End of term

Some winter scene photos from geograph http://www.geograph.org.uk/ to get you in the mood for Christmas. Follow the link to see more. If you search "snowscape" you will find over 200 snowy scenes to admire.

With the end of term now in sight you need to be reviewing what you have achieved during this term. VS is undoubtedly the hardest year in school. You have spent many hours working away making notes, revising topics, completing homework questions and past paper answers. Think about your target grade - what are you wanting to achieve ? Have you given yourself the best opportunity to reach that goal ? If not what can you do about it next term ?

Obviously you will be needing some time off to relax and enjoy the festivities but do bear in mind that your estimate exams will sooooon be upon you ! Look over your notes and if there is anything you are unsure of make a note of it and ask for help when we return to school.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy, safe and successful 2008.

South Georgia web cam

I have shown this to the IV Senior classes but it is well worth a look. It is the web cam on South Georgia in the South Atlantic which was pointed out to me by some Geography collleagues a few months ago. It is updated every 3 minutes and there are often some interesting scenes to view. This one has to be one of the best I have seen and was taken just 5 minutes ago. Click on the picture to follow the link.

Development & Health

As you near the end of this topic with Mrs Ch don't forget to make use of the BBC web site. There is some very useful information for you to use. Click on the picture above to take you to the site and relevant articles about malaria. ( Do remember not all the topics are relevant to Higher. The site has been developed for use by Intermediate 2 students too.)

Rural

As we have been studying the sections of the Rural part of the course I have been emphasising the types of question you may be asked for shifting cultivation, intensive subsitence agriculture and extensive commercial farming. The farming system, landscape, population density and changes are all very common and you must be able to asnwer for all three of our Case Study areas.

The Google Earth images are well worth searching out for yourselves again as well as recalling the photographs you have been shown in class and those in your text book too.

The BBC bitesize site has some rural questions so make use of that too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/geography/human/rural_rev.shtml

Geographical Christmas gifts

Now the dance is over you can turn your eyes to the next big event on the horizon - Christmas. With this in mind and as a link to the Development & Health work you are covering at present for Paper 2 there are some web sites with alternative suggestions for Christmas gifts / charity donations.

Oxfam Unwrappped
www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/

Action Aid - sponsor a child
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/100044/child_sponsorship.html

Water Aid SH2OP for life
http://shop.wateraid.org/

One form have raised money for the charity "Send a Cow" this year too.
http://www.sendacow.org.uk/

There are many organisations now encouraging people to donate in this more unusual manner - have you considered it ?? Do you really need all those bubble baths / smelly items that people give as presents or could you offer someone in need real hope by paying for a toilet, malaria net or school books ??

These are just a few ideas - you may like to suggest some others too ?

Target Setting

As we have now completed some of the Paper 1 units and you have undertaken both Human Geography and Physical Geography it is time to start to reflect on the work we have covered so far.
Do you understand the work you have completed ?
Are there areas you need further clarification on.
Are your notes up to date ?
Ar you making / using revision notes/ books/ cards
Are you spending a "fair" balance of your time on Geography ? We understand you have other subjects too but Geography needs one fifth of your time if you are studying five subjects.

Tomorrow you will be asked to complete your target sheet - this will ask you to detail aspects of the course you enjoy and those you find difficult. You will have the opportunity to think about your target grade - this is your decision not ours !

Later in the year you will review your targets in light of NAB and estimate results. It is certainly a good idea to have something to focus on durign this very busy Higher year and it does work as the current 6th years will tell you !

Industry

As we start our section of work on industry for the Human Interactions section of the Higher paper a few photographs to look at of various types of industry from around the U.K. courtesy of geographyphotos.

Think about the type of industry being shown

What are the raw materials?

What is the finished product ?

What location factors would have been important when siting the industry originally ?

What problems may the industry be suffering today ?

What may happen in the future ?

We will be looking at many of these factors together with some GMTs e.g. O.S. mapwork and labelling of diagrams / explanation of data.

Coastal features tv programmes

A site well worth looking at whilst we are studying coasts is the BBC Scotland web site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/geog/coastline/enhanced/

it accompanies the 2 television programmes which use footage of North East Scotland. They are being repeated on Wednesday morning next week 17th October but you will need to set the video / DVD on Tuesday as they are on very early in the morning at 0520 - 0549 and 0540 - 0600.

