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Geography Teaching and Learning

How do I cope with a forest of hands? ‘3B before me’ and peer teaching

Hands up Telegraph image

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk

We’ve all experienced the forest of hands which come from setting a challenging task.  The forest is especially dense in lessons for younger students, but I have known more than half of a Sixth Form class to have their hands in the air at times.  What can be done to respond to your students’ desire for help without giving them the answer or stifling their curiosity?

3B before me

I try my best to promote independent learning by encouraging ‘3B before me’: before students put their hands in the air, they should first use their brain, then their book (perhaps a textbook), then their buddy (on either side), before coming to the teacher as the last port of call.  (In some models this final stage is called ‘the boss’, but this may not sit comfortably with your perceptions of your role as a teacher!)  I back this up with ‘3B before me’ posters on the wall and verbal reminders before I set tricky work.

I really do recommend this strategy, which was first brought to my attention just a few years ago, at one of Bradford Grammar School’s Teaching and Learning twilight INSET sessions.  However, sometimes the hands just spring back up and it is so tempting to just give your students the answer… or give them a hint… or show them what to do on the whiteboard… or go to one of the ones with their hands down who you know you can rely upon to put the class out of its misery!

But to do any of these things would not only set back the course of independent learning, but it would also tire you out and tempt you to set less challenging work next time.  So, what can you do to augment the ‘3B before me’ strategy?

Judiciously applied, peer teaching can help.

Peer teaching Cross-sections

Source: Author

Peer teaching

Peer teaching, at its simplest, is using students to advise and/or instruct their fellow class mates.  I find that it is its most effective, at least in Geography, in the context of ‘skills’-based competencies, such as using GIS or other IT software, and in techniques involving paper maps (such as grid references and measuring distances).  I applied it this week when teaching relief on maps, using four cross-section tasks of increasing levels of difficulty:

  1. I demonstrated the start of the easiest cross-section on the whiteboard, involving pupils by asking them to tell me where I should draw the crosses on the line
  2. Pupils worked through their cross-sections. I reminded the pupils of the expectation to carry out ‘3B before me’
  3. I toured the class to trouble-shoot the remaining queries
  4. Once the first pupil had finished, I told him – and the rest of the class – that he was a cross-section expert, and therefore could be called upon to advise others
  5. As more pupils finished, they too became ‘experts’, until the whole class had finished the task

This prompted others to redouble their efforts to finish efficiently and accurately so that they too could be called an ‘expert’.  Also, those who were struggling tended to find that getting advice from a peer was more helpful than getting advice from a teacher!

Cross-section drawing peer teaching close up

Source: Author

To summarise some of the benefits of peer teaching,

  • Students receive more time for individualised learning
  • Direct interaction between students promotes active learning
  • Peer teachers reinforce their own learning by instructing others (we are all aware of the adage that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it)
  • Many students feel more comfortable and open when interacting with a peer rather than with the teacher
  • It can be used when you would like every pupil in the class to finish a task
  • Some students work more efficiently when they know that they might be chosen to become a peer teacher
  • The learning environment is energised – peer learning can be fun!

Nevertheless, I would not overuse this method, because:

  • the novelty of becoming an ‘expert’ may wear off on the most able pupils
  • the most able pupils should usually be nudged into ways which might extend their learning rather than simply reinforcing it
  • some pupils are shy, and therefore reluctant to be ‘experts’
  • it may undermine the principle of independent learning, if pupils get used to the fact that they can call on a fellow pupil to help them
  • it might present challenges in terms of classroom management

Discussing approaches such as peer teaching with mixed-subject groups of teachers at my school’s INSET session yesterday also underlined the fact that peer teaching could be tough to apply in certain contexts.  Some language teachers, for instance, pointed out that it can take a while for any pupil to be able to have the expertise in a language to allow him or her to peer teach others.

Finally, peer teaching is of course only one aspect of peer learning, which also includes group work, peer assessment, and so on – but in the right context it is powerful, fun, and makes the classroom (or indeed an outdoor learning environment) a more dynamic place.  And if you stretch the notion of ‘peer’ to include mixing students of different age groups, then a whole new world of opportunity opens up – for instance, some of my Year 9 students have given an assembly to a Year 7 form on the crisis in South Sudan, and younger pupils may even be able to teach older ones a thing or two about their particular experiences (for instance about their country of origin or their family’s business).

Closing thoughts

Good luck in trying out new ways of involving pupils in helping others in the classroom – and if you haven’t implemented ‘3B before me’ yet, then what are you waiting for?

I acknowledge https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/peer-teaching/ for summarising four of the benefits of peer teaching given here.

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Geography Uncategorized

The little island with a large volcano – Part 2: Impacts and can the future be self-sufficient?

“[T]he epoch-making eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano in 1995… has affected almost every facet of life in this 39.5 square mile island.  Agriculture, industry, land-form, land space and its use, demography, politics, culture and the totality of society have all undergone changes of revolutionary proportions” (Fergus, 2007: 9)

 

In the previous article, we considered the physical processes involved in recent volcanic activity on Montserrat, with particular reference to the fifth phase of activity (October 2009 – October 2010 and ongoing), together with an assessment of monitoring techniques.  In this article, we will explore the social, economic and environmental impacts of this activity, and we will briefly assess the likelihood for Montserrat to become self-sufficient in the future.

Montserrat map locations (Wikimedia)

Figure 1: Map of Montserrat

Source: http://www.paradise-islands.org

Social impacts and plans for the future

Between 1995 and 1999, Montserrat experienced a huge exodus following the destruction of the capital, Plymouth (see Figure 2), and the forced evacuation of many villages and farmland in the southern part of the island (see Figure 3).  In this short time span, the island’s population decreased to about a third of its pre-eruption levels, from 10,000 to 3,000, rising to just over 5,000 by 2006.  This ‘diaspora’ has settled in many countries, mainly Antigua, the UK and the USA.  These migrants joined a large group of people who had already left the island throughout the twentieth century, for example in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989.  The exodus in the late 1990s resulted in a loss of economic potential, because a large number of the emigrants were from economically active age groups.  Another impact of the eruption has been the arrival of over 1,500 people from other Caribbean islands who have been attracted by employment opportunities, chiefly in construction.

2 fig 2 Plymouth

Figure 2: View of Plymouth from the north

Source: Author

2 fig 3 Hazard Zones

Figure 3: Montserrat hazard zone map (1 July 2010)

Source: Montserrat Volcano Observatory: http://www.mvo.ms

For those Montserratians who have remained, there have been health effects, although these have been well controlled.  The main effects have been the exacerbation of respiratory diseases, silicosis (a kind of lung disease caused by christobalite, an element found in the ash), and post-traumatic stress disorder.  Psychologically, many Montserratians felt under threat in the months following the initial eruptions, and these tensions were heightened by the crowded life in evacuation centres.

 

Key terms

– Diaspora: The population of a country who has migrated abroad and who keep strong ties with their country of origin

– GDP: Gross Domestic Product, i.e. the total value of goods and services produced by a country, usually stated over the period of a year

– Quango: quasi nongovernmental organisation; an organisation that is financed by the government yet acts independently of it

– Anthropogenic: resulting from the influence of human beings

– Feral: a plant or animal that has escaped from domestication

 

Looking to the future, one of the five strands of the island’s Sustainable Development Plan 2008-2020 (see the relevant section at the end of the article) is to achieve a sustainable population: the government hopes to “develop and implement population, labour and immigration policies which will enhance the growth of the population; create initiatives to retain the current population; and create incentives which will facilitate the increase of the population” (Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Government of Montserrat, N.D.: 7).

 

Educationally, enrolment in all schools, from nursery to secondary, dropped from 2672 to 620 between 1995 and 1998.  The two secondary schools were consolidated into one, but the school has had problems in retaining staff; most teachers come from other Caribbean islands, and 8 out of the 35 staff departed the school at the end of the 2009/10 academic year.  A community college opened next door to the secondary school in 2005.  New methods of teaching and learning have been introduced to the school and the college, to put the students on a better footing for the future.

 

Economic impacts and plans for the future

Economically, the volcano dealt the island a blow from which it is still struggling to recover.  The land adjacent to the volcano was some of the most fertile on the island; such land is now agriculturally useless and inaccessible (see Figure 4), and 300 full-time farmers have been dispossessed by the eruptions.  Montserrat, which used to be self-sufficient in many crops, is now dependent on imports for the vast majority of its foodstuffs.  This is clear to see from a brief visit to any of the island’s food stores, and symptomatic of this import dependency is the fact that it can be difficult to buy limes on an island which was once famous for its lime crop (relaxing is still known as ‘liming’ on the island).  There are seeds of hope, however: following a government campaign, many residents have turned towards growing some of their own crops, such as sweet potatoes and papaya, and the frequent ash falls have increased the fertility of the soil.

2 fig 4 hazard sign

Figure 4: Exclusion Zone sign (2010)

Source: Author

Manufacturing industry was strong on the island until the first eruption: it hosted assembly-type businesses and food processing plants, dominated by Montserrat Rice Mills.  Until the evacuation of Plymouth, the island also hosted an off-shore medical school, the American University of the Caribbean, which employed dozens of staff, and whose 400 students had been significant spenders in the local economy.  Future plans to re-invigorate the island’s economy include the expansion of the ash processing industry (see Figure 5) and the construction of a new capital city in Little Bay (see final section and Figure 1).  The music producer George Martin has already funded the recently completed Cultural Centre at a cost of nearly US$3 million to kick-start this development.

