Last bits of revision!

Hi everyone,

Just a quick (hopefully) post for those of you who missed the 1st half of today's lesson at prize giving practice.

The first part of the lesson was looking at population sustainability and how India is planning to sustain it's growth. It's current problems are the fact such a large proportion of the population are young so they need to provide more education services, healthcare services and supply enough food. Their other major problem is that the current population growth rate of 1.58% which is still reasonably high and they need to slow this down to ensure the amount of land can sustain the population. To combat this problem they need to work on reducing the birth rate through education and increasing the availability of contraceptives. They also need to work on improving the amount of food available for the large population they currently are supporting and increase the amount of electricity they are producing (but in a sustainable way, like hydroelectricity and solar energy).

A quick table to summarise these points was drawn, which was split into method, what was done, result and diagram. 

A helpful tool with some of this information is HERE which was the diagrams we drew earlier in the year and HERE which is the article we got the information from.

The other part of today's lesson was on the concept of taonga which is a resource (natural or cultural) that can be found in an environment. A natural taonga could be lakes, rivers or mountains. A cultural taonga could be whakapapa, te reo - culture, a church or marae. A taonga is useful to people and usually holds some significance to the people around it because of this.

TUESDAY'S LESSON: POPULATION MIGRATION

Tuesday's lesson was all about population migration, we drew and labelled a migration model with all it's parts : push factors, pull factors, origin, destination, counterstream, migration.

In an exam, you would select to write about either urbanisation, rural to urban migration, internal migration or migration by choice. Any of these will allow you to write about the main trend of people in rural areas moving to urban areas in India.

Remember, all your information needs to be specific to India, not general stuff like more jobs and you should use THIS sheet to help you complete a revision migration model.

You also need to know about the impacts of this type of migration on both the origin and the destination. As revision, 2 annotated diagrams (one for the origin and one for the destination) were drawn to represent the impacts on both regions. Again, these need to be specific to India  and you should pick 3 good impacts to write about for each.

Phew! I think that is all! Any questions let me know, remember we have our final lesson on Tuesday for some last minute pieces of advice and our shared lunch. See you then!

Population Change Revision

So for all of you awesome level 1 Geography students that were absent period 1 today learning how to accept your prizes, here is what you missed today....

First things first, click HERE to get the revision sheet that we filled in.

There are 2 main methods of showing population change over time that we looked at in class. You should be able to describe and explain both of these and use specific detail to relate them to India.

1. DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION MODEL

The first row on the sheet is to do with the Demographic Transition Model, in the first column you needed to draw a basic diagram showing the main characteristics of this model and in the next column, you needed to EXPLAIN (say what and why) the changes this model shows. For example, Stage One: Birth Rate and Death Rate high so little population change. Reason is no healthcare or education, poor sanitation. If you have forgotten all of this stuff, HERE is the link to the blog post about the DTM. Remember to identify where the natural increase is, this is how the population is growing.

If you can't find the notes in your book, here is an idea of what it should look like with some basic reasons for the changes underneath. IMPORTANT NOTE: This diagram says India is in Stage 2, this is incorrect in 2014 India was at the beginning of Stage 3 .



In the last column, you should state some statistics about the population changes in India.

• India is currently at the beginning of Stage 3
• It has moved from Stage 2 to Stage 3 as education on contraceptives and family planning was improved in the 1970s decreasing the birth rate from 41/1000 to 21/1000.
• India's current death rate is 7/1000
• India's population growth rate is 1.58%

2. AGE SEX PYRAMIDS

In the first column of the second row, draw 3 basic diagrams representing India's age sex pyramids in 1950, 2014 and a prediction of what it will look like in 2050. Click HERE to access the web page that will model this for you. On each pyramid, label the characteristics of it. For example, wide base = high birth rate, steep sides = high death rate and short pyramid = low life expectancy. If you have forgotten about all of this, HERE is the link to the blog post about interpreting age sex pyramids.

In the next column, EXPLAIN (say why) the population pyramids have changed from 1950 to 2014 and then use the last population pyramid of 2050 to predict why the population might change during this period. Don't forget to use terms youthful and aging population, young dependents (aged 0-14) , old dependents (aged 65+) and working age (aged 15-64)

The last column is for some specific detail relating to India. You could include, population totals at each stage, % of population currently under the age of 14, their current population growth rate and you could compare their birth rate and death rate in 1950 to their current birth rate and death rate.

