A blog to aid the teaching of Geography at the Chadwell Heath Academy in Redbridge, UK.
Students can use it for reading relevant news articles and other Geography teachers may find the links useful for their own teaching
We looked at how countries have to manage their populations.
We looked first at China and its one child policy.
China has an ANTI-NATAL population policy- it's a STICK policy- that punishes citizens who do not adhere.
Why did China need a one child policy?
They had a population explosion, after the previous president ordered Chinese people to have many babies to build up a large population to rival the USA.
In the late 70's the new government realised there were just too many people, so they decided on a policy of limiting all native urban Chinese couples to one child only. (rural people could have 2 and foreigners were exempt
The above video shows some of the impacts of the one child policy, like 'little emperor' syndrome, female infanticide, lonely children, small families.
But it also highlights that it has prevented an estimated 400 million extra Chinese people being born, easing the strain on the countries resources.
This is the latest take on the policy- you see 30 years of limiting most of the population to only one child has left China with a problem- ageing people and fewer workers to look after them
dependency ratio is negative- as China has increased wealth and invested in medical care, keeping people alive longer- those reaching pension age now are numerous as born before policy, so there are many of them. Due to the one child policy, there are fewer 30 year olds to work and support the larger numbers of retirement age people.
We then looked at countries that have PRO-NATAL population policies (encouraging baby births), these policies are found in countries at stage 5 of the DTM, who have a declining population and need more children to be born to support the increasing number of ageing people.
Russia has this problem and to try and solve it the government used a carrot (soft approach), by introducing a 'sex day'
In one Russian province, Ulyanovsk- the governor has offered cash incentives (to spend on education/ health or housing) for people having a baby on Russia's national day, 12th June- so on September 12th couples try to make a baby to attempt to get a cash reward.
We also looked at France and their approach to encouraging their citizens to have 3 babies
There is a PowerPoint on the above link that highlights the French policy and the reasons for the policy.
We then looked at how 2 different countries have to manage migration-
Bangladesh- an OVERPOPULATED COUNTRY- where they may need to ban immigration in the future and Russia an UNDERPOPULATED COUNTRY, where they need to encourage immigration as their population is in decline.
Firstly we looked at the destruction of the Congo Basin as an example of how humans can degrade and destroy the BIOSPHERE.
We learnt that the Congo basin is under threat from a range of sources-
LOGGING BY TNCs
This video summarises the reasons the Congo basin is important and threats to the delicate biome, including logging, bush meat and agriculture.
It also shows some ways the locals are trying to sustain the forest.
Certain levels of LOGGING are permitted, however some people (including large TNCs) are illegally logging the Congo Basin to exploit it for timber and other goods
BUSHMEAT TRADE-
Bush meat is the term for live forest animals, obviously local people have to kill some animals for meat (protein source) however some animals, including endangered gorillas and apes are being killed and illegally transported to countries like the UK, where they are being sold on the black market, especially in large cities like London. This threatens the BIOSPHERE as it disrupts the delicate balance by interrupting the food web, where over hunting of one animal has knock on effects on the whole ecosystem.
MINING-
Increasingly the Congo Basin, especially in the Congo DR, is being degraded in order to extract the mineral Coltan.
This is an increasingly important mineral especially in the world of portable electronic devices. Coltan is the component in mobile technology that allows the data to be stored in the device, without it, modern habits are under threat.
These threats we learnt are DIRECT threats (physically going in and degrading the biosphere). We also learnt that everyday activities that increase the ENHANCED GREENHOUSE EFFECT, Such as driving cars and wasting stuff that then goes to landfill, releasing methane, INDIRECTLY DEGRADE the biosphere as these activities can lead to climate change which in turns can alter pressure patterns across the globe, which in turn alters rainfall and temperature patterns, which over time may alter biomes, turning tropical rainforest to savanna and savanna to desert, impacting on the vegetation and animal life.
This clip shows the way locals are trying to protect the Congo Basin
We then looked at how we can manage the BIOSPHERE to protect it from these threats-
BIOSPHERE RESERVES- areas that are patrolled and protected from destruction, sometimes anti- poaching teams help to stop the killing of animals and to keep people out if they are degrading the area.
