The Final Hours

Having has a couple of days off following my primary and secondary attachment I've more or less finished the preliminary assignment. I'll spend some time over the weekend making final adjustments but I'm going to have tonight off, it is Friday night after all! This is something I want to continue during the next year. The PGCE is undoubtedly a long and hard year but a sensible work-life balance is essential if anyone is to survive without going insane. I want to try and have a week-night and possibly a day at the weekend off work but we'll just have to see how it goes :/.

I am looking forward to starting on Monday though and exploring the new students union which looks fantastic from the outside.

Evidence for Global Warming..

After discussing global warming in the last post it would therefore make sense to discuss global warming in a little more depth.

Throughout history, since the humble beginnings of the Earth, the climate has continually fluctuated naturally between warm and cold periods (glacials and interglacials). Since around the 1950's however, there is evidence of a steep increase in global temperatures. It is this recent increase that is known as global warming.

Evidence for global warming comes from different sources:

1. Instrument readings - measurements made using at weather stations suggest a clear increasing trend. Figures show that temperatures have increased globally by 0.5 degrees since 1980.
2. Arctic Ice Cover - studies have shown that over the last 30 years, Arctic Ice has thinned to nearly half its previous level. As the ice retreats less solar radiation is reflected back into space. Darker ocean areas will absorb more radiation, increasing temperatures further.
3. Glacier retreat - photographic evidence has shown clear glacial retreat over the last century. Studies have estimated that up to 25% of global mountain glaciers could disappear by 2050. However, a natural reduction in snowfall could also lead to glacial retreat.
4. Ice Cores - Ice cores have provided some of the most compelling evidence for global warming. Similar to tree rings in their formation they display a a visual record of snow fall. Gas molecules trapped in the ice can also be analysed to discover the atmospheric conditions at the time of formation.

The causes of climate change

Scientists believe that the recent trend of global warming is directly related to the actions of man as opposed to natural cycles of temperature change associated with slight changes in the Earths orbit around the sun. The atmosphere allows heat from the sun (in the form of short-wave radiation) to pass through and heat the Earth. When the Earth gives off heat (in the form of long-wave radiation), gases such as carbon dioxide are able to absorb it, hence the term 'greenhouse gases'.

In recent years the levels of greenhouse gases have increased and many scientists and academics believe that this is a result of human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has predicted that by 2100 global temperatures will have risen by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees leading to a rise in sea level of approximately 40cm.

Extreme Weather in the UK

This topic is an excellent area for looking at case studies. Case studies are important as pupils are then able to write at length and in detail in an exam. In recent years there have been a number of extreme weather events. These include:

• 2003 - Europe suffered an intense heatwave. The highest temperature recorded in the UK was 38.5 degrees Celsius.
• 2007 - Floods across the UK, in particular Hull and Sheffield, caused many thousands of people damage and loss of homes. Not only did rivers burst their banks but pumping stations also failed due to the sheer volume of water.
• 2008 - Further floods occurred as torrential rain fell on already saturated ground. The most affected areas were Somerset and Northumberland.

Some people, particularly in mainstream media, have linked the extreme events to global warming. Although it is likely that extreme weather events may become more frequent it is accepted that no one event can be blamed on global warming.

Probably the most popular case study for flooding is the 2004 floods that occurred in Boscastle. The media provided heavy coverage of the event and as such there is a huge library of resources available such as news reports, videos, pictures and eyewitness accounts. The video link below leads to Sky News video captured during the floods. There is no commentary but you can clearly see the power of the water as it surges through the small community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Fy6dYRp5w

Numeracy

I stumbled across this article on the BBC News website earlier today and found it to be quite relevant as I spent the previous day observing numeracy lessons in various year groups at my Primary School placement. It provides a concise overview of how children are taught mathematics in schools today and is well worth a read for background information.

Why parents can't do maths today

Apologies

I must apologise for the severe lack of updates in recent weeks. I took an extended holiday for the majority of August to unwind before the mass panic began. I'm currently heavily involved with my preliminary Primary attachment as well which I've had to begin a week earlier than suggested but couldn't avoid it due to various circumstances. On the plus side it will give me a good few days to complete the assignment after I move to Leicester on the 18th. I'll endeavour to get some more blog posts done over the coming weekend.

Not long to go now. Hope everyone is looking forward to the 27th!

