Foot and mouth disease update

The strain of diasease has now been identified and it is identical to that used at the Institute for Animal Health, at Pirbright, three miles from the farm. Defra could not say the laboratory was the source but has increased the size of the protection and surveillance zones covering farms in the area. (from BBC news website)

The map below shows the new, enlarged protection and surveillance zones. The map can be enlarged using the tool on the top of the 'scribd' page below (map from Defra)

Foot and mouth disease found on a farm near Guildford

Foot and mouth disease has been discovered on a farm close to Guildford.

This is taken from the BBC website: "Cattle at a farm in Surrey have been found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease. Animals on the farm near Guildford have tested positive for the disease which swept the UK and wreaked havoc in 2001. A 3km protection zone has been put in place around the premises and a UK ban imposed on movement of all livestock."

Read the full story here and now updated here which includes a link to the map below (where it is much clearer!)

The map below shows the 3km protection zone and the 10km surveillance zone that have been put in place. This information is taken from Defra. (http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/fmd/pdf/declaration-pz-sz-rz-070803.pdf)

Cycling around the world

How would you feel about cycling 18,000 miles? On Sunday 5th August 2007, Mark Beaumont will cycle out of Paris on a solo attempt to break the 18,000 mile World Record to become the fastest person to have ever circumnavigated the globe by bicycle. You will be able to follow the full adventure as it happens by clicking on his website here

He plans to beat the current world record which is 276 days 19 hrs 15 min - just over 9 months. Mark is planning to smash this by cycling around the globe in under 210 days. This seven month race will include 20 countries through Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australasia and North America. We wish him luck!

Floods in Southern Asia

We aren't the only ones experiencing difficulties with floods at the moment. Weeks of torrential rain, landslides and floods in China have left more than 700 people dead and forced about 5 million others to flee their homes.
Click here and here to see more pictures from the region.

Earthquake in Japan

Today, a significant earthquake hit the island of Honshu in Japan. Tsunami warnings were issued, and a nuclear power station was damaged. Read the story here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6901213.stm

and look at some pictures here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6900355.stm

Video footage of the quake can be seen here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_6900000/newsid_6900200?redirect=6900209.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1

Make your own at ProfilePitstop.com

Planet Earth as you may never have seen it before....

Thanks to coolpics from Slideshare for this....

Makes you think.....

Turn your sound on then watch the video below from You Tube....

Create pictogram using excel

For those of you doing coursework at the moment this site here might be helpful - it shows you how to create a pictogram using excel

World Population Clock

World population clock. If you click on 'Now' button the statistics start again at zero so you can see how fast things are rising.


Created by Poodwaddle.com

For those of you who wanted to see Yakko's World (the countries song) again here it is....

Find out the distance between two places.....

This might be useful, especially for those doing coursework.... click here to take you to a website where you can find out the distance between any two UK cities.

Maps of Guildford for Coursework

The site below has a range of maps for Guildford and the South East:

www.guildford.gov.uk/GuildfordWeb/Maps/

Climate change

A thought-provoking video I found on You Tube....

Pictures of Guildford

As we currently still don't have a shared area at school (!) I have put some pictures taken on the fieldwork day onto a powerpoint



You can also download this powerpoint at home to allow you to use any photos you wish. Download at
http://www.slideshare.net/HNurton/pictures-of-guildford

(and click on 'Download file' underneath the slideshow)

Interactive map of Surrey

A must have for coursework....
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Surrey+Interactive+Map#
An interactive map - zoom in / out /select areas etc etc

Urban geography

This powerpoint provides a basic outline of the characteristics of the CBD.

For year 10....

Whilst I was looking for something else I came across this site
http://home.clara.net/heureka/surrey-hants/gu-ford.htm
which may be useful to your as you write up your Introduction section of your coursework.

Pictures of the fieldwork day to follow soon.......

Chinese use fertility drugs to get round the One Child Policy

Some Chinese in rural areas have been using fertility drugs to ensure they have twins or other multiple births, the try to get round the One Child Policy. Families who have more than one child can expect fines, but multiple births are exempt from this rule. Read more about it here from the BBC.

Coursework

The documents below should help you collect information on the coursework day in Guildford. Ideally you should design your own sheets for data collection but if you are short on time these will help. You can download them and print them out by clicking on the writing at the bottom of the document. Don't forget to look further down the page for some suggestions to help you write your questionnaires!

