Belfast GIE part 2

A good idea to assist your appreciation of what Duncairn is really like, is to conduct a virtual tour using Google Earth. You may have already annotated ground level images of the Cathedral Quarter, as part of your research into item 2. You now need to do the same for the following addresses

• Keadyville Ave (Duncairn 2)


• Duncrue Street (Duncairn 2)


• Mervue Street (Duncairn 1)


• Duncairn Gardens - Groundwork Northern Ireland (Duncairn 1)

Find a view nearby each of the above locations, take a screen grab and annotate. Please remember the view at the top of this page is an aerial view not the ground level view that you should use.

Belfast GIE part 1

This years GIE will require detailed study of the AIB, in particular the maps. Item 2 explores the work of the Laganside Corporation. A useful way to familiarize yourself with this item will be to produce a map, based on OS map extract from page 9, similar to that you have previously produced for Trafford Park UDC.


Take a copy of the map below. Zoom in on Laganside, cut, paste the area and annotate using text boxes to show how the Laganside Corporation has been able to stimulate developments in each of the following categories

• commercial and office developments



• leisure and tourism



• infrastructure- transport



• retailing



• housing



• environmental improvements

Each annotation should be precisely located. You will need to use results of previous research and the internet.

This map is just for reference, a colour version of your AIB.

UN Conference on Climate Change

The UN's conference on climate change begins today in Cancun, Mexico - follow it's findings on the official website.

You wouldn't thinks so!?

Despite the snow at the start of the year and the current cold snap, 2010 is set to be the warmest year (or second warmest) on record. NASA have recorded it as the warmest on record and the UK Met Office have it as the second warmest in their data set.

For more details click this link.

Or read about it on the Guardian website.

Carbon Emissions fall - but its not all good news

In 2009 carbon emissions fell but not as much as had been predicted and there are concerns that the recent rapid upward trend will continue.

To find out more read the article at the BBC.

Geography Awareness Week

This year's Geography awareness week is all about fresh water.

For more information go to My Wonderful World website.

Help with grid references or just for fun

Have you come for fun or are you still not sure how to do them? Well no matter which, you can have fun as you practice using your map skills.

Click this link to the Ordnance Survey Map Zone.

Mount Merapi blows it's top

One of Indonesia's active volcanoes is causing devastation and chaos. Over 64 people have been killed and flights between Singapore and Jakarta have been suspended.

Read more by clicking these links: Death toll and flights suspended.

You can also follow the activity by clicking this link.

Photographic Competiton

The entries this year give some idea of how far Hulme globe trotters are prepared to travel. Although exotic is not one of the judging criteria, by chance, all the commended photographs have more than just an element of the extra ordinary. This picture by Ruth Vassallo was taken in the high arctic and captures the magical colour contrast of blue and white, sea, ice and sky. A very worthy winner.








Congratulations must also be extended to Frances Brookfield and to Patrick Fanagan for the photographs of Zambia and a tropical beach paradise respectively.

The UK Coalition's Energy Future

This map shows the coalition's plans for nuclear power. Three potential sites have been ruled out on environmental grounds. However, Chris Huhne (the Energy Secretary) has stated that 50% of all new energy production should come from renewables.
Read more at the BBC.

Nothing like stating the obvious

A UN convention on biodiversity has declared that the ongoing loss of nature is hurting human society as well as the natural world.

Read more at the BBC.

You can also follow what is happening at the convention over the next two weeks by going to its website.

Year 8 Cowm

Use this photograph to complete the field sketch - remember to add colour and labels. To make the photograph bigger click on it.

Don't forget in your introduction include:

• Description of location of Cowm
• Maps showing location of Cowm
• A description of Whitworth
• The field sketch

A mounting problem

Can we clear the amount of plastic that is accumulating in our oceans.?
Plastic accumulates in natural vortex know as gyre; the largest of which is in the Pacific Ocean and is an area twice the size of France .
Scientist at the University of Sheffield believe they may have a solution.
Read more at the BBC or go to the report at the University of Sheffield

The Geography of Food Competition

Thank you for coming to our open morning, we hope you enjoyed it.
The answer to the Geography of Food Competition is:
Scottish Beef -400km
Sweet Potatoes from the US - 8400km
Lancashire Carrots - 22km
Zambian Sugar Snap Peas - 8000km
Cheshire Leek - 25km
Garden Peas from Suffolk - 250km
Yorkshire Pudding Mix - 85km
Bisto Gravy Granules from Lincolnshire - 130km

Which means that the Traditional Sunday Roast has travelled an amazing:
17 312km

So how close did you get?

Open Morning Competition

Welcome to the Geography Department

This photograph shows the ingredients for a traditional Sunday lunch, but can you guess how far the food has travelled? The ingredients are:

Scottish Beef, Sweet Potatoes from the US, Lancashire Carrots, Sugar Snap Peas from Zambia, a Leek from Cheshire, Garden Peas from Suffolk, a Yorkshire Pudding Mix and Bisto Granules from Linconshire.

Fill in your sheet in the department and look at the answer which will appear on this blog at 4pm today.

Hungarian Toxic Sludge

A major spill of toxic red sludge from an industrial plant in western Hungary has spilled in to the Danube. The sludge has so far killed 7 people.

Read more at the BBC.

Or take a look at Sky News

Poo Power

200 homes in Didcot, Oxfordshire are being supplied with biomethane produced from sewage and there are plans to bring the process to other parts of the UK.

Read more by clicking this link.

