Geocaching

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This is a fantastic co-ordinates game using a GPS, mapping skills treasure hunt. A geocaching is a great addition to any dog walk, cycle ride, walk or even outdoor learning adventures. The principle is simple. Go to the website or download the app for geocaching. £4.99 on iTunes app store (a free introduction app is available it limits a search to the 3 nearest placed geocaches to you). The app will place your phone GPS to your current location and you can search to see if there are any geocaches in your area. Then simply using the co-ordinates and using a map you can hunt them down or more simply you can let the GPS on your phone close in to the co-ordinates. You can change the setting to show you a compass to try and match your co-ordinates with that of the location of the geocache. Then it is down to you to hunt out the box / casing. You should see a container with the geocaching official symbol and it should have paper and a pencil for you to write your name and date you found it. Some have an object in them. You can add something to the container of equal value.
Overall great fun:)

Some useful iPhone apps for a geographer

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Here is a collection of some of my folders on my iPhone that I have found useful as a geography teacher.
Download them and have a play is the best advice I can give. The majority are free!
Some might be controversial like the gun apps but for a murder mystery lesson they can add a bit of drama. Talking Tom helped shy learners get confidence to talk. Priority boarding was a mapping exercise. Where most of the airports listed in developed countries. A tally chart and graph and map later and we'd evaluated the app.
If you have any queries about how to use any of the apps let me know and I'll describe and explain how I use them.

The Forbidden Corner

Follow the link http://www.theforbiddencorner.co.uk/
A great day out for the explorational family:)

Energy activities mainly oil

A collection of activities on Oil and moves on to a good wind farm activity I found online.

World_Peak_Oil_Production_Theory_Graph.doc Download this file

Thinking hats mat to use in a lesson.

Thinking Hats Mats to use during a lesson, enquiry etc.

Thai_Tourism_Towers_branksome.docx Download this file

The BioDaVersity Code site

follow the link http://www.daversitycode.com/ A good introduction to food chains etc. And more importantly sustainability. get your school to come up with some sustainability projects. Walk to school day, ride to school, school make a bag for life and donate to local shops. etc

Ammonium Dichromate Volcano Experiment in class

Virtual Quarry ICT activities

follow the link http://www.virtualquarry.co.uk/ 

From watching the virtual quarry flash and completing the activities during it. The site has a Rock spot section introducing places to visit and some good activities. Students can restore a quarry and rescue visitors in danger as an interactive game.There is a rock cinema with some interesting and informative video clips. If you want more structure the site has a teacher's desk with units that the site can be used in conjunction with.

 

New7Wonders ICT actvities

follow the link http://www.new7wonders.com/en/

Lots of possible activities on here from voting for your 7 wonder of nature, to creating your own list of entries, to getting involved in a project, to creating a new campaign or suggesting additional entries to existing campaigns. The site has information sections on geography topics like erosion etc. Overall a site that canker a student/teacher/class involved.

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Mapzone ICT activities

follow the link http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/giszone.html 

A great starting point to introduce GIS to your geography students and to give them ideas from which to develop from.

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Electrocity ICT activity

Follow the link http://www.electrocity.co.nz/

Flood Sim ICT task

Follow the link http://floodsim.com/

What does Geography stand for?

Not sure where I found this but I think it is a good sum up that could be useful on an Open Evening ticking over in the background

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Plot all the stadiums on a google earth project that you'd hear the song sung at.

Using google earth plot all the stadiums with a picture that the song in the video clip is sung at. Use t-shirts in the video to assist in your investigation as they might help you with an internet search.

