Where’s Earthy
Geography Society
Geography Department News
A big welcome back to all students after what we hope was a fun holiday filled of opportunities to explore new places and landscapes. Been anywhere interesting? Tell us about it. We are currently putting together a display of souvenirs and trinkets from around the world and we would welcome any additions.
A particularly big welcome to our new GCSE Geographers in Year 10. We are looking forward to getting to know you better and nurturing your love and interest for this wonderful subject. Also, a welcome to our new junior Geographers in Year 7.
Geography Subject Progress Leaders
We are delighted to announce that Caitlyn J and Hannah B have been appointed as our Progress Leaders for this academic year. These two dedicated, committed and enthusiastic Year 10 GCSE Geographers will lead the way in terms of extra-curricular provision and academic support for Years 7 to 9 this year.
What will we study this half term?
Year 7 – Being a Geographer! Baseline knowledge such as continents, oceans, countries and Lancashire towns, before moving onto cartography – map making!
Year 8 – River Landscapes. What river processes shape the landscape, why rivers flood and what we can do to reduce the threat.
Year 9 – Extreme Environments. We will focus on the hot deserts of the world; what they are like, why they are there and how they are spreading.
Year 10 – Coastal Landscapes & Management. What processes shape our beautiful coastline and how living there can often be a battle with the elements.
Year 11 – Changing Cities. Sao Paulo is the biggest city in the Americas and it faces some massive challenges. How can they be tackled?
Mr Bowles
Curriculum Leader for Geography
Geography – Summer Term News 2022
Volcano Competition Winners
Further to the article on the Year 9 Volcano Model Competition Winners last time round, the winning trio have been along to the Geography Department to collect their prizes. Well done again to Fatimah Zahra P, Mariya M and Safiyyah M. The winning entry is below. Enjoy the lava lamps, girls!
Where’s Earthy?
Email your answer to g.bowles@penworthamgirls.lancs.sch.uk. You must be as specific as possible with your answer. Bonus Question! Which two cities does the bridge in the photo link together?
The Geography Libraries
A reminder that the Geography Department have both a small physical and a virtual library that students can access to further read around the subject.
Outside Room 39, students can find books on maps, oceans, travel, mountains and many more. Have a look, find something you fancy and bring the book to Mr Bowles to sign out. New books have been added recently, all related to recent topics of study.
In the SharePoint of their school Office 365 account, students will find the Geography Virtual Library (once in SharePoint, you can search for it).
Here, students will find separate pages for each year group containing suggested reading for those keen and interested Geographers. Clicking on a book cover will give you a sample of the book, usually about 20-30 pages, and if you like it you can track it down on Amazon, second hand on eBay or at your local bookshop.
Have a great break
Remember, you are always a Geographer, both in the classroom and away from it so try to spread your wings a little and see some of our local countryside if you can. If you are going further afield, have fun and be a respectful and interested tourist. Regardless of where you are off to, don’t forget to send us a postcard from your travels. Have a great summer and bon voyage from Mr Bowles, Mr Ward and Mrs Singleton.
(PS – don’t forget to send a postcard to the Geography Department for our collection!)
Mr Bowles,
Curriculum Leader for Geography
Year 9 Volcano Competition
Once again, the submissions for this year’s Volcano Model Project from Year 9 students have been absolutely OUTSTANDING! The Geography department are in agreement that the standard is as high, if not higher, than it has ever been – we don’t know how they do it! This year, we feel the students have really pushed themselves to be as creative as they can. We have had students making volcanoes from papier-mâché, builders foam, modelling clay and of course lots of CAKE! We have also seen the introduction of a knitted volcano and some Lego entries. We are really impressed with the level of detail that the students are going into and would like to thank them for the time and hard work they have put into creating such amazing pieces of work!
Merits and Head’s Commendations were awarded to a large number of entries so the students need to come and check their volcanoes. The staff have also selected their personal favourites and decided on an overall winner…
Highly Commended:
Staff picks:
The winner:
Overall Winner: We all loved this model by Fatimah-Zahra P, Mariya M and Safiyyah M. The magma chamber is located well below ground level, which many models get wrong. The cutaway section has clear layers, the annotations are detailed and accurate (many models had very brief labels) and finally the cotton wool ash cloud was great! Well done, girls!