Sun theory may not be accurate

The sun's influence on modern day climate change may have been overestimated.

Scientists have found unexpected patterns in solar output in the years 2004-2007 which challenge existing theory.

For more details read this BBC link.

Year 10 - Population homework

Using the Population Reference Bureau you need to find the Infant Mortality Rate, Fertility Rate, Birth Rate, Death Rate and Natural Increase for:

Two North American Countries

Four South American Countries

Three European Countries (including the UK)

Five African Countries

Five Asian/Middle East Countries and

Two Oceania Countries.

To start you off click this link.

New Zealand Rocked!

A scale 7.0 earthquake has rocked the city of Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. Two people have been seriously injured but there have been no reports of fatalities.

Read more at the BBC or look at the details of the quake on the USGS site.

100% Pass Rate at A-level

Well done to you all and here's a message from Cliff!

Nice weather fo ducks!

It's official, after the glorious summer experienced in the North West of England, the hose pipe ban has been lifted.
To read the full details click this link to United Utilities.

Hosepipe ban?

As of Friday 9 July the North West of England has a hosepipe ban. For what that means click this link to United Utilities.

So as we all go into a desperate decline because we can't hose the garden or the car here are some facts to put it all in perspective:

• 97% of all water is salty
• 2% is locked in snow and ice
• Only 1% is available for us to use
• 66% of all water use goes towards growing food
• In the UK a person uses on average 4645 litres per day - 30% of which is from flushing the toilet
• Millions of the world's poorest people subsist on 23 litres a day
• 46% of people on earth do not have water piped to their homes
• Women in developing countries walk an average of 3.7 miles to get water.

Now, should we really be complaining about a hosepipe ban?

For more information about water read the April 2010 National Geographic.

Send us a postcard.

Don't forget if you go anywhere this summer, even for a day, send us a postcard.

Get snapping!

Don't forget to take a picture this summer for the Geography photograph competition and give it to your Geography teacher by Monday 13 September.
The photograph must be taken by you, this summer and it must have a geographical theme. There is only one entry per person.

Summer Hols

Wondering what to do over the next eight weeks?

Have a look at the enjoy England website for some great ideas.

It's that time of the year again.

As we get closer to the holidays plan where the best beaches are in the UK. Click this link.

Summer Solstice 2010

It's the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere.
For an explanation click this link.

A bit of comedy!

Which is the most lazy mountain?

Mount Ever Rest.

Thanks to Year 7 for this comedy contribution.

If you have any other geographical jokes please feel free to share them.

Exams are upon us again!

Good luck in all your exams!

Eyjafjallajokull volcano

Hulme pupils witness the Eyjafjallajokull volcano first hand on the recent Geography Department trip to Iceland. Although still in the throat clearing stages of its eruption the sight was still spectacular. The party was able to visit the region during the excursion to the seaside town of Vik. Getting up really close would have involved a 6 hour ice trek up the galcier but the lack of crampons prevented anyone getting their eyebrows singed. Perhaps it was a lucky escape as the road was closed behind the bus on the return journey to Rejkavik .

Oil slick in pictures

Pictured above the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. To the East the Mississippi delta.
For more images of this environmental disaster click this link or this link.

For a different perspective check out the Basil and Spice blog.

Or follow recent developments on abc news

Earth Day

What can you do to be part of the global green economy?
For more details click this link.

The infamous ash cloud!

An image made available by NEODASS/University of Dundee which shows the volcanic ash plume from Iceland, top left, to the north of Britain as received by NASA's Terra Satellite at 11.39 GMT Thursday April 15, 2010. All flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries have been suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moves south.

For more information from the BBC click this link.

Skipton Controlled Assessment

These maps may be useful for use in your controlled assessment. However, you must feel free to use any that you may have created or modified for yourself.

Saving the oceans?

The UK government has designated an area around the Chagos Islands as the world's largest marine reserve.
The reserve would cover a 544,000 sq km area around the Indian Ocean archipelago, regarded as one of the world's richest marine ecosystems.

For more details click this link.

Welcome Lottie to the World

Congratulations to Mr Peacocke and family on the birth of their baby daughter!

For those going to Iceland

Have a fantastic time!

Controlled Assessment

This may help you with your introduction!

Click this link.

Unemployment Map

A simple but effective GIS to show current trends in unemployment can be found here at the BBC. Look closely and you can see how the details change over time. You can even zoom in to see our home region.

Can you process this data further, maybe to produce a table of employment changes by local areas over the past 5 years? This could even be transformed into a graph.

Trade and Development

A handy way to study various trade patterns is to visit the international trade statistics web site, here. The nice thing about the site is that it will produce maps for you. Just explore and see for yourself. In particular, look at a commodity such as any of the aluminium products (76...) and compare the countries who export these goods with the countries who export and provide the raw materials (2606). Alternatively look at the countries who supply (export) the raw materials for chocolate and the countries who import the beans for processing and making the bars of chocolate.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2010

This year's Fairtrade Fortnight is all about THE BIG SWAP.

So why not get involved by clicking on this link.

Earthquake Miracles

Miracles and misfortune continue to coexist in Haiti. An aftershock registering 6.1 on the Richter scale shook the rubble yesterday. But survivors are still being rescued — despite having been buried alive for seven days. A trapped man used his iPhone to learn how to treat his wounds; a woman was dug out of the wreckage singing and smiling; a baby girl, who had spent half her 15-day life imprisoned and alone, was also saved.

Read more at The Times