More maps

As we are thinking about maps in year 6 it seems a good time to think about the functions of maps. While the OS maps are for general use other maps are designed to show particular things. Some maps hardly look like maps at all as anyone who has seen a map of the London Underground will tell you. Take a look at this map. It shows the motorway network of the UK but why does it look so strange? Have a think about what the person who designed it was trying to show. Also think about how maps can be used to show information, what about this map of the London underground system that shows frequency or what about the worldmapper maps that use the size of the countries to show information.

Ever dug a hole?

Have you ever dug a hole and wondered where it would come out if you carried on? Well now you can find out by clicking here. If you think it could be Australia you may be suprised. Oh and if you are tempted to check the results, don't try to dig a hole yourself, it's impossible as we will find out in year 9.

Command words and deeper essays

These wise words from Mark Cowan should be things we all think about when doing tests or any response where a little more detail is called for.

Exam command words: A poem

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: explain describe)

Weather: Thundersnow!

It's always exciting having a storm, though of course they can cause great damage. Tonight a storm is forecast that could include something called thundersnow! You can read about this here. This is the kind of thing those of you studying the weather in year 8 need to keep an eye on as you could include it in your project work.

Grid Coordinates

If you are still confused by 6 figure grid coordinates then you can improve your skills by having a go at some of these. For the full background and details of how grid coordinates work go to the OS site for a full tutorial.

Maps Year 6

Our exploration of maps is now well underway. Remember that as spies you must not reveal your secret identity to anyone. You may also be expected to travel the world and know where you are going. Why not brush up on your map skills and have a little fun along the way with this country location game and work out your traveller IQ! Just click on the link and scroll down the page or select one of the other challenges on offer.

Weather

Just to remind those of you in Year 8 who are studying the weather about the helpful sites out there. The Met office is a good place to start and of course the BBC's new weather pages (select the Beta link) are a great place to catch up on what's going on with our weather now. More weather links are available here. Also for some weather webcams you can look here.

Options

From this week Year 9 will be thinking about which options to take for GCSE. As usual many of you will be considering taking Geography while others may be as yet undecided. It may be worth having a look at these videos (you may not be able to access them in school) to give you an idea of what Geography can offer you.


Also two further videos:
Going places with Geography 1
and
Going places with Geography 2
These are well worth a look if you are still making up your mind, though you may well have to view them at home as you tube is blocked in school.

Endangered Species

We are just starting our endangered species project. A fairly simple (ish) list is available here to help you get a few ideas. The information sheet is given out at school, it is also available on our geography website available at the moment via the Bushloe Website holding page, just click on the geography minisite link and select the homework page. Ideal for those of you who lose it or for parents to have a look.

Also the Wombat is back to remind us that everything is connected. This is an important theme to explore when doing your project, particularly when thinking about the impact of humans on animal and plant habitat.

Year 9 Population

Now that we have returned for the New Year we begin our studies again in Population in year 9. This week we are going to compare population to a bath! If you are still puzzled by this then think of the water as people and think what the taps and plughole could represent, as you think about it more deeply, what about other things like the size of the bath or the overflow?

One of the important trends we have seen is that people are living longer. This has a big effect on the age of the population. We can see this effect on something called a population pyramid. We will be covering this over the next couple of weeks but if you want to have a look at what is predicted to happen and even have a play around with some possible outcomes try this out. Just click on start simulation, after 2050 you can use the sliders to adjust how long people live and how many babies are born. What happens for example if birth rate falls?

Environmental Issues

A few more Environmental Issues to get us started on this topic courtesy of the Animals Save the Planet people.

It's Christmas!

Well you all seem to have made it to the end of term and are now enjoying your well earned break but the geography doesn't stop there. I wonder if you have thought about where those Christmas presents come from? If you answered Father Christmas then you may be interested in the NORAD tracks Santa site which uses our favourite tool Google Earth (along with Radar, fighter jets and webcams of course) to track Santa as he delivers presents on Christmas Eve. Those of you who have been planning Santas route around the world in lessons will already know that by starting in New Zealand and working his way west Santa can make the night last 36 hours! However this still means that he has to travel at 650 miles per second to visit everyones house in time. At this speed friction from air resistance would usually heat an object to 5000 degrees Celcius in 4 thousanths of a second and vapourise it. Fortunately Santa is magic, as we all know and so he survives. It may explain Rudolf's red nose though!

As we all know there is only so much toy making elves can do and so with the population of the world hitting over 6.7 billion people and rising fast Santa has increasingly followed the global trend of "outsourcing"to make many toys. This Christmas we are asking you all in year 7 and 9 (though anyone is welcome to join in!) to record where your Christmas presents were made so we can build up a map of global manufacturing. To join in either leave your list of countries as a comment on this blog or make a list and bring it with you to your first lesson back. My class yesterday though China would be the clear winner but what do you think?

Environmental Issues

Year 7 will be starting their studies of Environmental Issues. Here is a quick film to get us started.

Population and Development

Year 9 are about to start their new topic of Population and Environment. With ever increasing pressures on our planets resources the scene is set for an exploration into one of worlds most pressing issues. In the first few lessons we will look at how many people there are in the world. You might want to check this out for yourself by looking at a World Clock. We will also think about the worlds resources with this short film giving us food for thought. The map above shows world population the larger the country the bigger the population, you can find more of these on the worldmapper website.

Hurricane Gustav

Welcome back to all for the new term. Some of you in Year 8 have just started studying for the Weather topic and I'm sure you will have noticed Hurricane Gustav heading towards New Orleans in the USA. Some of you will remember the last time this happened and will realise why so many are keeping a careful eye on it. You can see a stuning picture of this storm on the NASA site. Why not keep a track of the Hurricane in Google Earth by switching on the weather layer or check out the latest details on the National Hurricane Center website. It is worth remembering that Hurricanes get all their energy from the sea and you can see how passing over Cuba last night took a lot of the force out of Gustav from this loop. A lot now depends on the temperature of the sea between Cuba and New Orleans. Worth looking at this over the next 24 hours.