Hope this is helpful! For all of you amazing level 1 geographers who were present in class today and who completed this task already, don't forget about the essay question that you could answer as revision at the bottom of the page. I am more than happy to mark this for you so get amongst it! 

Only TWO MORE GEOGRAPHY PERIODS LEFT!!

Arts and crafts time!

Today's lesson we are focusing on different groups responses to volcanic eruptions. The 2 best case studies to select for this particular question are Mt Pinatubo and Mt Ruapehu. 

We are making fortune tellers to help you with your revision so you can test your knowledge on this particular criteria. The outside is going to look like this....

Select 1 eruption as your case study. Information for each is below:

• Mt Pinatubo Case Study
• Mt Pinatubo responses diagrams (not specific to groups)

• Mt Ruapehu Case Study
• Mt Ruapehu responses diagrams (not specific to groups)

Construct your fortune teller and then select 3 different groups who were involved in and responded to this volcanic eruption.

For each group, write their name on the flap and then add whether their response was before, during or after. You need 2 responses for each group.

You should have 2 spare flaps, 1 needs to be a diagram and 1 needs to be the application of a geographic concept.

It should look like this......

On the inside of each flap, explain in detail their response to the volcanic eruption and voila you have a great little study resource to help self test your knowledge.

You're welcome!

Approaching Def Con 5

Welcome back to the blogosphere everyone!

Today we started in earnest on our revision program for your end of year NCEA exams which are rapidly approaching! Looking at the timetable for the next 2 and a bit weeks we really only have SEVEN periods left together so we are going to have to make the most of this time so I can send you off knowing that you are well prepared to reach your potential in your externals.

First off we looked at the 5 main criteria for the 1.1 extreme natural events standard and you guys were given your chunking, chewing and checking task sheet to look out what to base your study around. Remember, your 1st revision task tonight is to check you have ALL THE NOTES for each criteria

The focus in our lesson today was processes that cause volcanic eruptions. We divided a volcanic eruption into 3 stages of convection currents, subduction and volcanism, drew a diagram for each stage and then annotated this specific to Ruapehu as our case study. Remember, you MUST use a case study in order to score so always talk directly about either Ruapehu, Tarawera or Mt Pinatubo, never just generally.

Click HERE for an example of 3 annotated diagrams that Miss Gill kindly drew up for one of the revision classes we ran last term.

For those looking to extend themselves, click HERE for an essay question to attempt based around this criteria.

Don't forget to read the question carefully, looking for key instruction words like describe (what is there), show (what is there) and explain (what and why). Also, apply the definition given of at least ONE concept in your answer. Once you have completed this, I would love to mark this for you to give you some helpful feedback to make your answers more awesome :)

Until tomorrow!

Result

Congratulations! The results are in and geo slades' level 1 class are official awesome.

So today I handed back your results from your Level 1 Geography practice exams. If you missed the feedback power point or wanted to have another little looksie to find out where you went wrong, click HERE.

As I said today, overall I feel that you guys did a great job of these exams. Those of you that studied (which was the majority rather than the minority) wrote some fantastic answers and I was really proud of what you achieved. You should be proud too! Even if these results weren't quite what you were aiming for, they give you a good check point of where you are currently at and what you now need to do to improve to get to that next level.

I have read through your feedback sheets you completed today and you have all picked up on things you need to work on going forward. I have also assigned some kitty cat stickers as promised earlier so look forward to that tomorrow!

Although these results were largely positive there is still work to be done! There is definitely still room for improvement for most of you but it is great to identify those areas that you have excelled in and those that need more work. My pearls of wisdom for the day are to celebrate your successes and learn from your mistakes.

The rest of the week will consist of going through the 1.1 and 1.2 papers in more depth and then a fun Friday to finish the term.

Well done on your results!

Bloggidy, blog, blog

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all busy at work revising hard for your exams as they are now literally just around the corner! Just in case you missed it, HERE is the link to the TGS Level 1 Geography school exam information.