Mr Bowles
Curriculum leader for Geography
The Geography Libraries
A reminder that the Geography department have both a small physical and a virtual library that students can access to read further around the subject.
Outside room 39, students can find books on maps, oceans, travel, mountains and many more. Have a look, find something you like and bring the book to Mr Bowles to sign out. New books have been added recently that all relate to recent topics of study.
In the SharePoint of their school Office 365 account, students will find the Geography Virtual Library, (once in SharePoint you can search for it). Here, students will find separate pages for each year group containing suggested reading for all interested Geographers. Clicking on a book cover will give you a sample of the book, usually about 20-30 pages, and if you like it, you can track it down on Amazon, second hand on eBay or at your local bookshop.
Mr Bowles
Curriculum Leader for Geography
Geography Department News Spring 2022
Hello Geographers! Another eventful term is coming to a close and as always, the standard of work and enthusiasm seen by the Geography staff have really impressed us.
Year 11 – the home straight!
Just this week, Year 11 classes have completed the GCSE course content, meaning we can now look ahead to an effective and focused period of exam preparation. As we checked through the notes produced over the two-year course, I was struck by the quality of the work and feel confident that the Year 11 students have the foundations on which to build great success in Geography. The Department will provide a suggested study programme for the Easter break and beyond. There are also a wealth of materials and past papers available on the SharePoint for each Year 11 class.
On the 3rd and 4th March, we had our Year 11 fieldtrip to survey the River Calder to the north east of Garstang. This gave pupils an insight into the work of hydrologists. We surveyed the depth, width, velocity and bedload of the river and calculated discharge from our data. Aside from a few wet socks, we came through the trip unscathed, although Mr Ward had a close call when chasing after one of our floats down the river! Thanks to the accompanying staff and to the students, who despite some poor weather were full of enthusiasm and took their responsibilities to collect good quality data very seriously.
Year 9
Year 9 are currently embarking on a real Geography classic – tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes. This topic is fundamental to understanding our planet and we have committed to teaching it at almost GCSE standard to give students a flavour of the levels expected on the course and to smooth the transition to Year 10.
Year 7
The current topic of study on population and migration is particularly topical. The UN predicts that they will declare the ‘Day of 8 Billion’ at some time in late 2022 or the first quarter of 2023. This will be a milestone for human population and one we may struggle to cope with. The second part of the topic will look at migration and this will see us focus on those fleeing Ukraine, the largest movement of refugees in Europe since World War II. We will look at the routes, destinations and struggles that those people face.
Geography Club
Attendance at Geography Club has slowly but steadily climbed through the course of this term. We have delved into the Geography games cupboard and dug deeper into some of our topics of study. After Easter, we will get out and about, utilising the school grounds to explore fieldwork and our local area. If you would like an early lunch pass for this club please see Mr Bowles. Club is at lunch time on Monday in Room 39.
Easter Holidays – a chance to see some Geography
There have been some excellent programmes on T.V. lately that fit nicely with our topics of study.
In Year 9, there is ‘Fierce Earth’ which is available on BBC iPlayer, which has episodes on earthquakes and volcanoes
For Year 8, there is another BBC series, ‘Earth’s Great Rivers’, again available on BBC iPlayer, which really helps with the understanding of a river as a system, travelling from source to mouth.
In Year 7, there are a couple of good Stacey Dooley documentaries out there about migration (‘Migrant Kids in Crisis’ and ‘Border Wars’). Parents, please be advised that both come with warnings about upsetting scenes.
Better than all of these is of course getting out into some Geography! Walk up a hill or along a river/canal, visit somewhere new on the train, go and explore a piece of the coast that you have not been to before; Geography is all around us! Have a lovely break.
Earthy has his selfie stick out for this one, but where is he? Answers to g.bowles@penworthamgirls.lancs.sch.uk. Class Chart Medals for all entries and a prize for the first correct answer.
Mr Bowles
Curriculum Leader for Geography
STEM Festival
PGHS STEM FESTIVAL 28th February – 11th March 2022
Read all about our events and school visits that took place during our STEM festival in our STEM festival newsletter:
|
|
STEM Festival Newsletter 18/3/2022
|
Geography News
Hi everyone,
A new year and a new term in the Geography Department with all lower school years moving onto new areas of study.
