Plastic Waste Infographics

In recent weeks Form 2 have been looking at the impact and causes of plastic waste. This is an issue that has come to global prominence, especially since the release of Blue Planet 2. In the final episode of the programme, the sheer scale of the problem of  plastics entering the ocean was laid bare. Problems range from the death of marine animals through accumulation of micro-plastics at the top of the food chain, to giant masses of plastics such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

To demonstrate their understanding of the problems and causes of plastic waste, but also to try and discourage their fellow students from using too many single use plastics, Form 2 created infographics. Below are some of the best efforts. Please note that all members of the class have English as a second or third language.

Yun

Nate

Catherine

Kah Wei

Headland Features

This year's Form 4s have just finished their module on coasts, a major unit of the Cambridge IGCSE Geography syllabus. This is their last unit of work before they pick up the rest of the two year course with their new teacher next year. 

However, before I go, I would like to share some of the excellent diagrams the students created of a headland using Playdoh and modelling clay. This was the same task that I had challenged the previous year to do in 2017. (See here for their efforts.) 

Qistina

I have shared Qistina's diagram because it was very clear and showed real attention to detail. I liked the touch of using the computer to type up her labels, meaning it was very easy to follow. Overall it was an excellent diagram that deserved to be shared with the wider world. However, like all Geographers there are ways she could have improved. For example she could have talked more about wave refraction. 

Wave refraction is so important to mention when explaining coastal erosion as it helps to shape the unique features shown in a headland. As waves approach a coast they are refracted (bent) due to the different depths of the seabed. This means that wave energy is focused around headlands not around bays. As a result the retreat of a headland is not uniform as the sides of the headland are attacked, creating features like faults, caves and arches.

Jenny

Jenny also created a visually impressive diagram of a headland, showing real ingenuity in her display. She had plenty of detail on the types of erosion breaking down the headland. However, a way to make this even better would have been to give detail about weathering. Weathering is where rocks are broken down where they are by weather, plants and animals. Weathering plays a really important role in the initial weakening of the rock and the eventual collapse of the arch. Stronger answers at IGCSE would include specific reference to types of erosion such as hydraulic action as well as types of weathering like freeze-thaw when explaining how headland features are formed.

Other notable diagrams from the class. Zan (left) and Adele (right).

A final note from me...
Over the year the students have grown in confidence and are now beginning to show mastery of Geographical knowledge and skills. If they continue to work as hard as they have this academic year, I have no doubts that they will fare well in June 2019. I wish them all well as I head for my new school in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It has been a pleasure teaching them as they typify the core values of most students at KTJ; a strong work ethic, a desire to achieve and a friendly and supportive approach to their fellow learners and teachers.

Ed Puzzle: Plastic Waste

Propaganda!

For much of this term Form 3 have been studying Communist Russia between 1918 to 1939. The topics we have studied, incldung collectivisation, the five year plans and Stalin's personality cult have been brought to life by analysing propaganda sources; looking for their meaning and discussing their purpose and reliability. Propaganda, as we discovered, was used on both sides of the political divide; Soviet Russia and The White's; a wide ranging group of anti communists 

 

Left: An anti-communist poster created by Russian exiles commenting on Stalin's use violence to silence potential critics. Right: A soviet poster portraying Stalin as an inspirational global leader.

Having discussed and written countless answers about sources, the class were tasked with creating their own propaganda sources about different elements of Stalininist Russia. They were asked to come up with, and explain the rationale for, two posters about the same topic, one from a Soviet point of view and one from the point of view of an exiled Russian who was against Communist reforms in the country. I think you will agree there are some very clever ideas...

Stalin's personality cult

             

Left: Poster by Azima (anti-Stalin). Right: Poster by Rattana (pro-Stalin)

Mr W: What topic did you decide to cover?
Anna: The personality cult of Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union who served for 30 years from 1922 to 1952. He built a society that was under his control. To do that, he made himself as a powerful political figure but behaved modestly in public and he often pretended that he and the commoners were socially and emotionally linked through posters and other propaganda campaigns. In other campaigns he is made to look strong or as a visionary.

Mr W: So what have you decided to draw to demonstrate his personality cult?
Anna: My propaganda poster shows kids giving flowers to Stalin and kids in a line at the back of Stalin. Giving flowers to Stalin represents that kids are respecting and praising Stalin. Stalin is also smiling so that he looks like a kind, generous leader, like the father of a nation. Kids at the back means they are following and are loyal to their leader. They are smiling too as if they are so glad that their leader is Stalin. It suggests that Stalin is the one who brings hope and happiness to kids. The caption again tells that Stalin is a great leader who cares about the commoners. The one on the left is obviously anti-Stalin!

