Cultural Geography Blog

 Images of the USA...

Geography is the big-picture subject for our times. It encompasses subjects ranging from the microscopic – how soils form, and how those soils can be protected and managed well to grow food, for example – through to things as large-scale as the future trajectory of megacities and the threat of ever more warming of the planet. Alan Parkinson’s guide clearly and carefully explains why geography is worthy of study, at GCSE, at A level and at university. It is bang up to date. Students, their teachers and parents are all likely to find it essential reading. Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford Just ahead of lockdown, I met with Richard and Sam from the London Publishing Partnership about writing a book in a series explaining why students should study different curriculum subjects. The History book is already published , and others are on the way. The lockdown gave me the time and the inclination to meet a quite tight deadline, and after sev...

New on the BBC Sounds App this week , is this investigation of the British and their Fish, based in Grimsby. From the BBC World Service. Food and geography are a good match and this is being added to my reading list for investigations of food and a sense of place. From the programme description: By the middle of the 20th century, the English town of Grimsby was the biggest fishing port in the world. When the catch was good “fishermen could live like rock stars”, says Kurt Christensen who first went to sea aged 15. He was instantly addicted to a tough and dangerous life on the waves. But from the 1970s onwards, the industry went into decline. Today it contributes just a tenth of one percent to Britain’s GDP – less than Harrods, London best known department store.   So how can such a tiny industry cause so much political havoc and threaten to scupper a post Brexit deal with Europe?  Fishing communities have often blamed EU membership - and the foreign boats that have arrived as ...

Chris Webster of the Geography Fieldwork Academy has teamed up with the Norfolk Broads authority and brought his video making, resource creation and drone flying skills to bear on one of our National Parks, and the nearest one to where I live and teach. He told me: We've teamed up with the Broads Authority as part of the lottery funded Water, Mills & Marshes project to create a series of unique and engaging geography lessons for KS3 students. These lessons are designed to prepare students for GCSE geography by developing maths, fieldwork and GIS skills in addition to increasing their ability to interpret landscapes and analyse data. The end product is here. There are 6 lessons with all the relevant resources in word and PDF format, and they are rather good resources as well, which I am thinking of slotting in to my own KS3 scheme. Powerpoints are available for download, and also some videos. The final few lessons explore the planning of a route for a Broads triathlon , which ...

I am very much looking forward to this new series of His Dark Materials, which starts on the 8th of November, before we head back for the second half of the Michaelmas Term.

The incredible inkings in our Mission:Explore books were created by the dippy pen and iMac of Tom Morgan Jones.  He has now teamed up with the people behind Strumpshaw, Tincleton and Giggleswick's Marvellous Maps series to produce illustrations for a new map of the funnest things to do in Britain A Great British Map of Wonders. This looks like a suitable Christmas present for the geographer or young person in your life.

  Coming to King's Lynn for the next month or so... This consists of projections which will be shone onto 4 key buildings in the town between next weekend and the end of November. I shall be heading over once the clocks have gone back to take a look at this... More details here. The impact of the 2020 national lock-down has shown us that change can be made and some positive effects have been experienced including people commuting less and becoming more aware of their environment… Can this be the beginning of an influential change? The work aims not to emphasize the problems of climate change, but highlight some of the solutions and provide empowerment through awareness. The project draws on research from Drawdown, a 2017  comprehensive plan to reverse global warming , developed by an international coalition of leading researchers, scientists and policymakers. Their report ranks the top 100 ways to reverse climate change, with #1 being the most effective in sequestering carbon ...

Dan Raven Ellison's ' The UK in 100 Seconds ' was a lovely project which resulted in a film which I have used numerous times and I am not alone, made in association with Friends of the Earth and voiced by Benjamin Zephaniah.  It has apparently been viewed over 500 000 times. Dan has now launched a Crowdfunding campaign for a new film which will tell the story of the UK's amazing National Parks in 100 seconds. As Dan says on the Crowdfunder page: In the UK we have 15 beautiful, distinctive and important National Parks. From the New Forest to the Cairngorms and Pembrokeshire to the Broads, our National Parks include a diverse range of landscapes, habitats and uses. The overall picture is complex, hard to imagine and difficult to get a proper sense of proportion.  When they are all added together... how much of our National Parks are covered in woodlands, crops, pastures, quarries or urban areas?  UK National Parks in 100 Seconds  will give us a first look that's not...

I'm currently working on version 10 of the New PC Geographies document which is approaching 200 pages in length. I recently had cause to google a city and added the word coronavirus and discovered that if you google the name of any large city and add the word 'coronavirus' to your search, you are presented with a map and some statistics in graph form.

Made by Dan Raven Ellison - watch out for his latest project... coming soon.

Thanks to GA President Susan Pike for the details of the upcoming  Geography, Education Research Collective Open Forum, in association with UK IGU-CGE Tickets are free. There are three sessions and a discussion - details below - this is a chance for teachers to engage with research in a way which won't take too much time, and connect with the present circumstances which all teachers find themselves in.

  Some people ask from time to time what they can do to get more involved with the Geographical Association -  other than the obvious way which is to become a member in the first place. We have the Phase committees (including Early Years, Secondary and Post-16/HE) and other Special Interest Groups (SIGs) which have a changing roster of members and activity. There are opportunities to write for the GA's journals: articles and contributions can take various forms and be of differing lengths. Teachers can also apply to be Consultants to the GA , and work comes through fairly regularly. I've just completed some work with a game design company for example. There is now a chance for you to put yourself forward to get involved with the journey that I am currently involved with, and apply to be a future President of the Geographical Association. There are also positions for trustees and governing body roles. Details are published in the GA magazine for Autumn 2020.