Exams over ( for the moment)

Well after Art tomorrow (for a few of you) - that is it until the real thing !

You will get your estimate results tomorrow or on Friday. The Friday class may come to see me tomorrow to get your marks if you would like them. There are some good answers and we have positive comments we can make as well as some helpful hints which will help you to improve you responses. We will go over the papers fairly quickly in class. You will then have the opportunity to speak to myself and Mrs Ch individually about your answers, you will complete your exam analysis and we will speak of your target grades. We are in the process of writing your reports which contain comments regarding areas for development. As always you can come and ask for help and advice at any time.

A glaciation photo for you tonight.
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Margerie Glacier, Glacier Bay Alaska

Photo taken by flickr user ThijsFr - click on photo to link to the page

Estimate exam

I will just run through the format of the paper once more so that you are sure about it although we have covered it in class.

Paper 1 Physical and Human Environments 1hour 30 mins 100 marks

4 compulsory questions ( 2 physical and 2 human) worth 18 marks each

then 2 other questions each worth 14 marks - one physical question 5 OR 6 AND one human question 7 OR 8

Paper 2 Environmental Interactions 1 hour 15 mins 100 marks

Answer Question 1 AND Question 6 ONLY ( You can not do Q2,3,4,5)

Don't forget you can email or ring if you are stuck / worried / need help.

I will be there at the start of the exam on Monday. Keep calm, 6 deep breaths read the question properly and watch your time carefully - especially two of you ( you know who you are !!)

The photo is from flickr of Lac du Crozet near Grenoble taken by ..k2..- a calming view. Click on the photograph to be taken to the flickr page

All the best Mrs C & Mrs Ch

Rural photos

I have just found these great pictures to illustrate rice growing whilst trying to get to grips with flickr the online photo sharing site so I thought I would post now as they may help with your revision. They are part of the collection from IRRI - can you remember what IRRI is and how it is relevant ? There are 83 more if you follow the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=rice++fields+IRRI+landscape&m=text

World cycle ride

Fantastic news ! Mark has made it round the world and it looks like the Guinness Book of Records wil be verifying it as a new world record. He arrived back at 15.30 today (local time) at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris where he started back on August 5th. There will be lots of press coverage and TV reports this evening. There has already been an interview with my colleague on BBC Scotland at lunch time.



The link behind the photos will take you to the Newsround web site. Our IS event raised £245 for the 5 charities Mark is supporting. For more details and photos follow the link to the Artemis site and the web diary.
http://www.artemisworldcycle.com/

Don't foget to look at the Geoblogging site too - look for those fantastic meanders and ox bow lakes.http://www.geobloggingwithmark.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your weekend

In - Service

A post today especially for your teachers! Whilst you are at home revising we have an In - Service day. We are using our geography blog as an example. This is a post to show how easy it is to use one .

Development and Health revision

Here are two links to interesting sustainable projects which have been highlighted on the blog of a fellow Geography teacher. They are worth following up as examples to use in Question 6 on

Paper 2.

The first refers to a bicycle made from bamboo. The second is a scheme whereby children's play equipment is used to pump water - follow the links for the complete story

http://www.bamboobike.org/Home.html

http://www.playpumps.org/site/c.hqLNIXOEKrF/b.2559311/k.BCFF/Home.html

Royal Geographical Society web site about Dorset

I have just read about this new link in the last few minutes. It is a series of documents relating to a fieldwork weekend for Geography teachers which took place last Autumn in Dorset. There are lots of photographs and information about the coastline we have been studying and how it is being managed.

Spend some time looking at the photographs and take some notes to help you add more examples into your RLR answers.

http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/fieldwork/resource/jurassic-coast-fieldwork-weekend/

I am going on the next weekend to the Lake District so should be able to bring back some good glaciation photographs to use with you in time for the exam in May.

World Heritage Coast

We have been studying this coast as part of our work for Paper 2 the Rural Land Resources section of work. If you click on the photograph above of our favourite example of a natural arch it will take you to a page containing many useful links. The links look at specific factors e.g. coastal managment plan, transport strategy and the marketing strategy for the area. All of these wil help you to include specific extra detail in your answers.

One way of helping you to revise this section is to study your marked homework questions and with a different colour pen add any specific extra place names and detail you can.

World cycle ride

I S have been following the progress of Mark Beaumont as he cycles 18,000 miles around the world. The details of his exploits are on the wall outside Room G and you can follow the last leg by reading his cycle diary at http://www.artemisworldcycle.com/.

The Geography of the areas he has been visiting have been blogged about by my colleague at this site . It too is a fantastic site - see if you can find the wonderful posts about ox bow lake formation and about pivot irrigation

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

Mark is now back in Europe and it looks as if he will beat the previous world record by over 60 days by finishing in Paris on Friday 15th February. This has been an unsupported ride - he has carried his food, tent, and equipment himself in panniers on the bike.

It is a phenomenal achievement and we are supporting his charity fundraising next week by holding a Bake Sale and IS / Geography Department charity event. It is in the Hall at lunch time on Wednesday. There will be some cycle related games, a tombola, book & DVD stall so come along and bring your money. You will hear more about Marks' chosen charities in assembly on Tuesday.