Above: Pro-Stalin and anti-Stalin propaganda drawn by Anna

Mr W: Yours looks very different Azima, what is it about? (see above)
Azima: My first poster is about the propaganda of Joseph Stalin. Who is he? He is the leader of the Soviet Union and is best known for fighting the Germans in WW2 and starting the Cold war! In my poster you can learn that Stalin has been blinding the whole world with his “Red Propaganda”. This is shown by the drawing of Stalin pouring red propaganda from a bucket on top of the globe. This suggests that Stalin wants the whole world to think of him as a great global leader. The “black toxic” Stalin is pouring on top of the globe can also suggest oil production, something that increased in Stalin's five year plans. Therefore Stalin is well known for Russia’s oil. The table underneath the globe is the flag of Russia. This shows that not only other countries are blinded by Stalin but so are the Russian people.

Mr W: What about the poster at the top right?
Rattana: This is a propaganda that is pro-Stalin. I drew a group of family members watching Stalin’s speech together in living room and they were supporting him, that suggests that they loved him so much. And on the wall there’s also a picture of him hanging. It’s mean they really support him and loved him so much.

Mr W: I see, although remember that there weren't many TVs around when Stalin was in power, especially in the USSR!

Stakhanovite movement

Mr W: I was drawn to Benjy's poster, not because of the art, but rather the clever iconography of a coal miner. He choose the Stakanovite movement.  A Stakhanovite was a diligent worker who followed the example of Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov, a coal miner who supposedly held the record for the most amount of coal mined in a shift. Although these workers were used for propaganda purposes by the government, they were arguably uncommunist as Benjy explains.

Above: A poster about the Stakhanobite workers by Benjy

Mr W: So what is the message here Benjy?

Benjy: My propaganda poster is from the perspective of an exiled Russia. It shows a miner chipping away at a huge chunk of coal. Inside the coal is the communist symbol. This was to represent how the Stakhanovite miners, those workers that were seen as model workers, were actually destroying the idea of communism. This is because for the Stakhanovites, the government’s rule was, the more you work, the more you get. But is this really communism? No. Communism’s idealism is to share everything and wages should be largely equal. Thus the Stakahanovite system doesn’t fall into that idea.

Collectivisation

Mr W: What was Collectivisation?

Que-Bi: Collectivisation was the grouping of farms together into a collective farm. This was done in the late 1920's by Stalin.  Peasants were forced to give up their individual farms and join large farms. During this time Russia sold large quantities of grain and manufactured goods to other countries, but collectivisation resulted in famine as farmers burnt their crops and grew less food in protest at the reforms, causing severe food shortages, and villagers who did not cooperate were sent to the Gulags.

     

Left: Poster by Melanie (anti-Collectivisation_. Right: Pro- Colelctivisation Poster by Lisha

Mr W: How have you decided to talk about it?
Melanie: In did two posters. The propaganda poster shown above is from the perspective of a Russian exile. It shows how different life in Russia can be. In this picture there is Stalin standing on a mountain of gold coins, and a beggar dressing in torn clothes with only one gold coin in the hat. It shows that they both are living in very different conditions, despite the theories of communism. 

Above: Collectivisation Propaganda drawn by Cheng Yet

Mr W: What about the posters above?

Cheng Yet: The first picture is pro-collectivisation. It shows that the woman, as a farmer seems to be very happy while working in the collective farms. It suggests that there is a lot of food and that problems of the past, such as small farms and low technology have been solved.

In the second I am trying to show that farmers are sad and scared. This is clearly shown in the picture where the peasant is begging the government not to take away their food as they did not have enough for themselves. The Soviet government force-ably removed food before collectivisation, causing wide-spread famine.

Mr W: What about you Lisha?
Lisha: In Source 1, I made the poster look colorful, I drew Stalin smiling and some animals which look healthy. I drew this because that was the expectation of collectivisation, that it was a success. This poster also convinces people that Stalin made collectivisation a success and Stalin is a trust able and responsible leader.

The Race is On!: Form 1 Atlas Race 17/18

After a very close race by last year's Form 1, the new Form 1 are on their world quest! They are trying to visit every country in the world. To do that they need to answer 20 questions a week on cities, countries, continents or natural features of the world.

Each correct answer counts for one country visited. This year they are visiting each country in continent order - starting in Asia. The overall winner is the student who visits all 201 territories on the quest, although there are other prizes for each completed continent.

To check the leader-board and weekly progress of each student see the slides presentation below. You will be able to see a number of maps to see each country they have chalked off so far.

LAST UPDATED 27/0/17

Where Geography and History Meet: The Roman Empire and Physical Features.

As an end of term project, Form 1 brought together their knowledge of the Romans from History and physical features from Geography to create 3D maps of the Roman Empire.

These maps are now proudly on display in the classroom. As you will see from the images below there were some very creative touches. Well done to Sean, Andrew and Jimin who have won prizes for best presentation and Chow Wan Ting, Kiera and Hee Won who won prizes for best Geographical and Historical information.