2 fig 5 Montserrat Blocks

Figure 5: A potential economic benefit of the activity?

Source: Author

Tourism was another big loser thanks to the eruption: the airport and seaport were in the exclusion zone, huge areas were declared out of bounds, and tourists were deterred by negative travel advice from their governments.  In 2004 a £5 million grant from the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) was secured: some of it was used for ‘capacity building’ (supporting hotel and villa construction), and part of it was spent on hiring a team of consultants from Scotland: ‘Team Tourism’.  Their strategic plan for the island seeks to widen the number of target markets.  The traditional ‘Caribbean’ target markets have been characterised by the phrase ‘newly weds and nearly deads’, the latter referring not only to the substantial cruise ship market but also to the thousands of ‘snowbirds’ – wealthy retirees from northern America who own villas and use them for several months during the winter.  The consultancy renamed these tourists as ‘destination enjoyment’ travelers, and came up with eight more target markets (see inset), along with a new logo and a slogan which elliptically refers to the volcano as a possible attraction: ‘A Caribbean Treasure – Spectacular by Nature’.

 

2 fig 7 tourist logo

Figure 6: Montserrat Tourist Board logo

Source: http://www.visitmontserrat.com

Tourism target markets:

– ‘Destination enjoyment’ holidaymakers (especially villa owners and renters)

– Markets inspired by the volcano (volcano tours and the education market)

– The dive market

– The bird watching market

– The cruise market

– The yachting market

– The market for day visits, short breaks and events

– Sports tourism (football and cricket)

– The Montserrat diaspora

Source: Team Tourism (2007)

2 fig 8 air travel

Figure 7: The new airport has a shorter runway than the previous one and can only take small aeroplanes

Source: Author

At the peak of the volcanic activity in 1997, the annual number of tourists was approximately 4,000.  By 2004, a ferry linking Montserrat with Antigua, with two sailings a day had been established, and this ferry facilitated an influx of day visitors.  The estimated number of tourists at this time was 15,000.  When the subsidy stopped in 2005, the ferry service ceased, and by 2006, the numbers had shrunk to 9,500: the Director of the Tourist Board, Mrs Ernestine Cassell, states that “the capacity of the ferry and the small size of our airport severely restrict the number of visitors which come to the island… and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future”.  Another drawback for potential ‘volcano tourists’ is that tours around the site of Plymouth (‘the new Pompeii’) have not taken place for several years thanks to continued volcanic activity.

 

Energy is one of the most significant economic challenges which face the island.  Today, the island relies upon one relatively inefficient high-speed diesel engine.  The island’s 2008-2020 Sustainable Development Programme has, however, identified renewable energy as a priority for the island.  Some renewable options are, as Director of Montserrat’s Department of Energy, Peter White puts it, “definitely on the back-burner”; these include tidal, whose capital costs are high and whose prospects are low thanks to the low tidal range of the Caribbean Sea, and wave, which also suffers from a high capital cost.  Wind energy, which was trialled in the early 1990s, and which contributed 400kWh at its peak, looks likely to mothballed for a longer period, partly because of a lack of suitable sites (the Centre Hills is due for designation as a National Park), and partly because the direction of the usually reliable ‘trade winds’ has seemingly shifted, meaning that orientating the turbines may be problematic.

 

For a location in the Caribbean, solar energy might be seen as a possible solution.  However, wide-scale deployment of photovoltaic solar panels has a high capital cost, and there is insufficient space for a large-scale installation.  Recent changes in the direction of prevailing winds on the island also mean that the northern part of the island has seen increasing ash falls, which can obscure the sunlight reaching the panels.

 

Geothermal energy is the main focus of the department’s renewable energy strategy.  A suitable aquifer, recharged by the sea and fresh water, has been found in Foxes Bay, in Zone C of the Exclusion Zone, between Richmond and Gages (see map).  The planned capacity of this small plant is in the range of 2-5MW, therefore supplying all of the electricity for Montserrat at its current population size, and possibly allowing for Montserrat to be a net exporter of electricity.  Funding is being sought from a variety of sources, but Peter White is struggling to obtain funding for the project.  Current plans for the installation of a medium-speed diesel engine mean that Montserrat will still be open to the mercies of the open market in oil prices.

 

Environmental impacts and plans for the future

On a regional scale, as mentioned in part 1 of this article, ash from the 11 February dome collapse reached several neighbouring islands, resulting in extensive disruption to air travel in the Eastern Caribbean region, and it also caused millions of pounds worth of damage to banana and other cash crops on Guadeloupe alone.

 

On Montserrat, the most obvious environmental effect has been the destruction of approximately a third of the island’s tropical rainforest and much of its wildlife.  In addition, ash falls have thwarted vegetation growth in the short-term.  However, the ash has enriched the soil with iron, magnesium and potassium from the weathering of various minerals, such as olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and feldspar which are found in volcanic ash.

 

However, perhaps the most notable environmental impact which humans have some degree of involvement in is the effect of feral animals on the island’s ecosystem.  The island’s forests support critically endangered endemic species including the Montserrat Oriole (a bird), Montserrat Galliwasp (a lizard) and Mountain Chicken (actually a frog!).  Feral pigs (see Figure 8) and goats (together with smaller numbers of cattle and donkeys) originating from abandoned livestock in the Exclusion Zone are thought to be dramatically increasing in number in the Centre Hills.  Such animals are damaging native plants and animals, including endemic species, and spreading of exotic species.  They may also be leading to increased soil erosion, agricultural damage, pollution of water and attacks on walkers.

2 fig 9 feral pig (Mont Govt)

Figure 8: Feral pig on Montserrat

Source: Montserrat government: http://www.gov.ms

Richard Bunting, a wildlife ecologist working in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, on a Darwin Initiative project, has been using a number of fieldwork techniques to investigate the impact of such animals on the biodiversity of the Centre Hills region.  These techniques include monitoring a network of infra-red cameras (using food traps to attract animals), driving through the island to count loose livestock, and surveying farmers.  Possible solutions to the problem include controlled hunting, encouraging farmers to tie up feral animals, and laying traps.

 

Volcanic activity and climate change – did you know?

On a global scale, whenever the volcano erupts, vast volumes of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere.   Whilst it is virtually impossible to accurately measure the volumes of carbon dioxide which comes from the Soufrière Hills volcano, it is useful to put such emissions in context: even if you take the highest estimate of global volcanic carbon dioxide emissions (270 million metric tons per year), human-emitted carbon dioxide levels are more than 130 times higher than volcanic emissions (Gerlach, 2010).

 

What is the likelihood that Montserrat might become self-sufficient?

In 2008/09, Montserrat relied upon an annual aid budget of £16.4 million from the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID, 2010), a figure equivalent to over £3000 per resident.  It also receives a smaller amount of aid from other international organizations, for example the EU.  The UK coalition government has committed to reprieve overseas aid from its programme of cuts, and anecdotal evidence suggests that Montserrat is unlikely to become self-sufficient in the near future.

The island’s ‘Sustainable Development Plan 2008-2020’, aims for a degree of self-sufficiency: this is summarized in Inset 4, below.  By 2010, some aspects of the plan had already been delivered: these include the completion of Phase 1 of the construction of the new capital at Little Bay in the north of the island (see map) and the current push to invigorate tourism on the island.  There has also been a campaign to try to encourage the 30,000-strong Montserratian diaspora to invest in the island and to consider returning to it.

 

Strategic Goals of the Montserrat Sustainable Development Plan, 2008-2020

– Economic Management: An environment that fosters prudent economic management, sustained growth, a diversified economy and the generation of employment opportunities

– Human Development: Enhanced human development and improved quality of life for all people on Montserrat

– Environmental Management and Disaster Mitigation: Montserrat’s natural resources conserved within a system of environmentally sustainable development and appropriate strategies for disaster mitigation

– Governance: An efficient, responsive and accountable system of governance and public service

– Population: A sustainable population

Source: Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Government of Montserrat (N.D.)

 

So, will Montserrat ‘rise from the ashes’?  Whilst researching for these articles, it has become evident that although the initial shock of volcanic activity on Montserrat has passed, the volcano shows no signs of ceasing its activity, and the impact of this activity is profound and will be long-lasting.  The journey to self-sufficiency will be slow and difficult, and only time will tell whether the residents of this ‘little island’ will have the strength and perseverance to tame the powerfully destructive effects of their ‘big volcano’.

 

Key points

  • The social, economic and environmental impacts of the eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano have been significant and long-lasting
  • A new capital city, ash processing, tourism and geothermal energy may provide the basis for future development on Montserrat
  • Montserrat has begun a long journey towards self-sufficiency

 

Points for discussion

  1. How does Montserrat’s position as a British Overseas Dependency disrupt received notions of ‘developed’ and ‘less developed’ countries?
  2. How would you set Montserrat on a ‘journey towards self-sufficiency’?

