Yr13 - Bradford Regeneration Part 2

Some of the photos from the Bradford trip still need titles/detail adding, but they're here if you want to look at the ones we didn't see on Tuesday. A couple of videos taken with my new Flip video camera here though...

This is Centenary Square, in front of City Hall - and this will be the site of the "Park at the Heart":

Centenary Square in Bradford from victoria ellis on Vimeo.

I have to say that, having been there this morning, the park idea doesn't seem quite so far-fetched, and it wasn't so hard to imagine a hot summer's afternoon with music playing and people sitting outside various bars and cafes.... who knows?!

I didn't feel quite so positive about the proposed Westfield development, however:


Westfield Bradford from victoria ellis on Vimeo.

More about Westfield and the vision for Bradford, complete with a "flythrough" of what the centre will look like here.

Yr13 - Bradford Regeneration Part 1

Following on from the work you've been doing looking at possibilities for regeneration in Bradford, we spent Thursday's lesson finding out more about the actual plans...

The video we looked at with Will Alsop's Masterplan is here:


And the "streetsweeper one" (which I understand better now, thanks to Joel!) is here:


Should you not have heard enough of Linda Barker the other day, you can also watch the Building Britain programme, which looked at plans for the regeneration of Bradford, and compared them with how Leeds has developed in recent years, on YouTube...

Yr12 - Cold Environments Introduction

Last Monday, we started to look at Cold Environments... After a discussion about what we mean by "cold environments" (particularly glacial and periglacial areas, and areas such as Snowdonia that were glaciated previously), and a think about why some places are colder than others, we talked about types of glacier. You should (unless you are Myles who has sent it already) have a piece of work ready for me with an example of each type of glacier, and a photo....

Yr13 - Long-term sea level change

The website that we discovered this morning was BBC Scotland's Geography pages. The link to the sea level change resources is here, but there are plenty of other useful and interesting things on there as well...

Make sure that you have explanations of fjords, rias, raised beaches and relict cliffs, together with an example and a photograph of each... I would like a copy by email please, and you need to print yourself a copy out to go into your notes.

If you want to have a play with the sea level change in Google Earth, the instructions are in the ppt (in Student Share) and you could also investigate Noel Jenkins' Sea Level Change in Australia resources.

Year 13 - Sustainable Cities

Found this video last week but forgot about it so thanks to Rebecca Annis for the reminder... Well worth a watch, and you might find some interesting ideas to incorporate into your plans for Bradford...

Year 12 - Introduction to Cold Environments

A couple of links that will be useful for you:

Some excellent pictures from Keele University here, and worth checking out Peter G. Knight's glacier pages...

Don't forget that if you click on the cold environments label at the bottom of this post, it will bring up all the posts from when Yr13 studied Cold Environments before Christmas.

You, Me and the Climate...

Do you care about climate change? Do you want to make a difference?

If so, check out You, Me and the Climate and become a Climateer! The National Trust are recruiting 16-19 year olds to join a network of young people to lead climate change projects in their local communities...


Sounds like a great opportunity not only to make a difference to your local community, but also to learn new things, meet new people and will look good on application forms and CVs as well! Have a look at the website for more information, application forms, etc. and if you want some help with your application, come and see me.

Thanks to John Barlow for pointing this out.

Make yourself some revision cards!

Just put this together in less than 5 minutes using the Trading Card Maker from Big Huge Labs and one of my Flickr photos... Your finished trading card is a jpeg file, so you can print them out easily as small cards or full pages - make yourself a set of case study revision cards!

Better still, make yourself a set and upload them to Flickr so that other people can use them too!

A mystery for you...

What connects Nottingham University's Trent Building with the Isle of Portland in Dorset, and a recent news story?

Image - Flickr user Toxophilite (CC)

Image - Flickr user Sharkbait (CC)

Click here to find out more from the Times Online...

