Visual Geography March 13, 2008
Posted by Gareth in : Geography , 1 comment so farhttp://www.visualgeography.com/
Boris Kester and Nana Bjørnlund have put together this great geography website which collects together stunning photographs, useful images and other information about countries all over the world.
Nana writes:
We have created a site with thousands of pictures from more than 85 countries in the world. The site is meant as a tool for teachers and students, and anyone else who is interested in learning about the world via our visual material and written text. Our images are made easy to use by being divided into categories such as people, houses, transportation, food, and much more. Other educational features on our site are quizzes, images of flags, maps, language samples, images of currencies and other information. We hope you will find our site useful, and if you have suggestions or picture/text contributions (e.g. as part of a school project) let us know, and we will get back to you. We will gladly receive your feedback.
Send a Cow January 8, 2008
Posted by Gareth in : Geography, P.S.H.E. , 1 comment so farSend a Cow is a charity that provides livestock and training to poor families in Africa. Their Cowfiles.com website contains lesson plans, ideas and teaching resources. There is lots of general material on Africa and African life as well as a whole section with activities themed around growing plants.
You may also like to check out SAC’s main site and their award winning children’s website Cowforce.
Moving Here November 7, 2007
Posted by Gareth in : Geography, History, P.S.H.E. , add a commenthttp://www.movinghere.org.uk/
There is a huge amount of interesting material on this site. As the blurb says…
Moving Here explores, records and illustrates why people came to England over the last 200 years and what their experiences were and continue to be. It offers free access, for personal and educational use, to an online catalogue of versions of original material related to migration history from local, regional and national archives, libraries and museums.
Primary teachers will find the sections linked to topics The Victorians and Britain Since 1948 very useful for incorporating the theme of migration into history lessons.
Oxfam Education September 14, 2007
Posted by Gareth in : Geography, P.S.H.E. , add a commenthttp://www.oxfam.org.uk/education
Oxfam’s Cool Planet for teachers has been relaunched as Oxfam Education. They’ve given the website a fresh new look and new search options to make it even easier for teachers to find everything they need to take a global approach across the curriculum.
Oxfam Education offers a huge range of free, easy to use resources to help bring the global dimension to life in the classroom.
It helps teachers deliver education that empowers young people to understand their world and make a difference in it.
The website features inspiring assemblies, lesson plans and ideas for teaching across the curriculum. Teachers can also access the latest advice and support for tackling complex global issues that affect pupils’ lives.
Fact Monster September 7, 2007
Posted by Gareth in : Geography , add a commenthttp://www.factmonster.com/
This US site (from education publishers Pearson) is great for researching facts and figures. The advertising makes it a little unfriendly for unsupervised student use, but it’s still excellent for finding material for lesson presentations. Some interesting sections I’ve just been looking at: World’s Tallest Buildings, World Atlas and Map Library, Flags from Around the World and Country Statistics. The site even helps answer the tricky question, “How many countries are there in the world?”
Panoramic Seaside Pictures September 7, 2007
Posted by Gareth in : Geography , add a commenthttp://www.panoramas.dk/
Tom Craven kindly sent me details of this website that contains some great panoramic photographs. It’s got a fair amount of advertising on so it’s not something that you’d let students on unsupervised. There are some really nice (seaside) images for Unit 4 of the KS1 Geography scheme here and here.
[Other 360 VR images I’ve found myself include: Humber Seaside Panoramas, Virtual Blackpool, Virtual Scarborough, Cornwall and Scotland]
Friends of the Earth: Learning September 7, 2007
Posted by Gareth in : Geography, Science , add a commenthttp://www.foe.co.uk/learning/
Friends of the Earth have just re-launched their learning website for educators and young people. For primary schools, there are some colourful factsheets and a collection of useful lesson plans on topics such as air pollution, climate change and natural habitats. The case studies section showcases the work of Brill CofE Combined School which has implemented an energy saving project and also has an organic garden and a teaching pond.
Young People’s Trust for the Environment September 7, 2007
Posted by Gareth in : Geography , add a commenthttp://www.yptenc.org.uk
This charity site aims aims to encourage young people’s understanding of the environment and the need for sustainability. There’s almost two hundred great animal fact sheets (on animals and also on the environment) which are perfect for older KS2 students. The site links to the Green School Awards which features a curriculum guide that gives ideas for incorporating environmental issues into your lessons.
Historical Maps on Google Earth September 7, 2007
Posted by Gareth in : Geography, History , add a commenthttp://earth.google.com/
The brilliant Google Earth is now even more useful! The team at Google have just added a selection of historical maps that are available as featured content layers. They come from the David Rumsey Collection and UK teachers will find the 1790 World Globe and the 1790 England & Wales maps particularly interesting. The maps have been pasted to the Google Earth globe so you can type in a modern day place name and fly to the appropriate part on the historical map. It’s great to see which towns and cities were important enough to be on the map back then and also amusing to see the change in spellings (e.g. “Leverpool“).
Docklands Light Railway September 7, 2007
Posted by Gareth in : Geography , add a commenthttp://www.dlr.co.uk/dlr/about/teacherspack.shtml
If you’re based in or around London you may be interested in the teachers pack that’s available from the Docklands Light Railway website. The pack contains lots of useful information for teachers about the railway together with tour directions, maps and teachers notes. There’s also lots of activity sheets for KS2 students. Besides the obvious geography/transport links, the DLR should provide a useful real-life example of control technology systems.
