Merry Christmas!

This is just a short post to wish you all a happy holiday and to repeat what I said in class yesterday. Have a good rest over Christmas and then get stuck into your work! There are only a few weeks before prelims begin in early February.


It's not much of a present I'm afraid but as promised, I have uploaded a copy of the Holiday Homework sheet issued yesterday . Click here to access it.

As school is now officially 'out', I'm going to give the blog a rest for a week. I'll get posting again after New Year.


Merry Christmas!

Stopping malaria before the bite

You have recently started to look at malaria as an example of a disease affecting LEDCs. When you start to look at strategies for controlling the disease, one of the things which Mrs W will be emphasising is that there is, as yet, no vaccine which will offer protection from contracting the disease.There are, however, reports today of a vaccine which, when administered to people living in affected areas, will kill the parasite within the mosquitoes who injest the blood of vaccinated victims. You have to think about this! What this means is that there would be no benefit to vaccinated individuals (they might still contract the disease) but there could be long term benefits for their community. The snag is....... how many people will agree to be vaccinated if there is no benefit to their own health? You can read about this new development in the fight against malaria by clicking on the image above.

You might also like to have a look over the holidays at the Roll Back Malaria website which contains a wealth of material which is relevant to this section of the Development and Health unit.

International Migrants Day

For most of us the 18th of December means Christmas Day minus one week. The UN, however, have it earmarked as International Migrants Day and in recognition of that, the BBC News website is featuring a series of reports on migration entitled 'World on the Move'.Today's article, which you can link to by clicking the diagram above, is entitled 'Migration in Figures' and contains a lot of very useful data.

Brits abroad

This interactive resource on migration (click image to link) has recently been brought to my attention....

The tabs on the world map provide detailed information by region. You can get deeper into the data by clicking on the named countries on each map or by using the drop down menu. However, as well as providing information on migration of Brits overseas (check out the proportional maps as well as the standard ones), it is also possible to look at immigration from almost every country in the world to the UK and to look at maps showing the distribution of migrants within the UK. When examining data for individual countries, use the link called 'how many people from this country live in Britain' and you will obtain maps like this one...

Think of how you might use this wealth of information so support the work you have done on migration.

Birth rate harms poverty goals

In an article (click on the image to link) which is reminiscent of many of the views on population which prevailed in the 50s and 60s, there was an interesting article (another one!) on the BBC website last Friday.

A UK parliamentary group is maintaining that the Millennium Development Goals relating to poverty reduction cannot be met without curbing current population growth in LEDCs.

They draw attention to Africa in particular, where the BR remains high, population numbers are rising rapidly and where the numbers of people living in extreme poverty has increased by 140 million in just over ten years.

If you read the article, you should be able to make a list of what it cites as the consequences of a high BR. There is also another link to follow to an associated and interesting article on the BBC's Green Room pages.

Size matters!

The things you find on the BBC website......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6161691.stm

A couple of issues relevant to geography are raised by this article
a) what connection might there be with the slowing down of the BR decline in India?
b) what are the implications for a country which already has the highest rates of HIV infections?

River erosion processes

With the Environmental Interactions NAB behind us, we now have to focus on completing the Hydrosphere unit before the end of term. As we move into examining fluvial landforms, you might like to revise the work we did earlier in the week on river erosion processes. You should be able to look at the following images and describe and explain the variety of erosion processes which have produced the landforms shown.

The first is a small stream on Ben Lawers in Perthshire.

The second shows exposed river bed at a time when the river (top left) was low. It is flowing over Carboniferous Limestone in the Yorkshire Dales.

The third shows High Force waterfall on the River Tees.

You might like to consider copying the images (right click the image and 'copy') then pasting them into a Word document onto which you can add annotations. File beside your river erosion notes in your folder!

On a slightly different tack and for those of you who find the concept of pools and riffles hard to imagine....

Problem solved ......

Says it all really!

Click here to find out how to make to make your own animated scrolling text LED sign.

The week ahead

If you link to the department blog , you can read why postings seem a little 'bare' at present!

However, the dearth of images doesn't close down communication so here are a few pointers for the week ahead.....