UK Weather

What causes the weather in the UK?

The two major atmospheric characteristics that are the reason for the majority of the weather in the UK are depressions and anticyclones.

A depression is an area of low pressure. Air rises leading to the formation of clouds and rain. UK weather is associated with the movement of depressions across the land. Depressions form over the Atlantic Ocean and pass from West to East across the UK driven by the prevailing winds. Depressions form at the boundary between cold polar air moving South and warm tropical air moving North and is known as the polar front. Once formed, the air begins to rotate, spiralling upwards in an anti-clockwise direction forming clouds and then rain.

Within a depression there are two further ‘fronts’, one cold and one warm. The warm front signifies the front of the warmer air (hence the name, genius!) and the cold front........you get the idea. As the depression builds it eventually dies out as the cold front catches up with the slower warm front. As depressions pass over the UK a sequence of weather is produced. At the front of the depression a steady rain falls. Behind this, small patches of rain begin to fall as the temperature rises slowly due to the warm air. The advancing cold front causes the temperature to drop and the rain ceases.

Unlike depressions, anticyclones are areas of high pressure cause by descending air. The chances of rain are slim as the descending air prevents air from rising and therefore forming clouds. Winds also travel clockwise, the opposite of depressions. Anticyclones can be separated further into two main types, winter and summer anticyclones. In winter, cloudless skies result in bright but cold conditions. As there is no cloud heat it lost rapidly into the atmosphere and this is what causes frost to appear on the ground in the early morning. If the air is particularly heavy with moisture from the surrounding seas then can condense into mist and fog. In the summer time the sun is much stronger due to Earths’ rotation on its axis and is easily able to burn away and resulting mist and fog. Summer anticyclones typically result in dry, sunny conditions (of which we see very little these days). The below diagram is a basic example of an anticyclone situated over the UK.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

In the next ‘block’ of posts I’m going to discuss aspects of weather and climate, in particular focusing on the UK. The UK may be the obvious choice, however, it is important that students can relate to a particular topic as such they will all have experience of the British weather. I was swayed to discuss climate next as I have just returned from work and unfortunately endured a soaking on the way.

The climate of the UK is largely influenced by its physical position. The UK lies at the forefront of confrontation between descending polar air from the North and rising sub-tropical weather from the South. As a result we experience varied weather conditions throughout the year. The below image shows the major air flows which circulate Earth.

There are a number of other factors that the climate of the UK. These include:

• The North Atlantic Drift - a warm ocean current that provides the UK with relatively warm winters considering our latitude.
• Prevailing winds - typically flowing in from the south-west, these, along with the North Atlantic Drift result in a warm but wet climate.
• The relief of the UK - as air is forced upwards in upland areas the temperature decreases and clouds form causing subsequent rainfall and hence why the Lake District and the majority of Scotland typically have a large number of rainy days a year. The below diagram is a excellent illustration of how relief rainfall works.

As I have mentioned in my previous posts I believe that before beginning to teach a new topic it is important to have a knowledge of what the students already know. For climate in the UK a possible idea would be to provide a trace of the coastline and then suggest students to shade areas of the UK which they believe to be typically wet in blue, and the warm areas in red. Discussion on why they had chosen those areas would allow the teacher to get a good insight into current understanding.

As a final point I found the Met Office website to be an extremely valuable resource when researching this topic. It contains a huge amount of data available in an instant and even provides basic lesson plans, including presentations and slide shows, which introduce certain topics.

Just A Quick One

Just to a quick note to highlight the importance of media in geography today. I managed to catch a repeat of Top Gear over the last couple of days in which one of the presenters was faced with the challenge of collecting some freshly fallen molten rock in Iceland.

Firstly, although a very short piece it was an excellent visual example of a volcano at work, and being a modern show which the majority of people are aware of and watch, is easily accessible. It's great that how the simplest of things can produce useful resources.

Secondly, how on earth did they get permission to do that?!?

Desertification

Desertification is the degradation of formerly productive land through the expansions of the desert landscape. It is not a simple process and can involve multiple causes and occurs at different rates. Desertification is concerned with desert margins where the landscape changes gradually from a dry, arid climate to a more humid environment. This ‘transition zone’ typically has a fragile and delicately balanced ecosystem. Studies have led scientists to believe that the Sahel region in Africa moved close to 100km southwards between 1950 and 1975 leading to the landscape we see today.