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Helicopter flight of New York:)

Enjoy a trip over

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Manhattan:)

Cable Car journey up to Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa

Happy Christmas:)

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Controlled Assessment photos investigating erosion in the river channel

 Pictures from a Controlled Assessment field visit today

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Controlled Assessment Photos for 'Investigating erosion in the river channel'

V shaped Valley

Estuary Video Clip

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Lower Reaches video clip

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Meanders Video Clip

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Transportation video clip

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Waterfall video clip

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Hydraulic Action and Attrition Video Clip

_RFHydraulic action _0026 attrition.mpeg Watch on Posterous

Podcast of how to describe a graph using basic steps

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Podcast of how to describe a graph using basic steps

Using police.uk maps in a geography lesson

I have provided a lesson plan which has got some ideas on how to use the police.uk site in a geography lesson.

Here is a variety of other uses and ideas.

1. Get the uses from the Police themselves. On the site it will provide you with the police team in that local area searched from the home page which asks you for a post code or the place name. This could be as an introduction to the use of police.uk OR to demonstrate the geography skill of your classes get the students to demonstrate all the uses they have found and how they use it. Then evaluate this with how the Police use it. Students come show where they would station the offices in that area and compare this with where the Police actually locate them.

2. Field visit! When you look at the Police map they show you the level of crime at street level. However when I went on street view for the area I was interested low and behold the street view was not available for that street or the other 2 worst affected! TYPICAL. So how about getting the students to visit those sites and to analyse why that site is affected by crime and to take pictures to create their own in class street view of crime as a display!

3. Get students to update the 2011 police.uk site to incorporate the line graphs that the 2010 version had! http://maps.police.uk/ This will aid students to develop key geographical skills essential in geography. Students could then examine the 2 datas and evaluate the benefits/positives and costs/negatives of each map.

4. Students could analyse to see if trends appear. E.g. is one area only impacted by car crime, robbery, burglary etc. To aid students with this they could look at the mapzone GIS idea that Police use. Students could do a GIS project wit the data they have.

5. students examine the social media that their local force has that is linked to the police.uk site. E.g. Twitter, Facebook, youtube. The information that the social media sites contain is for the current month the maps are based on the previous month. Students can then on a google base map label the crimes in the current month and then evaluate this with the previous 3 months. Is crime getting worse or better?

police_uk_lesson_plan.doc Download this file

 

IPad2

Well I've had the iPad2 for 26 1/2 hours and it definitely is an improvement over the iPad1.

When I was in the queue in Newcastle Eldon Square at 3pm my partner asked me the simple but important question. "But why bother you've got the 'ipad'???

This made me actually sit down and think and evaluate why I actually had got a Bus into town to buy a piece of tech which I had already!?!? So I sat myself down (the queue wasn't moving and feet were hurting - trying to avoid Apple Deep Vein Thrombosis) and evaluated the pros and cons

Issues

The cons were clear. Price for a glorified YouTube machine (how partner has used ipad1) would be steep.

Still no USB port or Effective Microsoft office pack (keynotes etc are great but I'm thinking about those who will feel it is essential to have for compatibility issues.

The new cover at £35.00 is a bit too much of a gimmick at that price! Hunt around for a case. I've got a gimp case and found it to be great. Mind it doesn't offer the working stand support. I've found it a pain in the backside to get the apple one in the position i want so it's sat on a coffee table in my conservatory:(

Pros

The obvious pros with the ipad2 over the ipad1 are the cameras. They'll offer as an educational learning tool endless extra opportunities, e.g. iMovie a fantastic tool for creating a presentation with music, video transitions editing, blog pictures, videos, animations, fieldwork pictures, pictures to show students collaborating for display, evident collection to take pictures of good examples of work and bad ones to point out where to move on to with work etc etc

The speed compared to ipad1 is a very obvious improvement. I've held direct comparisons and have found going into YouTube and loading a video it takes about 4 seconds less. That doesn't sound that much but just count 4 seconds and imagine yourself sat there waiting for a website to load!

Download speed is again improved quite considerably about 5-10 seconds faster I've found.

The weight has definitely reduced so you don't get after an hour the feeling if 'oh I'd best put this down:(

I hope this has given you a bit of information on the pros and cons (limitations) of the new ipad2 compared to it's predecessor the ipad1.

Enjoy!