 

Further reading

Montserrat Sustainable Development Plan 2008-2020: http://www.gov.ms/?p=1498

Department for Overseas Development – Montserrat Overview: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Overseas-Territories/Montserrat/

 

Acknowledgements

This article was written following a field-trip to Montserrat with Dr Caroline Neuberg, Physics teacher at Fulneck School, Leeds, and three sixth form students at the school.  The trip was made possible thanks to grants from the Seismic Schools Initiative based at the School of Earth & Environment, University of Leeds, UK (a seismometer was installed at the Secondary School) and the Royal Society.  I am indebted to Professor Jurgen Neuberg from the University of Leeds for his help on the field trip and his comments on the text.  Finally, I would like to thank all the interviewees mentioned above.

 

The author

David Alcock is Head of Geography at Fulneck School, Leeds and is an AQA examiner.

 

 

Below are the sources referred to in the text.  I am aware that you will probably remove all references from the body of the text, but you may find these useful for verification purposes:

MVO – Cole, P. et al (2010) ‘Report to the Scientific Advisory Committee on Montserrat Volcanic Activity – Report on Activity between 15 August 2009 and 28 February 2010’ (‘SAC 14’) at http://www.montserratvolcanoobservatory.info

 

BBC (1999) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/312910.stm

 

DfID (2010) http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Overseas-Territories/Montserrat/

 

Fergus, Howard A. (2007) ‘Montserrat: Defining Moments’

 

Gerlach, T. (2010) ‘Voices: Volcanic versus anthropogenic carbon dioxide: The missing science’ at http://www.earthmagazine.com/earth/article/371-7da-7-1e (posted 30 July 2010)

 

Loughlin, S., Baptie, B. and McCourt, W. (2009) Monitoring Montserrat’s volcano – past, present and future

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/features/story.aspx?id=396 dated 10 July 2009

 

 

Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Government of Montserrat (N.D.) ‘Montserrat Sustainable Development Plan 2008-2020: Montserrat Medium-Term Strategy and Action Plan 2008-2012’

 

Montserrat Government (2010) ‘Darwin Feral Livestock Project’, www.gov.ms/?p=1812, dated 7 January 2010

 

Team Tourism (2007) ‘Tourism Development in Montserrat 2008-10 Strategy Review and Implementation Framework November 2007’

 

Wikimedia (accessed 2010) Map of Montserrat: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/Topographic-map-of-Montserrat-en.svg/500px-Topographic-map-of-Montserrat-en.svg.png

and Map of Caribbean

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CaribbeanIslands.png

 

 

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Geography Uncategorized

The little island with a large volcano – Part 1: how is volcanic activity on Montserrat monitored?

Aerial view Montserrat

Figure 1: View of Montserrat from International Space Station, 2009

Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40803&src=eoa-iotd

All A-level examination specifications have tectonic hazards as an option.  It can be difficult to keep up-to-date with recent case studies, especially those concerning continuing volcanic events and long-term responses.  Montserrat is a popular case study, but its appearance in some of the most popular Key Stage 3 and GCSE textbooks might put students off revisiting the case study at A-level.  However, the situation in Montserrat is complex and constantly changing, and this justifies revisiting the ‘little island with the large volcano’.  In this article, we will consider the physical processes involved in recent volcanic activity, and we will assess the monitoring and prediction techniques employed on the island.  In the second article, we will consider the long term impacts of the eruptions and the potential for the island to become self-sufficient.

Montserrat map (Wikimedia)

Figure 2: Location of Montserrat – in the easterly part of the Caribbean

Source: https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/reference_maps/pdf/central_america.pdf

Montserrat map locations (Wikimedia)

Figure 3: Map of Montserrat

Source: http://www.paradise-islands.org

Phases of volcanic activity

Scientists at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) have divided the volcanic activity into five phases interrupted by pauses:

Phase 1: Summer 1995 to the start of 1998

Phase 2: December 1999 to Summer 2003

Phase 3: Summer 2003 to Spring 2007

Phase 4: Summer 2008 to 3 January 2009

Phase 5: 4 October 2009; ongoing (at time of writing – i.e. October 2010)

 

The main events which Geography students will be familiar with occurred in Phase 1.  Following over three hundred years of inactivity, there were a few precursors of activity early in 1995, in that steam was seen rising from the vent, and mud pools increased in temperature.  The first eruption of the Soufrière Hills Volcano started on 18 July 1995, and this initial eruption led to the evacuation of the capital, Plymouth, and the creation of an exclusion zone in the southern part of the island.  On 25 June 1997 at about 1pm, a much larger eruption occurred. The dome of the volcano collapsed, sending 5 million cubic metres of hot rocks and gases down the side of the volcano.  These ‘pyroclastic flows’ killed 19 people who returned to their farms in the exclusion zone, and they also created an area of new land as some debris was deposited off the coast.  Activity in Phase 1 had significant impacts on the society (notably the emigration of over half of the island’s population), economy and environment; these will be dealt with in detail in the next article.  Activity in Phases 2-5 has been significant enough to warrant the continuation of the exclusion zone, although no further fatalities have occurred.  We will now investigate the most recent phase, to give some idea of the events associated with a volcanic eruption.

 

Phase 5 of volcanic activity

Phase 5 has enjoyed more media exposure than all but the first phase, partly owing to the publication of an aerial photograph of the eruption taken by an aeroplane passenger in the national press and on several websites (see Figure 4).

Montserrat view from plane (source Metro)

Figure 4: 2010 eruption, taken by an aeroplane passenger

Source: http://www.solentnews.co.uk/

Phase 5 began on 4 October 2009, and was preceded by two days of decreasing gas output and an hour of small volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes.  Ash was vented for the first four days, the dome grew, and pyroclastic flows were recorded, some of which reached places which had never been reached before.  This episode ended with five Vulcanian explosions (powerful eruptions of blocks of viscous lava, also known as ‘volcanic bombs’) throughout a five-week period in January-February.  At 11.52am on 11 February, an estimated 40 million cubic metres (approximately 20%) of the north-eastern portion of the lava dome collapsed (see figure 5 below).  This led to several pyroclastic flows and surges.  One flow/surge combination headed down Farm Valley (see Figure 7), which had not previously been affected by such activity – this surge was so powerful that the MVO described it as being “a small lateral blast type pyroclastic surge”.  Lateral blasts will be familiar to students through the 1980 Mount St Helen’s eruption.  The deposits added 650m of new land was added to the island’s coastline at Spanish Point (see map – Figure 3).  This coastal accretion, together with other additions since 1995 have led to the joke that Montserrat is ‘the only part of the British Empire which is still expanding’.

MVO dome collapse (source MVO)

Figure 5: Partial lava dome collapse, 11 February 2010

Source: ‘Report to the Scientific Advisory Committee on Montserrat Volcanic Activity – Report on Activity’ at http://www.montserratvolcanoobservatory.info

 

These pyroclastic deposits (see Figure 6) consist of ash, together with blocks of ‘andesitic glass’ – a porous, light-grey rock which is ejected at great speed from the vent, trapping water vapour from the magma as it forms.  Some of this material is less dense than water, and it therefore often floats.  These deposits have crystals of pyroxene embedded in them – these originate from the mingling of basaltic (silica-poor) and rhyolitic (acidic and silica-rich) magma.  Once pyroclastic deposits settle, secondary explosions can take place – these occur hours, days, or even weeks after the flow.  In such explosions, groundwater or rainfall comes into contact with the well-insulated and very hot deposits merely tens of centimetres below the exposed upper layer.  The temperature can reach several hundreds of degrees Centigrade even at these shallow depths.  The 11 February event also generated ash clouds of up to 40,000ft (12,200m) in height; the west-southwesterly winds meant that the ash only fell on a small part of eastern Montserrat; it did, however, make landfall on islands such as Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique and St Lucia.

 

Figures 6 and 7: Pyroclastic deposits

Source: Author

How is the Soufrière Hills volcano monitored?

One of the ultimate aims of monitoring volcanoes is to identify precursors of activity.  Of course, vulcanologists enjoy the advantage over earthquake seismologists of having a reasonable idea about where an eruption might take place, even if it is difficult to say precisely when activity is likely to take place.

 

The current monitoring system is maintained by staff at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO).  There are several monitoring stations situated throughout the island.  They are powered by solar panels, which continuously provide data to the MVO by radio link.  A continuing challenge to scientists has been the threat of pyroclastic flows, pyroclastic surges, and lahars, which have frequently put several stations out of action.  Sometimes, scientists have been extremely lucky; this was the case on 11 February, when a monitoring station was only 2 metres away from the ‘singe zone’ of the pyroclastic surge (see Figure 8).

 

The seismic network comprises twelve broadband seismometers which can detect ground motion in the frequency range from 0.03Hz to 50Hz: this range encompasses a range of movement, from human footfall, through rockfalls, to movements of magma deep underground.  The GPS network has nine GPS receivers detecting ground deformation with an accuracy of millimetres.  The gas spectrometers sample the plume for suplhur dioxide.

 

In addition, there are four monitoring stations set up by a British-American research project (SeaCALIPSO), each one containing a tilt- and a strain-meter housed in a 200m-deep borehole.

Fig 8 monitoring station

Figure 8: Monitoring station

Source: Author

Key terms

– Pyroclastic flow: A surface-hugging eruption cloud of very hot gas and volcanic particles that moves rapidly across the ground surface

– Pyroclastic surge: a surface-hugging hot cloud, less dense than a pyroclastic flow, moving with turbulent flow close to the ground surface (also known as a nuee ardente – French for ‘hot cloud’)

– Lahar: A volcanic mudflow

– Lava Dome: A build-up of viscous lava near a volcano’s vent

– Ash venting: The release of small particles of volcanic rock and glass

– Vulcanian explosion: A type of eruption consisting of the explosive ejection of incandescent fragments of new viscous lava, usually in the form of blocks

– Volcano-tectonic (VT) earthquakes: seismic episodes originating from volcanic activity

– Singe zone: The area adjacent to pyroclastic flow deposits, where vegetation has been partly or wholly burned

 

How is the monitoring equipment used?