We have our final Geography lesson before these start tomorrow so get thinking about any questions that you need to ask now! In saying that, don't forget that once you go on exam leave it does not mean that I wash my hands of you, I welcome any queries, comments and essays you want marked after this point, just email me at b.sladen@takapuna.school.nz, send a message on facebook, post in our facebook group page or pop in and visit during a break from your other exams.

Today was spent revising skills with everyone present attempting the 2012 Skills paper in pairs to practice the types of questions you could get asked. Tomorrow's plan is to finish this off and have some last minute advice on your exam.

I hope you all took my advice and got your exam stationery all organised over the weekend, if not, you best get on to that ASAP.

See you tomorrow for our last lesson and do yourself a favour and get amongst some study tonight. DO NOT DO THIS....

Doomsday Prep

Hi everyone,

Today our focus was on what to study for the upcoming September exams, examination technique and then a recap of skills with a quick amazing race.

HERE is the powerpoint we went through in class today which sets out what parts of each standard will be covered. Remember, because we are giving you this information the expectation is that you attempt these exams to your very best abilities!

Your task for tonight was to practice drawing your map of India FIVE times. Repetition is key to learning map outlines so follow these 4 simple steps.

STEP ONE: Take a minute to really look at the shape and the location of areas/cities
STEP TWO: Turn your book over and draw as much as you can remember
STEP THREE: Compare your drawing with your book to see what you have missed
STEP FOUR: Repeat steps 1-3 until you are at one with the map.

Your task for this weekend is to get your plastic bag of stationary items all sorted and arranged.
Key items include:

• 3 blue or black pens
• 4 colouring pencils (red, yellow, blue, green - brown is optional)
• Calculator
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Eraser
• String
• Pencil sharpener 
• Highlighter

Time to start getting organised, stationery cat is. Only one revision session left next week which is on Tuesday lunchtime and is a Q and A session on skills. 

Happy map drawing!

We're getting low, low, low, low, low, low, low

Today was all about weather and we learnt 2 new skills for you to utilise in your upcoming 1.4 skills exam.

Firstly, we looked at how to construct a climate graph. Climate graphs have a double axis and show both rainfall and temperature of a region over the course of a year. The average amount of rainfall (mm) per month is shown as blue, shaded in bars and the average temperature (C) is drawn as a red line graph with the points plotted in the middle of each column. When drawn, they should look like this...



We completed the climate graph for Mumbai on page 54 of your 1.4 Skills exercise book and then also wrote a couple of sentences to interpret what this climate graph shows. Things to include here would have been the average temperature range for the area (calculate this by taking the highest temperature and subtracting the lowest temperature from it) and looking at the season when it receives the most rainfall. Remember when writing about seasons that there are 4 seasons, each season lasts for 3 months, in NZ (the Southern hemisphere) summer starts at the beginning of December. Also, think about whether the area of your climate graph is in the Northern or Southern hemisphere as in the Northern hemisphere their seasons will be the opposite of ours.

Next up we looked at how to interpret weather maps by reading through page 46 and then completing the exercises on page 47 and 48. Important things to remember here were....




Low pressure systems: These are areas of low pressure and usually bring bad weather with high winds. Wind flows in a clockwise direction in a low pressure system, sometimes known as a cyclone or depression when the air pressure gets very low.

High pressure systems: These are areas of high pressure and usually bring stable weather with low winds. Wind flows in a anti-clockwise direction and these are sometimes known as an anti-cyclone.

Due to the difference in the way wind circulates in high and low pressure systems, this means you can figure out what the wind direction will be for a given place. Remember, wind direction is always written as the direction it is coming from. e.g. Southerly winds are cold because they have come from the South pole.

If you were one of the many that forgot their skills book today, please ensure it is packed into your bag and is brought to school on Thursday ready for our next lesson.

Things to look forward to on Thursday include: exam preparation (what is going to be in your September exams), what to bring to exams and some more mapping and graphing. See you then!

Population Round Up and scare mongering tactics

Hi everyone,

This will probably be our last population related blog post for awhile as after today we will be moving on to doing some skills work for your 1.4 paper and some brief revision of 1.1 Extreme Natural Events in preparation for your school exams which are fast approaching! Just in case you were wondering how close, here is a little reminder...

FRIDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER LEVEL 1 GEOGRAPHY EXAM

Today's lesson consisted of completing your 1.2 Population Revision sheet (see Friday's blog for a copy of this if you have misplaced it) and then we had a look at a past NCEA question about the composition of the population. Everyone then attempted to write an answer to this question which Mr Whipp is going to mark and get back to you as soon as possible. 