The photographs above of the North East coast are taken from geograph and were taken by Peter Ward ( North Haven cliffs)and Paul Birrel (Bullers of Buchan).

Revision tips for NABs

As always the main one is to keep calm !

Remember the hints from Standard Grade and your 6 deep breaths

Read the question/s very carefully

Watch your time - 50 marks in 45 minutes

Do not run out of time - the GMT questions can gain you many marks in a fairly short space of time.

The GMT question is owrth 10 marks

It is a physical NAB on Hydrosphere, Lithosphere and Biosphere.

It is marked on a pass/ fail basis - you need to get 25 /50 to pass.

The photograph is of the Athabasca glacier in Canada.

Keep calm and good luck tomorrow !

River revision

As part of your revision for the practice NAB on Wednesday you may like to look at this river site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/int/geog/rivers/

Also don't forget revision material is available on the BBC Higher bitesize site too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/geography/index.shtml

Limestone

I have finally got round to trying out some ICT recommended many month ago by Geography colleagues and I am delighted with the results from "dumpr". I will post both the photograph and field sketch so that you can judge for yourselves.

Where is the photograph taken ? Could you add labels to it ? Remember a GMT question may ask you to do so.

Round the world cycle

Following on from the display outside RoomG at the start of term further news about Mark Beaumont on his attempt to beat the World Record for cycling the 18,000 miles around the world. More details can be found on the "geoblogging with Mark" blog written by a Geography colleague.

http://www.geobloggingwithmark.blogspot.com/

The geographical information available on this blog is outstanding and most informative.

Mark's diary and opther details can also be found at http://www.artemisworldcycle.com/

Mark is raising money for various charities by undertaking this journey

CAN is a mountaineers’ charity to help mountain people to help themselves raise their standard of living and strengthen indigenous, community-based culture.

CHICKS provides free respite breaks for disadvantaged children aged between 8 and 15 from all parts of the UK, regardless of race or religion, relying solely on donations from individuals, companies and charitable trusts to provide for the increasing number of children who would benefit from a CHICKS holiday.

Edinburgh Cyrenians Trust is an independent local charity, established in 1968 to create and operate services, facilities and opportunities for disadvantaged people offering effective and lasting routes out of homelessness and promoting social inclusion.

Building on over 200 years experience, Rainer now runs around 60 services and projects nationally, working with thousands of under-supported young people each year focusing on the following areas that affect young people:- Supported accommodation- Learning & employability- Tackling crime

Tusk Trust promotes the protection of wildlife and habitats, sustainable rural community development, environmental education programmes, responsible tourism, and constructive wildlife research throughout Africa.

Limestone

Now we have started our Lithosphere work some photographs to remind you of the features and places we are speaking of when studying limestone. The link to the excellent BBC Scotland site on Upland limestone is below and is highly recommended. There are interactive elements, features to study, mapwork as well as field sketches - it will aid your understanding of this new section of work and is well worth devoting some time to.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/int/geog/limestone/index.shtml

Fieldwork - a great start to the year

I hope you have all caught up on sleep now after our fieldwork excursion - great work from everyone. It is a really good opportunity to get to know people better and to spend time with people outside your normal friendship groups and of course a great chance to do some real Geography. For the HIgher class a good way to start the session, and we will attend Pupil Conference in November and also complete some more fiedlwork at the end of the year. Thank you so much for the lovely flowers for me and the chocolates for Mrs Ch - a lovely surprise for both of us.

Results and holidays

I hope you like these photos of St Ives, Land's End and the Eden Project.

Well done everyone - great results. I am delighted for you. For those of you going on with your studies I look forward to working with you next year. To those of you who are not carrying on with Geography I wish you all the best in your studies at Higher/ Advanced Higher /degrees - your core skills wil be very relevant in other subjects too. I am always interested to hear your news so keep in touch.

Holidays

Hello everyone - I hope you are enjoying your holidays whether at home or abroad. We have returned from our visit to Cornwall, Devon and Dorset and over the next few posts I hope to give you a flavour of some of the places we have visited.

Have you been noticing how many geographical items there have been in the news this last few weeks ?

