Coniston Quake

The earthquake that occurred on Tuesday 21st Decemebr 2010 at approximately 11pm in the Lake District was 3.6 on the Richter scale. These size quakes happen approximately every 12-18 months in the UK but generally do not cause much damage. If you read comments posted by locals and people within the surrounding area they range significantly between feeling nothing (only hearing the rumbling noise) to tiles being dislodged in bathrooms and beds shaking. This is mostly due to the construction of each building - many are old, traditional ones, whilst other people may live in more modern houses. Despite not being on any plate boundaries we are still subject to the tectonic processes that happen underneath the earth's surface, either directly below us or as a result of movement nearby. For example the fact that the Atlantic Ocean is spreading has a knock-on affect by altering the pressure between different bands of rock that lie either side of it. The UK has a very old ridge of hard rock running through the centre of it and either side the rock is younger and softer so for all there are no plate boundaries there are boundaries such as bedding planes, joints and faults that have occurred due to changes in deposition, or rock type or by previous strain which has caused movement along planes of weakness (faults).

BBC News

View Larger Map'>Map to show location of coniston

Year 11 AFTERSCHOOL SESSIONS

After asking the class, you have shown a preference for afterschool sessions to be on a WEDNESDAY starting next term on WEDNESDAY 12th JANUARY. Make sure you remember to put your name down for the afterschool bus if necessary.

Year 11 L&T EXAM

GCSE Leisure & Tourism EXAM MONDAY 17th JANUARY 2011 AM I have given each of you a photocopy of the relevant section of the textbook in case your electronic copy does not work/ you have misplaced it etc. HOMEWORK: 1) Revise for exam 2) Go through mock exam )and additional questions) and use mark scheme to produce model answers

Landscape of the Week

Landscape of the Week

This is Lake Garda in Northern Italy. Any suggestions for landscapes

just comment on the bottom of this post.

Avalanche Escape

Lucky Escape

Passers by and tourists in Edinburgh had a lucky escape from this 'avalanche' that fell from the rooftop of a building. Luckily no-one was hurt in the event however the public walking underneath got quite a shock! The city has had severe snowfall for the past week and these pictures which were caught by CCTV are perfect examples of the adverse weather. The cold snap and snowfall is expected to last for another week. Brrrrrrrrrrr!

Landslide in Columbia

Having been battered by torrential rain for the past few weeks the prolonged and heavy rainfall has caused landslides in the city of Medellin in Columbia and local people initially beagn to try and dig survivors out of the rubble with makeshift tools before the armed forces and emergency services arrived. Local authorities are currently estimating that more than 2 million people have been or will be affected by the natural disaster. The Columbian President decribed the event as an 'unpresidented' occurance. In the cities suburbs the hundreds of tons of mud has buried at least 50 houses leaving dozens of people trapped and thousands homeless and stranded across the country. The rainy season has destroyed more than 10,000 homes across the country and experts fear the worst is yet to come. In bordering Venezuela more than 75,000 people have been forced to abandon their homes and evacuate. many who couldn't escape in time reamin trapped in submerged homes and can only hope of rescue. A truly saddening and disasterous event. For more information visit the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11923826.

New Blog Authors...

Just to say thank you to Beth Harrod and Calum Richardson who have join the team of people who can contribute via direct posts to the Blog. I look forward to looking at your posts.....

Year 10 and 11 MOCK EXAMS - November 2010

Year 11 RE - Monday 22nd November - 1.5 hours - AM (11X1, 11X2, 11X3) GEOGRAPHY - Wednesday 24th November - 1 hour - PM L&T - Wednesday 24th November - 1.5 hour - PM (11D) L&T - Tuesday 30th November - 1 hour - AM (11A) Year 10 RE - Thursday 25th November - 1.5. hours - AM (1oX1, 10X2, 10X3, 10Y2) GEOGRAPHY - Tuesday 30th November - 1 hour - AM L&T - Tuesday 30th November - 1 hour - PM

Afterschool sessions

There will be afterschool sessions starting next week until we break up for Christmas for Year 11 Geographers and Leisure and Tourism students. I will be finished at 4.55pm or a little before so those students who get the afterschool bus have got time to get the 5.00pm bus.

Geography - TUESDAYS: 3.45pm - 4.55pm

Leisure and Tourism - WEDNESDAYS: 3.45pm - 4.55pm

SBR - Room 217

A disastrous week for Indonesia

This week has seen many geographical events and issues in the news very relevant to current topics being studied. Indonesia has experienced a volcanic eruption, an earthquake and (as a consequence) a tsunami. Year 11 have just completed their population unit and have looked at Indonesia as a case study for its methods of trying to tackle a rapid population growth rate. We can understand that the evacuation of the area around Mt Merapi will increase transmigration to other islands, however due to the tsunami, the island of Sumatra which was often used to relocate people to may also be unable to cater for it's population [despite being less densely populated than Java] due to the devastation caused by the tsunami. Links for various news articles:

The Guardian, BBC News, Volcanolive Blog.

