Tuesday 19 April 2016

The Different Faces :OD of the Geography Classroom- Where will Geography take you today?

Whiz, bang and pop are great describing words that summarise the different faces of the Geography classroom in the Year 8 scheme of work ‘Plate tectonics, earthquakes and volcanoes’. Students this year have had a varied program of activities to help visualise topics and consolidate their learning. This has ranged from the use of boiled eggs for showing the different layers of the Earth to actively surviving an Earthquake disaster by crawling out of the classroom!


Through active learning – within and outside of the classroom – students have been able to experience different roles associated with Geography. As seen in the photo below, students had, and excuse the pun here, a cracking time creating earthquake proof buildings to protect a real-life egg (which was in fact personified as a human being). Many were successful in the Mr Davis shake test, however if you were Benjamin or Aaron the yolk was literally on them. Ok, ok, I shall stop!


Nana, Fareedah, Sam, Atta and Posi posing with their earthquake proof building.

Other ways that the Geography staff have worked towards inspiring the students was through volcanic eruptions using bicarbonate of soda and vinegar with red food dye. This allowed the students to assess viscosities of different magmas. With 8E we were also successful in creating a volcanic bomb using diet coke and mento sweets. To witness these experiments and more photos please visit the other articles on the Geography Blog. Videos of the students erupting their volcanoes are also on this site.

Year 8B makign their earthquake proof structures to protect the egg.

Benjamin and Aaron’s shake test was unsuccessful.

Students as part of a homework were asked to make their own volcanoes and there were some incredible designs. Our Year 8 winner has won a funded place to Thorpe Park. Have a look at her incredible model below.



Well done Sophia in 8E!

The first Geography fieldtrip of 2016 was aimed at consolidating the whole unit studied with a visit to the Natural History Museum. To see this article look on the school website and Geography Blog. A group of 60 Year 8 students caught the train to London to enter the world of plate tectonics, eruptions and earthquakes. With the addition of the earthquake experience the students had to use their way home to literally, in the words of Taylor Swift, ‘shake it off shake it off’! Too much?!

#Where are your geography classrooms?

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