ‘Geography in the News’ website since 2003 and is an Associate Editor of Geography Review magazine. An A-level examiner since 1995, he currently serves as a Principal Examiner for Edexcel and Chief Examiner for the International Baccalaureate diploma. He teaches part-time at Bancroft’s School.

Details

Topic: UK Flood Hazard Management

Date: Wednesday 28^th September 2011

Venue: Royal Geographical Society with IBG, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR

Time: 5pm – 7pm (registration from 4.30pm for a prompt start). Refreshments will be available.

Format: 90mins lecture style followed by 30mins of discussion and questions.

There are 20 places available on this course.

Please note: this course is for teachers only.

Costs

Members (School Members / Fellows / ECT Members / Young Geographers) £30 inc VAT

Non Members £40 inc VAT

Booking information

To book please return the booking form and your payment to Claire Wheeler, Education Department, RGS-IBG, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR. T: 020 7591 3053 F: 020 7591 3001 E: c.wheeler@rgs.org

Please note that that payment must be received before the event or the place may be withdrawn. Booking form at http://www.rgs.org/teachercpd

No refunds will be given for cancellations less than 3 weeks before the event.

Geography of Disease

This is another one of those blog posts aimed at uncovering a 'hidden' resource on the GA website that is freely available to anyone....

Geography of Disease was a project that was led by John Lyon, and was funded by the Wellcome Trust

Wycombe High School shared the resources that they produced as a result of their participation on their excellent website (on the Moodle platform...)

The resources are excellent ! You need to check them out if you are proposing to teach something about disease.
There are resources on Disease in Society - with a focus on Myxomatosis, the Black Death, HIV/AIDS, Cholera, Malaria, Bilharzia and Avian Influenza.

Check out Durham University's disease spread simulations too...

Great resources if you are teaching IB Geography, particularly the FOOD and HEALTH module of which more to come later in the year !

NQT Conferences in November 2011

The flyers for the latest GA CPD events have been published on Scribd.

I am leading two NQT Conferences in November 2011


NQT Conference: Making a difference in the classroom


If you are going to be an NQT Geographer or you are going to have an NQT in your department, and you'd like to book a place, contact Lucy Oxley on 01142960088

GA Conference 2011 - University of Surrey, Guildford

A number of posts are appearing over at my LIVING GEOGRAPHY blog on the follow-up to the GA Conference 2011.

There were some wonderful sessions.... but enough about me...

Anne Greaves has started to post resources from the conference on the GA WEBSITE.

Image by Bryan Ledgard
Copyright Geographical Association

Plenty of interest for those doing Edexcel specifications, and great to see some blog readers there...

Population matters....

Earlier in the week, picked up on this story from the Guardian, as one of the impacts of last week's earthquake and tsunami...
It describes the particular impact that shortages of food, water and power are having on those who survived, or were evacuated from the areas affected by the combination of hazards that have hit the country.
The elderly are apparently being affected particularly badly.

The second story was from Friday morning's BBC news. Despite the rise in obesity, the UK population is still enjoying longer life expectancy.

The third was prompted by a conversation with Carl Lee in Sheffield on Wednesday. He put me on to the latest Danny Dorling book, which I promptly ordered, and it arrived on Friday.

There are plenty of interesting sections which could translate into the classroom.
I liked the introduction: "Geography Matters", which includes the useful reminder for adult readers of the book that:
"The geography you may have been taught late on a Thursday afternoon at school is not the geography that is taught in universities today.."
- although in many cases it is also not the geography that is taught at schools on Thursday afternoons these days...

There are chapters on a range of themes that would be familiar to those teaching GCSE and 'A' level specifications, and this book should perhaps be available in school and departmental libraries.
Useful information on optimum populations, immigration, ageing populations and gender imbalance.
As always with Danny, plenty of thought provoking and challenging arguments and information....

Plenty of information for follow up reading in the copious endnotes too...

Another world-changing event...

Updates since initial posting: 2

Just after 7am on Friday morning I pulled into a multi storey car park in central Coventry. I had set off rather earlier than I needed to ensure that I was on time for an NQT event that I was running, and as I checked my mail and Twitter feeds, news started to come in of an earthquake and tsunami...
The rest of the day was spent running the conference, and by the time I got home at 7pm that night, there was a clear sense that this was going to be very bad news for Japan and the rest of the world...

