Cultural Geography Blog

In 2025, I am going to be working on some curriculum projects. I think it's time for a change - a step in a new direction. Let's assume that you are going to be redesigning a KS3 curriculum. You don't need to keep anything that you already do. You don't need to do topics because they are in the GCSE specification and you want students to study them before they start their GCSE course. You have the chance to do something new, and get rid of something else to make space for it. I'd be really interested to see what sorts of geographical topics you would add in if you had the choice (which you probably do by the way) and what you'd drop to leave time for them (you've got plenty of curriculum time to play with after all...) Go wild.... or play it safe. I'll share a summary of the responses of course, and who know it might influence my curriculum making in 2025. Loading… Image: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license

“It’s 21st-century exploration, at the edge of impossible.” An excellent article in The Financial Times on the latest expedition of Leo Houlding. He is planning to conquer a peak called the Spectre. A few years ago, I heard Leo speak at the GA Conference on a previous expedition to Antarctica, and the logistics of getting there and completing the climb. My notes and some links from that 2015 lecture are here.  He will be using Union Glacier as a base: a location which I have used many times before with students as a place to teach about. The expedition website is here. Good luck to Leo when he heads off next month...

There is a new area of the updated RGS-IBG website which you may not have seen. It is a project called Rediscovering London's Geography . It is described as follows: Rediscovering London’s Geography is a project funded by the GLA through the London Schools Excellence Fund.  It seeks to improve the quality of teaching and learning of geography in London’s schools, in addition to encouraging more pupils to study geography. Its scope encompasses connection across primary and secondary schools involving academy, free, maintained and independent schools. The project will: Create subject knowledge online resource units, including online activities and pupil assessments; focusing upon new curriculum subjects and examinations Improve subject knowledge via free CPD and training events in teacher networks across London and provide continuity to support the upcoming curriculum changes Engage pupils via Geography Ambassador presentations (by London undergraduates) and Goin...

This news article explains the background to a project which I've been slightly involved in on the sidelines for a while now, and am just finishing off the 2nd of a series of resource contributions to what will become a major resource for geography and science teachers. While waiting for a connecting flight in Dusseldorf airport, this was a major feature on the German news, so it's been getting good coverage. To watch more, take a view at this remarkable video: The project is in association with Jamie Buchanan Dunlop and the team at Digital Explorer , who have worked with Catlin: the insurance company which is funding this project previously (as did I) on the Frozen Oceans resource pack. Catlin Seafloor Survey is underway and the first of tens of thousands of images have now been released. Some remarkable pictures from the tool are available here... The Great Barrier Reef is one of the World's great places, and a World Heritage Site. Perhaps with these ...