The seismometers detect earthquakes, some of which, referred to as ‘low frequency events’ tend to appear in ‘swarms’ prior to an eruption.  Some of these are cyclic, as magma forces its way through subterranean conduits (passageways), and indicate that a dome collapse is likely to occur.  The GPS units are used to measure the ‘inflation’ of the island when magma builds up in a magma reservoir under the dome, and its ‘deflation’ following the extrusion of material (see figure 9).  Gas spectrometers are used to detect patterns of releases of sulphur dioxide, which is a measure of the overall permeability of the volcanic ‘plumbing system’.  The data from these networks can be combined into a single graph (see figure 10): red vertical bands show phases of extrusive activity (as mentioned above), whilst the green bands are when magma extrusion has paused.  The tilt- and strain-meters complement these data in that they enable vulcanologists to detect ground deformation.

Fig 9 displacement velocities

 Figure 9: Map of GPS measurements showing dome deflation

Source: ‘Report to the Scientific Advisory Committee on Montserrat Volcanic Activity – Report on Activity’ at http://www.montserratvolcanoobservatory.info

Fig 10 seismic events GPS SO2 (MVO)

Figure 10: Graph showing combination of monitoring readings

Source: ‘Report to the Scientific Advisory Committee on Montserrat Volcanic Activity – Report on Activity’ at http://www.montserratvolcanoobservatory.info

 

Note that whenever magma extrusion has stopped, the GPS signal indicates an inflation of the magma reservoir, while magma extrusion is accompanied by a deflation of the reservoir, and therefore a slight ‘sinking’ of the centre of the island.

 

Other monitoring techniques

Two additional stations contain arrays of infrasound sensors to detect air pressure variations caused by slow degassing or gas eruptions.  At the Montserrat Volcano Observatory itself, there is an observation platform and webcams, providing the benefits of a visual overview of activity, but with the drawback of being almost useless during times of heavy cloud cover and at night.  There is also a thermal camera, which overcomes these problems of poor visibility.

 

How effectively can volcanic activity on Montserrat be predicted?

To what extent do vulcanologists believe that they can predict when an eruption on Montserrat is likely to occur?  The Director of the MVO, Dr Paul Cole, uses a metaphor to explain why initial eruptions are usually relatively easy to predict:

“It’s much like an explorer creating a new path through the jungle.  When he first cuts his way through, it takes a lot of effort, and he makes a lot of noise as he slowly works his way through the undergrowth.  But with each repeated use of the path, the journey becomes easier, and there is less disturbance.  With volcanoes, if the vent has been used after a long period of inactivity, the magma has to break through and widen faults, creating seismic signals, but with each subsequent eruption, the magma encounters fewer obstacles, and therefore leaves behind a weaker seismic trace.”

Dr Cole also takes care to mention that the activity of some other volcanoes, particularly those with more basaltic (less silica-rich) magma, is more ‘predictable’ than that of the Soufrière Hills volcano.

In Montserrat, volcanic activity has occurred in phases, and there are a variety of characteristic signals which correlate with such phases.  However, it remains exceptionally difficult to predict when such phases are due to start or end, and it is equally hard to know when episodes of violent and extrusive vulcanicity will occur within these phases.  Monitoring the Soufriere Hills volcano has helped to minimise its impact on the island’s residents, but its eruptions have had serious effects on the society, economy and environment of Montserrat.  It is to these impacts that we will turn to in part 2 of this article.

 

Key points

  • The Soufriere Hills volcano has been active in distinct phases
  • Physical processes involved in eruptive phases are complex
  • Despite sophisticated monitoring techniques, predicting volcanic eruptions remains extremely difficult

 

Points for discussion

  • To what extent does media exposure influence our knowledge of hazards?
  • What monitoring techniques do vulcanologists share with seismologists?

 

Further reading

‘Report to the Scientific Advisory Committee on Montserrat Volcanic Activity – Report on Activity’ at http://www.montserratvolcanoobservatory.info

Loughlin, S., Baptie, B. and McCourt, W. (2009) Monitoring Montserrat’s volcano – past, present and future

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/features/story.aspx?id=396 dated 10 July 2009

 

Acknowledgements

This article was written following a field-trip to Montserrat with Dr Caroline Neuberg, Physics teacher at Fulneck School, Leeds, and three sixth form students at the school.  The trip was made possible thanks to grants from the Seismic Schools Initiative based at the School of Earth & Environment, University of Leeds, UK (a seismometer was installed at the Secondary School) and the Royal Society.  I am indebted to Professor Jurgen Neuberg from the University of Leeds for his help on the field trip and his comments on the text.  Finally, I would like to thank all the interviewees mentioned above.

Categories
Orienteering

British Orienteering Championships 2019 preview

 

BOC Arncliffe flag

View of Arncliffe village from cairn at false summit – photo: author

“Yorkshire people are first and foremost friendly and we do things without much fanfare”, according to the Olympian Alistair Brownlee, who hails from God’s Own County.  This may be true, but a certain amount of fanfare is called for when it comes to the 2019 British Orienteering Championships weekend (4-6 May).  It promises to be a special occasion, for three main reasons:

  • For the first time, the British Championships weekend has three events: as well as the long distance event on the Sunday and the relays on the Monday, there is also the mixed sprint relay on the Saturday.
  • It features a fantastic a mixture of terrain types: urban, moorland, forest and parkland, so there’s something for everyone (sorry, we couldn’t find any forested sand dunes, and there is not a British indoor orienteering championship – yet!).
  • The event is close to the geographical centre of Britain (OK, the OS calculate that that is actually just over the Lancashire border, but Yorkshire is near enough), making it an accessible event for competitors from all over the mainland, and there are direct flights from Belfast to Leeds Bradford Airport.

Let’s take a look at the weekend in more detail.

The British Sprint Relays will be held at Bradford University on Saturday 4th May. This area has only been used for one major event before (AIRE’s Bradford Urban Race in 2017) and promises a variety of land use with the added factor that the campus is steeper than many others in the UK.

Brad map excerpt

Excerpt of Bradford City Centre, mapped by Chris Burden (2017)

Before or after the race, why not visit Bradford’s city centre, which has been revitalised in recent years, and now includes a City Park with a fantastic mirror pool and fountains?  Other attractions are the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Saltaire and Haworth, the David Hockney Gallery in nearby Lister Park’s Cartwright Hall, and the lovely Baildon and Ilkley Moors.

Bradford University – source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Library_and_Student_Central_Building,_Bradford_University_(7197638816).jpg

The British Long Distance Championships will be held at Arncliffe and Kilnsey North on Sunday 5th May, with assembly adjacent to the pretty village of Arncliffe, in Littondale, Upper Wharfedale.  The area is a combination of the northern parts of Kilnsey, as experienced in the 2016 JK (remember the hailstorms?), Arncliffe (used for the 2015 Northern Championships) and parts of the area have also been used for the 2015 SHI Relays and Airienteers’ biennial Dales Weekend events.  The terrain is almost wholly open moorland, mostly extremely runnable, with a profusion of contour detail.  It also features limestone pavement, and route choice will be complicated by the presence of stiles and uncrossable walls.  Spectators will be able to see competitors encounter the last few controls of most courses as the fellside faces the one-stop assembly area and arena (another bonus is that the starts should take less than 20 minutes to reach).

BOC Kilnsey scene

View of part of the long distance terrain near Kilnsey – photo: author

Arncliffe was originally called ‘Amerdale’ and was the inspiration for ‘Emmerdale’: The Falcon Inn was the inspiration for the ‘Woolpack’ from the series, and it has rustic charm and beer poured from jugs.  Nearby Kettlewell is an outdoor hub and is popular with hikers and campers.  The Tour de France and Tour de Yorkshire have both passed through Upper Wharfedale; why not try yourself on ‘The Rash’ or the ‘Cote de Cray’?  Indeed, this year’s BOC weekend occurs at the same time at the Tour de Yorkshire, and although the route has yet to be announced, there is a good chance that it will pass through the Dales at least once!

Arncliffe map excerpt

Excerpt of Arncliffe and Kilnsey North, mapped by Tony Thornley (2018)

The British Relay Championships will be held in Middleton Park, Leeds, on Monday 6th May.  This area, which was last used for the 2015 British Night Championships, is characterised by heavily pitted forested slopes and plateaus with a dense path network, separated by patches of lightning-fast open ground and a recently abandoned golf course.  With three valleys running diagonally across the area, this event will be both a technical and physical challenge.  The area is close to the motorway network, or you may wish to extend your stay by exploring the dynamic city centre of Leeds or other West Yorkshire attractions like the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield or the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on the M1.

bluebells-01

Bluebells in Middleton Woods – source: http://www.fomp.co.uk/

All in all, this makes for a very attractive proposition, and after a successful 2016 JK, Yorkshire looks forward to welcoming you again in 2019.   If you share the county’s reputation for parsimony, you may wish to know that the cheapest way of enjoying the weekend is to enter by the first deadline, which is likely to be the end of January.  For more information, please see the website at www.boc2019.org.uk.  See you there!

