Braunton Geography

Exam Command Instructions...

2007-03-30T08:17:00.000Z

Year 11 are rapidly approaching their exams and one of the key things we have been trying to get across to them is the importance of understanding key exam command words. These are not just important in geography but also in every exam and if you can understand what the word is asking you to do then answering the question is so much easier. Please view the media clip below which was produced by Daniel Raven Ellison. Hopefully it will help.

You will also find useful the exam command wordsheet downloadable from here.

Send My Friend to School...

2007-03-28T11:10:00.000Z

This week all my KS3 classes have been involved in the Send My Friend to School campaign. If you aren't aware of the campaign or have forgotten view the media clip below.

All our pupils have been busily creating a paper chain of people to send to Anglea Merkel the German Chancellor. She is in charge of the G8 this year and is hosting their important meeting in June. We will collect all our paper people and send to her prior to this meeting in order to raise awareness and ensure that the G8 keep their promise of education for all by 2015. Hopefully Angela Merkel will help!

Geography@Braunton survey...

2007-03-06T10:07:00.000Z

We are constantly trying to improve the provision of geography at Braunton and would therefore be interested in your views. Please could you take a couple of minutes to visit this link and complete the short questionnaire. Be honest and hopefully you can contribute to improving geography@braunton!

Case Study Overview...

2007-03-06T09:44:00.000Z

During your GCSE we have been on at you about the importance of CASE STUDIES when answering your exam questions. It is vital that you know a good range of examples to help you succeed in the summer. Therefore we have designed an overview sheet for you to download and become familiar with. All of the mentioned case studies have been covered during the last 2 years and will be in either your exercise books or course textbooks. Download the overview here.

Past Paper Revision

2007-03-06T09:39:00.000Z

Its revision time for many of you in year 11! Some will have been doing it for a while, whilst some won't have done any. However it is important that you manage to familiarise yourself with some past paper examples. Therefore the following links will take you to downloadable past papers for both higher and foundation students. Please, please, please make use of them!

Revision PODCASTS for MP3 players!

2007-03-01T09:27:00.000Z

This is great for all of you with MP3 players and alike. If you click on this link then you can download from the BBC some important revison podcasts which will help with your GCSE exam this summer. Remember a good revision programme is for life not just for the summer...

Year 9 Options

2007-01-10T12:15:00.000Z

(image courtesy of www.cartoonstock.com)

Its coming to the time of year when year 9 have to decide what they want to study at KS4. In geography we study the OCR C Bristol Project syllabus and have had reasonable success in past years (2006 pass rate 77% A* - C).

If you are thinking of taking Geography at GCSE and you want to know more then please take a look at the powerpoint presentation here!

Exam Command words..again!

2007-01-04T13:45:00.001Z

I have no idea why but the original which was posted has gone strangely wrong so I have put them back onto 4 share and the link is here if you would like the words for use.

Cheers
Nick

A career in the movies awaits!

2007-01-03T15:25:00.000Z

Just passing the time before returning to school tomorrow and I came across the great myheritage website mentioned on both Tony Cassidy and Alan Parkinsons blogs. I had played around with this a couple of years ago with my year 11 class but completely forgot about it. Any how after entering a rather poor and tired looking photo of myself on the site it came up with the matches shown below..... I'm off to get myself an agent and into hollywood as a screen double! (Have always liked Catherine Zeta Jones, we'd make a lovely couple!)

http://www.myheritage.com

Roll on the return of school tomorrow.............................not!

DME- OCR website movement!

2006-12-14T21:47:00.000Z

Evening!

Feeling somewhat tired today and thinking of breaking up next Tuesday, must be all the stories of schools already breaking up which is doing it!

However I have noticed things beginning to awaken on the OCR communities web, with a couple of group posts being made and resources being muted. If you haven't registered to receive these e-mails the you can subscribe to by clicking here and following the links!

Apologies for the lazy post today but as I said i am felling tire....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

More again! DME resources...

2006-12-13T13:46:00.000Z

I apologise to BigNige from SLN as he e-mailed me 3 resources yesterday and I forgot to post them. These are avaialble for download from 4share by clicking on the appropriate resource:

Resource 1&2
Resource 3
Decision example question

Thanks for these and hope that they are useful to all.

DME: More resources & weblinks...

2006-12-13T12:51:00.000Z

Happy wednesday to you all!

I have prepared a few resources for resource 2 in the booklet for the DME. These contain some very general questions and a basic living graph exercise. If you want to use it you can get it from here.

