GEOGRAPHY - The BEST subject in the World!

You can travel the seas, poles, and deserts and see nothing. To really understand the world you need to get under the skin of the people and places. In other words, learn about geography. I can't imagine a subject more relevant in schools. We'd all be lost without it.
(Michael Palin - Supporter of the Action Plan for Geography)

Monday, 17 September 2012

DEVIL TORNADO - Once in 10 lifetimes' event!!

Literally setting the world on fire!!...

An awe-struck filmmaker has told of the moment he witnessed one of nature's rarest phenomena - a fire tornado.
A fire tornado, also know as a fire devil, is caused when a column of warm, rising air comes into contact - or causes - a fire on the ground.

These fire whirls are known to last for around two minutes on the very rare occasions they take place.

Chris Tangey had been out in Alice Springs, Australia, scouting locations for a new movie.

Just 300 metres away was a 30-metre high fire swirl which "sounded like a fighter jet", despite there being no wind in the area.

The 52-year-old said: "The weather was perfectly still and it was about 25 degrees celsius - it was an entirely uneventful day.

"Then the next thing a man is yelling 'what the hell is that?' and I turned around and saw a 30-metre fire tornado.

"I was about 300 metres away and there was no wind but the tornado sounded just like a fighter jet. My jaw just dropped."

Chris, who runs Alice Springs Film and Television, in Australia, described it as a "once in ten lifetimes experience".





 

 

Monday, 3 September 2012

Monday, 27 August 2012

Photo of the Week! 28/08/12

Thanks to Lexy Wildash for this fabulous photo of Turtle Bay at sunset. What amazing photography skills!!

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

practise your mapping skills!

Try out Ordnance Survey (UK) MapZone. Use Mapability to revise the skills or Maptivity to test them out!!

Or check out the BBC 'landscapes' site.

Latitude and Longitude getting you in a muddle... try this game! (There are also some good world map quizzes here too.)

Sunday, 19 August 2012

Heat wave!!

We're still feeling the chill here, but there have been some areas of Australia experiencing heat waves. And... this natural hazard is getting more and more common.

Find out one reason why in Emma and Hollie's powerpoint for more information.

A new city for Saudi Arabia... what's so interesting about that?!

As part of the Y11 Society and Culture course, Kate told us about an amazing current event - the design and building of a brand new city in Saudi Arabia... for women only!! I thought it was interesting from a Geography perspective too.

In GEOGRAPHY it presents a new concept in the reasons for building new cities. WHO will POPULATE it? What will be the EFFECTS of this? What will this mean for the future of Islamic CULTURE?
See Kate's full report for more information on this story.