It became obvious that a lot of colleagues were hard at work over the weekend preparing a range of resources.
My colleague Anne Greaves at the GA had produced a really useful page of materials at short notice on the Friday in my absence.

Below is the text of the update that I will send to Anne for addition to the GA website tomorrow (Monday) but it is here for early access, and also for possible comment... This is a draft, and is my personal response to the events in Japan...

Update for GA website resources

The weekend of the 12^th and 13^th of March has been dominated by regular updates from the region of Japan that was most badly affected by the earthquake of the 11^th (which has been upgraded to a magnitude 9) and the ensuing tsunami and aftershocks.

The force of the earthquake has shifted the east coast of Japan by 2.4 metres, and even shifted the earth’s axis by 25cm. News footage has shown the astonishing scale of the devastation, and the power of water in a highly urbanised area. Entire towns such as Minami Sanriku seem to have virtually disappeared, and tens of thousands of people are missing at the time of writing, in the massive debris fields that the tsunami left behind.

The crisis has now been called the “worst since World War 2”, with the astonishing power of the water and shaking accompanied by the potential for a greater nuclear disaster than Chernobyl in 1986. Videos showing the swaying skyscrapers of Tokyo also provide a reminder of the efforts that have been made to protect buildings from potential earthquakes. This, combined with regular drills will have had an effect on overall casualty numbers, although some of the videos show a remarkable nonchalance as people stood and washed boats being washed under bridges that they were stood on.

The combination of hazards has had wider impacts on the country’s economy, links to global markets, car exports and manufacturing have been suspended, insurance claims will run into billions, and there are forecasts of rising energy prices. Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures are responsible for over 40% of the Japanese economy, and most manufacturing has ceased. Food rationing is taking place, and water supplies are cut in many parts of northern Japan.

Energy is currently being rationed as a large percentage of Japan’s energy comes from nuclear power, and there are fears of nuclear ‘meltdown’ at a number of nuclear reactors. Screening centres have been set up as over 200 000 people have been evacuated from the area around the reactors. A rolling programme of 3 hour blackouts is planned for the next few days. Oil refineries have been affected, and many petrol stations have closed, with long queues at others.

In the longer term, there will be a stimulus for the construction industry, as the infrastructure and many buildings will require reconstruction, but this is a long way in the future…

Thoughts on pedagogy & potential activities

The challenge for teachers in the next few weeks will be to pick an appropriate route through the large number of potential resources and activities that could be selected. Teachers as ‘curriculum makers’ have difficult choices to make, and even more so than ever where this event is concerned.

Students are likely to come with questions, and anxieties, and teachers will need to tackle those sensitively. These are likely to form the basis for the response: a lesson that is planned too rigidly might not enable some of those important questions to be answered. Try to ensure that at least one computer with internet access is available for research. It may be possible to access the live news stream from NHK news: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

Some sense of the scale of the disaster might be appropriate to explore, using Google Earth or other mapping software e.g. GIS mapping, perhaps using some of the available free tools such as ESRI’s ArcGIS online explorer: http://explorer.arcgis.com/ (a map of earthquakes in Japan has already been created)

Students could perhaps be placed in a ‘newsroom’ hot seat – maybe preparing materials for the Google Crisis Response website that is mentioned later in this resource. Alternatively they could be interviewing a survivor, or prepare questions for a rescue worker on their way to the disaster area. They might be asked to prepare / design applications that would be useful for residents and other people in the affected areas.

Use the Sky News home page or Newseum site http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/ to explore the front pages of newspapers in the UK / around the World.

Possibly a Wordle of the headlines could be constructed, to explore the language of tragedy, and how to work on some of these issues to raise the morale of people in the affected areas.

Alternatively, take a Japanese poetry form: the haiku, and pupils could write a response to what they have seen and heard, perhaps adding a hopeful note…

There could be an exploration of how the shape and height profile of the coastline of Japan may have funnelled the waters further inland and at a faster rate in certain locations.

Teachers should perhaps take a lead from students at the start of the lesson, to assess the possible focus for part of the lesson:

What do they know ?

