Scribble Maps!

I have been playing around with this application for Google maps http://scribblemaps.com/ . It allows you to draw, annotate, print text, shade areas and add images to Google Maps at any scale on a map or satellite image. There are then a whole variety of saving options. I am sure you could put this technology to good use! Here, for example, is one I made earlier...

To see it in more detail, click on the map, then select 'menu' top left. Click on 'load/import map' and enter lNKFiaIYsv . The map will then load.

News 'Widget'

The sharp-eyed among you may notice a new 'widget' in the sidebar of the blog. This comes courtesy of History teacher Russell Tarr who has developed a great new free tool called classpress.net . It involves a generator which does an hourly run through web services looking for topic keywords associated with different subject areas. This creates an up-to-date summary of key news articles for a number of subjects, including Geography. You can link directly to the articles by clicking on them in the widget.

DdU wrt dis?

A glacier fills a valy n bgins eroding downward. Ground moraine erodes d fl@ valy fl%r n compressing flO means ice builds ^ on a gntL gradient cauzN gr8r erosion by abrasion. dis accts 4t overdeepened valy fl%r wich S thN filD W post glacial drainage 2 4m a ribbon lake.

Eskers r lng n winding ridges wich wr formed underneath d ice n tunnels filD W H2O. d streams laid dwn deposits wich bcAm layered.

You can start to feel silly after you've been marking for hours on a Friday evening! I came across this website recently which 'translates' English into textspeak and so i thought I'd type in a couple of your answers.


Im glad 2 rprt dat OTW uv done quite wel n d tst

The Higher Geog Blog enters its third year...

Welcome to the new school session and to the Higher Geog Blog 2008-2009. Its purpose is to support Higher Geography candidates by providing resources and links relevant to the course. Hopefully it will reinforce what you are learning in school and also encourage you to extend your research and reading and so ensure the best grade possible.

Most of you who are reading the blog will be 'new' readers - about to embark on almost 9 months of study leading towards the SQA exam in Higher Geography in May 2009. You might like to take time, therefore, to familiarise yourselves with the 'functionality' of the blog...

1) To date there are 173 postings in this blog. However, in order to ensure that it loads quickly, only 50 are visible at one time. To see archived posts, scroll down to the bottom and click 'older posts'.

2) All postings have labels (visble at the bottom of each posting) which link them to sections of the course. These labels are then listed in the right side bar. If you want to find all postings on any section of the course, click the appropriate label in the side bar. It is worth doing this regularly as you will find much good material and links in the archived posts, most of which is still relevant.

P.S. I took the image at the top of this posting while on holiday in Devon this ?summer. It shows the bar and lagoon at Slapton. You will soon be familiar with the formation of such a feature when you study coasts in the Lithosphere unit of the course! If however, you are already thirsting for knowledge, look here.

Last words from me before tomorrow.....

SAGT Higher Geography Pupil Conference

Hopefully some of you reading the HigherGeogBlog today have found your way here after following the link I gave you yesterday at the conference in Dalkeith. Indeed, you might be here.......or here.....So, if you are a first time visitor, welcome to the blog and please do come back in the run up to your exam. As well as new postings, there is plenty of relevance to your revision in the archives which you can access from the labels in the sidebar.

And a wee reminder of some of yesterday's presentations...

Firstly, global temperature variations in the last 150 years which formed part of the Atmosphere presentation and below, some very good advice which you would do well to take on board when you are sitting your exam in May. This presenter knows what he is talking about -as a member of the examining team for Higher Geography, he might well be scrutinising your paper!

There's no business like snow business!

Happy New Year! I hope you all have your 'pencils sharpened' and are ready for the term ahead!

Firstly the answer to the little puzzle I set you before the holidays.... Why should Santa relocate and where should he relocate to? The answer is that he should relocate to Kyrgyzstan in order to optimise the efficiency of delivering Christmas presents. The explanation is here.

Secondly, as many of you are aware, I spent Christmas amidst the snow of the French Alps in the Three Valleys area. One of the resorts of the Three valleys is Val Thorens which advertises itself as the highest ski resort in Europe. (The resort is at 2300m). Below is a photo I took looking down on Val Thorens from Cime Caron (3240m) on Christmas Day (it certainly beats cleaning sprouts and stuffing a turkey!). The highest peak on the skyline is Mont Blanc.

