River Processes

Year 10, you may find this video useful for your GCSE rivers work. Produced by Charlie Hannigan. Thanks Charlie.

Ning!

You have all heard of myspace, bebo and Facebook, well now become a member of ning! Ning is another 'social network' site that allows people to communicate through the internet. I have recently set up a 'ning' for the Geography department in our school.

It can be found at www.abblanchgeography.ning.com

As pupil safety in my number 1 priority on the internet, this social network is by invitation only membership, therefore allowing me to decide who can and cannot join. So far the 'ning' has mainly been aimed at sixth form students but I would like to roll it out across all years. I have collected some email addresses for Year 9 pupils and will hopefully move towards other years soon. In the meantime, if you would like to join the abblanchgeography ning then send me an email BARLOW@blanch.org.uk with your name on, I will then send an invitation to your email.

Take part in the Geography social network. Dare you miss out!



Visit abblanchgeography

Merseyside Geographical Association Junior Quiz

I know that I haven't posted for a while now, just with the dark mornings and even darker evenings, its been quite a job to get through this term! The end is now near.

I would like to congratulate 3 year 9 girls, Olivia, Erin and Elle, who recently represented the school in the Merseyside Geographical Association Junior Quiz. All 3 girls represented the school in a fantastic fashion and against tough opposition they really gave it their best effort.

Thank you girls and well done.

Storm Surge Hits East Coast

News watchers over the past day or so would have noticed concerns over a tidal surge heading towards the east coast of the UK. Fears of flooding have lead to may people spending the night in temporary accomodation.

Initial fears have now passed as peak water levels have passed and people have started to move back into their homes in towns such as Great Yarmouth. The Thames Barrier was closed overnight to protect the capital city, London.

Follow the links below to read more about the surge:

Wind and tide bring flood threat

Minister urges calm over surge

Tidal surge 'poses grave danger'

Tidal surge residents 'helpless'

Tide fears recede as surge passes

Useful Websites:

Tides - Frequently Asked Questions

Environment Agency

Met Office

Don't forget the Guinea worm!!

Year 8 came to the end of their development topic today with a visit by Jane Attar from ActionAid. Jane delivered two fantastic talks about development levels throughout the world, human rights and how people's rights are regulary denied in developing nations. Year 8 gained a clear insight in how ActionAid can help people to establish their human rights to help to develop their own communities.

We would now like Year 8 to come up with fundraising ideas to raise money for ActionAid in the work that they do. The ideas will be discussed in upcoming form time and hopefully Year 8 will have a project up and running before Christmas. Follow up todays talk on the ActionAid website

Year 10 - Waterfall Models

Year 10 have begun their GCSE by studying river processes and landscapes. As their studies moved along the course of a river they begun to identify specific featues that occur along the course of a river. This led us directly to the formation of waterfalls. After looking at the main processes that lead to the formation of a waterfall, they worked as a group to create four models to demonstrate this

Here are the fantastic results!

Volcano Models

As Year 13 continue to work relentlessly towards their A2 examination in January, we spent the lesson yesterday looking at plate boundaries and their associated volcanic activity.

In groups they were challenged to create models to show volcanic activity along constructive and destructive plate boundaries.

Here are the results!!

Summer of Geography!

Hello and welcome back from our summer holidays. What a summer it has been! Well not in terms of sunshine and sitting out sunbathing, but on the geography front, as ever, there have been lots of geographical events! You think that geography stops whilst you are on holiday, your wrong!

Many of you will remember the flooding in Yorkshire from before we broke up. Floods struck again in the UK in South-West England. Where towns such as Gloucester, Tewkesbury (pictured) and Upton-upon-Severn were seriously flooded. Remember that this was during the summer, not when we get our greatest amount of rainfall during the winter months.

On the 15th August a powerful 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit the coast of Peru, killing at least 337 people and injuring hundreds more. In the capital city Lima, buildings shook violently during the earthquake. Click here to read more on this story from the BBC website

Hurricane Dean signified the start of hurricane season around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Many tourists were affected as the Hurricane came ashore along the coast of Mexico. Click here to read more about Hurricane Dean and its effects.

Finally for this post. A teacher has created a fantastic webiste called Games4Geog. Here you can find many games based around your study of geography. Today I am going to place a couple of links to games based on the "Summer of Geography". Test yourself on what you know and enjoy learning about geography.

Click here for the "Summer of Geography" Quiz.

Click here for another "Summer of Geography" game.

Thought you had played your lot! Think again. Click here for another "Summer of Geography" game.