Don't forget this week's revision sessions will be on responses of different groups of people to an extreme natural event. It would be a really great idea to attend one of these sessions as typically this question when asked in exams can be hard to interpret and you could benefit from a little more preparation. 

Colouring in like a boss and overpopulation in the class room

Today we spent the first half of the lesson finishing off our annotated diagrams to show attempts India has made to sustain their population growth over time. Here is an example of what you could have done, as a Geographer, you know I enjoyed all this colouring in!

Next up was a sheet which summarises all the main points that you should know for the 1.2 population patterns and processes external. We made a start on this sheet (click HERE to access it) but will finish this off during class on Monday.

Just a quick post for today, have a great weekend and here is a Friday lol to finish the week off!

CAN'T TALK, MUST BLOG

Population Problems

Today's lesson was all about India's population problems. These are due in part to it's excessively large population of 1.2 billion which accounts for 16% of the world's population living off of only 2% of the world's land and also due to the fact that 38% of India's population are between the ages of 0-14. This means they have a high proportion of young people or a youthful population.

We then looked at what India is trying to do to sustain it's population growth long term by reading and highlighting an article written about their attempts. Click HERE to download a copy all highlighted, colour coded and divided into categories. To do this they have attempted to reduce their birth rate to slow the rate of future population growth down, they have looked at ways to increase food production to ensure people are not starving, India has investigated new environmentally friendly ways of producing electricity as the demand for this grows and they have also attempted to increase the availability of education so that there are enough services for the high number of young people.

After this we started to convert these ideas into diagrams that could be used in an exam question if needed, we will continue finishing these off for the first 20 minutes of next lesson and will then start work on an overall revision sheet for the population in India unit so make sure your book is up to date.

Last couple of points for today, it was awesome to see a few of you at the revision sessions this week, remember to check when and where these are as they are great for just getting you thinking about volcanic eruptions again. Don't forget to complete your homework for Mr Whipp by tomorrow on the Dharavi slums, this is another great example of how India is looking to sustain it's population growth in it's overpopulated cities like Mumbai

Don't just think, DO!

Quest Time! The Dharavi Redevelopment Scheme

INSTRUCTIONS

• The webquest below is to be completed in pairs.  If you do not manage to finish it by the end of the lesson, please finish for homework (due Friday 29 August).  

• Answer the questions in turn, clearly marked in your exercise books.  You may write paragraphs, list information or brainstorm the answers from your quest.

QUESTION ONE

1A. Describe the geography of Dharavi. Include details such as its location, size, population size and density and a development indicator (e.g Life Expectancy or literacy rate).

1B. Complete a SENSES chart (I SEE, HEAR, SMELL, TASTE AND FEEL)

1C. Based on the above, why do you think Dharavi needs to be re-developed?

Click HERE and HERE for links to answer QUESTION ONE

QUESTION TWO

2A. Describe what  is proposed for the redevelopment (think about new buildings, infrastructure improvements, destruction of old Dharavi)

2B. List the different land use types and explain why these should improve the quality of life of the inhabitants.  

Click HERE for a link about the redevelopment and HERE for a you tube clip to answer QUESTION TWO

QUESTION THREE 

What are the arguments for redeveloping Dharavi?

QUESTION FOUR

What are the arguments against the redevelopment?

QUESTION FIVE

If Dharavi is not developed, what impact do you think it will have on sustaining the ever growing urban population in India?

Below are links to help you answer QUESTIONS THREE, FOUR AND FIVE

Click HERE for pros and cons of slum living

Click HERE for the reality of Dharavi living

Click HERE for information on development of Dharavi

Click HERE for more information about the redevelopment

Click HERE for reasons why Dharavi should not be redeveloped

Click HERE for Mumbia slums information

Population Growth and Sustainability

Today's lesson focused on how populations grow over time and how this might lead to a population's growth being sustainable or unsustainable

Factors causing a population to grow quickly over time can be linked back to the ideas we talked about previously such as high birth rates due to cultural practices, religious beliefs, women's standing in society and high infant mortality rates. A growing population will also need to have a lower or declining death rate caused by increase to healthcare, improvement in sanitation, higher incomes and overall higher standard of living. Click HERE for a little look at what Hans Rosling a Swedish statistician has to say about the link between religious beliefs and a country's birth rate. Fascinating stuff!