Coursework questionnaires

Year 10 Geographers are in the process of writing their questionnaires for part of their coursework investigation. As quite a number have missed the class discussions because they are on the Spanish trip the following might help. It is a list of SOME of the sorts of questions you might want to include. They aren’t necessarily in the best order. I’m not suggesting you include them all and remember what we talked about with regards to using categories for answers etc.

TOURISM:
Gender (not a question)
Age
Where do you live?
What is your reason for being in Guildford today?
What do you consider to be Guildford’s attractions for tourists?
Which of the following do you consider to be most important for tourists? (list)
What do you consider to be the main benefits of tourists visiting Guildford?
What do you consider to be the problems associated with tourists?

TRAFFIC:
Gender (not a question)
Age
Where do you live?
What type of transport did you use to travel to Guildford today? / How do you usually travel to Guildford?
What are your reasons for visiting Guildford today?
How often do you visit Guildford?
How often do you use public transport in and around Guildford?
Can you rate Guildford’s public transport on a scale of….
Question about congestion (rate it as a problem or where worst?)
Questions about the park and ride scheme (e.g. Do you use it? How often? Can you rate it on a scale of…..)
How do you think transport in Guildford could be improved? (give suggestions as categories)

REMEMBER to look at your hypotheses and sub-hypotheses when designing your questionnaire!

Young People's Trust for the Environment

Use this link to a useful website about the environment and problems created by people. This is good for Year 9 pupils studying "Can the earth cope" this term.

http://www.yptenc.org.uk/

The site says "The Young People's Trust for the Environment is a charity which aims to encourage young people's understanding of the environment and the need for sustainability."

Happy reading!

Were you our 1000th visitor?

If you visited us over the weekend of 12th / 13th May you may have been our 1000th visitor! 1000 visitors in 7 weeks.

We've had visitors from six continents since we first started this blog on 25th March 2007. We hope you have found something useful / informative / interesting, or just something to make you think!

List of case studies for AS Human Geography

The document below is a list of suggested case studies for AS Human Geography. You can view the document online or, if you want to print it off, click on the bottom left where you can then download as a pdf or a word document. Don't forget to use the revision stuff given to you on disc. Good luck in your exams! Mrs Nurton

Missouri river floods

The Missouri River has flooded, meaning thousands of people have had to leave their homes. See more pictures here from the BBC

Queen carbon off-sets

The Queen's current visit to the USA will be the first one where she 'carbon off-sets'. Details and map below from the BBC website.

"The tour is the Queen's first carbon-offset state visit, where a donation is made to an environmental charity to offset the plane journeys made by the royal party. "

Total air miles - 13,317 km or 8,275 milesAmount of CO2 emitted based on scheduled flights - 1. 5 tonnesEstimated offset cost per person - £13.20 to £14.18 ($26.22-$28.17) depending on type of offset package
Source: The Carbon Neutral Company carbon calculator

How to revise!

This simple powerpoint shows a few ways to revise - try something different! Good luck!

Tornado wipes out 95% of town!

A tornado has hit the town of Greensburg in Kansas, USA, wiping out 95% of the buildings, killing at least 9 people and injuring 60 others.

Look at the links below for more information and images / video.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/tornadoes/2007-05-05-kansas_N.htm This includes a flash animation of 'how tornadoes form'. The videos are definately worth a look.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6628613.stm

GCSE Past Papers

Special message for Year 11 students! Here's the link for the past exam papers on the AQA website. Look at the papers (you can choose Higher or Foundation as appropriate), and look at the mark schemes too.

http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gcse/geo_c_assess.php

Remember, Paper 1 is the Decision Making Paper, and Paper 2 is the one which tests your knowledge of the topics we have covered in the last two years.

The topic for Paper 1 this year is as follows:

“Paper 1 will consider different indicators used to compare
economic development and how levels of development reflect
general quality of life and employment opportunities. It will
then look at the issues associated with the development of
tourism in LEDCs and examine a specific example. It will also
consider the issue of managing tourism developments in
sensitive areas.”

Happy revising!

Italy and volcanoes!

How topical! Year 7 were looking at Italy and we found that Mount Etna had been erupting today. Click here to go to a BBC webpage where you can click on a video of today's eruption.

We then got talking about Mount Vesuvius and I promised some more information so here goes.....

Find out what happened to these people by using the links below:

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/pompeii/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/pompeii_portents_01.shtml



http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/pompeii.html not only tells you what happened, but there is a quiz and you can build your own virtual volcano.