The history of Val Thorens is that it was created as a year round ski resort back in the 1970s. Summer skiing was possible then on the glacier below..... (spot the ice and erratics!)

Over the last 30 years, however, the glacier has receded to the point that summer skiing is no longer possible. However, because of its altitude, Val Thorens still has a very long skiing season. Despite this, poor snow in lower resorts in recent years meant that skiers were becoming increasingly cautious - even about booking up for Val T. As a result, to combat the bad press of global warming, they have launched a 'snow guarantee' , promising 70% of all pistes open from 25th December until the 1st May, or your money (for lift passes) back! In the 32 year history of the resort there has never been a shortage of snow between those days so they are not taking too much of a gamble and a lready it is proving to be a clever way of attracting advance bookings for the late season from March onwards.

You can read more about Val Thorens and its snow guarantee here.

Why is Santa relocating?

Here's something else for you to work on over the Christmas break - on top of the other two tasks I have given you to do (if you are HSD Geog bloggers!) .

Clue - find out where the location is and then try a few search engines or the search facility of a few media websites. I will give you the answer next week.

On the subject of people relocating, my 'relocation' to the Alps next week means that I can't keep up my postings on www.geobloggingwithmark.blogspot.com. However, I have arranged a 'guest presenter' so keep looking!

Merry Christmas - have a good holiday!

Yorkshire Dales fieldtrip November 2007

Well done to all of you who were with us in the Dales this weekend. You walked well (with hardly a complaint about the rain on Saturday!), worked hard - until after 10pm on both evenings, earned plaudits from the youth hostel staff and were good company. Here, as promised, are a few highlights from the weekend, starting with Thornton Force from Friday afternoon.....

Saturday morning walk to Malham Cove and the pavement at the top of the 415 steps!


Then on to Gordale Scar....
...followed by a visit to the Norber erratics

This morning (Sunday) we went to the limestone quarry at Hortonthen on to the pavements at Scar Close
at the foot of Ingleborough.......

....where we had fun testing out the grykes for size!

Last stop was a visit to White Scar caves .......Outside there were great views across the valley to Twistleton ...

Two reminders!

I am not going to 'repost' information which has already appeared on the blog so please remember how easy it is to access postings from last year. Use the list under 'Higher Units' in the sidebar and click on the unit for which you want to read previous posts. The blog will then 'reload' showing only the relevant posts. You would be well advised to do this on a regular basis!

Some day when time is heavy on my hands ( maybe when I retire!!), I will add more labels to all previous posts so you can refine your search further e.g. limestone, malaria..... In the meantime you will just have to read more than you need!

The second reminder is for all those who are going on the November Yorkshire Dales fieldtrip... parental consent forms are due back asap!

Greetings from the Jurassic Coast

Well done to last session's candidates!

I am delighted to report that the HSD Higher Geography results were excellent - 55% of you gained an A pass and 93% passed at A - C . The results are gratifying for Mrs W and for me but it is also pleasing to know that you have been rewarded for your hard work. Well done to all of you!

Old Chinese proverb - it say......

" You can stand around for a long time with your mouth open waiting for a roast duck to fly in" !

....on the other hand, you can do some work for yourself and earn the result you deserve.

So here we are, Higher geography classes over for another year and just study leave between us and the big day. Remember, you are not on your own - we are still in school while you are on study leave, we are contactable by email, there is the 'swot shop' we've arranged for the afternoon of 23rd May and the blog will be regularly up-dated.

Happy study leave and good luck in all your exams!

Countdown!

Well, it was........ about ten minutes ago when I made this countdown counter. If you click on the image above, it will link to the url where the counter is hosted and you will get the up-dated figures. Don't panic - you can do a lot in 22 days to get the pass you want!

NAB news is good news!

Good news for almost everyone! The results of the Physical Environments NAB assessment which you sat at the end of the week are very good. They are taking me a long time to mark because you wrote so much and a lot of it very detailed and accurate. This bodes well for the 28th May!

Some of you were a bit aggrieved that I had left this NAB until the last week of classes. Hopefully, you can now see that there was method in my madness. It means that you have kick started your revision and should have a third of it well in hand. There is a danger this year, with the exam being late in the diet, of feeling that you can afford to delay your Geography revision. That would be a BIG mistake! So keep at it - little and often.....