A population's growth will be greatest during stages 2 and 3 of the Demographic Transition Model. India is currently in Stage 3 and is experiencing huge population growth due to natural increase (birth rate - death rate = natural increase). Over time, the characteristics of the population will change as the high birth rate decreases leaving a big bulge of young people for the next 50 years before they become a big bulge of older people as life expectancy for country increases.

India has a youthful population. This means it will face one set of problems now due to the high number of people below the age of 14 and will face a different set of problems in 50 years time when they have a high number of people aged above the age of 65. Click HERE to access today's Power Point which goes through these ideas and click HERE to download the worksheet that goes with the power point.

Peace out Geography lovers!

Friday lols

Hi everyone,

Sadly we missed our Geography period today and I had a request for a Geo joke of the day to fill the void. This one is appropriate as next week we are going to start looking at how countries are looking to sustain their population growth over time. Hope it provides you with a Friday lol as advertised but be aware if you write this in the exam, I will definitely not be lol-ing!!

Have a great weekend and I will see you all on Monday 

Throwback Thursday or a shameless plug?!

Just a quick extra post, as you are currently choosing your 2015 subjects remember all the fun we had on our Geography trip to Tarawera! Just think, if you select Geography next year, you get to tick another mountain climb off your list as we conquer Tongariro. Just some food for thought. #throwbackthursday #spotthecreepyphotobomber

DTM vs Population Pyramids - When 2 become 1

More Geography fashion

Today was a bit of a recap of two concepts that we have covered previously, the Demographic Transition Model and Population Pyramids. The idea of this lesson was to hopefully consolidate what you already knew about each and then explain how they relate to one another.

First up, we did a quick recap of the different stages of the Demographic Transition Model. Click HERE to get a copy of this if you missed it!

Next up, we looked at how population pyramids can actually be linked to the different stages of the Demographic Transition Model. As a population pyramid can tell you about the birth rate (how wide the base is), the death rate (how steep the sides are) and life expectancy (how tall it is - which links to the amount of healthcare available) of a country. This means you can match different shapes of population pyramids to the 5 different stages of the DTM. To demonstrate this, we did a classic Geography cut'n paste activity which you can click HERE to have a go at.

Lastly, we wanted to see how you guys could be examined on these 2 concepts so we attempted a question from a 2013 NCEA exam. Click HERE if you didn't get this handout and want to attempt for practice. 

It's been great to see some of you at the revision sessions over the last couple of weeks. Remember, even if you might know the content being covered in a particular week our focus is not just on knowing the facts, it is on how to take your knowledge and apply it to exam questions. This is a difficult skill to practice by yourself so come along to find out about how to construct effective diagrams (a really important thing to learn for your exams) and how to write awesome answers.

LAST IMPORTANT POINT
Tomorrow, in period 4 during Geography they are holding the year 11 speech finals which we are required to attend, so please go straight to the hall at the beginning of period 4 tomorrow. See you there!

The Demographic Transition Model and some fashion advice

How to be fashionable and a geographer 

Today we looked at a model which tries to predict how a countries population might grow or change over time. First point to remember is that a country's population will grow when the birth rate is GREATER than the death rate. This is called NATURAL INCREASE. 

THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION MODEL

This model is based on how country's like America and Britain developed over time (from way back when)  and how this affected the rate at which their population was growing. Click HERE to access today's PowerPoint and to fill in any notes you may have missed! 

Remember in an exam, it is highly unlikely that they will ask you to draw one of these from scratch. The important things for you to know about the DTM for your end of year exam is WHY the birth and death rates may change over time and HOW this will affect natural increase. You should also be able to locate where a country might sit on the demographic transition model if you are given information about their birth and death rate. 

A short-ish  post for today. Don't forget about the revision classes for this week. The topic for these is effects volcanic eruptions have on the cultural environment and how to draw awesome annotated diagrams to show this. Today at lunchtime in RR84, tomorrow morning from 9-9.30 in RR89 and Thursday lunchtime in our class room. Be there, or be uninformed about effects on the cultural environment caused by volcanic eruptions! 

