If I were to visit the area where you live, what would I be interested in?
This was posed to illustrate the kinds of questions which applicants to read Geography at Oxford might get asked. It’s a great question at any level, because it gets you thinking aout your home area, and how you might represent it to other people. Very often, I suspect, we overlook the attractions of our neighbourhood, becuase they are common, every day. We drive or walk past them every single day. Yet no place on earth is without some kind of interest; from the smallest village to the most anonymous suburb. The exotic and the mundane are interchangeable concepts; it’s a matter of perspective.Joe Moran, cultural historian at Liverpool John Moores specialises in the everyday; he credits his own interest in taking note of what normally goes unnoticed to the I-Spy books he read as a youngster. His books are admirable social histories and local geographies, focusing on the geography of the everyday; roads, motorway service stations, roundabouts and traffic lights, or celebrating the Queue and the Great English breakfast. Dr Moran writes a great blog, too.: http://joemoransblog.blogspot.com/
Perhaps much of geography is the study of the things we take for granted; the central business district of a town, farms, rivers and factories. It is from a myriad of little, small scale activities and patterns tah we can piece together the larger story, the regional pattern and the large scale global processes that inform the subject. After all, our motto is surely “think global, but act local”
As ever, Ollie Bray has blogged yet another piece of software to try in our classes. I noticed he had made a Wallwisher for TeachMeet 09, to give participants the chance to thank the sponsors and just generally add comments. It struck me that this might be a great way to encourage pupils to give feedback on lessons or units as a means of ongoing evaluation. Would also be good for some thinking skills and decision-making exercises; pupils could post their viewpoints and we could see a whle range of opinions build up.
Thought I’d pilot this with my S3 class who are doing glaciation; I need to know how they are coping before they get a formal assessment.
Interested in using objective questions in Geography. While not a feature of Intermediate or Higher, they do provide a very useful diagnostic assessment, which can give quick, accurate feedback-as long as they are well designed. Lots of types, ranging from simple True false, through to multiple choice (A-D, usually) and more complex Assertion-Reason style. Going to sample some styles with my classes; plenty to choose from; see eg http://www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/geography/rocks-and-landscapes/test-its/rocks-and-landscapes-multiple-testit.html
here’s a few for starters:
This week’s online edition of the Ecomomist carries a review on Africa’s popuolation. It talks about the changes in fertility and the growth of an urban middle class who wnat fewer children. It also bears out the great differences between the ageing populations of Europe and the extremely youthful structure of Africa, as the pair of population pyramids above show.
We think of Africa as utterly in thrawl to nature, beset by drought and famine, but consider: “Only 4% of the continent’s farmland is irrigated. Double that amount, add in fertilisers, seed, credit, information and proper metal warehouses (in some places a quarter of the harvest may be lost to rot and rats), and Africa might not just fill its own 2 billion stomachs, but export farm produce as well.”
At Glasgow University to attend the Academic Alumni Day to mark the Geography Department’s centenary. Department seems to be in a strong position; plenty of research staff and a wide range of human and physical interests among the staff. Good to see some well-kent faces among the lecturers from my own undergraduate days, not least Cyril Halstead, Alastair Cruikshank and Prof Iain Thompson. (IBT)
The lecture programme for the day reflected that, starting with Professor Jim Rose on “Glasgow’s role in shaping quaternary science”, then there was a profile of current research interests. I was fascinated with Paul Bishop’s account of earth surface dynamics research whereby the density of cosmogenic nuclides are being used to date surfaces and correlate with existing data on post glacial processes. This is geomorphology at the microscale, dependent on high tech accelerators, but the results, from places like Jura and Croftamie are very exciting. This technique has been used to verify the dates of the parallel roads of Glen Roy, linking them clearly with the Loch Lomond stadial.
Next John Briggs outlined key areas of research in human geography. He stressed the importance of theory, notwithstanding the need for empirical research, too. I was taken with his emphasis on democratic urbanism and the conflicts around public spaces which arise from competing demands. He noted the dichotomy-and tension-between representative and participatory democracy; whose space is it, and who makes the decisions? It was timely that this was on a day when two so called “guerrilla gardeners” were at Court to defend an action brought by Glasgow City Council over the use of the North Kelvinside meadows; classic example of contested space.
Made mental note to look at how we can engage with the Department in our Comenius Project, which is a celebration of urban environments
These days in Britain turn out at elections is falling; at local elections, perhaps only 3 or 4 in every 10 will bother to vote.; probably worse in Euro Elections. Polling stations are underwhelmed, and many ballots papers are left untouched. Much is made of the hard won right to vote, the battles since the Reform Acts of the 19th Centuries, the Suffragette Movement, and increased particpation in democratic structures. Moves have been afoot to allow 16 year olds to vote, but it appears that the 18-24s are among the least likely to bother. Unfortunately, increrasingly, so are peopleof all ages. Bother to do what, exactly? Spend 10 minutes in a Primary school casting a vote in total peace and security? Put up with inane political broadcasts and wax lyrical at some dodgy expenses scam? Have a bit of banter with the local candidates or the school jannie at the door? Try to engage with issues and listen to the debate? It would seem that maybe that’s too much for many people now. It’s too much like hard work. So, what about today’s elections in Afghanistan?
What about the polling clerks in Kabul, the police guards, the women in burkas defiantly raising their fingers in indelible ink, risking amputation, or worse. The female candidates looking for a more liberal approach? Or the officials sorting out the ballot papers tonight? Each candidate, each particpant in today’s election runs a huge risk; to be mangled or incinerated by a roadside bomb ot a suicide attack. The young, committed voters could be dead tomorrow because they could be bothered. If so called “peasants” in baggy trousers can be bothered to queue, to risk everything to vote today, if 200 + soldiers from the UK alone, not to mention local soldiers and police and translators can lose their lives, then perhaps they don’t count democracy in this backward, war weary, impoverished country so cheap as many of our own folk seem to do.
Tonight’s Prom Broadcast on BBC Radio 3 included a rare performance of Gustav Holst’s Choral Symphony, and indeed a Proms debut. The second movement is the most beautiful; a setting of Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” The image of a moment frozen in time yet timeless is given melancholic expression by the haunting phrase;
“heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter”, while we imagine the young man about to steal a kiss, so near yet so far;
“Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal—yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! ”
The poem is almost heart breaking in its reflection of the transitory nature of life; all shall fade except this Attic urn with its “cold pastoral” scene of everyday life from another time and place;
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
Two pupils from Hutchie are spending the summer at our partner school, Goulburn Valley Grammar School in Shepparton, Australia. Staying with families, they will attend school, and learn much about the Australian way of life first hand. In November, we shall reciprocate by hosting two Australian students. I have asked the pupils to keep a diary so that they can reflect on what they have done, and share the experiences with us.
To read each week’s report, scroll down the “pages” menu on the right hand pane until you come to the week you want.