BUFFER ZONES- these have been used in the Congo Basin, and are areas where locals can use the forests for what they need as they have always done, whilst inside the BUFFER ZONE the land is kept as natural as possible
ZONING- this is done in many areas that are also NATIONAL PARKS (areas protected by Law), it involves dividing an important area into different zones, so most needs are met, but some areas are kept as natural as possible, to preserve the BIOSPHERE. This is done in the Congo Basin- some areas are open to tourisms and some areas the natural life is left alone and undisturbed.
ECOTOURISM- On the edge of the Congo Basin, in the Virunga's they have created a NATIONAL PARK to protect the forest and the mountain gorillas who inhabit it. In addition they have trained local people to look after the gorillas and to guide tourists around the park and on treks to visit the gorillas at certain locations. This has protected the gorillas as they no longer need to kill the gorillas to make money, they can instead make money from visiting tourists who pay $400 to enter the park and have a guided tour. This keeps the forest protected as the expense limits visitor numbers and certain areas are still no go so they are kept as natural as possible.
We also looked at how the BIOSPHERE is managed GLOBALLY by agreements such as CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fuana and Flora)
Even the Prince cares about this!!
We learnt that CITES is adhered to by over 130 nations, it controls the trade in endangered species and their parts (dead or alive), thus it seems preventing people moving endangered goods around the world, stopping the trade. It set up a permit system that must be obtained if you plan to trade in any species on CITES list (endangered species).
It reportedly worked on elephants as it reduces the demand for Ivory, thus people stopped killing
elephants as they were no longer able to make money.
We understood that these GLOBAL agreements are necessary and work for some species, however they are difficult to enforce across all borders and thus illegal trade in endangered species does still happen.
Sustainable management of the BIOSPHERE was our final topic of the unit. We looked at how they are managing an area of rainforest in Talamanca, Costa Rica sustainably.
We learnt how they used ECOTOURISM and sustainable logging to help protect the forest in the area of the country called Talamanca.
They only take dead trees not live ones, and used them to be a tourist lodge to educate tourists about the importance of sustainable forest management. They remove the trees from the forest by buffalo instead of creating a road in and out, which would increase amount of deforestation.
Here are the unit review questions for you to have a go at-
Explain how local factors affect biomes (4)
Explain how precipitation and temperature affect the distribution of global biomes (4)
Describe the value of a named biome you have studied (4)
Explain how humans can impact (degrade) biomes (4)
Explain how the biosphere can act as out life support system (4)
The bees have been reintroduced in Kent and young worker bees have been spotted, showing the bees are back!
It was declared extinct in the UK in the year 200, it's decline was bought about by increasing farmland overtaking the natural wilder grassland landscape of Southern England.
Other rare bees have also been seen in the specially created habitat full of wildflowers at Romney Marsh.
This week we looked at the rainforest, it's climate, and the goods it provides us with
we leant about the medicines it provides us with including:-
Mammosa fruits are boiled in water and the steam inhaled to treat sinus infections. It is related to the eggplant. Eggplant preparations are used to treat skin cancer in some countries.
Rosy Periwinkle-
Originally from the dry tropical forests of Madagascar, this plant yields two of the most important anti-cancer
drugs—vincristine and vinblastine—in use today. Since the development of these medicines, the chance of
surviving childhood leukaemia has risen from 10% to 95%. Golden Trumpet flower-
In Surinam
traditional medicine, the flowers are used as a laxative, while the roots are used to treat jaundice, an enlarged
spleen and complications with malaria. The plant has also been discovered to have antibiotic properties.
We also learnt that the biosphere acts as our LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM by regulating the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere
We looked at vulnerable cultures, working on the basis that cultures are mainly under threat from 3 factors:-
socio-economic
political
environmental factors
students have been working on an example in a group to complete a presentation to the rest of the class about their chosen 'threatened' culture.
Some are looking at the threat to the Middle Eastern culture and landscapes, mainly caused by the current government regime and arguably the failure of the west to put a stop to it. Perhaps the UN is to blame as China and Russia have permanent seats ad can prevent mandates being put through. Yesterday however, things seemed to be looking up as the USA and Russia seemed to strike a deal on a course of action to try and put a stop to the attacks in the country.