Poor land management is the main factor that contributes to desertification. Increasing populations and larger livestock herds place greater pressure on the desert margins. Local ecosystems become disrupted and can increase the rates of erosion of the land. Nomadic tribes which traverse the landscapes are often trying to escape the desert but unintentionally are taking the desert with them. A greater population leads to a greater need to feed the people. Increased ploughing of the earth for crops further disturbs the landscape. Key words from these ideas are overgrazing, overcultivation, deforestation and sustainability. These are terms which as essential for students to both know and be able to apply to geographical concepts.

Desertification may not be able to be prevented completely but steps to mitigate the human effects can certainly be employed. Better land management is the obvious option. A greater understanding of how planting crops and sufficient irrigation can lead to the stabilisation of soils can ensure that conditions improve. As I suggested it is difficult to reverse losses that have already occurred in terms desert encroachment, however, the Sahel region has proven to buck the trend. An article produced through the BBC website identified regions of the Sahel that have begun retreat (note the article was published in 2002 and subsequently the situation may have changed further). The article highlights both natural and anthropogenic reasons for this.

A UN-sponsored study relating to desertification, known as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, was published in 2005 and is well worth a quick scan to get an overall perspective on desertification but also includes some deeper thought into the concept.

Throughout my time that I spent researching this topic the Sahel was clearly favoured as a case study and therefore with the amount of information available it would be a bit silly not to use it as such. It would be useful for student to develop their knowledge around a case study which can be used later in assessments and exams. Other areas can also be used. I came across the below during my research. Asking the question at the beginning of the lesson and then at the end would be a good method to discover whether student has understood the lesson being taught.

The boundary between Chaco Canyon National Monument and the Navajo reservation. On one side, long-term rest from livestock grazing. On the other, livestock grazing with relatively few animals for long periods. Can you tell which is which? Why do you think it looks this way?

Geography At The Movies

I was directed to this website by a teacher who I observed recently. It does not contain any concepts regarding deserts but I thought it would be a good idea to display it in case other people had not seen it before. It contains a collection of videos, both professional and amateur linked to different topic areas in geography and which can very easily be included into lessons.

http://www.gatm.org.uk/

If you get chance have a quick look and see what you think.

Dunes

As I have previously mentioned, desert landscapes are indeed unique and owe their characteristics to the weathering and erosion processes which occur.

One aspect which I did not talk about in detail is abrasion. The process of abrasion can be compared with the effect of sandblasting a building. Wind carries sediment in suspension and ‘blasts’ it against the rock usually wearing it smooth. In desert environments it wears away layers of soft rock close to the ground surface resulting in spectacular pillars of slightly more resistant rock. Monument Valley, which spans the border of Utah and Arizona in the USA, is an excellent example.

Of course we cannot discuss desert landforms without mentioning dunes. This would be the first image that many students will associate with deserts and as such, they cannot be ignored. Dunes typically form in sandy deserts where the wind is strong enough to transport material and the surface is subsequently moulded into dune shapes. There are various different types of dunes and the strength, direction and consistency of wind all play an important part in what type of dunes will be formed.

Wind does not flow in a uniform pattern. It meanders and eddies, moulding the surface into a shape which follows the path of least resistance. The most common dune studied is probably the barchan. As shown in the picture these are crescent shaped and can reach heights of around 30 metres. It is important to note that these dunes are not fixed but they migrate in the direction of the wind. The diagram below attempts to explain this.

Dunes move as sand on the windward slope is carried over the crest and deposited on the slip face where the wind slows and therefore cannot carry its load due to a lack of energy. There are other types of dune that need to be discussed such as parabolic, transverse and longitudinal there are even more but we are probably becoming too complicated if we go any further.

Once the basic concepts of dune formation have been taught they students could be given a group exercise and attempt to describe the formation of the above dunes (parabolic, transverse, and longitudinal) based upon the information already provided. Their answers could then be discussed with other groups within the class and either confirmed or rejected. Group exercises allow for ideas and information to be processed on a larger scale and allow for a contribution from all students in the class and not just those who volunteer to answer questions.

Desert DNA

Desert landforms are unique in their structure and their formation. For these landforms to exist, other factors must first be discussed. Weathering and erosion must occur to allow for the movement and transportation of earth and sediment which form the desert landscape.