What would they like to know ?

What should they know ?

If we are having a debate about core knowledge in geography, should ‘tsunami’ be in there ?

Remember geographical enquiry: the choice of stimulus material will be to identify appropriate images and then offer potential for research and reflection.

Is it perhaps too early to be dissecting the disaster ?

If any colleagues have thoughts on these ideas, or would like to provide further examples that they have planned, we would be very pleased to receive them and share them more widely.

Links and connections

The BBC News website has an astonishing video: one of many, showing the force of the water as the tsunami hit:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12725646

UPDATE: Watch the BBC NEWS SPECIAL on iPLAYER - thanks to TC for link

Some colleagues have been hard at work producing resources which they are happy to share.

Andy Knill, who teaches in Essex spent most of the weekend compiling a tremendously useful Google Document:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HFePGoc8m2zLIQDQEksKJqTMeqPJvpLGCzJLuQxCfSU/edit?hl=en&authkey=CMHrw5IH#

This contains a large collection of possible sources of information and Twitter feeds to follow for updates.

Becky Pook from Peacehaven School was quick off the mark with a creative and well-referenced resource which explored not only the physical background to the event but also the emotional response. It includes some interesting ideas for model making and creative use of images. Many thanks to Beccy for sharing.

http://www.slideshare.net/serrula/japanese-tsunami-11311
Japanese tsunami 11/3/11

View more presentations from Beccy Pook

Another Slideshare, which contains a range of images is: http://www.slideshare.net/effat57/the-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami

Ollie Bray wrote a blog post which concentrated on the effort of Google and other technology firms to update their imagery as quickly as possible to enable assessment of the damage and some before/after comparisons.

http://olliebray.typepad.com/olliebraycom/2011/03/post-earthquake-images-of-japan-google-earth.html

There was also a useful link to Google’s Crisis Response Dashboard: http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html - this provides a range of  links including a person finder and some dramatic YouTube clips.

Mark Howell blogged his thoughts – another example of the importance of teacher blogs:

http://markhowell101.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/floating-teaching-and-the-japanese-tsunami/

Some interesting thoughts on the issues of teaching a fast evolving news story.

Heathfield School, where blogging is embedded in the curriculum was also commendably quick off the mark with some Year 6 tasks – thanks to @DeputyMitchell on Twitter.

http://y62011.heathfieldcps.net/2011/03/11/earthquake-strikes-at-japan/

Jon Snow of Channel 4 news is writing his SnowBlog from Sendai in Japan: http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/

GeoEye: an image provider, has some useful Before and After images, which have been shared by the New York Times. The webpage has a useful slider to enable comparisons:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html?hp

The US Pacific Fleet has started an aid operation called Operation Tomodachi, and there is a useful Flickr set here from the people involved:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/compacflt/sets/72157626119790243/

The UK charity Shelterbox is already active in the area, as are many other charities and international search and rescue teams. Follow the Shelterbox teams on: http://www.shelterbox.org/

James Reynolds (http://twitter.com/typhoonfury) travels the world filming in disaster zones and he has made his way to Japan as well as posting regular updates via Twitter. A useful ‘contact’ to follow over the coming days.

There was also the amazing story of Hiromitsu Shinkawa who was rescued from the roof of his house while floating many miles out to sea.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365831/Rare-glimmer-hope-tsunami-ravaged-Japan-man-rescued-clinging-roof-obliterated-house-middle-sea.html

The story of the town of Minami Sanriku is a sober, large scale example of the power of nature…

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/minami-sanriku-the-town-that-disappeared-in-the-japan-earthquake/story-e6freuy9-1226020730156

I have not considered the nuclear events here, but there is certainly going to be a major review of nuclear safety and energy policy in the months to come...

Thanks also to many other colleagues, including John Sayers, James Baird, Kenny O Donnell and Tony Cassidy for their thoughts.

UPDATE: Thanks to Noel Jenkins for the suggestion of Google Fast Flip (which was a new one on me) for a rapid way to view a range of newspaper headlines for the Wordle task that I suggested above... This could also be used as a way of exploring the particular area of the story that was focussed on...

Finally, for those who would like to involve students in fund-raising, or donate to the disaster appeal.

Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org.uk/japantsunami