I was unable to attend the Leeds GA Branch full day workshop on the 7th of May
Fortunately, Victoria Ellis my colleague from the GA's Secondary Phase Committee attended the event and very kindly wrote a review for me. Here, with Victoria's permission is her review of the day, which apparently had the best selection of biscuits of any CPD that she'd attended...
“My morning began with a lovely drive up into the Dales. Lectures all took place in the grand entrance hall of the school.
First up, after some brief introductions, was Graham Clarke talking about health geography. He presented lots of maps and some interesting patterns, including some less commonly seen ones e.g. hospitalisation due to asthma in New York, spina bifida in the UK and missing teeth in children in the UK. He also talked a lot about accessibility issues in terms of health care provision, and the use of GIS to locate 'stop smoking' clinics in Leeds
Next up was Nancy Worth, who talked about 'life-course geographies' - some work that she had done as part of her PhD looking at people's perceptions of whether or not they were adults, and interviews about when they felt that they would be adults and how adulthood was defined: lots that was very interesting, and just as several of us were looking at each other about to ask 'where's the geography?' she said "..and so you're probably thinking, very interesting, but is this really geography?" and then went on to talk about spatial patterns, sense of place, where young people 'hang out', etc.. There were a couple of discussion points about whether the ideas that she was talking about and the ways that she tries to introduce theories such as social constructivism to undergraduate students had a place in the school curriculum, and various comments about the philosophical, conceptual and psycho-geographical stuff that a lot of us do at KS3 that we can't do higher up because of exam board constraints.
Lunch, laid on by a bakery in Skipton, included a table full of pizza slices, cold meats, quiches and salads, followed by strawberry pavlova.
Clare Woulds then talked about Researchers in Residence ,which I hadn't heard about but which sounds fantastic. She talked about the programme in general, and then about her involvement with it, and a bit about her work: biology and nutrient cycling around hydrothermal vents in the Southern Ocean. Lots of people (me included) said afterwards that they wanted her job!
There was then a choice of workshops - one about health with Myles Gould, one about fieldwork with Sarah Jones from Malham FSC, and the one I went to which was GIS with Andy Newing. There was a name-check for the GIS resources on the GA site) Andy showed UMapper and GeoClip - both seem very straightforward and far easier to use than other GIS things I've played with in the past.
A fascinating lecture followed from Jurgen Neuburg, whose introduction was "By the time I've finished this sentence, and from my name, you'll realise I'm German, so don't expect any humour, and don't mention the war!" which set the tone for the whole talk (which was very humorous and easy to listen to). He explained about the work he does monitoring Soufriere Hills volcano. He was followed by David Alcock who talked about the fieldtrip that he'd been able to take to Montserrat with students, and the impact.
Then Paul Norman, talking about the census. There was lots of interesting stuff about the census, how it's evolved, how the information is used, and some of the patterns that he has identified through his use of contemporary census data.
I learnt/saw/thought about something new in every one of the sessions. All in all, an excellent day.”
The Leeds GA Branch website is at: http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/corporate/ga
The presentations from Cutting Edge Geography can be downloaded from this website.
Fortunately, Victoria Ellis my colleague from the GA's Secondary Phase Committee attended the event and very kindly wrote a review for me. Here, with Victoria's permission is her review of the day, which apparently had the best selection of biscuits of any CPD that she'd attended...
“My morning began with a lovely drive up into the Dales. Lectures all took place in the grand entrance hall of the school.
First up, after some brief introductions, was Graham Clarke talking about health geography. He presented lots of maps and some interesting patterns, including some less commonly seen ones e.g. hospitalisation due to asthma in New York, spina bifida in the UK and missing teeth in children in the UK. He also talked a lot about accessibility issues in terms of health care provision, and the use of GIS to locate 'stop smoking' clinics in Leeds
Next up was Nancy Worth, who talked about 'life-course geographies' - some work that she had done as part of her PhD looking at people's perceptions of whether or not they were adults, and interviews about when they felt that they would be adults and how adulthood was defined: lots that was very interesting, and just as several of us were looking at each other about to ask 'where's the geography?' she said "..and so you're probably thinking, very interesting, but is this really geography?" and then went on to talk about spatial patterns, sense of place, where young people 'hang out', etc.. There were a couple of discussion points about whether the ideas that she was talking about and the ways that she tries to introduce theories such as social constructivism to undergraduate students had a place in the school curriculum, and various comments about the philosophical, conceptual and psycho-geographical stuff that a lot of us do at KS3 that we can't do higher up because of exam board constraints.
Lunch, laid on by a bakery in Skipton, included a table full of pizza slices, cold meats, quiches and salads, followed by strawberry pavlova.
Clare Woulds then talked about Researchers in Residence ,which I hadn't heard about but which sounds fantastic. She talked about the programme in general, and then about her involvement with it, and a bit about her work: biology and nutrient cycling around hydrothermal vents in the Southern Ocean. Lots of people (me included) said afterwards that they wanted her job!
There was then a choice of workshops - one about health with Myles Gould, one about fieldwork with Sarah Jones from Malham FSC, and the one I went to which was GIS with Andy Newing. There was a name-check for the GIS resources on the GA site) Andy showed UMapper and GeoClip - both seem very straightforward and far easier to use than other GIS things I've played with in the past.
A fascinating lecture followed from Jurgen Neuburg, whose introduction was "By the time I've finished this sentence, and from my name, you'll realise I'm German, so don't expect any humour, and don't mention the war!" which set the tone for the whole talk (which was very humorous and easy to listen to). He explained about the work he does monitoring Soufriere Hills volcano. He was followed by David Alcock who talked about the fieldtrip that he'd been able to take to Montserrat with students, and the impact.
Then Paul Norman, talking about the census. There was lots of interesting stuff about the census, how it's evolved, how the information is used, and some of the patterns that he has identified through his use of contemporary census data.
I learnt/saw/thought about something new in every one of the sessions. All in all, an excellent day.”
The Leeds GA Branch website is at: http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/corporate/ga
The presentations from Cutting Edge Geography can be downloaded from this website.
Thanks Victoria...
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