I'm so ashamed.....I forgot to blog!

Sorry for the brief lapse in communication people! I'm ashamed to say I forgot to blog on Friday about our lesson but the upside is you get TWICE the blog post today to make up for it. Hoorah!

Friday's lesson - question on migration
On Friday, we did some practice for a possible exam question on migration, using the example of rural-urban migration. We based our extended writing on a question  from the 2013 exam paper and went through how to construct an excellence answer. Key points for this can be found by clicking HERE to access the Power Point we went through. 



After we had written our answers, these were swapped with the person next to you to be marked. In the marking process you were looking first to underline specific evidence (place names, statistics, numbers). Then, you were to read through the answer looking to see if they had DESCRIBED (single tick given) or EXPLAINED (double tick given). Remember to look for those key words, describe and explain when reading exam questions. 

DESCRIBE = say what is there
EXPLAIN = what is there AND why

Excellence answers included 4-5 pieces of relevant specific evidence and had 3 to 4 double ticks. Most people seemed to get Merit and Excellence and after checking through some of your peer marking I reckon you were pretty spot on, awesome work!

Today's lesson - Population Growth
Today you were lucky enough to experience another teacher's perspective on population concepts as Mr Whipp took today's lesson! The purpose of today's lesson was to look at how and why populations grow over time. We started with a quick recap of key population terms, 2 new terms were introduced and these are below. 



Natural increase: The difference between the birth and death rates. If the birth rate is greater than the death rate the population will grow whereas if the birth rate is lower than the death rate the population will decrease

Replacement level: When the birth rate and death rate match each other, meaning the number of babies born will be enough to replace the number of people dying. 

Then we checked out a clip which looked at how the world's population has grown over the last 2 thousand years. If you missed it or wanted to watch it again, click HERE. The best bit to watch is from about 2.10-4 minutes. This was to get you thinking about what factors might increase or decrease birth rates and death rates. 

FACTORS AFFECTING DEATH RATE

• Improved medical care - this could include vaccinations, more hospitals, higher number of doctors, greater availability and improvement of drugs and scientific inventions
•  Improved sanitation and water supply  
• Improvements in food production – quality and quantity
• Improved transport to move food
• Decrease in infant/child mortality, less need to have so many children as not as many will die before they are 5

FACTORS AFFECTING BIRTH RATE

• 
• Family planning, contraception - government initiatives e.g. China's one child policy
• Lower infant mortality rate so less reason to have such large families
• Education of society as a whole, better to have fewer kids so that you can improve your standard of living
• Equality of women, so less need to have a large family to ensure sons
• Increased desire for material goods, if you have less kids it means you can buy more things!
• Industrialisation - more jobs in services and factories so less need to have more kids to work on farms
• Change in traditional attitudes

Click HERE if you want to watch a video where Swedish statistician Hans Rosling looks at the relationship between religious beliefs and birth rates and what impact this may have on global population growth. Fascinating stuff!

Phew! That was a lot of information! Hope you enjoyed this lengthy blog post - if you made it to the end, see you all tomorrow for some good learning about the Demographic Transition Model.

Problems of mooooo-ving + ICELAND

Today we looked at the consequences of rural-urban migration.

This is the type of migration that you should select to write about in your external exams which are coming up ever so fast! Basically, rural areas suffer when large numbers of people leave as it is often the young and skilled leaving behind the older generation who are less educated and more resistant to change. This can result in a downward spiral for rural regions and an upward spiral for urban regions. However, the urban regions are not dealing with the exploding populations as they cannot create jobs fast enough or build enough housing to support the people moving into the region.

Click HERE for a recap of the PowerPoint and HERE for the handout about the effects of internal migration and attempts to slow this trend down.

We also briefly looked at external migration in India. Click HERE to download the completed sheet about the two main types of external migration - movement by choice and forced migration. 

Hope you enjoyed the excess of handouts today, for tomorrow we write!

Last couple of random points for today:

• As you are currently deciding on your subjects for 2015, it might be worthwhile to check out the information about the course we cover in Level 2 Geography. Click HERE to read and find out more. My favourite part of the course next year is definitely our trip to Tongariro, 4 days of amazing Geo-tastic times, the Tongariro Crossing and you come back with 5 credits!

