David Rogers

This blog has been very quiet recently! This is due to a large number of projects sapping my time! Still, I hope to update you all on what I've been up to and how this is improving my geography teaching. On Monday I'll be presenting a workshop at the Hampshire Secondary Heads of Geography Annual Conference. The focus is on Visionary Geography. With the upcoming revision of KS3 I'm looking forward to a positive day! I've uploaded the presentation to Slideshare and also have provided a short survey of delegates thoughts. I am genuinely interested in your feedback! Finally, it would be great to see you sharing ideas and successes so feel free to leave a comment! Leave feedback: Click Here to take survey

Well, it's taken a while but I'm finally off to the Alps with the intention of climbing some 4000m peaks instead of skiing. Although I've hit the Scottish winter a number of times this is my first venture onto the world of glaciers, crevasses and 4000m+ so we're booked on the Introduction to Alpine course. This is part of the BMC's annual Apline Meet at Saas Grund in Switzerland. Alpine Guides is providing the instruction. Although there are many possibilities to pick up teaching material (mainly photos) I am a little apprehensive especially when it comes to fitness and my first venture into altitude. Plus we've decided to drive down! Now although this gives us the advantage of taking lots of gear (and looking at the pile of stuff we look like an NGO expedition to a LEDC earthquake zone) the itinerary is a mission! Lots of early starts! Well, I'd better put something of use here so this is where I'm off to: Web Cams - not looking great at the moment! We...

Each year the Goldsmith's company pay for a number of Science for Society courses. This summer I was lucky enough to get a place on the Sustainable Development course held at Brunel University in Uxbridge. As I'm sat here trying to get ready for my Alpine trip on Saturday I thought I'd better get something down! Firstly, I was reassured to find that Secondary and University geography don't seem to be that far apart, at least when it comes to sustainability. I'm going to share what I thought were the interesting parts of the course in a little detail. I'm leaving out the lavish dinner at Goldsmith's Hall in London but needless to say that a good time was had by all! The week started by considering what we mean by sustainable development and whether it is actually possible. After the usual difficulty in defining what is meant by sustainable development the lecturer shared a great definition by the country of my birth Wales: 'We should treat the Earth as th...

The AA think they've found the answer!

The latest addition to my iPod is this Micromemo microphone. The device plugs straight into the iPod dock and allows the user to record directly onto the iPod's memory. The small mic that is supplied works well for voice memo's if held fairly close to the mouth. This can be changed for other mics easily though. The small speaker is very quiet but does allow you to check that a recording has been made. The voice memo is saved as a WAV file and can easily be exported into a variety of applications. At around £20-30 this is a very useful tool for fieldwork and I am sure that I will discover many other applications. Thanks to a Think Tank colleague for the tip off!

The 'freedom' of the hills! Sorry for the delay in this post! During May half term myself and a few friends visited Snowdonia National Park. We tackled the famous Snowdon Horseshoe via the north ridge of Crib Goch during the first day. The place was busier than Oxford Street during the Christmas sales! Anyway, when I finally got near to the summit of Wales' highest mountain I was surprised to see a couple of full sized mechanical diggers. The old cafe has been fully demolished now. I have to say that I didn't hang around long on the summit as between the pneumatic drilling and hundreds of people I headed off to the quieter Y Lliwedd. We spent the next day around Cnicht and didn't see a soul! The temporary offices and storage above the old summit station. There are a could of web resources linked to the building of the new cafe: a blog keeps you up-to-date with recent developments and has a photo gallery spanning the entire development this site has details of the ...

Unconsolidated muds below Naish Holiday Village. As part of the department's plan to expand fieldwork opportunities I ventured to Barton on Sea and Hurst Castle Spit last week. The plan is to take Year 10's in order to investigate the interaction between people and physical landforms. I had hoped to upload some photos of the visit however Blogger seems to be playing up at the moment! Old chalet slabs on the cliff top. Naish Holiday Village We have chosen two sites to investigate. The first is at Highcliffe beach. This provides a classic coastal management case study where the effect of managed retreat can be seen under the Naish Holiday Park. This site also forms the boundary between two counties and councils. The second site will be Hurst Castle Spit. I feel it's very important to link any visit into the classroom both before and after. Therefore we shall be switching our coastal management case study from Lulworth Cove to Hurst Castle Spit. The visit will also be follow...