Work in progress - step 1 - mapping out the Roman Empire and Physical features and making mountain ranges using paper-mache

Work in progress - step 2 - Panting and adding labels and special artistic features

Geography Fieldwork: The Do's and Don'ts

As last year's form 3 found out the hard way, fieldwork takes a lot of careful forethought. There should always be a clear and testable hypothesis, supported by a clear rationale. In addition the methodology should be sufficiently detailed so that someone else would be able to conduct the same study in the future by reading the written instructions. 

At IGCSE, Form 5 Geography students do not need to carry out their own fieldwork for their final grade. However, in paper 4 they are expected display a firm understanding of how to plan, conduct and review fieldwork and apply this knowledge to hypothetical situations.

Consequently this week Mr David's and Mr Wilkinson's classes joined together to conduct a practice piece of fieldwork about micro-climates at KTJ. After initial briefings on how to construct a hypothesis, safety and data collection the students were set loose. Most chose to investigate whether there was a positive relationship between distance from buildings and temperature.

As you will see from the videos below there were a number of issues that quickly cropped up and a number of mistakes were made. These mistakes were to be expected as Mr David and Mr Wilkinson deliberately threw the class in at the deep end. They were very useful mistakes as they provided an opportunity for reflection and a good starting point for next week's investigations. 

Below see a list of dos and don'ts that we managed to come up with as a class.

#1 Don't start before you have the right equipment

In the video below you will see that a number of students started to measure data without thinking about how they would actually ensure it was reliable.

Fieldwork ultimately aims to accept or reject a hypothesis. As a result it needs a good quantity of reliable data to analyse. Reliable data can only be collected with the right equipment at the right point. For example, as seen in this video, an investigation into temperature and distance from buildings will need a thermometer, which all students realised, but also an accurate way of measuring distance. Measuring distance could have been recorded using a number of apparatuses such as GPS on a phone, a trundle wheel or measuring tape. Nearly all students set out without any of these.

#2 Do imagine someone else will have to repeat the fieldwork

There are two issues that come up from the next video. The picture at the end shows one member of the class measuring humidity with his arm outstretched. The issue with this is that it is not particularly scientific and is open to lots of variables. For example, he is likely to be taller than others in his group so if they were take readings they would be at different heights, potentially influencing the results. On his next reading he may also have his hand at a slightly different angle or height. Better would be to follow the practice of locating Stevenson Screens and have a fixed distance from the floor where each reading is taken. For example students could take a one meter ruler and measure from the top of it. This would stop variations in height and minimise the influence of things like reflected radiation from the ground or variable amounts of wind. It would also make it easier for someone to carry out the same investigation again at a later point as they would have a clear point to measure from.

At the start of the video another member of the class is confused about which direction to face. The golden rule to remember here is that you want to remove the impact that human interference can have on the results. So in this case, this would mean ensuring that there was no shadow interfering with temperature readings. Geography investigations are different to science experiments because they operate in the real world, rather than in a controlled environment. Nonetheless, we should always try to reduce our impact on the results.

#3 Do make a results table

Even if you have followed the advice in points 1 and 2, your fieldwork will fall apart if you do not record the results properly.

In this clip the student should make sure he has made a results table to record his findings. Remember a good piece of fieldwork needs many readings. For example recordings at the same location at different times of the day. This will make the results more reliable as it will minimise the impact of freak results that could occur from faulty equipment, unusual weather conditions or human error. Eventually this student is going to run out of skin to record all of these results!

#4 Don't be afraid to read the instructions

Remember, after collecting results you need to present them in a series of graphs and charts. You also need to evaluate them, coming up with conclusions as to whether they confirm or deny your hypothesis and how you could improve the data recording if you were to do the experiment again. Consequently you need lots of results that you fully understand. 

In this clip the student was less familiar with Fahrenheit that Celsius. This means that he is less certain of what his results are actually showing him. As Mr David discusses, this problem could be easily overcome by reading the instructions on the apparatus. As in points 1,2 and 3 - fieldwork is easily improved by slowing down and thinking through problems logically.

#5 Do make a risk assessment

This video is based on photos taken by Mr Wilkinson following one group studying humidity and distance from water. Look at the images and see if you can spot anything wrong. 

Remember, as interesting as fieldwork might be, it is not worth dying for! There are risks in everything we do - even sitting in the classroom. Fieldwork is not usually dangerous, but it does involve more potential dangers than you would have in a normal lesson. For example, sun burn, animal bites, traffic and trip hazards. This does not mean we should not do it - but it does mean that we make a risk assessment before we go out so we can think about how we might minimise these risks. At KTJ this might mean students using sun-screen, wearing hats and having a teacher accompany them in places that are usually out of bounds. In paper 4 you will certainly need to mention risk management.