This could become our European country rather than France. We have recently received a pack from the Norwegian embassy. They sent us a follow up to a pack of materials: 'Look at Norway', which we received a few years ago. The new promotion of educational materials is well produced, and very welcome.
Stop Press: now have a new CD - September 2005
We are considering using Norway as a Key Stage 3 Case Study. This will require an increase in specific resources as we are well served with information on France and Italy (which we use at present).
The disc has some new Key Stage 4 resources for Sustainability and Norwegian Forestry, which looks at issues such as Biofuels and diversification and agro-tourism. I shall certainly look at using this with my current Year 10 group when we get to that issue.
The Royal Norwegian Embassy have been very prompt and generous with our request for assistance with materials. In addition to a rather cool CD of modern Norwegian electronica (Bugge Wesseltoft anyone ?) they also sent a large pack of materials including posters, CD ROM, brochures of various areas of the country and general factual material, plus they are also sending a separate pack of posters and educational materials. Many thanks to Berit Scott, Information Officer for the prompt service. Tak!
The pack included an A2 map, and a CD Rom. The map is a physical and political map, along with photographs of certain locations.
Norway is a good candidate for a case study as it has close cultural, economic and historical links with the UK. There are materials to print off from the CD Rom, and links to the updated website: LOOK AT NORWAY.
NORWAY.ORG is the American version of the site, and has some useful materials too. There are some useful weather data at the AFTENPOSTEN site.
HEP, WIND ENERGY are both well developed in the country, and form the basis of some useful case studies produced by the Norwegian Embassy. HEP has great potential due to the terrain and geology. One issue is the transportation of the energy to where it is needed, plus the fact that Norway is heavily involved in the oil industry.
The problems of moving through the landscape of the fjords. The FJORD COUNTRY is covered at this website.
Transport is an issue in the country. There are some very long tunnels through the mountains, some of which I remember from my travels. I remember being driven through a long tunnel between Haugesund and Odda (not all the way of course..) by a very nice man who gave us a 2 day old newspaper, from which we learned about the fire at York Minster.
Congestion charging, which is to be introduced on the 17th of February into London is already being used in some cities in Norway: Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo are already using similar schemes to restrict traffic into certain areas of the city, and reduce congestion and pollution. See my LONDON CONGESTION CHARGING page for more.
The following information was taken from the site of TRANSPORT FOR LONDON
TRONDHEIM (schemes also in Bergen and Oslo)
Key facts:
Benefits:
Silviculture.
Traditional farming, with orchards and pastoralism.
There are a series of landscapes and attractions in Norway, as I experienced.
Perhaps the main aspect of the landscape is GLACIATION. Below are a few images which I took during my time. My camera chose this unfortunate time to break and most of my pictures were lost....
The trough below the Folgefonn glacier. Picture by Mister P
Landscape at the toe of the Folgefonn glacier. Picture by Mister P.
FOLGEFONNA : a snowboarding school.
The village of Jondal. There are some amazingly old people in the churchyard here. Picture by Mister P.
One of the aspects of Norwegian society which we made use of during our visit is the policy of Allemansret: the right to roam. This means that rural areas are open to all, and allowed us to do a spot of camping near glacial lakes and tremendous ice scarred terrain.
For Statistics on the country, go to STATISTICS NORWAY, which has an excellent set of statistical resources on the country, including the fact that the Norwegians send more SMS than other Scandinavians.
One place I visited on my Norwegian travels was Jondal in the south of the country, a short ferry ride from Torvikbygd. Above the town, we hitched up through a wonderful valley to the Folgefonn Glacier. The weather was tremendous, and we met some marvellous people. The valley leading up the glacier had all the features of any glacial trough. Some pictures are posted HERE.
At the top of the valley was the glacier itself, which has now attracted the development of a snowboarding school called FOLGEFONNA. This could be a useful case study.
The Channel 4 4LEARNING site has a piece of work called Village Settlers which looks at the journeys of the Vikings. A lesson on navigation teaches compass skills using the example of a group of Norwegians heading for Greenland.
Odda. Picture by Mister P.
1. SKI TOURISM
FOLGEFONNA : a snowboarding school - visit the site and investigate the facilities which are offered
2. VISIT NORWAY website
Lots of useful resources on a CD ROM we recently received.
3. NORWAY was recently named as the 'best place to live' by the United Nations.
Why do you think that is ?
Use the NATIONMASTER site to explore how Norway scores on particular indicators.