These articles highlight why Syrian culture is currently under threat-
Another group is looking at the people of the Arctic and what is threatening them
Climate change threatens the people of Illulisat (Greenland), Shishmaref and Newtok (Alaska)
cultural dilution and climate change threaten the people of Qaanaq, Greenland
Whereas the Evenki people are less under threat due to the way they promote their culture and the fact that most people return to their traditional way of life
Some others have looked at the threat to Tibet posed by China
Some others have looked at the threat to the people of the forest-
Kayapo people of Brazil
They have been placed under threat by the Brazilian Government's decision to build a HEP and dam called Belo Monte along the Xingu river
This week year 10 will be looking at ageing and youthful populations, in Japan and the Gambia, they will need to learn the impacts that these have on the countries.
Here are some helpful places to find extra information-
A video going over the reasons The Gambia has a youthful population, the impact it has on the country and its people and the ways the problems can be tackled.
A country with a youthful population will have a Population pyramid that looks like this-
A wide base, indicating higher % of younger (youths) people and a narrow top (indicating fairly high death rate as few reach old age).
A youthful population brings many challenges, such as lack of school places, so some Gambian children have to go to school in shift. As the Gambia lacks money they cannot build enough schools to cater for the large numbers of children in the country. Furthermore, due to the lack of wealth invested in healthcare many children die young, this means that some people have more children than they otherwise would have.
In addition to these issues, a high dependency ratio is created meaning each person of working age in the country has to pay more in tax, as they have more dependents (people 0-15 and 65+) to support this means families have less money to spend so the country can struggle to develop.
We will then look at the case of Japan which has an ageing population, some problems with an ageing population are similar to those countries which have a youthful population- such as a high dependency ration, where the amount of tax per person of working age (economically active) has to increase as the % of ageing people increases.
This is Japan's population pyramid- compare it to the Gambia's...
Other problems created by an ageing population include-
increased healthcare budgets, paid for by decreasing economically active people, which is unsustainable/
There is also a problem for younger people who need to support their ageing parents as well as children, this can place pressure on them financially and socially.
An excellent TV show for biosphere and biodiversity, has features on cleaning up rivers, otters returning to our rivers, salmon and the battle to get them to return to the river Tyne and a feature on the animal most likely to become extinct, which is the white clawed crayfish
It's not the cutest or the cuddliest, but it is important to the ecosystem. It is at risk from an alien invader the much larger American signal crayfish
It was introduced by farmers, when the crayfish escaped from the farms and spread out far and wide, they are now found in almost all areas of the UKs river network. They also carry a plague which kills the native white clawed crayfish.
Just take a look at this rebranding strategy, a bold architectural design aimed at providing Lima, Peru with the iconic (flagship) building it has been lacking to attract visitors and investors to its borders-
Do you think this will work? It has yet to be backed so it may never materialise unless someone takes a chance and invests their cash into the venture, still it is unique. Would it attract people to Lima? would you stay in it?
Well it's been a massive week in the world of Geography across the globe and in the UK, so here is my round up of the best stories to help with your studies.
So the games 32nd Olympiad were awarded to the city of Tokyo in Japan, I for one am upset, mainly because I will never be able to afford to go and because the time difference is so great. Tokyo beat off strong competition from Istanbul in Turkey and Madrid in Spain, but it's hardly surprising that this was the outcome, after the recent history of the 2 defeated nations is discussed. Of course the bid went to Tokyo, it was the safe option and recently global sporting events have taken the gambles, South Africa in 2010, Rio 2014 and 2016 and the Winter Olympics given to Sochi in Russia and the football world cups post next year's Rio grand will go to Russia and Qatar, all controversial, so I guess they had to return to the sensible, safe option eventually.
Also think of the financial implications if Spain can't host it due to finances, I guess the sentiment is that the country that has the organisation skills and technological capability that is second to none should have the games.
Meanwhile currently Japan is newsworthy due to the on going leak of radioactive material into the oceans from the Fukushima plant damaged by the quake in 2011, having described the bid as safe, well make of it what you will!
Meanwhile neighbouring Turkey is Syria, the violence and conflict continues, however discussion has evolved to encompass the idea that the conflict may result in a challenge to the current 'unipolar' world we have with Americanisation in control of the globe, the tension between the USA and it's previous cold war enemy (or at least a large part of it) is reaching fever pitch and we in the UK have been described as a
'Just a small Island, no-one pays any attention to them'
little Island that doesn't matter, the status of superpowers is shifting, will it be centred on Syria?
