QUICK GEOGRAPHY RESOURCE FINDER

Mostly FREE (also known as MFP: my favourite price....)

Looking for a teaching resource quick ?  Maybe I can help (with the aid of my online chums...) - I think that this page alone could save you a lot of time (and money...) - not it's your turn to give something back...

On this page will appear links to good resources mentioned on some of the pages elsewhere on the site. If you know what topic you need a resource for, then go back to the contents and navigate to the relevant page. A selection of the best resources will appear below and you'll be able to jump straight to them.

Go HERE for a sheet with an e-mail proforma which can be used with groups to send an e-mail to someone in relation to an event that has happened. I use this with respect to work on flooding, where they e-mail someone to explain the effects on their house, and perhaps following witnessing an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. I also use a TEXT MESSAGE sheet which has a picture of a mobile phone and space to fill in a text message about something. Not sure what the literacy coordinator would have to say about it though...

AUDACITY is a great free download which will capture the LISTEN AGAIN programmes on BBC Radio websites and also the students voices for ORAL ASSESSMENT and AUDIO annotation.

Coming up next year is the PODCAST PROJECT

KEY STAGE 3

GCSE BITS: 100 quick questions for GCSE revision (why not e-mail me your own ?)

Schemes of Work & Lesson plans from Essex schools HERE: you'll find some resources on Japan and the environment, plus a complete set of Key Stage 3 schemes. They also produced a good guide for teachers who have been lucky enough to receive a laptop (or is that a notebook...) via the Laptops for Teachers scheme, or who have spent their hard earned money on one. There are more laptops being made available at the moment, and maybe eventually all teachers will get one as part of their contract.

If you use the Thomas Nelson KEY GEOGRAPHY series 'Places' book, or 'Cut, Paste and Surf'  you'll want to go HERE. They have provided some excellent links to their sets of textbooks.

There are links for the following textbooks:

The interesting thing as far as I am concerned is that there are activities on some of the pages which are ICT extensions of sections within the textbook itself.

Foundations

Connections

Interactions

Places: includes the chance to download .pdf updates for the Teachers' Guide (1.9Mb)

Extensions

Basics (so far limited to details on Upper Teesdale: perfect for Year 8 river unit)

• EDUWEB: an American company that specialises in Educational web adventures. They have several resources: AMAZON INTERACTIVE, and the WATERSHED GAME are 2 useful examples.

• We use the website of the OUP Geog.1, 2 & 3 site. Some useful materials, and accompanying CD ROMs for each book.  We'll use several sections from this in our NEW KEY STAGE 3 planning.

• We also have the GEOG.1, GEOG.2 and GEOG.3 CD ROMS which have additional materials, tests, worksheets etc.

• For materials on the series go to OUP WEBSITE. This has materials which I know some schools direct their students too, giving them the passwords they need to access the sites, which are.....

• Doing project work on a particular country ? Try N2GEO. They have information on a huge range of countries, and it's all well presented with Flash animations. Recommended.

• A thinking skills exercise on GHANA.

• Thinking Skills and other work on DEVELOPMENT.

• Another publisher who has samples of their worksheets on the net is LONGMAN. The few samples on offer vary in quality, and cover such things as Hurricanes, Water, Climate and Ecosystems and Rivers. One useful example is a sheet which allows you to MAKE YOUR OWN VOLCANO. The LONGMAN Australian site (similar materials on the UK site) has some great resources on a series of areas. Go to the site HERE, and you'll find some very useful materials on the following topics:

AUSTRALIA, RIVERS, OUR UNSTABLE EARTH, OCEAN RESOURCES, WATER FOR SURVIVAL, NATURAL DISASTERS, THE AMAZON RAINFOREST

• A useful resource from SLAMNET which looks at mapwork skills through the vehicle of a tour by a fictional rock band.

• Why not try out a WEBQUEST ? This was the subject of a recent useful GA publication, and the WEBQUEST site run by Nottingham University is now online to accompany the book. It features links to the quests featured in the book, as well as advice on how to create your own. The idea came from San Diego, and there are links to a UK WebQuest site.