Arran Fieldtrip Day 4

Arran Day 3 (Part 3)

Arran Day 3 (Part 2)

Arran Day 3 (Part 1)

Sorry for such the long wait for the final photos from the Arran Field Trip, but here they are.

Year 10 hit number 1 with "Rivers"

The wait is now over!! As promised in earlier posts, here is the debut single from Year 10 Geographers titled "Rivers". Although they missed out on Glastonbury this year, hopes are high that they can claim top spot in the UK chart next week!

Listen to the track below and CLICK HERE to download the track for FREE. Better value than iTunes!!




Powered by Podbean.com

Arran Fieldtrip Day 2

Here are the pictures from day 2 of the fieldtrip to Arran. Can you hold on for days 3 and 4?

Mr Wilkinson leaves Archbishop Blanch

Mr Wilkinson has recently finished his PGCE placement at our school. Myself, Mrs Carson and Miss Tarpey would like to thank him for all of his hard work and inspirational ideas that he has brought to the department. I would also like to say thank you on behalf of the girls who have loved his lessons and learnt a great deal from his teaching.

Good luck in your new job at Notre Dame.

Didn't think we were going to let you off so here is a photos from your "field of dreams" on Arran where many special goals have been scored! Shame the opposition scored twice as many!

Arran Fieldtrip

Having just returned from an inspirational and interesting fieldtrip to the Isle of Arran, I am just getting round to putting the photographs onto the blog. So, here is day 1 from the fieldtrip. Enjoy!

G8 Summit - Heiligendamm, Germany

Today see's the final day of the G8 summit in Germany. The G8 is an international forum to deal with global issues, such as climate change and the campaign to reduce world poverty. BBC G8 information page.

The G8 involves 8 member countries; Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, the USA, Canada and Russia. The Head of Governement from each country attends the summit to discuss a range of issues.

Of major importance this week has been the issue of climate change. An aim has been set this week to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050. Clearly this target needs to be kept to as the worlds climate continues to rise, threatening our planet. BBC G8 climate change report.

Also on the agenda has been the issue of Aids. The G8 leaders have pledged $60 billion to fight Aids in Africa. It is thought that the USA will pledge half of the money. Leaders from 6 African counries will attend the G8 summit today to discuss the pledge and to talk about issues such as fairtrade. Click here to view the BBC report in to the Africa Aids pledge.

G8 website

The "River Song" hits Number 1!

Year 10 are about to hit the charts with their very own "river song"! Inspired by Mr Wilkinson armed with his Ocean Colour Scene CD, the girls were asked to come up with the lyrics to write a song about the formation of a river meander! The creative minds got to work straight away and the lyrics are now on paper. The recording session starts next week so listen out for the finished song. Available for download soon!!

The girls relaxing after an inspirational session writing the lyrics to their future hit!! The rubbish is deposition, not a messy classrrom. Honest!

Year 8 - Earthquake Survival

Year 8 have been looking at how to be prepared for a disaster, particularly earthquakes. This week they have been looking at how to create an earthquake survival kit. It is identified that the first 72 hours after an earthquake are critical for survival, so pupils have been devising kits to prepare for living with out essential services for upto 72 hours.

Therefore, www.72hours.org is an advisory website for the people of San Francisco, USA. It provides residents will vital information about how to be prepared for a disaster such as an earthquake.

Have a look at the site as it provides pupils with interesting information about how to plan and create an earthquake survival kit.

Year 11 - Geography Podcasts

The BBC have produced a series of mp3 files to assist your Geography revision.

Click here to go direct to the bitesize website to download the files. Remember that we don't study all of the topics.

Year 11 - Exam Technique

So, all the lessons ahave stopped and its almost over, bar the shouting, but Year 11 you don't get away that easily!!
I'm sure that you are all spending every given hour revising for your exams so here is a short video (produced by Daniel Raven-Ellison) to help along with your GCSE Geography exam.
Remember that you've worked so hard over the past 2 years, make sure that you get what you want!



Unsure of what each exam command word means?

Click here to downlaod a word document of exam comand words

Year 7 - Weather Games

Year 7, as you are working fantastically well through your current topic of weather, I have found a few websites that will help you to learn about weather, but hopefully witha bit of added fun as well! All of the websites below contain games that are based around your weather topic. Enjoy playing the games, and learn about the weather at the same time.

weatherwizkids website
BBC weather website games
web weather for kids
FEMA for kids - links weather with natural disasters

Year 7 - Housing Estate Designs

Here is a picture of the model housing estates produced by Year 7.