By David Alcock (Day 2 planner) and the BOC 2019 team, September 2018

Categories
Outdoor Learning Teaching and Learning

Why does face-to-face learning work?

In preparation for the end of year assembly last year, tutor groups were asked what their highlights of the year were.  Most of these were trips, and other out-of-classroom activities.  For example, half of the Year 9 forms in the school voted the cross-curricular ‘Be BOLD’ (BGS Outdoor Learning Day) as their highlight of the year.  Was this down to the time spent with their friends in the breaks between sessions?  But the lunch break was half the length of the usual one at school, so this can’t be the case!  Could it be as simple as ‘a change is as good as a rest’?  But this is too simplistic.  There must be something else going on, and I think that it relates to the wider issue of why face-to-face learning appears to be more effective than virtual learning in many contexts.

 

A recent article in the online magazine Aeon by Nicholas Tampio, looked into the benefits of face-to-face learning from both a philosophical and neuroscientific viewpoint.  He began by citing the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, writing in 1945, who believed that human thinking emerges out of lived experience; humans are thinking animals whose thinking is always infused with our animality.  Tampio related this to education thus: “It is by walking through a meadow, hiking beside a river, and boating down a lake that we are able to appreciate the science of geography. It is by talking with other people and learning their stories that we can appreciate literature.”  From the distance of adulthood, I believe that it is hard to appreciate just how much of who we are today comes from such practical activities, both from our formal schooling and from our extra-curricular activities.

It is not just philosophical musings that provide the rationale for a healthy dose of outdoor learning: Tampio quotes social neuroscientist Marcus Holmes, who argues that physical co-presence is essential to generate trust and empathy among human beings.  According to Holmes, diplomats insist on meeting in person with their colleagues, and good negotiators have a ‘feel for the game’ that works only when they share drinks, go on walks, shake hands, or have private conversations with their peers.  The neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni has studied the ‘mirroring system’ that enables human beings to understand each other’s intentions.  Within the brain, there are mirror neurons that fire when we perform an action or when we see another person doing the action.  This supports the folk psychology that holds that when we see another person, we think for a moment before deciding how to react (a point which is as relevant to our behaviour online as it is to experiential learning).  According to ‘simulation theory’, we actually feel what the other person feels as mirror neurons fire in just the same manner as if the experience was happening to us.

 

Tampio opines that this means that students looking at a screen will not – and cannot – trust, or care about, their teachers or students to the same degree as if they were face-to-face.  Communicating in person also enables people to pick up micro-changes in facial expressions and detect other people’s sincerity.  In the context of our time-pressured lives, writing, calling or video-chatting often works fine for many forms of communication, but Tampio points out that people must meet in the flesh to achieve the highest degree of trust or social bonding.

Sociologists also point out what is, on a moment’s reflection for most of us, self-evident: people want to be in the physical presence of other people to generate emotional energy: “a feeling of confidence, elation, strength, enthusiasm, and initiative in taking action” according to sociologist Randall Collins.  Communicating via email or by smartphones makes it harder to read another’s body language or perceive what is happening in the background as the other person talks into the computer’s camera.

 

What do these findings mean for educators?  Classroom experiences matter.  Field trips matter.  Outdoor activities and expeditions matter.  Humans are social beings; technology can facilitate many aspects of teaching and learning, but at the core of education are people, and we must ensure that they meet, exchange ideas, and develop empathy.  Only then will they thrive.

 Source: Nicholas Tampio (2018): Look up from your screen https://aeon.co/essays/children-learn-best-when-engaged-in-the-living-world-not-on-screens

Originally posted on Bradford Grammar School’s T&L blog: BGSlearning@wordpress.com 07.09.18

 

Categories
Outdoor Learning Teaching and Learning

Outdoor Learning – ideas generated by BGS staff

Outdoor Learning – ideas generated by BGS staff at INSET, November 2017

Do you want to give pupils a new perspective on a topic?  Do you want to stimulate their curiosity?  Are you looking for ways to give life to tired lessons?  Then why not ‘go outdoors’?  A recent focus of one of our twilight and lunchtime T&L sessions was ‘outdoor learning’, and here are a few ideas for how you could use the outdoors simply and effectively.

Hypothesis hunters! – As an example of discovery (or ‘bottom-up’) learning, you could ask pupils to formulate hypotheses or questions related to your subject from what they see on the school site, then work through the enquiry process back in the class.

Use the space! – With no or very simple props, you could breathe new life into certain topics – why not use ropes to show connections, toilet rolls to show timelines, and vantage points like the Learning Link to look down at pupils acting out molecular processes?  Get pupils to measure angles and areas, or to examine building techniques and designs.

Natural stimulation! – Use the environment to develop your pupils’ curiosity and why not use it for mindfulness as part of a form time activity on relaxation techniques?

Please find below a fuller list of the ideas generated by two dozen of your colleagues as to how the outdoors could be used to boost teaching and learning at BGS – scroll down, look through, try an idea or two, and let us know how it goes!

David, December 2017

Hypothesis hunter:

Sciences (Biology/chemistry/physics)

  • Pupils come up with a range of questions that they could investigate on site
  • Identify which questions could actually be investigated/look for any problems.
  • In small groups come up with a hypothesis and possible method for investigating – prediction/variables/equipment etc.

 

  • Good for introducing lower years to investigations/variables. Possible use for introducing CORMMSS (Bio).

Maths:

  • Use of Learning Link/outside space to measure angles and height of buildings.
  • Get pupils to work out how to measure the area of different spaces e.g. the playground.
  • Investigating/measuring ratios

Languages:

  • Pupils write 20 questions about a particular area on site, give these to another student who has to translate the questions and identify the area being described.
  • Possible homework – describe the route around school.
  • Come up with questions that you would need to ask to achieve something outside e.g. how to access the main entrance via the key fob.

Digital Learning/computer Science:

  • Walk the perimeter of the school/playing field and convert this into an algorithm – cross curricular with Geography.

History:

  • What used to be in this area?
  • Come up with questions that you could ask about a particular area to find out what it wold have looked like in the past.

PD/Form Time:

  • Walk around the site, what questions would you need to ask to identify any problems with access for disabled students.

DT:

  • Use to investigate/teach depth perception.
  • Texture challenge – how many different textures can you find around the grounds in a set time. Take sketches of each texture and then draw them in the class room.

Art:

  • Different viewpoints of the same object e.g. how could you draw a tree from different angles viewpoints.
  • How could you draw certain areas/objects from the perspective of different artists/styles.

Psychology:

  • Depth Perception
  • Pupils come up with different observational studies that could possible carry out around the site and what ethical concerns there would be, how could they plan the study etc.

 

Ways teachers could use basic props outdoors (or in large indoor spaces):

 

Toilet Rolls

  • Geography – earth structure (journey _from_ the centre of the earth)
  • History / English – timeline (events / plots)
  • Maths – Logarithmic scale / squares / cubes
  • Biology – evolutionary timeline

 

Ropes

  • Geography – contours
  • Maths – area, radius/pi
  • Language – skip and count
  • English – themes in poetry (?)
  • IT – nodes and links in a network

 

No props

  • Geography – long shore drift
  • Biology – Mitosis/meiosis
  • Language – tenses (?)
  • Maths/DT – architecture / angles

 

Many of these activities could be watched and/or filmed from above, and then used in the next lesson for recap and/or revision.  The learning link and the front of school wall are good vantage points for this.

 

Nature as a stimulus:

Artistic

  • Blind ‘discovery’ – put a hand in a box and identify objects using touch. Then have to effectively describe or re-create that object.
  • Questioning stance – what might live under there? How might your character use this space?
  • Curiosity in form time – mindfulness. Take a minute to listen, observe what you can see, feel etc.

 

  • Mixing the senses (synesthesia) – what might the sound of a bird look like? What colour might that smell be?
  • Shouting Shakespeare – encourage quiet classes to get involved with drama!
  • Bio-mimicry – take inspiration from nature and apply practically in a design task.
  • Outside the school – bring in stimuli from home for homework, work creatively from them.
  • Vocabulary expansion
  • MFL – use outdoor lesson as stress relief in the summer, as a conversation lesson. Use as an exercise in tenses for younger years: what are we going to do, what are we doing now, what have we done.

 

Scientific

  • Degrees of separation – as a starter, pick three objects (or take pictures of three objects) from nature, then have to link those objects to what we studied last lesson.
  • To illustrate the importance of different perspectives – do a data collection during a break time using other students. Discuss ethics of observing when your participants are not aware?
  • Create a timeline – if from where I am to that door is the Tudor period, where would you stand to mark Henry VIII’s death?
  • Treasure hunt – find the objects following clues and take a picture to prove you have been there. Could work for Maths, ICT, English, Science, History etc.
  • Alphabet walk – discovery led, lead a discussion afterwards.
  • Maths – trigonometry in nature
  • Maths walk – room numbers, Roman Numerals, shapes, area etc.
  • ICT – passing data packets around using large spaces.