Review of Year 11 Population Test (done on Wed 20th October)

First of all, I could tell by reading your papers that the majority of students had revised. However, there were some silly, fundamental errors where some of you lost marks. The definition at the start which asked for you to state the meaning of either birth rate (F) or natural increase (H) was generally poorly answered. Many gave a general idea but often there was insufficient detail to award the mark. For example, some of you answered that birth rate '...was the number of babies born over a period of time..' However it is 'the number of babies born, per year, per 1000 people'. On the higher paper many students refered to total population rather than the population growth rate. Also, the majority of students did not include examples in your answer even when specifically asked for, thereby limiting your answers to L2 marks rather than L3. Another common weak area was to use the evidence FULLY that you have been asked to refer to in your answers. e.g. when reading/interpreting graphs. You have another test - First lesson back on Wed 3rd November 2010.

HOMEWORK !!

Please make sure you check the KS4 subject tabs for up to date homework tasks and instructions.

10 A Gg SBR's Class - Homework

Well done for a good first lesson - you all worked hard on Tuesday! Be prepared for the really hard work next week....!!! Your homework this week is to make a comment on the blog. You cannot post on it, only comment. To comment you need to click on the comment link underneath (in green) - you need to add your name so I can see who has contributed and been able to get access. If you are having any difficulties please come and see me. Please feel free to make suggestions on how we could make good use of this blog, and anything about how to make it better. You could comment on geographical issues in the news too.....

Exam Results

Year 11 and Year 10 will be able to obtain their exam results from the school office from 9.00am-12.00pm on Tuesday 24th August.

Haiti Earthquake - six months on..

Panorama next week is about the orphans of Haiti who are victims of the earthquake that struck there 6 months ago. It is about how the needs of these orphans are being met. However, I am sure there will be a great deal to learn in general, about the longer term effects of earthquakes and reminds us of what a huge disaster it was, and just because it is no longer getting headline coverage it still dominates the lives of the Haitian people.

BBC 1 - Monday 12th July 2010 - 8.30pm to 9.00pm

Panorama - the Orphans of Haiti

Year 10 Geographers, soon to be Year 11's.

You do not escape the need to read your already well-read Green Revision books over the summer as you need to read up on the Human topics we will study next year. There is a choice of six possible topics to study. However, I am narrowing that down and like last year are giving you the option to choose the third topic. See below:

1. Population

2. Development

3. Globalisation OR Tourism

Again (like you did for coasts), you will need to be able to justify you choices. I will expect a decision to be made by the second week in September, the majority vote will be taken (as long as it can be rationalised).

NEW GCSE Students 2010 -- Geography and RE revision Guides - order before September

As we are fast approaching our 6 weeks holiday, I wanted to make sure that you were prepared for the start of your GCSE's in September (and not bored in the holidays). That is why I will be shortly sending out letters about revision guides which I will be ordering for you before the summer (Geog and RE). Unfortunately there is not a revision guide for History or Leisure!!

The green geography revision guide will become your bible over the next two years and will help you not only to revise but to complete homework on the way. The cost of the revision guides are normally about £5 for Geog and around £3-4 for RE.

If you have not received a letter by the end of this week please see me.

River Browney Data Collection

Yesterday 10D Gg GCSE class went to the RIver Browney to collect primary data for their Controlled Assessment. The whole class was there and we all participated in plodging up and down the river in order to collect the data - might I add that despite the longer than planned journey there (just as well that Miss Rowe has good community links and relations!!) it was a very successful day. Many of you were wearing wellies however, by the end of the day it made no difference!! Having said that some got wetter than others (Laura thought she'd practice her breast-stroke whilst she was there too!). It was great to see you all getting stuck into collecting and recording your information in between spotting the dead wildlife!! I hope that you complete the rest of the task with such enthusiasm.

Photos of the trip can be found on the DLG and in the Student Shared Area --> Geography --> River Browney 2010.

Year 10 River Browney 29th June 2010

I hope that you have all found your wellies for the River Browney trip! I thought I'd show you a selection from previous trips!! Fingers crossed the weather remains fine enough so that there are no flash floods.

Welcome!

This is my first ever attempt at either setting up or posting anything on a blog - so here goes. I do not know how often I or other members of the department will post, or even how it will evolve. I just hope that it helps students access resources and information as it is posted.

Picture created in www. wordle.net