Year 13 - Coastal Processes and Landforms

A quick recap this morning of the main processes affecting the coastline (various processes of erosion, sub-aerial processes...), how geology affects rates of erosion, and then various erosional and depositional landforms that you need to be familiar with:

- headlands and bays
- caves, blowholes, geos, arches, stacks, stumps
- wave-cut notches and platforms

- beaches (storm beaches, berms, ridges, runnels, cusps, ripples)
- spits, bars and tombolos

Some nice sketch maps of the key landforms of the Holderness Coast and the Jurassic Coast, a discussion about whether Chesil Beach was a bar or a tombolo, and the some short-answer exam questions - don't forget that if you have time before next Wednesday, that it would be useful for you to have had a go at marking your questions.

My photos that we looked at of the Flamborough area and of the Jurassic Coast are all on Flickr - not brilliant pictures, but should serve as a bit of a reminder of the landforms and features that we talked about this morning.

Year 13 - Tuesday

Below are links to various resources that we used in yesterday's lesson, and also the Urban Redevelopment Corporation.

Urbed

Urbed Design Guide

Bradford URC

City Centre Map

All of the photos that we looked at were from Flickr - a search for "bradford" or "west yorkshire" will bring up lots of excellent images for you to look at.

Your task, which you will be continuing with tomorrow (and probably on Tuesday) and which will be due in from everyone on Tuesday 27th January, is to come up with a plan for the redesign of the city centre. Your finished piece of work can be presented in whatever way you wish, but should include an annnotated map showing the key features of your plan.

You need to make sure that you are considering the issues and challenges that we talked about at the start of the lesson that are specific to Bradford, as well as the more general problems of CBD decline, and thinking about how to address these...

Have fun!

Good luck!

A quick message for Year 12 and for those of you in Year 13 who are doing resits tomorrow...

Image - Flickr user Mrelia (CC)

GOOD LUCK!!!!

Oh, and read the questions properly and answer what you're asked!!

Yr13 - Wednesday

Reminder about some of the coasts work that we started before the summer:

The Coast as a System
Waves
Tides
Sediment Cells
High and Low Energy Coastlines
Concordant/Discordant Coastlines
Erosional landforms (especially those wave-cut platforms!)
Depositional Landforms
Landforms related to sea level change

And the best news of all.... Coursework is packaged up and gone!!! Well done!!!!!

Yr13 - Tuesday

The increase in world population and the reasons for it in Miss Bradford's lesson... And don't forget that important WHO statistic that you finished the lesson with!

We then looked at cities and considered the issues and challenges that face cities today - those in MEDCs, those in LEDCs, and those that are common to both.

Dan's Urban Earth videos are here http://www.urbanearth.co.uk. And if you liked the Urban Earth idea, you might like to check out Noel's Rural Earth... Maybe we should be making a Semi-Rural Earth one - get planning a route!

We also started to look at the CBD and the key features of the CBD. We will continue this tomorrow, and consider what is happening to many CBDs.

Year 12

The first part of Monday's lesson was spent discussing the fieldwork section of the Unit 2 exam that you will be sitting on Monday morning. Remember that you can access some of the sample questions on the AQA website... If you know your fieldwork investigation thoroughly, then this section should be very straightforward - and there is no reason why you can't answer the fieldwork section first, even though it will not be the first question in the exam booklet.

We then revised some of the key rivers ideas - the drainage basin hydrological cycle, river processes and landforms, flooding and management. If you look back at previous posts on Geogtastic6 (click on the Yr12 or Rivers labels at the bottom of this post) there are various bits and pieces that will help you - and if you look at the post below this one, you will find the link to the revision guides I've put together for the Year 13s who are resitting GGA1. The two Water on the Land documents, and the Exam Command Words one, will both be of use to you. If you have forgotten the password that I gave you the other day, email, or ask one of the Yr13s.

A quick reminder about the exam:

Monday 12th January - 9.00am - 6th form block
1 hour
50 marks - 25 marks on Rivers-based OR Population-based skills questions, followed by 25 marks on your fieldwork.

Email (or leave a comment on here) if there are things you are unsure about.

And remember READ THE QUESTION!!!

Good luck!