 

Making use of the school Grounds

Ideas for lessons

Languages:

  • Directions
  • Learning key words for objects: as a trail/quiz for any key words or for learning the key words for objects outside

Maths

  • Calculating heights of the buildings: trig
  • Maths trail: QR codes: Each subject could have a permanent quiz or a quiz that could be used in form time

Art:

  • Photography
  • Pagoda windows as a frame for the picture
  • Perspective drawing: see perspective in action: draw it live
  • Pagoda as a permanent outdoor exhibition site for art work: green man masks as an example

 

Computer Science:

  • Robots: turning distances
  • Visual coding: coloured cones

 

RS, English, Classics (literature)

  • Meditating
  • Putting into context Literature/ poems
  • Inspiration: design an argument by looking at the natural world

 

Science:

  • Surveys
  • Investigating something outside
  • Ecology

 

Objects of interest: long sticks, ground sheets, random box of objects

  • Grids and coordinates (large ground sheets with tape squares): languages: using directions, team building, PD, Minefield/ battle ships
  • Balancing sticks: communication and team building. In groups: hold up a long stick each person using 2 fingers: put it on the floor without any more contact with the stick
  • Code breaking
  • How well do you understand your subject: AFL: tree of knowledge type thing
  • Revision/ competitions/ comfort in speaking: pick an object and talk about it: how long for?

Originally posted on Bradford Grammar School’s T&L blog: BGSlearning@wordpress.com

Categories
Assemblies Teaching and Learning

START Learning Effectively

Assembly – START Learning Effectively – Bradford Grammar School, 15 September 2017

Abridged scriptDo you ever wonder what the secret ingredient of learning is?  What is it that successful pupils do that makes them perform so well?

Of course, there is no secret ingredient.  I am going to attempt to offer a clear summary of what has been shown to work, together with examples that you can try.  Some of them you might already do, some you might not.

Why now?  Exams are ages away, surely?  But it’s important to START the year by learning effectively – not to leave it until exams and coursework deadlines creep up later on.

Learning how to learn is almost as important as what you learn, but we don’t pay much attention to it.  Educational researchers have been looking into how learning works for decades.  Some of their insights are being adopted by teachers.

But some of them can be adopted by you.

I am asking you this morning to consider which ones you should concentrate more on, and then in form time, you will be given time to narrow down your aims to fit your circumstances – for example, a Year 8 learning words for a French vocab test might use different techniques to a Year 13 preparing for a Geography exam.

Let’s START. What does effective learning entail?

  1. Make things stick

Effective learning involves making things stick.  What does this mean? It means making learning memorable and interesting.

For example, you could make a mnemonic.  Everyone knows ROYGBIV and Never Eat Shredded Wheat.   Why not make your own up?  Professor Paul Dukes refers to the three aspects of a superpower as being the ability to destroy, transmit an ideology, and have economic influence.  Boring?  Not if you remember it as DIE.

If it’s a simple key word or vocab test, try visualising words as part of a story.  Walk through an imaginary high street, picking up, holding, or even eating the items you have to learn.

Draw it, model it, chant it, sing it, act it.  How do rivers erode land?  Abrasion, attrition, hydraulic action and corrosion.  If this sounds too ‘dry’ then why not act it out [rub, bash, splash and sizzle]?

And as well as talking about what the building blocks of a superpower are, why not draw them as pillars of a superpower temple?

Finally, you could make it funny or unusual – e.g. what’s the pizza recipe for fascism in 1930s Italy?  Take a base of populism, add on toppings of racism and propaganda, and cook in the heat of recession-era discontent for a decade or so…  You get the picture.

  1. Test yourself

Effective learning involves testing yourself.

One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it – so make a quiz for your friend, and they can make one for you.   Make them frequent, short-answer, and low stakes – e.g. points, pennies, sweets, etc.  They could be True/False, multiple choice, or slightly sneaky.

Use Kahoot – don’t just let the teachers do it, you can make your own game for free.

  1. Be aware

Effective learning involves being aware.

Keep your eyes and ears open.

Follow a range of media – commit to following a news app; sign up to news updates from a reliable source; don’t just let news come to you via Facebook.  Instead, spend time reading good quality newspapers, and you could follow YouTube channels on topics that interest you

A potential medic in my form even watches surgical operations on You Tube in her spare time.

You should also make connections between your topics…and between your subjects – this will save you time (I love it when someone includes a relevant point from another subject in Geography – it might be recognising that epiphytes are plants (‘phyte’) that grow on top of (‘epi’) others; or that studying transnational corporations in Business Studies or Economics just might be relevant to globalisation).

Also, use photos as stimulus material – Looking at a picture of greenhouses in Almeria, Spain, the issues could be food miles, local food sourcing, employment, climate, energy, and so on.  If you were studying Spanish it could be the basis of a role play, if it was biology it could be considering how to grow plants indoors.

Greenhouses in Almeria, Spain

Source: Getty Images https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/an-aerial-view-taken-on-october-23-2009-in-the-coastal-area-news-photo/92319234#an-aerial-view-taken-on-october-23-2009-in-the-coastal-area-of-where-picture-id92319234

 

  1. Revisit content

Effective learning means revisiting content.

Cramming all of your revision into the last few days before an exam has been proven to be an ineffective way of learning.  Instead, stagger your revision, starting as near to the end of each lesson as you can.

Revising does not just mean re-reading.  It does not just mean highlighting.  It does not even just mean noting and summarising.  It means engaging actively with the content.

When making notes from your work or from a textbook, why not try the ‘Cornell method’, which is to write key words or questions to yourself in the margin, and summarising the notes at the end of the task at the bottom?

Or start a learning diary – I am trying this with my Year 13s – and then having an end-of-week recap of your notes, then looking through your notes at the end of every half-term, and finally in the weeks leading up to your exam.

This links in with the last part of the START strategy:

  1. Make time to learn

Effective learning means making time to learn

I have talked about staggering the times that you revisit content.  But there are other ways of managing your time too:

Firstly, have a timetable and stick to it!

Source: Ryburn Valley High School https://www.rvhs.co.uk/revision-help/

Take a break during bouts of revision too,

Mix it up with sport, other types of physical exercise or another pursuit. e.g. a musical instrument; art; …

Have an away day – revise in different locations

So we are asking you to START this year off by learning more effectively.

Read the card again.

Think of some concrete actions that fit into the START programme.  Then write 2-3 of these down.  Then act on them, and later in the term you will revisit your action plan to review your progress.

Good luck.

Contact David at dga@bradfordgrammar.com for more information and for the slides that go with this assembly.

Categories
Assemblies

Think Global Act Local

Assembly – Think Global Act Local – Bradford Grammar School, 27 April 2018

You can make a difference.  You can make a difference.  You can make a difference.

 

In this uncertain world, where despite economic, social, and scientific  advances, there exists a slow-burning environmental catastrophe; in this era of convenience and short-termism where long-term sustainability is threatened; in this time where being a citizen of the world apparently means you are a citizen of nowhere, you _can_ make a difference.

 

This week’s theme is perspective, and although you might be thinking that if the world is a stage, then you are only an insignificant actor, you must know that you can make a difference _now_, when you have a wide circle of friends and family to influence, you can make a difference after you _leave_ school, when you can tailor your studies to find out more about our impact on the world, and you can make a difference in the _future_, when you will have roles as responsible citizens, leaders, carers, educators, businesspeople and influencers.

 

Pupils from across the school community have stepped forward to tell you about an environmental issue that concerns them, and each one will offer a few practical steps that you, yes you, and you, can take. Please listen to Hibbah, Rebecca, Laura, Aliza, Joe and Billy and choose one or two of these steps and act on it. Because _you_ _can_ make a difference.

 

Acid Rain – Hibbah

‘Acid rain is rain which is unusually acidic. It is caused by compounds of chemicals which are released into the air by pollutants and then react with water and oxygen to form more pollutants which is called acid rain. Acid rain mainly affects environments which contain water as it makes the water acidic. This can harm fish as they cannot tolerate the acid. Plants are also damaged as the acid breaks up soil and makes plant roots weaker meaning they can die.

 

In school and at home, it is really easy to reduce acid rain simply by switching off electrical plugs, lights or other appliances when not using them as you are limiting the amount of fossil fuels burnt resulting in less pollutants meaning less acid rain.

 

Another way to limit the amount of pollution is by not using a car as much. You could travel to school via public transport, cycling, walking or by arranging a car share with your parents.

 

Ocean acidification / coral bleaching – Rebecca

 

What is the problem?

Ocean Acidification occurs when carbon dioxide gas is absorbed by the ocean and reacts with seawater to produce acid. Carbon dioxide reacts with the seawater to create carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of the ocean.

 

What can be done?

 

The next time you buy a new gadget or appliance, make an energy-efficient choice – check the label.

Heat and cool your home efficiently! Change your thermostat to 19 degrees – put on a layer rather than turn up the dial.

Ask your parents if you can improve the insulation levels of your home.

Support renewable energy sources when the time comes to make such a decision.

 

Climate Change – Laura

What is global warming ?

Global warming is when carbon dioxide is realised into the air when fossil fuels are burnt for energy – this energy powers our homes, cars and everyday electronic objects.  The extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps heat from the sun resulting in the earth getting warmer.  This results in many impacts like ice caps melting, coastal flooding and droughts.

 

You can prevent it

1. As Hibbah has mentioned, you could take public transport more often, or cycle or walk to school

2. Don’t waste your food. Energy is used in the raising of farm animals and preparation of food as well as transporting it

3. Speak to others about global warming

4. Reduce water waste, e. g. having a quick shower rather than a bath. This also reduces carbon dioxide

5. Use better bulbs. LED bulbs use 80 percent less energy than other bulbs.

When using less energy we can help save our world. Stopping global warming starts with us. Our world is burning and we need to stop it.