Year 7 will shortly be using their knowledge on the weather to investigate hurricanes, with work on what an extra-tropical storm hitting Preston might be like. This will take the form of a news report, so will bring in creative writing skills.
Year 8 are working on development. This involves categorising countries into developing, emerging and developed using development indicators, before a study of Kenya and a look at aid.
Year 9 are looking at marine environments, which involves work on why the coast is crowded, world trade by sea routes and the destruction of marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs.
The Geography Libraries
A reminder that the Geography Department have both a small physical and a virtual library that students can access to read further around the subject they are studying.
Outside Room 39, students can find books on maps, oceans, travel, mountains and many more. Have a look, find something you fancy and bring the book to Mr Bowles to sign out. New books have been added recently, all related to recent topics of study.
In the SharePoint of their school Office 365 account, students will find the Geography Virtual Library (once in SharePoint, you can search for it).
Here, students will see separate pages for each year group containing suggested reading for those keen and interested Geographers. Clicking on a book cover will give you a sample of the book, usually about 20-30 pages, and if you like it, you can track it down on Amazon, second hand on eBay or at your local bookshop.
Fantasy Treasure Maps
One of the highlights of the year! Students in year 7 combined their range of cartography skills into awesome treasure maps. I picked the map produced by Evie F, which not only demonstrated highly realistic contour patterns, but also had an accompanying 3d model which very closely matched the map – geotastic! Evie’s prize was the Ordnance Survey Tease Hunt book, which you can find listed in the Geography Virtual Library on the SharePoint. Below are some pictures of my favourites and of Evie with her winning map.
Mr Bowles, Curriculum Leader for Geography
Geography Autumn Term 2021 News
Another packed term is coming to a close, with students across all years demonstrating their Geographical knowledge, skills and enthusiasm.
A particular well done to our Year 11 GCSE Geographers; it has been a long term with a period of Mock exams at the start of November. The Geography Mock results were pleasing overall, and we look forward to doing some detailed performance analysis after the holiday. Year 11 are very nearly finished the syllabus content, meaning we will be able to embark on an extended period of revision, exam practise and preparation. All three Year 10 GCSE classes have bedded in really well; the standard of work being produced is amazing and as a department we are already feeling confident about this cohort.
In the lower school, Year 7 pupils are gearing up to produce their ‘Fantasy Treasure Maps’, a highlight for many PGHS students when they look back on their time here. Work hard on this, Year 7 and really show off your cartography skills. They have now moved onto a unit on ‘Wild Weather’ and will soon be looking at hurricanes and tornadoes.
Suggested Christmas Reading – Https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DPPNRXI?ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_TCF591PKW211KTA6GR2C&tag=kp025-21&linkCode=kpe
Suggested Christmas viewing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puqszlr9u1w
Year 8 students are in the midst of a unit on ‘Mountain Landscapes’, with study of how mountains are formed, the variable weather conditions found there and the impact of glaciers and high mountaineering.
Suggested Christmas Reading – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freaky-Peaks-Horrible-Geography-Ganeri/dp/0439944597
Suggested Christmas viewing – https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074sg0/planet-earth-2-mountains
– https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rpmf/life-of-a-mountain-a-year-on-helvellyn
Year 9 are coming to the end of a unit on the ‘Geography of Fashion’ and we hope that the study of working conditions at home and abroad in the fashion industry has got these students thinking. There are also environmental questions to be pondered when choosing our clothes and hopefully with new purchases being made over the holiday season, students will think carefully about their choices and how to dispose of unwanted garments.
Suggested Christmas Reading – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Translation-Jean-Kwok/dp/0141042745
Suggested Christmas viewing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l-xXElC7iw
Geography Society has seen numbers grow steadily in recent weeks. We have had Goole Earth Treasure Hunts, quizzes and games and finished the term with globe bauble making. We meet Monday lunchtimes in Room 39 – come along in the new year, we would love to see you.
Have a great holiday and if you are celebrating Christmas, don’t forget to ask Santa for a Geography textbook of your very own and make sure you recycle all that packaging! Merry Christmas from Mr Bowles, Mr Ward and Mrs Singleton – Ho Ho Ho!
Mr Bowles,
Geography Department