As promised, I will return the NAB papers to you on Tuesday along with a revision pack which will include the results of a perusal of my crystal ball (always my gift to Higher classes before they depart on study leave!). So don't even think of starting study leave early.........

The Alps from the air...and from the ground

As promised in my posting from Valmorel last week, here are some of the photos which I took while skiing in the Alps last week. As you can see, the persistent high pressure brought day after day of blue skies and stunning views...

Valmorel is in the Tarentaise valley, lying just to the west of the Three Valleys skiing area and the more well known resorts of Val Thorens, Meribel and Courchevel. From the Col du Mottet above Valmorel you can look south east along the whole chain of the Haute Tarentaise..

And if you have a mind to, you can see some pretty good glacial and periglacial features. You shouldn't have too much difficulty in spotting the glacial trough, truncated spurs, hanging valleys and frost shattered peaks in the panorama above.
Turn around and look in the other direction and here's what you can see.....a corrie (or cirque as they would call it in that part of the world) with the lip clearly visible and aretes flanking the sides.

Valmorel's location means that when you get high enough, you look north east towards Mont Blanc..Sometimes, believe it or not, I just take photos because I like the view! So, no famous peaks or prominent glacial features in the next two...

Some nice interlocking spurs here on the left mindyou!

And finally, just to prove that I did get up in that microlight (see last posting), here are a few of the images I managed to snap .....

The last time I'd seen that building on the right, my feet had been on the ground and there had been huskies

'parked' outside it!

Enjoy the remainder of your holiday. I hope that you are managing to get some revision done and also enjoy the fine weather. The blog will get back to more serious matters next week!

Greetings from Valmorel

As promised, here is a postcard from my holiday! I trust those of you back in Scotland are doing a bit of revision but having some down time as well. We have a few weeks of hard work ahead of us in the run-up to the exams so a bit of r and r is needed now.

Here in the French Alps the weather, the scenery and the skiing are simply stunning...... and have I ever seen some scenery today!! It was such a fabulous day I went for a flight in a microlight - just me, a pilot, a pair of flimsy wings and a lawnmower motor! I soared like a bird at 3000m above the Alps over corries, aretes, pyramid peaks and U shaped valleys. It was an experience of a lifetime. In between hyperventilating (I am not a good flier tho' after today, I may be cured!)I hope to have some good pics for you which I will add to the blog next week.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

Higher Pupil Conference.

Almost 300 pupils from schools across the central belt attended the Higher Geography Pupil Conference run by the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers at Dalkeith High School today. If you were there, you should be pleased to know that those of us who were lecturing/presenting were particularly impressed with our audience today!

I am hoping that having given you the link to the HigherGeogBlog, you are now going to become regular visitors and I thought you might like to be able to access the presentations I gave today.
Firstly, for the Biosphere Unit and on the topic of sand dune succession......


Secondly, for the Rural Land Resources section of Paper 2, my afternoon workshops were on the topic of Farming in the Yorkshire Dales.....


Sorry, no music on the on-line version.... you'll just have to hum....it was 'Emmerdale' and 'Last of the Summer Wine'!

Although it is now the 24th, I am going to edit this post rather than add a new one for today. Ollie Bray, Deputy Head at Musselburgh GS was one of the presenters at the conference on Friday. He has also kindly made his presentation on Population available to you.
On his own blog, he apologises for the first slide! However, it is only the title page and the rest more than makes up for it!

Dales Diary

Here are some photographic memories of our weekend in the Dales.

First to remind you of how much walking you did.......

Swilla Glen on the Ingleton waterfalls Walk

Approaching Thornton Force

Descending into Chapel-le-Dale from Twistleton Scar End

Towards Malham Cove




On the pavement above Malham Cove
Watlowes dry valley
Next, some 'team' photos..

Above Malham Cove

At the Norber erratics In White Scar Cave

And finally, some of my favourite pics from the weekend........

Thornton Force

Ingleborough

Ingleborough and Chapel-le-Dale

Malham Cove

Gordale

Gordale Scar

Norber

Hope you enjoyed the weekend as much as I did!