Geography Southwest Newsbites – March 2022
Welcome to the March 2022 Geography SouthWest Newsbites, featuring a summary of recent geography resources, events and news. We hope you will find this selection informative and useful. We have recently added to this website here an article on the impacts of climate change by climate scientist Dr Freya Garry from the Met Office which provides a topical overview of how farming will be affected by climate change with examples from the UK.
Geography events:
Geographical Association Annual Conference: The GA’s annual conference is taking place from Monday 11 April to Wednesday 13 March at the University of Surrey in Guildford and online. Geographical Association Annual Conference and Exhibition (geography.org.uk) There are fieldwork trips, a comprehensive programme of lectures and workshops on current classroom practice and geographical topics and the publishers exhibition. More details and booking information are on the website.
Royal Geographical Society: The RGS is running introductory workshops for teachers on ArcGIS in March, and June, both in London and online. Royal Geographical Society - ArcGIS for secondary geography teachers (rgs.org) There are also workshops on GIS for fieldwork and the NEA for secondary school geography teachers, led by Esri UK, suitable for beginners and intermediate users on 21 April and 7 July, both in London. Royal Geographical Society - GIS for fieldwork and the NEA (rgs.org)
Somerset Wildlife Trust: The Coastal classroom is a series of free teacher workshops in March aimed at teachers in Somerset and North Devon. On Thursday 10 March an online event focusses on opportunities along the Severn estuary. Outdoor learning and wellbeing on the coast.
An introduction to Wild Beach for teachers (Dunster) is a day course on Tuesday 22 March. On Thursday 24 March a day course focusses on Brean. The coastal classroom: an introduction to Wild Beach for teachers (Brean)
For further details visit Events | Somerset Wildlife Trust
Geography resources:
Temperate Rainforests: Temperate rainforests of the British Isles and their place in the National Curriculum is a new article from OCR. It summarises the importance and locations of temperate rainforest in the UK and the significance of the specialist lichens that develop in them.
GCSE Natural History - Temperate rainforests of the British Isles (ocr.org.uk)
Insight and Perspective (I&P) resources added to the geographysouthwest website:
We have added three articles and presentations ready for classroom use developed by I&P onto this website to support teaching of barrier beaches, NEA literature review and NEA sampling strategies.
https://www.geographysouthwest.co.uk/secondary/16-plus-articles/barrier-beaches/
https://www.geographysouthwest.co.uk/fieldwork/nea/top-tips-for-the-nea-literature-review/
https://www.geographysouthwest.co.uk/fieldwork/nea/sampling-strategies-for-a-level-fieldwork/
New Time for Geography hydrology videos: Time for Geography have added new hydrology videos to their extensive online library, the The Anatomy of the Drainage Basin and the Drainage Basin system.
Anatomy of a drainage basin (timeforgeography.co.uk)
The drainage basin system (timeforgeography.co.uk)
These short 5-7 minute videos provide a comprehensive overview ideal for introducing hydrology and drainage basins in the classroom. There are also several related videos, including Investigating river flow velocity which explains how the river flows and demonstrates methods of measuring velocity in the field. Investigating river flow velocity (timeforgeography.co.uk)
Met Office new videos: The Met Office provides a range of useful resources for GCSE and A level. Two recently released videos provide detailed short introductions to two important topics, Air Masses, and The Intertropical Convergence Zone. https://www.metlink.org/blog/geography-blog/new-films-air-masses-and-the-itcz/
These explain the concepts clearly with diagrams and simple animations.
All About the InterTropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
Rivers: The WestCountry Citizen Science Investigations (CSI) Team have recently produced a detailed guide on how to collect water quality data as part of Citizen Science projects in the South West. Do consider asking your GCSE and A level students to sign up to CSI and encouraging them to become actively involved in monitoring rivers and water quality. Full details can be found Westcountry CSI Volunteer Manual (arcgis.com) including important safety instructions and guidance on how to find suitable places to sample.
Recent news
The geography department at King’s College London (KCL) have a blog which regularly features items of interest to sixth form students and those considering applying for geography degrees. Recent posts – Geography (kcl.ac.uk)
Look out for Wildlife Watch Clubs. Local Wildlife Watch Clubs run a varied programme of fun environmental and wildlife focused activities aimed at 6–12-year-olds. Across the UK hundreds of adult volunteers are dedicated to running Wildlife Watch groups where children can have lots of fun, and make new friends, whilst they develop a real understanding and commitment to the natural environment. In Somerset there are several groups run by volunteer leaders. Watch clubs | Somerset Wildlife Trust
Somerset Schools Coastal Champions is an exciting new free award for Schools run by Somerset School Champions in partnership with Litter Free Coast and Sea, and Carymoor Environmental Trust, with funding from Wessex Water and EDF. It sets out to encourage schools to make simple changes in the way they run to help make a difference to the coastal environment coastal wildlife and waterways. To find out more about the award and how to get involved, visit: Somerset School Coastal Champions | Litter Free Coast and Sea