Author: Physical Geography SIG
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Inspirational Physical Geographers #2: Alfred Wegener
When teaching about tectonic processes to your students it is likely you will have mentioned Alfred Wegener. Perhaps you have taught about the ‘mystery’ of why the continents appear to fit together, or how fossils of animals and plants have been found on different continents that wouldn’t ordinarily have been found together, thus suggesting that…
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#GAConf24 – Geoanimations
The attached handout is being shared courtesy of Gotze Kalsbeek (University of Amsterdam) for his session at the 2024 GA Conference. Gotze has produced a series of ‘Geoanimations’ for Geography teachers to use in lessons. Here is a link to the HTML version of his plate tectonics animation: https://lesmateriaal.geobronnen.com/interactievegeoanimaties/platentektoniek_doorsnee_aarde_engels.html
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#GAConf24 – Physical Geography for everyone!
This page is being used to share resources for our PGSIG session at the 2024 GA conference. Physical Geography is often deemed to be ‘tricky’, but what makes it so tricky? In our workshop we explored the reasons why people struggle with Physical Geography (from both a pupil and teacher perspective) and offer a few…
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Water is everywhere : the really deep water cycle
“Plate tectonics is part of the water cycle” Excuse me…did you say that plate tectonics is part of the water cycle? Yes, I did…..read on and let me explain how, and also why it should and could be incorporated into your geography teaching. This is not as tricky as you might think; it will just…
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Inspirational physical geographers No.1: Marie Tharp
You will have seen the map shown below – perhaps in a geography text book, and you may have a poster version of the map on a classroom wall somewhere in your Geography Department. There is a version of this map on Google Earth. This map of the ’World ocean floor’ portrays a stunning piece…
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Inspirational Physical Geographers
This is a series of short blogs we will be posting, and the title surely gives away what it’s all about! Physical geographers have always found the Earth’s natural features, systems and processes fascinating. They have always possessed an enthusiasm for, and curiosity about, the physical world that ensures we have the knowledge, explanations and…
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Carbon storage: Is playing on my XBox carbon neutral?
We have nearly reached a time when climate change and global warming (and even the incorrect and confused ‘ozone’ – see our blog on ‘Misconceiving Physical Geography’) are everyday topics of conversation. Political figures and campaigners along with the great work completed in communities, including schools, have driven the topic and challenged the agenda. While…
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Misconceiving Physical Geography
Some misconceptions (or ‘alternative conceptions’) are a legacy of past knowledge and ways of understanding the world that are no longer valid, i.e. replaced by new ideas that make better sense of evidence (old and new). However the old ideas have such inertia that they linger in seemingly ‘authoritative’ sources (textbooks, videos or online), and…
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Professor Chris King, Emeritus Professor of Geoscience Education, Keele University, 1949–2022. A tribute.
By Duncan Hawley and John Lyon. Here is a quote from ‘Fragments of Earth Lore’ by James Geikie (1893)[1]: “When we come to ask why some rivers flow in deep canyons, like those of the Colorado—why valleys should widen out in one part and contract, as it were, elsewhere—why the courses of some rivers are…
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Bringing students in from the cold: an introduction to ice geography
Written by Duncan Hawley. Getting students excited about the geography of glaciers can be a challenge. Naturally, if students happen to visit a glacier or and area that is being actively glaciated (perhaps on a skiing trip) then they pick up something of the awe, wonder and excitement and more often than not the environment…