Year 7 - The Water Cycle (pictures)

Here are a couple of images of the water cycle posters recently produced by Year 7. Top marks for the 3D model in picture 2!!

Year 8 - "pop-up" Volcanoes

Here are a copule of images of the "pop-up" volcanoes that Year 8 recently produced. The eruptions are fantastic!!

Year 12 - Bhopal Case Study

The 1st PowerPoint case study focussing on the impacts of MNCs in developing countries.

Year 12 - Economic Activity Notes

Here are the Interactive Whiteboard notes from today's lesson, based around revision of economic activity for GGA2.

Year 11 - Population and Development

Population characteristics between MEDCs and LEDCs can often be quite striking. There are often key differences in the birth rate, natural increase, their stage in the Demographic Transition Model and population structure. The death rates of MEDCs and LEDCs, when compared can often be similar, although the death rates in LEDCs are falling due to advances in medication whilst death rates in MEDCs are rising slightly due to ageing populations.

Using birth rate as an example, we can examine a country's level of development. If a country can control it's birth rate then this is usually accompanied by a growth in national and personal wealth. With an increase in national wealth a government can spend funds on birth control campaigns and set up family planning clinics. With increase personal wealth, attitudes towards children change as they are seen as an economic burden rather than asset. Closing the gap between birth rate and death rate lowers the natural increase, which allows transition through the Demographic Transition Model.

Year 7 - Water Cycle Question

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Year 7 - The Water Cycle

What is the water cycle?

The water cycle describes how the water on this earth circulates or goes around and around from the oceans to the atmosphere to the land and back to the oceans again. This means that the water that falls on you as rain has fallen a million times before.

Key Terms:

Evaporation - Transfer of water from the sea to the air.

Transpiration - The transfer of water from plants to the air as gas.

Condensation - Water vapour changes back to water and forms as water droplets which are visible as clouds.

Precipitation - Moisture falls to the earth (rain, snow, hail)

Surface Run-Off - Water which lies on top of, or flows over, the ground.

Infiltration - The movement of water from the surface of the ground into the soil.

Groundwater - Water stored in rocks.

Hydrology - The study of water.

The water cycle helps us to understand our weather systems and how precipitation supplies our rainfall and how the sun affects the weather that we get in the UK.

Follow-up your interest in the water cycle by using the websites below:

Kidzone - Water
National Marine Aquarium website
bbc.co.uk - The water cycle
Met Office website

Animation courtesy of www.mrhall.org

What might Great Britain look like in 2050?

Ordnance Survey are inviting all schoolchildren in years 7-9 and years 10-11 to enter a drawing, painting or collage in a design competition.

A winner in each year group will win an 8Gb iPod Nano and the overall winner's school will recieve an MPEG digital video camera.

"Mapping the future of great britain" is the title of the competition.

We would like to understand how children imagine Great Britain could look in the year 2050. So your piece of work needs to reflect this statement.

Your piece of work may include the following issues:

• Environment
• Seasons
• Transport
• Nature
• Weather

Posters will go up around school shortly and pupils will be able to complete a piece of work during lunch-time in T6.

Kent Earthquake

Of particular interest to Year 8 pupils at the moment as they are working through their 'hazards module.

On Saturday the 28th of April an earthquake of magnitude 4.3 hit the county of Kent in South-East England.

Click here to read the story on the bbc website.

Image courtesy of Getty Images on bbc.co.uk

Year 12 - The Impact of an MNC (Bhopal Case Study)

Having investigated the positive and negative impacts of MNCs on developing countries, your task isto create a case study of the impact of an MNC in Bhopal, India.



As with similar case studies, I would like you to create a Powerpoint slideshow and then upload your finished case study to the 'year12blanchgeograhy' slideshare website.

www.bhopal.org will the main source of information for your case study.

Divide your case study into the following sections:

• How the disaster happened?
• The effects?
• Union Carbide's response?

Give Geography It's Place - BBC say 'Geographers'

For all you avid geographers out there, the 'Give Geography It's Place' team have been campaigning for organisations to recognise Geography as a subject in its own right, not just bundled in with science.

A breakthrough has been made! In the the BBC news report below, the reporter uses the word 'Geographers' rather than going for the common term 'Scientists'. Is this the beginning of greater things for Geography? Lets hope so!!

Year 11 - Measuring Development

Copy of the powerpoint from the 'measuring development' lesson.

Year 8 - Kashmir Earthquake (Homework)

Here is the information from the lesson to allow you to complete your diary entry.

