David Rogers

Have been introducing a Year 8 lower ability class to data collection, presentation and spatial analysis. This led to a rather random Tweet on Tuesday. I asked my network to tell me their location and whether they preferred their bread toasted on one, or both sides before adding the cheese when making cheese on toast. What led up to this? Well I was telling the class about my theory that Northern people liked their cheese on toast different to those down south. This theory, I explained, comes from my time working with the Hampshire Outdoor Education Service. The pupils challenged me ('Prove it!') and so I decided to set a hypothesis based upon my assumption. The next problem was how to collect data! The class cam up with the questionnaire idea although we identified that to be too geographically limited. I said I would ask my personal learning network. This modelled informal learning to the pupils. Thank you to those that replied! An unintended side effect was that my Facebo...

A good return to work today. Hit Year7 with the new Stonehenge lesson based on Noel's work on the RGS site. Thought I;d combine a number if ideas including talking about neogeography ( Noel ) and a few tips picked up during Ollie's SAGT session. Stonehenge – Seventh Wonder Or National Disgrace View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. The PPT above accompanies the lesson and is also available on the department blog. The lesson sequence went something like: Pupils used an OS map extract of Stonehenge to write down 3 features about the location. Map skills have been done away with by my department - and it was interesting to see that most of the class were able to interpret the map, without a key. I'm very glad that we have decided not to teach a 'Map Skills' unit this year!! The learning objectives were shared using the Smoke Signal API. Pupils then used the Photos and Wikipedia layers in Google Maps. As GE isn't up and running on the network yet this ...

These photos were taken the last time I had the pleasure of walking in the Cairngorms. I'm hoping that the weather will be a little different this time around! The objective is to summit all 18 Munro's in the range over a 4ish (flexibility being the key). Can't wait for a little bit of wilderness! The expedition will be a warm up before heading to Skye and then taking on the 3 Peaks Challenge. There will also be a couple of teaching outcomes. I have (for the first time) planned my route using Anquet mapping software. Our actual track will be recorded using a GPS during the trip. The resulting comparison will be used to teach some map skills. I intend to explore the decision making process along the expedition route. The other projects are very much in progress. Using GPS information to make a GE file showing signs of human use in on of the most remote areas of Scotland. We should not come across a settlement for the length of the expedition. We'll be taking along a ca...

The Hampshire / Western Cape is gathering momentum which is great. I've put together a short Google Earth tour of our recent Year 10 coastal field trip. The tour is basic at the moment but I think the potential for using GE in enabling international (and national) links between schools is huge. I'm going to aim to create a tour showing the local area around our school and the main geographical issues that our students care about. One barrier to using this technology is training. I hope that I will be able to train staff in all partner schools. This would enable us to communicate via GE as well as sharing information on the local area.