A very happy Christmas holiday to all the A2 Geography group. But don't party too hard - you are reminded that you have a FULL mock exam on the first Tuesday back in Dr Peryer's lesson, and then a second FULL mock exam on the second Monday back in Mr Burdett's lesson. You need to revise everything on coasts and tourism but NOT your Geographical Skills.
Happy revising!
Although options time doesn't happen until after Xmas, lots of you have been asking what you would cover if you studied GCSE Geography.
To help you make your decision, try visiting the Cromwell Options page which is packed with information about what we do in Year 10 and Year 11 Geography.
We think Geography is incredibly important - can you afford not to study rising sea levels, world poverty and deforestation? But we also want you to make the decision that's right for you. See your teacher in school if you aren't sure what you want to do.
In the lead up to options choices in January and February, you will have plenty of chance to see us to discuss your options. So relax and enjoy the festive season and don't worry about it all for a bit! But if you do want to get ahead, just visit our options page.
Some Year 8 groups are finding out about food in Brazil. This information will help you to complete your work in class:
In Brazil, churrasco refers mainly to all of the meat cooked on the "churrasqueira", an oven with supports for spits or skewers, where the meat is put on.
Caruru is Brazilian food made from okra, onion, shrimp, palm oil and toasted nuts (peanuts and/or cashews).
Vatapá is Brazilian food made from bread, shrimp, coconut milk, palm oil and nuts (peanuts and/or cashews) mashed into a creamy paste.
In a real feijoada, every part of the pig is thrown into the pan. But the sight of the pig's ear, tail or snout floating in the feijoada will upset some people, so often only the best parts of the pig.
Guaraná is used as an ingredient in soft drinks and energy drinks and separately as a dietary supplement to promote health and weight loss.
We continually search the web for the best geographical resources around. You can see some great websites by following the links down the right hand side but we thought you might like to see this one. games4geog is a site dedicated to making Geography fun. All the games can be played in your browser window so there is no software to download.
Have fun!
www.games4geog.com
Mr Burdett's year 11 class now has a dedicated blog. A summary of what we covered in class, plus more information about the homework, will be added at the end of every lesson.
If you have been away, you can check in to see what you have missed - and often you will find links to useful websites to help you.
Visit cromgeoggcse now (full address http://cromgeoggcse.blogspot.com).
There are new links in the A2 section found on the right hand side.
Especially important is the OCR Student Handbook. All Cromwell A level students were given a copy of this at the beginning of the AS course - keep looking at it while you are revising. It is especially important that you note the command word section. (There is also some help on the difference between describe and explain in the A2 file sharing links - again, follow the link to find it).
Remember if there is anything that would be useful that isn't there, let us know via cromgeog@hotmail.co.uk or tell us in school.
Below are some suggestions on writing 2686 essays.
OCR A2 ‘A’ Geography: 2686
Some idea on essays about presentation methods:
Don’t actually bother drawing detailed examples unless you are specifically told to. Most of the time ‘the effort doesn’t justify the marks gained’.
…but it might be useful to have a quick example and then annotate to point out positive and negative as long as you refer to these ideas in the text.
If you are asked to critically assess/evaluate/discuss the effectiveness of a type of method think about:
Are there any class intervals? (In other words, groups of data.)
How are they decided – size and number? Does this lead to bias?
Where are the boundaries if it is a map?
What colours might be used and why?
Is the information being presented in % form? Absolute values? What is good and bad about each of these?
If you have to compare two or more methods, the same ‘checklist’ can be used.
If you have to ‘outline the steps taken’ to produce something think about:
The number of classes and justify why you would choose a certain number
The size of classes and justify why you would choose that number
A high mark might include a diagram
A high mark might refer to the method of construction (e.g. hand drawn, using a GIS map based software, using a spreadsheet like Excel)
Make sure you know the terms that you are referring to – do you know the difference between a histogram and a bar graph?
Anyone can now view some of our schemes of work online. Visiting teachers will find a link to the folder here. Please feel free to borrow whatever you need.
Also online are some of our video writing frames. At the moment it's just Japan and Brazil 2000, but over time we hope to add more.
Happy browsing!
At Cromwell, Geography is taught to every year group. In Years 7, 8 and 9 it is compulsory for all students. At GCSE, approximately 1/3rd of a typical year group will opt to continue studying with us, and we are one of the founding subjects of the brand new sixth form in Years 12 and 13.
There are several exciting developments in Geography at the moment:
We hope you will continue to visit this page to get more information as the blog develops.
These photos were taken during our field trip to study the effects of tourism on the Norfolk Broads - as always a hot sunny day - perfect for getting a tan (or sunburn).
These wildfowl live on the River Bure at Horning. But they aren't native - they are there because tourists feed them. What do you think that does to the local ecosystem?
This picture shows what a natural area should look like. You can see how full of wildlife it is - perfect for animals, plants - and people!
You have probably revised for tests before. These are a few tips from Mr Burdett's classes:
Good luck Year 7!
A2 Physical Geography students can now access new resources as soon as Mr Burdett has written them!
Use the 'A2 file sharing links' to link to Mr Burdett's online space. When you are there you may download any file in the folder. To download it, click on the file name and follow the instructions. It will open up a new screen - to download the file, scroll down to the bottom where there is a timer. That timer will change to a 'download' button when it has counted down. Please be aware that these files have not been checked for viruses - never download anything from the net unless you are sure that your antivirus software is up to date.
A2 students (and others) can see:
Over the Xmas holidays I plan to put more help for you in the download folder - keep checking back to make the most of your revision.
The next post down has them in detail - but in case you are short of time, here goes...
1. Great results (more than 4 out of 5 students got A*-C last year with Geog@Cromwell)
2. Important issues - global warming, world poverty, rainforest destruction
3. Fieldtrips - Cambridge (yes you do get to go shopping), Hunstanton and the Norfolk Broads
4. Interactive whiteboards - don't just look in a book how a river forms, watch the drama unfold on the screen
5. Geography can be used for almost any post-16 course, and employers like it too
Need more convincing? Speak to any Geography teacher at Cromwell.