Homework due in on Tuesday 24th April

Create a diary entry for this girl who was involved in the Kashmir earthquake.

Some questions to get you thinking!

What will her life be like?
What feelings will she have?
What has happened to her?
What does she need to do?
What will the future be like?

Sorry for the lack of posts

Just a quick message to apologise for the lack of posts recently.

I have had my 'home' broadband cancelled as I try to switch providers. The 'lovely' Tiscali are testing my patience by not removing the 'tags' from my line. Therefore, I am left with no internet for over a month!

I hope to have the situation resolved soon (now OFCOM are involved!), so please return to the site soon as I will update a significant amount of information when I'm back online.

Deportation of the Chowdhury family

People who are reading this will not know who the Chowdhury family are.

I taught Nazifa Chowdhury at Childwall Schhol. She was a delightful and enthusiastic geographer (and pupil). The situation that she and her family are now in is awful.

Please click on the web link below to read about their situation and PLEASE sign the petition.

PETITION TO RELEASE THE CHOWDHURY FAMILY

Thanks for your support.

Year 7 - Europe Physical Features

Video from the lesson today.

Listen to the song and write down the geographical words!

An excellent starter activity from our PGCE student Mr Wilkinson.

Year 12 - Decline in Manufacturing

Powerpoint from Year 12 lesson.

Year 12 - Economic Activity

Powerpoint from recent Year 12 lesson.

Liverpool Geography Teachers Meeting

I have posted the resources that I used to present to Liverpool Geography teachers about blogs.

CLICK HERE to download the blog user guide.

Year 11 - An introduction to development

What is development?

Development almost means the same as ‘wealth’. Although wealth is an economic factor, variations in wealth affect quality of life, health, literacy and housing, which are examples of social conditions. Therefore development can be measured by both economic and social factors.

Countries can be observed at being at different levels of developement. We often categorise countries as 'developing' or 'developed'. The developing countries are known as Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDC), whilst the developed countries are known as More Economically Developed Countries (MEDC). Of course it is almost impossible to split countries into either of these categories, but various methods of measurement are used to assess whether a country is an MEDC or LEDC.

Location of MEDC's and LEDC's

Although it is difficult to split MEDC's and LEDC's, the diagram above displays the Noth/South divide that tends to separate the two. MEDC's are mainly located in the northern hemisphere and dominate the continents of North America and Europe. The exception to this rule is Australasia, which is located in the sothern hemisphere. Japan is seen as the only representative from Asia, though this is changing rapidly. The LEDC's are located mainly in the couthern hemisphere and dominate the continents of Africa, South America and Asia.

As mainly Asian countries continue to industrialise this image will be subject to change as we see increased wealth in countries such as China.

Measuring Development

GNP (Gross National Product) per person is the most widely used indicator of a country’s level of development. It is the US dollar value of a country’s final output of goods and services in a year, divided by its population.

GNP is a more relaible indicator of wealth in MEDC’s than LEDCs for two reasons:

1.The statistics for working it out are more likely to be readily available and more accurate.

2.Only the values of products sold are included in its calculation. Food produced by farmers for subsistence purposes (to feed themselves and their families) does not have a recorded money value. In LEDCs, farming remains the main occupation, so it is likely that the GNP represents and undervaluation for poor countries.

There are various further measures of a countries level of development. These include factors such as:

Birth rate - The number of live births per 1000 of population.

Death rate - The number of deaths per 1000 of population.

Infant mortality - The number of deaths in babies before the age of 1 per 1000 of population.

Adult Literacy rate - The percentage of people over the age of 15 who can read.

Number of people per doctor - The average number of people for each doctor.

Population with access to safe water - The percentage of people with a safe water supply nearby.

Food consumption - Food intake in calories per day, minimum 2000.

Urban population - The percentage of people who live in cities.

Children in primary school - The percentage of children under 11 who go to school.

Energy consumption - The average amount of fuel used by one person in a year. Measured in kilograms of oil.

Follow up links

BBC GCSE Bitesize geography: What is development?

Cyber School Bus InfoNation website. Allows you to compare development indicators for upto 6 countries.

Year 7 - Woodford Halse

Year 7, you are now coming towards the end of your settlement unit of work. In the next 2 lessons you will be completing a 'levelled' decision making exercise (DME).

So what is a decision making exercise?

As you may have guessed by the title, it is an exercise where you have to make decisions! In this exercise you will have to decide the best location for building a new housing estate in the village of Woodford Halse.

During the 1st lesson you will look into the location of Woodford Halse and some history behind why the village has grown in the past.