 

 

Aliza – clothing

Fashion plays an important role in many of your lives.  It defines you and affects how people view you. However, there are some aspects of fashion that we are not always aware of, such as the wastage of it.

 

In Britain we wear only 70% of the clothes that we own, which means there is a total of around 1.7 billion unused items. As well as that, a person keeps their items of clothing for only three years on average.

 

Instead of throwing away your unwanted clothing, you can donate them to charity or give them to another family member. Donated clothing is sold in charity shops and the items which are not sold are resold in the used clothing industry and sorted to be used in different ways. The clothes will then be distributed all over the world.

Plastics – Joe

Show video

 

Coffee Cup Waste – Billy

 

Disposable Coffee Cups

 

A lot of us need a coffee to get up in a morning, and a lot of us get that coffee in a disposable plastic cup. And when I say a lot, I mean around 7 million of us a day. And of those cups, that we throw away day in day out, only about a quarter of a percent of them will be recycled, which is appalling.

 

The cups themselves have a super strength plastic resin inside which makes them waterproof and ensures they doesn’t spill out everywhere, but also incredibly hard to recycle. The cups themselves hardly stand the test of time because they get thrown away the minute you’ve downed your coffee.

 

The problem is that they are convenient, that’s why the problem is so prolific. But can you really be proud of choosing convenience over making a meaningful contribution to society? Can you really be proud in fuelling a market that cuts down over 5 million trees a year because you can’t be bothered to have a cup of coffee at home or in a flask? Will you be proud leaving a planet to your children where there are more cups in the ocean than fish? I don’t think so.

 

But there are things we can do rather than just stand here and complain. Every morning at breakfast at school, X (need to ask a dinner lady how many are bought each day) of you get a hot drink from the machine in a disposable cup. That’s roughly X (need to calculate) cups being thrown away a year by this school alone. Here’s an idea to cut this, bring in your own mug or flask, keep it in your locker and use that at the machine instead. I use a mug for my tea every morning – it’s not a particularly glamorous mug but it does the job perfectly. And by doing just that every day we can make a profound impact on the environment, scything away at this convenience that kills.

 

Concluding Remarks

 

What we have seen today are a variety of problems that we as a society face. These problems can seem too large, too great for just a thousand of us sat here to do anything about. But that’s where we are wrong.

 

For every coffee cup we don’t use, for every piece of plastic we re-use, for every piece of clothing recycled, that’s one less cup in the ocean, one less piece of plastic killing wildlife, one more piece of coral saved. And it’s with a mind-set of thinking just like that, thinking of the problem on a global scale and not being over awed or diminished by the challenge we face, but by acting locally on a small scale that we can effect a real change. If you can change just one habit today, our job is done.

 

Thank you very much for listening.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Assemblies Optimism and progress

Reasons to be happy – the real state of the world

Assembly – Reasons to be happy – the real state of the world  – Bradford Grammar School, 13 Jan 2017

What a depressing day – It’s Friday 13th, the days are short, the weather is terrible and term has just started again!  In the wider world, Trump is about to take over at the White House and there is great uncertainty over what exactly Brexit means.  There’s a crisis in Syria and Yemen, suicide bombs and terrorist attacks, and climate change looming over us.  Indeed, virtually every headline shouts out ‘crisis’!

But stop! Shouldn’t we look at these developments in context?  What’s the real state of the world?  If you look at the facts about the world socially, economically, and in most respects, environmentally, I want to show you that there are reasons to be satisfied, and – as befits the theme of the week – even happy.  And I need the help of some of you to do so.

So, let’s look at the direction the world is going in terms of just two aspects – health and violence.

Let’s start with the basics – how long are we living for?  Life expectancy is going up and up, as Hans Rosling is keen to point out.

In 1800, the global life expectancy at birth was between 20 and 30. In 1900 this had crept up to 31, by 1950 it was 48, but what is it today?

68 years old.  And this is a global average!  Even for those who survived the dangerous first few years of life, in 1845, a five-year old in the UK could expect to live until they were just 55, but a five-year old today – someone just starting Clock House – can expect to live until they are 82.  Surely this is a reason to be cheerful?

How many babies are living into childhood?

In 1800, 43% of children died before their fifth birthday.

How has this changed over time?  Well, thanks to healthcare, scientific improvements and so on, by 1900 this had fallen to 36%.

By 1950 it was 22%.

But how about 2015?

The answer is 4%

How about access to education?

Back in 1800, only one in eight people around the world could read and write.  This meant that an almighty 88% couldn’t read or write.

By 1900 it had barely decreased – it was still high at 79%

By 1950 it had nudged downwards to 64%

So what was it in 2014?

The answer is 17% – and it’s dropping fast!

But how often do these statistics make the headlines?  Very rarely.  Why not?  Good news does not sell papers, good news does not entice you to click the hyperlink, good news does not make you watch, well, the news.

One reason why we do not hear about how global living conditions are improving in the media is that these are the slow processes that never make the headlines. The media is overly obsessed with reporting single events and with bad news and does not nearly pay enough attention to the slow developments like these that reshape our world.

Max Roser points out that a media that would report global development could have had the headline “The number of children dying globally fell by 455 since yesterday” and they wouldn’t have this headline once, but every single day over these more than 2 decades.

Good news does not sell papers, good news does not entice you to click the hyperlink, good news does not make you watch, well, the news.

How about the way that we die?  Steven Pinker is a Canadian writer who has noticed more slow-burning good news.

How many people will meet their death in a violent manner?  Let’s start with murder.  You’d have thought that this is an ever-present threat.  But we live in an increasingly peaceful world.  Even at its peak, in tribal societies, your chance of being murdered in any one year was only 0.7%.

By 1800 the world average was 0.003%, by 1950 it was 0.001%, and it has fallen slightly since then. All these figures are over-represented by a Lego man.

So there is less murder nowadays – a reason to be cheerful!  Here is a list of other things which are getting rarer and rarer in the world:

Wars? Rarer? Surely some mistake?

Year 7s and 8s – you will all recognize this man from Geography and History – Otzi the Iceman.  How did he die?

Otzi the Iceman – Source: Thilo Parg [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, and 120 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, both from Wikimedia Commons

From an arrow.  DNA analysis found traces of blood from two other people on one of the arrowheads he was carrying, blood from a third on his dagger, and blood from a fourth on his cape.  He belonged to a raiding party that clashed with a neighbouring tribe.  So how many people will meet their death from conflicts and wars nowadays compared to tribal societies?

In tribal societies the rate was, on average, 14%.  NB this includes civilian casualties.

In the early 1600s the rate was about 1%

It did peak again in the first half of the 20th Century – don’t forget, 100 Old Bradfordians died in WW1 – the worst war was WW2 – and the chance of someone dying from this was 1.5%

But how about today? There has been a tenfold increase in war deaths globally since 2005 – but what is the total chance of being killed in a war today – or of being a civilian victim?

It’s actually about 0.003%

The world has always been a violent place.  It is still a violent place – but it is much, much, less violent that it used to be.  The twentieth century was a violent century – more people died in wars in that century than in any previous century.  But most of those deaths occurred in the first half of that century – in one of the two world wars.  Since then, what Pinker refers to the ‘Long Peace’ has spread over the world.

Since 1950 – in the lifetime of everyone here, one number stands out clearly in the history of war: Zero.

How many nuclear weapons have been used in conflict?  Zero.

How many western European countries have fought each other?  Zero.

How many major developed countries have fought each other?  Zero.

How many developed countries have expanded their territories by conquering another country?  Zero.

How many states have disappeared through conquest?  Zero.

You might say – well how about other forms of conflict in recent decades?  There may not have been a world war, but how about civil wars?  Genocides? Terrorism? Surely they are in the news so they must be on the rise!

No.  Deaths from civil wars, genocides and terrorism have all fallen over the past twenty years.  In 1950 the average armed conflict killed 33,000; in 2015 it killed about 4,000.  Terrorist attacks hit a natural barrier beyond which they sow the seeds of self-destruction as potential converts are more exposed to being hurt.

It’s not just violence that is decreasing – tolerance is increasing.  In every issue touched by the human rights revolution of recent decades – interracial marriage, the empowerment of women, the tolerance of homosexuality, the punishment of children, and the treatment of animals – the attitudes of conservatives have followed the trajectory of liberals, with the result that today’s conservatives are more liberal than the liberals of just a few decades ago.

But why are these trends happening?

Why are we getting healthier?

  • Government investment in healthcare, sanitation, clean water, schools and science
  • Trade and aid, both of which spread wealth around
  • Private enterprise pushing the boundaries of medical endeavour
  • Individual actions and breakthroughs – we are indeed standing on the shoulders of giants

Why are we getting less violent?

  • Countries are becoming less warlike.  The move to democracies has helped in this: since 1900, democracies have been less than twice as likely as non-democracies to engage in militarized disputes.
  • Strong governments and law enforcement mean that mankind’s baser instincts are held at bay.
  • Belonging to groups of countries like the United Nations and, yes, the EU, means that we are bound by more ties which we don’t want to destroy by fighting.
  • Being wealthier means that there is more at stake – more to lose – if we were to go to war.  Trading with other countries means that we have more to lose – no two countries with a McDonald’s have ever gone to war with each other.
  • Social norms in developed countries have evolved to incorporate the conviction that was is inherently immoral because of its costs to human well-being and that it can only be justified when it is likely to prevent even greater costs to human well-being.