Andrew Marr articulated this well on his show this morning, the link is below- it's just the opening preamble you need to hear really!
Lots of opinions to help you decide?
Should the US attack Syria?
Over in Senegal a local fisherman has found a unique way to preserve a key part of his culture, by doing this
Fishing craft to foosball tables, furniture to float your boat
What a cool idea- turning part of his people's culture into something useful whilst preserving important artefacts that are needed to understand the culture.
Whilst in Somalia they are building, building and building and asking, what about tourists, can a nation with perhaps, the most negative brand of all attract visitors?
Certainly looks like somewhere pristine and 'other worldly' in this image.
I would love to visit Somalia one day and personally would love it to rebrand itself and become the place it was before the world interfered and colonials came and the fighting began.
Good luck Somalia, my heart is with you and your people.
Over in Australia (down under as they say!) they have a new prime minister, Tony Abbott who claims he aims to stop people arriving by boat and stop the carbon tax, he is a liberal-national coalition leader and this result is the first time the labor party have not won in 6 years.
This is pearltrees, a way to organise links, I have used it to create an all access to various links to your courses, just click on your course and the topic and you will find a series of useful links. You can also look in the 'useful' pearl to find generally good places to find stuff to complete tasks.
On to Battle for the biosphere- looking at ecosystems one of my favourite topics to teach at any level-
Got to watch I do not go on too much.....
So we started by defining key terms-
Biosphere, biodiversity, biome, ecosystem, latitude, etc. into their books with the terms having matched them up, a job well done with most students applying their key stage 3 learning on deserts, rainforests and the cold climates to their definitions, along with nice cross curricular links to biology too.
Then we looked at the world's major BIOMES (large scale ecosystems)
Then we looked at the factors affecting biome location-
First the 2 global ones-
Precipitation and temperature .
Temperature at a global scale is dictated by the LATITUDE of a place
The students were able to describe the general pattern and give valid reasons for the pattern. The higher the latitude (distance from the equator) the lower the temperature will be because at the equator (lowest latitudes) the sun's rays and therefore insolation (heat) are concentrated over smaller area so are more intense creating warmer temperatures, as you increase the latitude (move further from the equator) the sun's rays dissipate and the same amount of rays are spread over a wider area, meaning places at high latitudes are colder.
Furthermore the low latitudes have the same exposure to the insolation from the sun through the year, whereas the poles (higher latitudes) have periods where, due to the Earth's tilt, they face away from the sun and therefore receive no insolation at all.
Then we looked at precipitation and how globally it is controlled by AIR PRESSURE patterns like so
Students noted that High pressure means no clouds are able to form, thus there is little rain and thus little vegetation, leading to hot and cold deserts at areas where High pressure dominates; horse latitudes (apx. 30 degrees north and south of the equator) and poles. The opposite occurs at low pressure areas, as low pressure allows clouds to form and thus rain is common, meaning more vegetation is able to grow, areas like these are found at the equator (doldrums) and mid latitudes (UK).
We then looked at factors that affect biome location at a local scale-
Altitude-
Students determined that as altitude increased vegetation and temperature decreased as above, as you increase height by 100 metres the temperature drops by 1 degree.
This is why you get snow on the equator at the summit of mount Kenya, because it is higher in latitude than surrounding forests, which are expected at the equator due to the intense heat and high rainfall, due to low latitude and low pressure creating increased potential for photosynthesis.
Prevailing (dominant) wind-
We then looked at wind and ocean currents, establishing that wind coming across an expanse of water like an ocean, would increase the precipitation of a region and thus mean it would have increased vegetation- thus explaining the pattern in South America
The wind north of the equator comes into South America from the east (Atlantic ocean) full of moisture, creating the Amazon rainforest in the north east of the continent, by the time the wind has reached the Atacama desert in Chile it has run out of moisture meaning parts of the Atacama have had no rain for 400 years. The Andes mountains cause any remaining moisture to be lost as the air loses moisture as it rises over the high mountains.