1) Your main priority this week is the unit assessment on Friday. Too many of you seem to be a bit vague about what this will entail. Please read the last posting on the Higher Geog Blog below for details and if you are still in any doubt, see me as a matter of urgency!

2) Remember that you are going on Thurday afternoon to the University Geography department's Christmas lecture on aspects of migration. Mrs W will give you further details early in the week.

3) The Higher course continues around these events and in the Hydrosphere unit we will be turning our attention this week to fluvial (river) landforms and, in particular, the change in the characteristics of a river and its valley between source and mouth. You could back up what we will be doing in class by checking out some of these links
http://www.cleo.net.uk/resources/index.php?ks=3&cur=10
http://www.georesources.co.uk/darentintro.htm
http://www.geobytesgcse.blogspot.com (postings for November 10th - 12th)

NAB looming!

What a ridiculous name for a test - it's almost as bad as 'internal unit assessment' and to add insult to injury, since NAB stands for National Assessment Bank, it doesn't even make sense! Thankfully, it is not the whole National Assessment Bank which is looming! Yet despite its erroneous title and the fact that NAB has to be the most unattractive acronym ever, I'm afraid the bad news is that you still have to sit one next Friday (8th December)!

The unit which is up for assessment is Unit3 - Environmental Interactions. You should revise all of your Lithosphere and RLR notes. Try to think of it as some early prelim revision and it won't seem so bad! This could even be an opportunity for you to trawl the Higher Geog Blog. Remember that the labels in the sidebar will help you to 'extract' relevant postings.

At the risk of repeating myself (again), success in this NAB will depend on learned factual detail i.e. specific, named, case study information and not vague generalisations which could apply to any number of places. You have been warned!

Development Indicators

In the Development and Health unit of the course you have recently been studying indicators of economic development and, in particular, you have been looking at contrasts of development within and between LEDCs. Unfortunately, textbooks (even new ones!), frequently carry development data which is out of date. It is, however, possible to access fairly accurate and up-to-date figures by looking at the World Bank's annual Development Indicators resource.

This is a very weighty publication but if you click on the image above, you will link to a facility which allows you to find abstracted development information based on 50 indicators for almost every country in the world. It is a 'data query' service which allows you to select the countries and years you want to look at and the indictors you wish to obtain data for. You can then opt to view the results as an Excel spreadsheet.

A quick and easy exercise would be to choose a range of LEDCs including some of the NICs which you have been studying with Mrs W and then to draw up a table of data for selected indicators. Which indictors best reveal the differences in economic development? However, are these necessarily the 'best' indicators of development? Which NICs are the current front runners in economic development? Where are most of the world's least economically developed countries?

Bulgarian Population Crisis

There is an excellent article on the BBC website today which would provide you with another good case study for the Population Unit.

Already a small nation, Bulgaria is likely to lose one third of its population in just a few decades. The question is why? Read the article and try to list as many reasons as you can for this imminent population crisis.


The article is conveniently divided into three sections relating to a)migration b) the rural economy and c) the birth rate . Use these as sub headings for your notes and explain how each is linked to population decline.

Having explained the underlying reasons for the population crisis, what are the associated social and economic problems ?

Second Dales Fieldtrip

If you did not participate in the first Dales fieldtrip of the session, you should now have received details of the March trip which is planned for 2nd - 4th March. In case you have been a little erratic and have already mislaid the letter, you can download one by clicking on the image below!As I have to confirm our booking with the youth hostel in Malham as soon as possible, I would appreciate a really quick turn around of the paperwork. ..... deposits and tear off slips back to me by the 1st December please!

Other blogs!

2006 is rapidly developing into the year of Geography department blogs! Geography teachers all over the UK are realising the potential which blogging has for beaming up-to-date resources directly into the homes of their students. Here are a couple written by geography teacher friends of mine which you might like to explore. Click on the banners to link directly to the blogs....

The first is written by Rob Chambers, a teacher of Geography at St Ivo school in Cambridgeshire. His blog is aimed at students studying GCSE in his department but many of the topics are similar to those we study in Higher. If you start at the posting for October 30th and work forward, you will find a huge amount of material which is relevant to the Hydrosphere unit which we have just started. As well as course notes, there are links to excellent animations, quizzes and activities.