Here are some notes from that 1st lesson.

• Woodford Halse is a small village in the south of England.
• It is located 15km north east of Banbury, 20km south west of Northampton, 10km south of Daventry and 15km north west of Milton Keynes.
• The M1 motorway runs to the east of the village, whilst the M40 runs to the west. Both motorways provide a direct road to London.
• There is a main railway station in Milton Keynes that provides a train service to London.
• Birmingham International Airport is to the north west.

• Woodford Halse lies to the east of the A361 main road that links Banbury to Daventry.
• The village is a rural location, surrounded by open fields and farmland.
• The River Cherwell flows through the village.
• Surrounding villages include; Eydon, Hinton, Preston Capes and Byfield

Woodford Halse contains the services that we would expect to find in a village. It has a church (see photo below), a Post Office, a public house and a carniferous woodland area located inbetween Woodford Halse and Hinton.

To the south of the village there is evidence of disused railway lines that are now used as footpaths (see photo below)






Maps courtesy of get-a-map prvided by the Ordnance Survey

Photographs courtesy of www.flickr.com

Year 9 - SimSweatShop

Continuing with our current topic of global fashion. After completing the ICT activity on the cleanclothes website this week, I would like you to play a game on the SimSweatShop website.

The game is a bit of fun for you, but has great value when trying to think about working conditions for people that work in sweatshops.

This is your homework task for this week:

• Play the simsweatshop game and investigate some of the stories behind the game as they appear, by clicking on 'What's the Story?'
• Below this post there is a 'comment' button. Click on this
• Leave a comment relating to what you thought about the game and what it's purpose was? Make sure you sign in with your first name and surame initial so that I know you have left a comment.

Year 12 - Regeneration in Manchester

Continuing with the current theme of investigating re-urbanisation in UK cities. Today's Guardian newspaper carries and article about the 'New Islington' project in the Ancoats area of east Manchester. Similar in some ways to the Eldonian Project in Liverpool, the regeneration company urban Splash have consulted the original residents of the area all through the planning and building of the project. Although far from finished, there have been significant improvemets in the area, but Urban Splash ultimate aim is to integrate affluent 'newcomers' into the project.

Whether this causes issues in the future remains to be seen?

CLICK HERE to read the article for yourself.

Photograph by Len Grant, courtesy of www.guardian.co.uk

Year 8 - Trafford Centre Report

You have now begun to complete your report to your visit to the trafford centre. Your report is due in on either Monday the 5th March or Tuesday the 6th March, depending on which day you have geography.

Your homework task for the week beginning the 19th February is to complete task 2 from the instruction sheet. CLICK HERE to download the instruction sheet.

Your homework task for the week beginning the 26th February is to complete tasks 3 and 6 from the instruction sheet.

You will be supported to complete tasks 1, 4 and 5 in your Geography lessons in school.

Remember that this is a leveled assessment, therefore you need to use the assessment mountain and aim for your target grade that you recently recieved in your summative report. CLICK HERE to download the levels assessment mountain.

CLICK HERE to download the pedestrian count results so that you can complete task 5, the located bar graph exercise.

Good luck and if you need help, ASK FOR IT!!

Year 12 - Counter-Urbanisation (Part 2)

Year 12 - Counter-Urbanisation

PowerPoint from recent lesson indroducing counter-urbanisation

Click here to download the PowerPoint

Year 12 - Gentrification in Liverpool - Eldonian Village

1970's housing in Vauxhall, Liverpool

In recent Year 12 lessons we have discussed about how re-urbanisation has often led to the regeneration of inner-city areas by more affluent people. This has often displaced local residents or caused friction in communities as locals cannot afford inflated house prices, plus the influx of 'new' home owners changes the social breakdown of that community.

Clearly it is important when trying to regenerate inner city areas that the regeneration projects actually include those who are most in need to help, not just 'selling to the highest bidder'.

The Eldonian Village Project, Liverpool



The Eldonian Village Project in Liverpool is a world famous example of how local people worked in partnership to ensure that the inner city area of Vauxhall was regenerated with them in mind and so that the original local residents could continue to live in an established community.


Vauxhall Road 1930's


Vauxhall Road 1990's

The links below describe the project in more detail:

Building and Social Housing Foundation article that looks into the history of the project, how funding was achieved, how the project weas successful, innovations developed by the project and key factors to the success of the project.

Guardian article that looks into the success of the Eldonian Project.

The 'Eldonian's' Official Website comprehensive information from the Eldonian's themselves.