If wind comes across land it will be dry (carry little moisture) meaning deserts are likely to form, e.g. the Sahara desert exists as the wind reaching it has had to travel across the vast expanse of the Eurasian continental landmass.
Albedo-
We looked at the role the colour of land plays, white land reflects heat, meaning the ice worlds of the poles are further cooled by their colour, we discussed the change in land colour if that ice melts and that it would end up brown, which being darker would absorb more heat, creating warmer conditions.
Meanwhile the rainforests at the equator are dark green, already warm due to their location and their colour helps retain heat too.
This week we are going to become climate detectives and look at rainforests in a bit more detail.
So the year 12's begin their advanced Geography studies, first thing to note is the sheer number of them- 2 classes and 49 students in total, a massive number and my teaching must adapt to accommodate such massive numbers.
Due to my illness we are commencing their studies with AS unit 2- rebranding places instead of the usual unit 1.
So I begin by introducing the concept 'what is rebranding' and showing them examples of places that have been rebranded and defining the key unit terms- rebranding, reimaging and regeneration.
Then we moved onto perceptions of places to establish a need for rebranding, we did quick perception surveys and image analysis of places like Las Vegas, New York, London, Walton on the Naze and Blackpool, to start introducing students to techniques they will need to use in their fieldwork over the coming weeks.
This week we are going to look at profiling places and delve further into establishing a need for rebranding urban, rural and coastal areas.
So the year 13's are back and as enthusiastic as ever (well most of them are!).
Ready to learn and interested just the tonic for the new term (if you ask me!). We are teaching the unit 4 research unit alongside the topic based unit 3 side by side for the first time this year, due to the removal of January exams, so let's see how it goes.
We began by defining culture from a range of sources and the students were encouraged to look at a variety of definitions from a range of sources before using them to come up with their own definition of what culture is.
This video has a definition of culture and goes on to describe the elements of culture which is the second topic we looked at in lesson 1.
The students were asked to rank the elements and we then discussed their justifications, needless to say were did not reach a unanimous conclusion as was expected due to the complex nature of the term. Most seemed to enjoy the discussion and the room was above with youngsters passionately explaining their reasoning for their ranks.
Having completed these tasks students were then asked to design their own models of culture- really to explain their idea of culture so that they could have a model to explain it in their 70 mark exam report. We looked at some models like the cultural iceberg idea to give them some inspiration- for those who do not remember here it is
We then went on to look at cultural change and how some cultures change due to new cultures entering the dominant, and how we get assimilation form some cultures in some nations.
We then went on to look at cultural landscapes; modern and traditional.
We found a pattern emerging where traditional cultures had more natural landscapes less changed over time, like the Native Americans and Inuit cultures and the nation of Bhutan, whereas big cities and 'scapes' landscapes; ethnoscapes, technoscapes, financescapes, commodityscapes, etc, tend to look the same whichever nation you are in.
Pupils were set the task of comparing a traditional and modern culture and landscape for their very first research task- now it's a wait and see till Thursday to see what they have produced.
This coming week we are moving on to threatened and vulnerable cultures- which is one of my favourite things of all to teach- must remember not to talk too much!!!!!!
So another year is under way at the academy, the Geography curriculum at GCSE and A level is being taught slightly differently to previous years, thanks to curriculum changes.
Year 1o have started with population and have started by getting to know the key terms of the unit and have looked at how the global population is increasing-
as outlined in this video above.
It was a hot and sweaty afternoon but the year 10s were on the ball and quick to understand.
We then looked at the Demographic transition model and how it can be used to highlight population change over time
If you didn't understand watch the above video as a recap and then you can learn these rap or songs to keep it stuck in your head!!!
Or maybe you could make your own!!!!!!
We had the usual giggles when discussing the factors controlling the birth rate and not so many when discussing the death rate, still a good introductory lesson where students seemed engaged with this exciting geographical topic.
There may be some scope to use this idea or at least something similar in the culture module. Making national flags out of food associated with that nation, it could lead to various cultural elements being used rather than just food...
Need some time to process these ideas.....
Watch this space...
This is an interesting article- where an American man marries into the Yanomami tribe, not a common marriage in any terms but also the Yanomami girl he married was just that a girl...
He would not have been able to marry her had she lived in the USA....