The terrible flooding as a result of torrential rain particularly effecting Sheffield. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6240038.stm

The poor weather in June and July has had everyone talking about what a disappointment it has been after the beautiful weather of April.

"Appalling June weather is not unusual. The wettest June of the previous century occured ten years ago, with 133.7mm (5.3in) of rain. Wimbledon was affected so badly that matches were played on the middle Sunday of the championships for just the second time. It was also so cold that snow fell on the Cairngorms on the last day of the month. Although those levels of rainfall are unlikely to be passed this month, the record for the wettest May and June months combined could be challenged. "

Read the whole article here http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article1985748.ece

Lewis Pugh - the lawyer who swam 1km in freezing water at the North Pole as part of an awareness campaign about global warming. follow the link for the TImes report about his swim

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2080612.eceticle2080612.ece

Welcome to Advanced Higher

An icy post on Cairngorm - Mike Pennington


Loch Avon - John Armitage



Erosion gully - Lochnagar - Pete Chapman

Lochnagar - Colin Smith

A medley of geographical photos from the geograph web site for you tol look at.

I have your folders ready for us to make a start tomorrow. We will be concentrating on ideas for your Issues essay and Geographical Study. These are so important as this folio makes up 70% of the marks for AH. ( 30% for essay, 40% for Study.) A lot of the work is fieldwork and skills based and it is important that you keep up to date with all your work and deadlines. I will give you the deadline dates sheet for Autumn Term in August.

Welcome to Higher Geography

Welcome to your new Higher Geography course.

As you know we are starting the GMT's in these last few weeks of term and will start the detailed course work in August. I am sure you will enjoy the course - there are new topics to find out about and a few familiar themes that we will look at in more detail. Make sure you arrange to have your text books readys for the start of term. Keep referring to the blog for useful hints and links to web sites. Work hard and remember my saying of "don't just meet a deadline beat a deadline !"

All the best to Higher & Advanced Higher candidates

Well here we are at the end of a year of hard work - well done to all of you. We have had a lot of fun. I have certainly enjoyed teaching you all. Keep calm and sleep well tonight ! Coast photos from Geography Photos as a final bit or revision for the Higher class can you name the features ?

Keep on going ....

Striding Edge and Red Tarn

Stickle Tarn

Thirlmere - what type of feature is this and where is it found ?

Almost there now folks - hope you have had a useful day of revision today and have enough energy left for tomorrow too ! Don't forget to vary your revision methods - practice questions, reading the blogs, using revision notes, testing yourself, using the interactive web sites to name but a few.

Some lovely glaciation photos for you this evening taken by my good friend and available to us via Geography photos. Could you describe the formatiom of these features ?

M is for ....

Nice to have seen some of you in school today. I hope the rest of you are keeping fit and healthy in this last few days.

A poser to start with tonight. Read the title and add your own words - relevant to Paper 2. M is for ...... - think of at least 5. Remember specific examples / figures /place names are absolutely crucial to get as many marks as possible in your 25 mark answers.

Practice a few question to time - 35 mins per question to be safe.

RLR The format of RLR questions was slightly different last year - do not be put off - read all parts of the question very carefully, look at the number of marks for each sub section. Will it be coasts this year ? - who knows but you must be prepared for all 3 - glaciation, limestone & coasts.

D & H Ensure you know your indicators, read the question very carefully - is it asking about differences between or within a country ? Named examples - use your figures !

Photos tonight from the limestone area of the Dordogne in France

Keeping your eye on the ball

Using a football analogy in the title today - keep on track and keep going not much further now ! I know some of you have had a long period of revision and others still have exams on Friday to do first. Those last few days of work will be worth it ! I have heard from some of you over the last few days with queries. Don't forget to look over the blog links I have given you over the year and I will keep you calm on Monday morning. Today I have been writing my course review of the last year and of course you have all had a special mention ! IIIS fieldwork yesterday and we had wonderful weather.

The photo is of Thornton Force waterfall in the Yorkshire Dales - could you draw a diagram to help explain how it has formed ?

Soils

A few photographs to remind you of the soil section of our Biosphere work and some one word answer questions as a little test.

Name of the zone that material moves out of in a podzol ?
Type of humus found in brown earths ?
Downward movement of minerals in a soil caused by precipitation being greater than evaporation
F refers to ….. in a soil profile
The h in Ah refers to ...