• Tthe CADBURY LEARNING ZONE. This has materials on a range of topics including Global Warming, Pollution, Seasons, Tropical Rainforests and a good FOOD CHAIN GAME.

• From time to time, teachers may want to produce their own worksheets - well you never know. The Internet now offers the chance to obtain a number of software or online applications which allow the production of different types of worksheets.

• One such site is the American TEACHNOLOGY. (Another one is IN2EDU.) These offer the chance to create worksheets, the former offering the following types of worksheet producing opportunity:

Crossword Puzzle Makers, Assignment Generator, Webquest Generator, Word Scramble Generator, Wordsearch Maker, Venn Diagram Generator

Time Line Generator, Concept Web Generator, Rubric Generators

I recommend a visit to the excellent new QCA INNOVATING WITH GEOGRAPHY area. Click below.

• This now has some lesson plans and ideas for resources, including some THINKING SKILLS activities. It is being added to all the time, so it's worth popping back from time to time. (and around a year after this recommendation, the site is now growing all the time, and recently added a recommendation back of the content on GeographyPages)

• Also check out the GLOBAL EYE website, which is designed to supplement the free magazine. This is linked to WORLDAWARE. Some of this content may also be suitable for GCSE. There are some excellent resources on the GLOBAL EYE site in particular, and more are added regularly. Also received a recent special copy based on the Tsunami and Phi Phi.

• I was contacted by Amander Hayler from Chelmsford County High School recently, and she highlighted a number of ONLINE ACTIVITIES for Key Stage 3 on the themes of: Ecosystems, Mapwork Skills, Settlement, Water and Rivers, and Weather and Climate. Check them out !

• Why not do a spot of model making ? There are 2 FREE MODELS available to download from GeoBLOX. These include a rather nice 3D earthquake focus and seismic waves model. There is also the American spelt 'Groin', which may provoke amusement. Put them on A3 card. Why not buy one of the books from which the samples are taken ?

• Check out the Welsh Virtual Teacher Centre - is it still open ? - some good mapping exercises in the Brecon Beacons etc.

• http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.robinson217/millionaire/worldquiz1.html
  http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.robinson217/millionaire/millionweather.html thanks to Peter Robinson from Kemnay Academy in Aberdeen for sending these to me. Try to get to £1 million without using your lifelines... Apologies for calling it Kenmay for the last few months.

• Peter has now sent a new link to a weather heads and tail exercise http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.robinson217/snap/snap.html - thanks ! and if you want to see all these resources in the same place, there is now a new page to visit:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.robinson217/gamesforweb/

• The BBC have started to release a whole range of video clips from their archives for free use in the classroom. Some of these are Geography based (the Physical Geography series cut up into clips) others are PLACE based.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/schools/archive/queryengine?attrib_1=subject&val_1_1=places&oper_1=eq&page=1 is a link to the PLACE CLIPS, and more on this can be seen by searching for BBC Creative Archive.

• http://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/ - a series of paper backgrounds as PDF which are useful for various creative purposes.

GCSE

If you use Thomas Nelson GCSE Geography books, you'll want to go HERE. Has links for each chapter, and case studies in the 2nd edition of: Key Geography for GCSE Books 1 and 2.

• Areas are: Topical Information, Resources, Geographical Images, and IT Support.

• Need a map / clip art map / country outline ? Try HERE. Some very useful ones.

• New ICT exercises for CUT, PASTE and SURF.

• Worksheets and exercises concerning the NEAB syllabus on the following themes: Ganges Delta, Global Ecosystems, Urban Transport Issues, Tropical Rainforests, Environmental impacts of energy provision and Sustainable energy production, Urbanisation and the environment. All available from HERE.

• CHANNEL 4 LEARNING is the new site to support educational programmes broadcast by Channel 4. It has resources for the following programmes: Geographical Eye over Britain 1 & 2, Landforms, Coast to Coast, Geographical Eye over Asia and many more.