The second blog which you might like to ckeck out is.. This one is the brainchild of Alan Parkinson who is the Head of Geography at King Edward VII (KES) in King's Lynn in Norfolk. Again it is being written to support GCSE students but it contains much which is interesting for any Higher Geography pupils.

Remember that those of us who write blogs may choose to archive our postings in different ways. Check out the 'Blog archive' section on the sidebar to access all previous postings. If, for example, you look at the KES October postings, you will find a huge amount of material about Svalbard.... and it has a connection with Dundee! When Alan and his family visited us in the summer, I introduced him to a friend of mine in Dundee who had just come back from an amazing holiday seeing polar bears in Svalbard. If you read some of the postings for October, you will see that as a result of this meeting, Alan's pupils had some interesting on-line discussions with my Dundee friend who also supplied some stunning photos like this one for Alan's blog.

I have added links to these other blogs on the sidebar so that you can access them easily in future.

Population and D and H resources

Although you have now completed the population unit, there is no harm in 'revisiting' it from time to time. Here is a resource which focuses on ageing and ageing populations which you might like to explore. It is published by the Wellcome Trust, an independent charity which funds research into human health. Their publication on ageing contains two articles which are particularly relevant to the Higher course:

1) Ageing populations and Demographic Change in the UK and

2) Ageing populations in Africa

The second resource, which is more relevant to the work you are doing with Mrs W at present, comes from the same website as the 'Gapminder' scattergraphs which you have been exploring in the ICT suite this week.

This is an excellent presentation (you can download it to your computer at home) which explores many aspects of social and economic development around the world. Link directly to it by clicking on the 'start' button above.

"Out of Oblivion"

When we were at the YDNP visitor centre at Malham this weekend, I picked up a leaflet about a new website which has been produced by the YDNP with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund. It claims to "offer a window into the archaology and history of this beautiful area and its place in the landscape". As you will know from what I've been saying in class, I do believe that the landscape of the Dales owes as much to the history of human land use in the area as it does to nature.

I have now had time to look at the website (click the image above to link) and I'm really impressed with the resources which it contains. You might like to begin with the section on geological timelines where there are excellent descriptions of the geology, the effects of the Ice Age and the formation of karst features. On the same page there is a link to a short video called 'The Landscape through time" which looks at how the landscape around Malham Cove has changed since the Ice Age. In the 'Themes' section there is also a succinct description of the evolution of farming in the Dales .

And on a different note... here are the drumlins in Ribblesdale which you may recall me getting out of the coach yesterday to 'snap'. Although you seemed singularly unimpressed, they are one of the best drumlin swarms in England!!

YD Fieldtrip Weekend One

I hope those of you have been in the Dales with me and Mr Ross this weekend are all safely back home. You were an excellent group - up for everything we did and not a murmur of complaint (at least not that we heard!). It is always encouraging for me when my pupils are complimented but three times in one day - from the youth hostel, the manager at White Scar Cave and our driver - was exceptional and well deserved. The other Higher group who are going to the Dales in March have a lot to live up to!

As promised here are some pics from the weekend...
At Thornton Force

9pm on Friday evening and you were still working

"Stand off" at Malham Cove with some of the cattle which are being grazed around Malham as part of the Limestone Country Project. (see posting for 07.

A nice view 'over the edge' of Malham Cove. You will, of course, notice the solution hollows in the limestone in the foreground and the resurfaced path leading to the Cove below!

Look past the foreground 'distractions' to see some nice joints and bedding planes!

So this is limestone pavement?

Deep inside Gordale Scar



Erratic at Norber (Hope that limestone plinth doesn't suddenly dissolve, Mr R!)

Grikey! That one's deep.

The pavement at White Scar Close

Underground waterfall in White Scar Cave

You can expect to see a lot more photographs of our weekend appearing in the department over the next few days

Just to whet your appetites....

For those of you who are going with me this weekend on the 'first' Dales fieldtrip of this session, here are some pics of a few of the sights we (and the remainder who will go in March) will enjoy....

