Introducing Urban Geography

The Badger book explores the importance of video and engaging starters...
Thanks to Shaf Hansraj for the tip-off to this wonderful vintage movie to start off a unit on Urban change....


Housing Problems (1935) from bifurcaciones on Vimeo.

New Year... new Geography book...

Why not treat yourself to a new book to guide you through the new GCSE specifications and the teaching that you will be doing this year....
Why not buy this one :)

Coming soon: a post on the updated GCSE Specifications, iGCSE and also the EBacc.....

I-USE Statistics.... a new EU project

Statistics form an important part of any GCSE Geography course.
Students need to use data of various kinds which allow them to explore and interpret the meaning behind them.

As I write this, I am freshly back from a 3 day meeting in Belgium to launch a new European project.

The project is called I-USE.

The context is a simple, but important one.
It's about making sense of a world of data...

Statistical literacy is becoming increasingly important. This includes an element of information literacy, but also digital literacy.

Students (and teachers) are now living in a society that demands evidence-based arguments and decisions. While the world is changing rapidly with respect to the prevalence and use of statistics, the curriculum in schools and the approaches teachers adopt tend to be slow to respond to such changes. Therefore creating meaningful, innovative teacher training plays a crucial role in developing statistical thought processes.

Using statistics provides simple yet instant information on the matter it centres on. Modern computer-based visualisations create a vivid presentation of collected and organized data through the use of figures, charts, living and interactive diagrams and graphs, which helps lead to more critical analyses of information. 

Teachers do not always consider new forms of visualising statistical information as part of curriculum courses as they are not explicitly mentioned. As a result, in some secondary schools, many students don’t have an opportunity to learn to work with statistics and computer-based visualisations. 

Therefore, despite the fact that statistics offers powerful tools for information analysis and interpretation, many students are unable to extract meaning from the data and information they are presented with. 

The dilemma is that as more data becomes readily available and the tools for visualising and analysing the data become more sophisticated, the ability to produce useful information from the analyses is outpacing the capacity to use the knowledge productively.

The project will support teachers and learners to explore a world data and create meaning....

It connects with the EU's Digital Agenda 2020 and the INSPIRE directive.

You can follow the progress of the I-USE project on a range of social media strands.
These are now live...

Twitter feed @StatsinEdu
Blog: I use Stats in Edu

The Ice Man

Since I wrote the Badger book I've also been working on several other books, and I'm going to be doing several more in 2013....
This is my latest book which is now available from various online book retailers....

Case Study Updates...

One of the challenges for GCSE teachers is to keep case studies up to date.

The ARAL SEA remains one of the most important examples of the consequences of a mis-management of a resource by humans.

This Al Jazeera English video is a good example of one source of additional information on this area, which is obviously continuing to develop and change over time. It's important to follow up case studies which might be featured in text books, particularly as the publication date gets further and further away from the present day....


Al Jazeera often focus on topics that are familiar to UK students, but sometimes approach them from a slightly different angle.

Of course whichever case studies you use, or specification you have selected, the Badger book provides a range of ideas for making the most of them.

A longer Al Jazeera programme, on the 'People of the Lake' is here, although there's a lot of subtitle reading to do... Would this be a video that you would use ?
If you were using it, how could it be made more 'accessible' for learners ?
Do we want to do all the work for the students ??

Another customer on Twitter...

Picture is of an idea by Sam Atkins of Priory School, Portsmouth, which I borrowed for Chapter 2, with a nice image by Richard Allaway to complete the diagram...

World Food Day - simple actions...

Chapter 3 of the Badger Book is about memorable teaching, and suggests that topics are often best taught to coincide with particular events or special days where the profile of that subject is higher, and there are more stories in the media to reinforce the relevance of the learning...
Today (October 16th) is World Food Day, so this would be a good event to tie in with teaching about food, agriculture, food aid and related topics from the GCSE specification....

For World Food Day

For example, a simple action for students to take in the lesson would be....

Watch this video and take the quiz - 3 simple questions to answer...
You can feed a child...

Do this with a group, using school e-mails and a group of children the same size will get a healthy meal.
Bear in mind that over 100 000 people in the UK have relied on Food Banks since April this year....

It's worth perhaps doing a quick 5-10 minute starter today...
Ask students to follow up three leads from the #worldfoodday feed on Twitter, and then 'feed'back to the class...

Badger book review in 'Teaching Geography'

Thanks to Emma Johns for her nice review of my Badger GCSE Grade Booster book in the latest issue of 'Teaching Geography'.

The book is available to purchase from the Badger store.

Sustainable Fishing Resources - for Edexcel 'B' Geography

Some resources which I wrote for the most excellent DIGITAL EXPLORER site have been posted on the site. They are looking really rather nice. 

Sustainable Fishing is the theme of the resource.

It goes along with the report that nef produced recently on sustainable fishing and fish dependence.
You can see the nef report here.

An enquiry-based scheme of work investigating the seas around the UK and EU. The lesson plans and activities cover why fish stocks are decreasing, the issues and impacts associated with overfishing, and marine ecosystems and sustainability.

The activities examine different stakeholder views and use current data from the UN FAO, MMO and the new economics foundation.

Particularly suited for use with the Edexcel B ‘Oceans on the Edge’ unit.

Includes the lesson booklet and all accompanying slideshows and activities.

You need to register to download the resources.

Thanks to the Digital Explorer team for their work on the resources...

Good for Edexcel B - Oceans on the Edge unit

GCSE key concepts: Interdependence

You can now download a special PDF 'version' of the Mission:Explore Food book that we've produced for the National Geographic Education team's materials for Geography Awareness Week.

It focuses on the theme of Interdependence.

Link (PDF download - 5Mb)

It's really rather tasty....