• Doing work on COASTAL EROSION ? - try this ready made lesson with digital images and hyperlinks. Based on the village of Corton in Suffolk. (Not all the hyperlinks work..)

Doing work on flooding ? Ring the Environment Agency Floodline number 0845 988 1188, and request a copy of the booklet "Preparing for Floods". They also have a useful CD ROM with information which I recently received.

• If you want to produce resources for the less able pupil, Thornes the publishers have produced a useful guide which you may find helpful. Go HERE to read it. Who know, you may get the materials you produce published.

• Do you use HEINEMANN books ? They've put together an excellent area on their website of HOTLINKS: websites to support the materials in a range of textbooks, which include the following texts:

Geography Matters, Geography Matters: Scotland, Heinemann Geography for Avery Hill, People, Places and Themes

Advanced Geography AQA, ICT in Geography, Maps are available from the OS Election Maps site.

• Hoping to pass the GCSE ? Try to GET THAT GRADE with the help of the book of the same name. They are offering some sample issues and illustrated notes. At various intervals, they are making more notes available. The Units which are available or will be come available include information on:

• Plate Tectonics, Population, River Systems, Urban Issues, Climate Vegetation and Soils, Agriculture, Glaciation, National Parks, Leisure, Industry, World Development

• There are other materials available in the form of GEO FACTSHEETS. These are published by CURRICULUM PRESS.

• Go to PUPILVISION for some new Image sets for Coasts and Glaciation (and the human impact on these areas) - as featured in TES March 2003

• Download the FREE version of PHOTOJAM software from the Shockwave site. You can purchase the full version of PhotoJam3. They also offer a JIGSAW maker. Big downloads, so do them at work...(you didn't hear that..)

• And if you want to support that little software company called Microsoft, you can download PHOTO STORY 3, which does a great job of creating moving slideshows with captions and music.

• A new game I was introduced to in 2003 thanks to Mark Rossen's e-mail: GEOSENSE

• An online one or two player game - try to locate a city - score points for being close to the actual location. Addictive, and getting more popular now which it deserves to be. Choose from several different maps.

• Lots of Geography QUIZZES, many in FLASH format HERE.

• I was contacted by Amander Hayler from Chelmsford County High School recently, and she highlighted a number of ONLINE ACTIVITIES for GCSE on various themes.

• Some free resources in various formats have been made available by P. Boulton at LEARN GEOGRAPHY, somewhere in Liverpool judging by the site, which also include some good resource strategies for revision. Word documents and powerpoints for starters and other information can be dowloaded, and if you send in the best resource each month or so there's a digital camera to win!

• Andrew Field's CONTENT GENERATOR site has just (Feb 2006) added a free DRAG AND DROP game for download. Get out there and download the game and get making (and just as importantly, sharing)

• An excellent new addition to the list of useful resource sites is Adam Lawson's GEOGRAPHY AT THE MOVIES blog. This features free movies to download and use in the classroom. Recommended. Get out there and download some movies...

• There's a whole range of resources (not just for KS3 but for the other KEY STAGES as well on GEOG ONLINE, which is the site of CRICKHOWELL HIGH SCHOOL. Recommended.

• New for 2007 is GEOGTEACHER

• If you are looking for resources that have been flagged up on the SLN FORUM, you can check out the Chesterton Community College website where Katharine Hutchinson has hosted a selection of resources for download.

'AS' & 'A2'

Website for David Waugh's popular textbook: GEOGRAPHY: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH (GAIA)

• Some very good POWERPOINT presentations have been put online by MELVIN at his TEACHING SCRIPTS site. They are of various sizes and are on a range of areas. Go and have a look what he has on offer.

• A useful set of resources available on the RGS website, which relates to a conference: ON COURSE FOR SUCCESS, which was held on the 6th of October 2005. There are a number of the PRESENTATIONS which are available. These include a presentation by David Rayner, one on Globalisation by Dr Andrew Jones, one on People and Coastal Processes and one on improving writing skills.