For many years it was believed that the dominant process involved in desert weathering was the mechanical breakdown of rocks due to the cycle of heating and cooling in the extreme environment. Commonly known as exfoliation or onion-skin weathering the daily variations in temperature stressed the rock causing it to fracture on the surface with the outer layers subsequently being ‘peeled’ away. More recent studies have identified that this particular method of weathering is not alone responsible for creating desert landscapes.

It is now commonly accepted that wind and water are also important processes, and led to the distinction that different processes are dominant in different areas. It became clear to scientists and researchers that areas which are typically very dry may have experienced a much different climate in history. Wind erodes the landscape through deflation and abrasion and transports the eroded material in several ways, including saltation, suspension and surface creep, similar to the processes found to occur in a river channel.

It would be important to notes to students that not all desert landscapes are the same and it would be interesting to begin a lesson by displaying a selection of photos of desert landscapes and asking students which they thought were deserts and which were not, emphasising that a desert landscape is not restricted to camels and sand dunes. Case studies such as the Grand Canyon (a deep gorge) and Death Valley (being immensely flat) in the US could be introduced. The Grand Canyon would be a great example of water erosion and how over a large time period the landscape can change dramatically. Case studies are an excellent way to place ideas into reality and students can only benefit from doing this.

Sand, sand and more sand

Deserts are physical phenomena that I have never really studied, apart from a brief overview in my Geology A-Level and seeing as though estimates show that they cover between 14-18% of the Earth's land surface, I thought it'd be wise to broaden my knowledge regarding them.

It is clear that deserts are intimately linked with other physical geography topics such as climate. Their formation is directly influenced by the circulation patterns that occur between the tropics. Subtropical areas typically have constant high atmospheric pressure due to the descending air of the Hadley cells. These conditions prevent moisture bearing clouds from forming and therefore lead to dry, arid conditions. The short video below provides a very simplified version of this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHrapzHPCSA&feature=related

Whilst teaching it will be important to ensure that pupils are aware that the term 'desert' is not restricted to hot, arid areas such as the Sahara. Some scientists argue that large tundra areas such as the Antarctic can also be classified as deserts as they receive very small amounts of precipitation and a largely uninhabitable.

It would also be of benefit to possibly begin introducing this topic by asking students what they already knew about deserts, their locations, features etc as these ideas could either be confirmed or challenged through the later teaching, opening up further avenues of thought for the students to develop a greater understanding.

A brief introduction to deserts would lead nicely onto the processes that occur within deserts and the features that are formed as a result.

The Subject Knowledge Audit

Before completing the subject knowledge audit and after a two year absence from any resemblance to academia I thought that I'd spend most of my time circling the lower numbers. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case as the geographical part of my brain sputtered back to life. I have uncovered topics which I'm not too clear on and therefore they are the areas on which I will concentrate in this blog.

It was also interesting to discover that my weak subject areas were not confined to just physical or human aspects and seemingly a balance has been struck. The areas which I will discuss and attempt to break down into manageable sections which could be presented to students, are ones which I have had little contact with myself. These concepts have either been overlooked at University level or omitted at GCSE and A-Level.

In brief, the areas which I will be discussing are:

• Extreme landscapes, deserts in particular.
• Ecosystems
• Cultural geographies
• Weather and climate, concentrating on air masses, depressions and lapse rates

Hopefully the ideas which I present will challenge student's knowledge of a topic and allow them to develop a deep understanding of the key concepts with the aim of leading to a greater learning experience for all.

The Difficult First Post

I guess an introduction is the best way to begin a blog like this so first things first.

Geography and teaching are in my blood. This is mainly due to the fact that both my parents are teachers with my dad specialising in geography. Useful you may say, however it has given me a detailed preview of how intense the next 12 months will be. A year which I approach with great anticipation and excitement.

I graduated two years ago and as a result I had plenty of time to consider my future. No matter how many times I discussed ideas with family and friends the result was always the same. It seemed like fate was drawing me towards the PGCE. Now I'm here with just over three months left of freedom, which I'm going to enjoy whilst I can, though working full time and cramming as much overtime in as is humanly possible is restricting this to some extent.

I hope that this blog will identify areas of my geographical knowledge which need refreshing. It will also allow me to begin to get an idea of exactly what resources are available and identify useful websites and literature. Until next time.......