Thornton Force waterfall

Erratic at Norber

pavement above Malham Cove

Gordale Scar

Watlowes dry valley

Flowstone in White Scar cave

You might like to look at each of the photos and draw up a list of the PROCESSES which have operated to produce the feature or fashion the landscape.

Limestone Country Project

We have been looking at farming in the Dales this week and have spent some time looking at how various agri-environment schemes can help to resolve conflicts between farmers and environmental considerations in the National Park. I made brief mention of the Limestone Country Project but you might like to research this a bit more (could be worth a few marks in the external exam!). Click on the image above to link directly to the project website. You might like to start with the 'watch our video' section and then move on to read the excellent 5 minute guide to the Limestone Country Project . The 'Farmers Guidelines' section explains how farmers can benefit from involvement in the project.

River landscapes programmes

River Cuckmere

After the Limestone programmes in 2001 and the Development and Health programmes in 2003, I am pleased to tell you that my latest efforts as Geography Consultant for BBC Scotland will be broadcast on BBC2 in the early hours of Friday morning (04.40 - 05.20) this week. The programmes explore two rivers in contrasting geological locations - the River Cuckmere in Sussex and the Devon in Clackmannanshire.

River Devon

The first programme compares the features of the two rivers and the processes which created them while the second programme explores the contrasting hydrology of their drainage basins - both are very closely linked to the Hydrosphere section of the course.

We will look at the programmes in class but you might also want to record them for watching at home when you are revising (remember to roll the credits!).

Countdown to your Human Environments NAB!

I understand from Mrs W that both Higher classes will be sitting their Human Environments NAB in the next week. As you conclude the Rural section of the course,

you might like to reinforce what you have been learning about extensive commercial agriculture by looking at a case study farm in Cambridgeshire which features on the Farming and Countryside website. The image above shows Lynford House farm from the air and if you click on it, you will link directly to the relevant web pages. You might want to pay particular attention to the sections (accessible from the the side bar) on 'current situation' and 'recent developments'.

And in a lighter vein.....

Click on the banner to link to 'Geography at the Movies'. Scroll down the page until you get to 'Green Revolution'. Click where it says 'click here to view the movie' or right click to save to your computer, turn on your speakers, sit back and absorb!

National Parks portal and the YDNP site

You could back up the work on National Parks that we have been doing this week by investigating this excellent portal which provides links to a variety of information about all of the National Parks in England, Wales and Scotland. Click on the image above and you will be directed to the home page from where you can link to general information about national parks in the UK as well as to the individual national parks.

The website for the Yorkshire Dales National Park (accessible by clicking the logo on the left) is full of useful information relating to the RLR section of the course. You could, for example, start here to read about the special qualities which earned the Dales their designation as a national park. The education files (some of which you already have as handouts) are also freely downloadable.

Remembering Aberfan

On the 21 October 1966, 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a tip of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales.

I am old enough to remember the news coverage of that disaster and the image above of the mass grave of children's coffins is probably what sticks most in my memory. The death toll of children was so high because their school was right in the path of the mudslide which occurred just after the they had assembled in school at 9am.

I suspect most of you will never have heard of Aberfan. I used to use it as a case study of a mudslide but over the years there have been fewer and fewer pupils who even recognised the name. Today, 40 years on, is a good time to talk about it again.

The tragic events of 40 years ago unravelled as a consequence of both human and physical factors. Heavy rain saturated the unstable and highly permeable coal waste which had been piled high on the valley side (despite many warnings of the danger of this). Underneath was a layer of permeable sandstone and below this an impermeable rock layer. Surface springs had also been blocked by the coal waste and as it was unable to drain, it turned into the 'slurry' which was eventually propelled by gravity down the valley side.

Your textbooks contain some information about Aberfan which you might want to read in the section on Mass Movement (pages 81 and 84 in the new editions and pages 86 and 90 in the old editions). There is also a lot of coverage in the press today and on the BBC website. Click on this link to access it and try to find time to read broadcaster John Humphrey's poignant memories of the disaster.