• Pictures are always useful resources to get hold of. There are some varied photo folders at FOTOPIC. This has a regularly updated list of digital camera photos which are posted by people. Some of them are bizarre and of no practical use, but others are useful.
• Fancy putting together a quick QUIZ for your pupils ? Go to the EGFL page where they have a QUIZ CREATOR: you need to provide some questions and answers and it does the rest. Give it a go.
• Another resource that we've obtained is "ICT ACTIVITIES IN GEOGRAPHY" by David Gardner. This is a folder and CD ROM. It has some rather good resources and ideas for looking at Websites, CD ROMS and using Power-point and other software. Recommended. With a laptop and data projector it makes a very useful ICT resource.
• Go to QUESTION TOOLS for more free downloads to help you put together question sets and quizzes. Free to download, and free to register. Try the SimpleSet.

Head for the site of the ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY - you'll find in the EDUCATION section a very useful article in PDF format called Geography: An Education for Life, which describes the outcome of an evening in October 2001. Some time ago now I know, but there are some useful ideas and quotes here. They have also offered some very useful CASE STUDIES in the secondary information area.

• The EU's CELEBRATE project brought together schools from various EU countries, and they posted the results HERE. There are some useful GEOGRAPHY ones in amongst them, or ideas that could be adapted to Geographical use. Click the LEARNING OBJECTS link on the right hand side of the screen.

• Why not make some USGS PAPER MODELS from here. Print the templates onto card or enlarge them to 3D, and make a sizeable groyne.

• Why not head to the CLIC CORNER and download software which you can use to make a range of learning materials, which include 'the usual suspects' of crosswords, wordsearch etc. The software is FREE, comes with a 58 page manual in PDF format, and also has links in other languages. There are then a range of materials which other teachers have produced and made available which you are encouraged to use.

• Another idea from HERE is the use of Microsoft Excel to produce interactive quizzes. These need a MACRO to get them started, and then use DROP DOWN BOXES to create a quiz. A nice simple idea.

• Thanks to LittleMiss for pointing out some free software downloads and other ideas from FIERY IDEAS EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANCY.

• Also Andrew Field at Neale Wade School in Cambridgeshire is another hero of mine, and he has produced a very useful resource suggesting 20 ICT ideas in 20 minutes. This was developed at his school, and is available to view and download in various formats from his EFFECTIVE ICT site.

  October 2007 - added link to a set of interactive diagrams and maps which have been produced as part of the United Nations Environment Programme.

  http://maps.grida.no/

   

QUIZMO IDEA
A nice idea I developed this week. The Maths Department and 'breakfast club' have purchased a set of QUIZMO handsets. These are small handsets which have been developed by LAGOON GAMES & BOOKS.  They cost just £7 each, and are programmed with all the answers to the QUIZMO books, which are on a range of themes. There is a book on a Geography theme, called 'Planet Earth: Interactive Geography Quiz': the books cost £6 each, and feature 500 questions. These each have a unique code which is entered into the handset, before the students then work through the questions. These are all multiple choice, with 4 possible answers: A, B, C or D. The device keeps track of the correct answers and keeps a score in terms of percentages.

Here is my idea: buy one or more handsets and one or more of the books. You can work out the answers for the book which you have. You can then create your own question sets. Put them on Powerpoints or wherever, and the students can enter their answers and get feedback. Be aware that the machines do make a noise which may get annoying when repeated for a long time, and with a room full of them all beeping away. Thanks to colleague Mr. Southgate for his assistance with this particular idea...

THE SIMPSONS in Geography lessons...

Have I helped you in some way ?

Please consider clicking the button below and making a small donation, which will go towards the not inconsiderable hosting costs for the site.

Many thanks to those people who have sent a contribution, some very generous! They all go towards funding the further development of the site...

RETURN TO CONTENTS PAGE