There is now more empathy for human life than ever before – thanks to reading and writing, we know more about other people.  So thank you, TV, radio, publishing, travel and thank you, the Internet. Education saves lives.  We have enlarged our ‘empathy circle’.  It is so much harder to kill or hurt someone when you know them, or even know about them.

Similarly, being exposed to more ideas saves lives.  Education saves lives.  The more you learn, the fewer mistruths and inaccuracies you will hold about ‘other’ people.  So read, read, read.  And think, think, think.

We believe that the world is going to hell in a handcart because the media tells us that it is.  David Hume says we are laboring under a “false sense of insecurity”.  But keep your wits about you.  Look wider, look further back, read, listen and ponder the facts.  Let’s try to avoid the state of worry and terror that many people live in today.

Caveat

Avoid the complacency trap – ‘now I know that life in most of the world is getting better, I can sit back and let progress happen’.  Well, progress is built on many small acts, and sitting back would be to avoid your responsibility as a member of society.

Be aware – declines in violence are caused by political, economic and ideological conditions that take hold in particular cultures at particular times.  If the conditions change, these trends could reverse.

I hope I haven’t belittled the victims of violence and ill health who can be found across the globe and particularly in developing countries – there is still work to be done!

There are still threats to humanity – especially with regards to the environment – and especially climate change – that we should be turning our attention to.

Conclusion

I could go on about how the world is progressing in other areas like reductions in poverty… but you get the picture.  So what can you take away from today?

Understand what has led to the declines and it will guide you towards what might work in the future.

Be open to facts, not rhetoric.

Read widely and not just fiction – don’t just trust the first thing you find online – be aware of ‘fake news’ – and be willing to pay for good journalism and writing, whether that is via a magazine or newspaper subscription or via licence fees and taxes

Try to see the big picture – try to set the most recent disaster on the news in context.

Finally, I would say not so much ‘don’t worry, be happy’ as ‘worry less, be slightly happier about the state of the world’.

Thank you.

Source for Pinker: Pinker, S (2011): The Better Angels of Our Nature

Source for Max Roser statistic: Max Roser (2016) – ‘Child Mortality’. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality/ [Online Resource]

Credit also due to http://www.gapminder.org

Categories
Assemblies Outdoor Learning

Addicted to the outdoors

Assembly – Addicted to the outdoors – delivered to Bradford Grammar School, 5th February 2015

I have an addiction.  I have been addicted for years now.  My teachers and parents helped me to become addicted.  In fact, many teachers here are helping you to become addicted too.

Strenuous efforts are made to get the whole of Year 7 addicted in their first term here.  Most of Year 10 choose to sign up for whole weekends dedicated to it, and dozens of Sixth Formers have devoted weeks of their lives to it.

These efforts are advertised quite openly around the school – you just need to listen carefully to the Daily Bulletin.  For some subjects, it is even part of the curriculum.

Once you are addicted, it is hard to go back.  It really is.  I satisfy my addiction about a dozen times a week.  Some of you – and that includes staff – have had binges lasting weeks or even months!

Many of us have been abroad to satisfy our addiction, but there are plenty of opportunities to do so on home turf.  There is a daily chance to get a quick hit every lunchtime here.  My last hit was yesterday afternoon.  So what am I talking about?  Here are some clues. [show 3 slides]

You might have guessed already – I am addicted to the great outdoors!

So, why do so many people get addicted to the great outdoors, and if you haven’t done so already, why should you join them?  Here are seven good reasons, illustrated by photos from fellow outdoor addicts from across the school.

The first reason is to try to achieve “a healthy mind in a healthy body”.

This is the first in the Roman poet Juvenal’s list of what is desirable in life.

But what does it mean in relation to the outdoors?

Well, getting outdoors can make you fit but it can also help you to stay mentally alert.

A 2013 UK government report showed that “Children who spend more time on computers, watching TV and playing video games tend to experience higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression”, whereas people who spend time in the outdoors usually find that their mental health improves.  Just like these two Year 11s!

This has even been recognised by psychologists, and ‘ecotherapy’ is now a common form of treating mental health problems.  In other words, “get some fresh air – it’ll do you good!”

Why does it work?  Partly because you need to co-operate with others in the outdoors, so your mind is distracted from your own worries.

For other people who choose to explore the outdoors alone, the solitude and lack of pressure to satisfy the demands of peers and family leads to significant improvements in self-esteem.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Reason 2: Improve your grades

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Those of you who have been to Pompeii, or to the Dales, or wherever you have been on school trips… how much easier did you find it once you sat the exam or did a project on it?  School trips in the outdoors aren’t just fun, they are a sneaky way of getting you to learn things!  And it’s not just school trips – just being out and about gets you to ask questions – and answer them!

So, what better way to learn about volcanoes than by walking in their shadow?…

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­…or even watching as they erupt?

Studies of adventure learning consistently show positive benefits on academic learning, as well as other outcomes such as self-confidence. On average, according to the Education Endowment Foundation, pupils who participate in structured adventure learning appear to make approximately three months additional progress over the course of a year over those who don’t.

On a personal level, I didn’t know how to explain a temperature inversion until I was in Tasmania and walked uphill through the clouds then saw this…

­­­­­­Reason 3: Stretch yourself in the outdoors and you will set yourself up for a rosy future.

­Succeeding in the outdoors can breed success in a competitive workplace.

Does that sound like fanciful thinking?

Well, apparently not!

The United Learning Trust (ULT) recently undertook a survey of major employers.  They were asked what attributes they looked for when taking on board new recruits.  The following were rated the highest: leadership, teamwork, self-motivation, communication, confidence, consideration, and the ability to learn.  For those of you who have taken part in Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expeditions, like this Gold group in the Lake District, these attributes must ring a bell!

And no wonder, because the sample was also asked what they considered to be the most important activities undertaken at school and were asked to rate them from 1-5, with 1 being the highest.  As you can see, outdoor activities like DofE and World Challenge are very highly valued by employers.

Incidentally, this argument is very useful the next time you are trying to persuade your parents to let you go on a school trip!

Reason 4: Travel broadens the mind!

From new experiences to new people, you will learn more about the world – and yourself – by heading outside – and away from home – for a few days or weeks.

On another level, you also learn to appreciate what you have in your comfortable life in the UK.

On the World Challenge expeditions that I have been on, students have been humbled by the conditions that many people in the developing world live in.  Here are some BGS World Challengers from the 2014 expedition to India on a school project.

But there are more benefits: many expeditioners abroad also learn that many of our material luxuries are just that – luxuries – and that human relationships are what makes the world go around.

Reason 5.   Awe and wonder.

For this reason, pictures speak louder than words.

Mr Leake took this photo on the 2013 BGS World Challenge trip to China…

…and Mr Smith took this on the soon to be repeated Geography tour of SW USA…

…whilst Mr Hoath took this picture in Ladakh, North-West India.  Imagine waking up to that in the morning!

So, awe and wonder – well it’s all very good being overawed and in a state of wonder, but isn’t it a fleeting emotion, lost upon your return to everyday life, lessons, and assemblies?

Well, the theory proves that being outdoors has a long-term impact on your way of thinking:  The feeling that you are the centre of the universe is called into question by the sheer scale and complexity of nature.  There is something bigger than you and your everyday worries – a mountain – a wide open plain – the open sky…And this feeling sticks with you.  And you become an addict, a follower of the outdoor religion… seeking converts wherever you go [look out into audience] J

Reason 6:  Getting back afterwards!

The next three photos were taken in the last fortnight at BGS.

I’ve got to be honest – going outdoors can be a bit of a slog (although these two were having fun running in the hail the other week)!

You too can have fun in the snow, sleet and rain!

Because at least you can get back indoors and earn that hot drink, meal and a shower!

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­And when it’s all over you can feel satisfied that you’ve challenged yourself!

And if you’ve lugged a heavy rucksack for up to eight hours a day through tough terrain and challenging weather, like many generations of Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditioners have, or if you’ve slogged your way through puddles the size of small lakes in a cross-country race, then a few hours of revision a day doesn’t seem quite as bad!

Just think of the relief when the Geography department returned from this visit to a geyser in Iceland!

This isn’t just conjecture: the Education Endowment Foundation suggest that skills such as perseverance and resilience are developed through adventure learning and that these skills have a knock-on impact on academic outcomes.

This winter, we’ve seen our fair share of inclement weather, but for those hardy souls who venture out in it, the sense of achievement has been massive!

And so we come to Reason 7: Let’s be honest – getting outdoors can just be fun!

Sometimes you just want to jump up in the air for joy, like these World Challengers…

…and you get to have a bit of fun with your surroundings.

Here’s a novel way of filling your cup – straight from Angel Falls in Venezuela.

This is something you won’t try everyday…

…and good times spent with friends will stay with you forever…

So get out there and explore – the world is your oyster!

­­­­­­­­So what can you do to get addicted to the outdoors?  Inside and outside of school, from a 30minute mini adventure to a month away, there’s a whole host of opportunities.  I’ll leave you with just a flavour – why not try something new?  Why not get addicted?  Thank you.