I have also seen that Yeabo has posted lots of links on the SLN forum to some BBC articles linked to resource 8 and sustainable options. Click on the following to access these: (thanks Yeabo):

The eco-car; Pedal Powered Taxis; Trams; Jam busting June; Brazil & biofuel

In the last couple of months there has been some useful articles in the Times and the Guardian about sustainable transport. Click on the paper name to view these.

And finally....

This British Sugar website has some very good information about biofuels which some pupils and teachers might like to explore further.

Cheers
Nick

PS. Just had Christmas lunch at school and feeling very lethargic!
More later hopefully....zzzzzzzz

DME Year 11- more resources...

2006-12-11T09:38:00.000Z

Good morning all!

I have been browsing the SLN forum this morning and found that there has been some activity this weekend regarding the DME and various links to info or documents. Therefore I have decided to add all the relavant links here so that all can use if needed.

Firstly sent to me by e-mail is a great word list which encourages pupils to go through each resource and familiarise themselves with the key words. Thanks to Leah Turner for sending this to me. It can be found here.

Secondly on the forum Yeabo posted lots of good relevant links to additional info which might help pupils get a grasp of existing schems and problems around the world. The first link is one which resources 1 & 2 were actually created from, and provides a little more interactive detail. The second one is a good flash interactive link which shows the example of congestion charging in London, a good case study example for pupils to know perhaps. And lastly there is a good PDF file here which shows the Thames Gateway example used in resource 9 and some additional info. Thanks Yeabo for those!

Finally 2 great things happened this weekend: 1) United moved 8 points clear of Chelski and 2) Had sky+ insatlled on Saturday.....what a fabulous piece of equipment, going sky+ crazy in our house!

Cheers, more when relevant, have a good week!
Nick

Year 11 DME - more resources...

2006-12-08T13:33:00.000Z

I have put together some more resources to use for the forthcoming DME. The first one is a question & answer sheet to use with resource 1 which can be downloaded here. The second one is a general matrix sheet which looks at many of the options mentioned in the book and asks pupils to think about how sustainable the option is and why. It is avaialble for download here. Hope these are of use to you?

Cheers
Nick

PS. Its Friday..........

Games for Lessons & Revision...

2006-12-07T10:17:00.000Z

Viewing the SLN forum this morning brought this excellent collection of games, starter & plenary activities put together by the Geography department at Our Lady’s Catholic High School Preston to my attention. Particular thanks must go to SLNer goneunderground for this great effort.

Excellent effort by the might reds last night...bring on Barca!

Cheers
Nick

Year 9 Japan feedback...

2006-12-06T15:01:00.000Z

Year 9 - You have just finished your Japan module and I would really like some feedback on the module as experienced by you. Please could you click here and complete the short questionnaire?

Cheers
Mr Langmead

Year 11 DME resources (Jan 2007)

2006-12-06T14:46:00.000Z

I have put together a mock DME paper using the resource book I opened on Monday. It is available here. It is by no means brilliant but hopefully will extend pupils thinking about the meaning of the resources and the messages they prompt or send out. I have also summarised a BedZED transport policy sheet here. Hopefully it will allow pupils to see how an example has worked out in real life?

Please feel free to use the resources in your classes or as individuals.

Cheers
Nick

Year 11 DME - Sustainable Transport

2006-12-05T22:03:00.000Z

Monday saw the opening of the DME resource book in school. Looks good but obviously pupils can only have the booklets for 3 weeks prior to the exam, so a wait for them! Currently preparing some resources for their lessons and will post here when done.

Off to a meeting of local schools on Friday to share ideas and thoughts as well as resources (i hope....) will share the outcomes when done.

Must remember to visit the OCR communities website more regularly as members post resources here also and has been a valuable tool in past years.

(nice to see Liverpool doing well again tonight!) (come on United tomorrow...)

First Post....

2006-12-05T15:17:00.000Z

Well here goes.... A new venture into the unknown. I have spent the last year working on a departmental website for the geography department at school and have been happy with what I have achieved. Until now! I find myself constantly thinking that I want to change the colours, layout and content of the site (maybe thats common?) I also think that it isn't quite as interactive as I wanted it to be? Also wanted to post more resources etc on the site but found it time consuming to constantly FTPing new content to the site.

So then the SLN effect took place and I hope to add more to this blog in order to satisfy my needs and those at Braunton who study geography.

Finally thanks for looking/contributing to the blog and also thanks to all the SLNers for their constant quality advice, ideas and generally geograpability (is that a word?????)

Cheers