• ICELAND, last and possibly most important point of the blog for some of you perhaps. As the Classics department are heading off to Italy next year, we are looking at the possibility of combining forces, heading over with them to check out Rome, Vesuvius and Pompeii. Then we were thinking, it's so close perhaps we could take a little hop, skip and a jump and head to ICELAND to check out all the geography. We will keep you posted as more information becomes available, but just something to keep in mind!

Rural to Urban migration - it's all about mooooooving

Get it...... mooooooo - ving. 

Hilarious. Thought I'd chuck that one in there for those of you who have been missing our Geo joke of the day. To those of you who were glad to be rid of them, apologies!

So today we finished off internal migration by looking at specific reasons why people in India are tending to move from rural areas like Jammu and Kashmir to urban areas like New Delhi and Mumbai. We also examined what consequences this type of migration has on the places they are going to. Many people migrating to urban centres have meant a massive increase in population for India's already over populated mega-cities. Currently approx. 30% of Indians live in cities like New Delhi which has 22 million people and Mumbai with 20 million! By 2030 it is estimated that 40% of Indians will live in urban areas. What consequences do you think this could have for these cities which are already bursting at the seams?

We filled in a migration model with push factors, pull factors and obstacles for people in India moving from rural to urban areas. Remember in your exams you will need to use facts in your written answers, so make sure you got down some statistics and place names to use. Also, if given the option to select a type of migration to write about, you will select Rural to Urban or Urbanisation. It would be a good idea to go through your notes and underline any specific details to check it is there, you should have at least 3 in your push factors and 3 in your pull factors. If you missed these, click HERE to go through the PowerPoint again and get the detail you need. 

A.O.B.

• Don't forget that our first revision sessions for school exams start tomorrow. This week we are focusing on processes that create volcanic eruptions using Mt Ruapehu as a case study. On Wednesday Miss Gill will be in RR89 from 9 - 9.30am, Miss Kelly will be in RR84 from 1.30 - 2pm and my one will be on Thursday lunch in RR85 from 1.30 - 2pm. If you are going to the lunch time sessions, feel free to bring your lunch!

• For Geography awareness week, there are quizzes for you to complete each day. Today's one should be easy for you as it covers lots of cultural landmarks which we have talked about in class. Click HERE to enter. Remember, each entry goes in the draw for iTunes vouchers so get amongst it!

Geography Awareness Week?! Don't you mean Geography Awesomeness Week!

So as you may have gathered from my excitement and board doodling this afternoon, this week is Geography awareness week!

To celebrate this momentous occasion there are quizzes to enter each day for some sweet iTunes vouchers and some great Geography memes coming your way this week. Exciting times!

In class today, we begun discussing the background to migration in India. Generally, the Indian population is more likely to migrate internally (within India) than externally (to a country outside of India). This internal migration is generally from Rural areas to Urban areas and will take place as a series of moves from a small town, to a slightly larger town, to a large town, to a city centre. This is known as stepwise migration. The most common reason for a movement from one place to another (or a migration) is to move to improve a person's standard of living.

A way to improve your standard of living is to look for better employment opportunities. By seeking out a better job, you may get paid a better wage which allows you to access higher levels of education for your children, health care services and you could afford to live in a more developed area.

There are 4 sectors that people will be employed in - primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary. In a developed country, like NZ, most of the population will be employed in the tertiary or quaternary sector meaning they receive a regular wage of a reasonable standard. In developing countries, like India, a large chunk of the population will be employed in the primary sector. Jobs like farming and fishing are common in the primary sector, meaning people do not usually receive a regular wage and are poorly paid. Click HERE to recap the PowerPoint from today's lesson.

Tomorrow we go into more depth about the specific push and pull factors behind people's movement in India from Rural areas to Urban areas.

It's been too long since my last blog

Hi Level One!

You may or may not have noticed that I am not at school today so you will have to make do with just my virtual blogosphere presence. In case you missed where I am, I am on the Year 13 Geography trip to Rotorua learning about tourism development, taking selfies with Llamas and various other farm animals.

Yesterday, we went to Te Puia to check out some geysers, the Agrodome sheep show and had a hangi at Tamaki Maori Village. Today's agenda includes Rotorua museum, the convention centre, going back to the Agrodome for their farm tour and then to Agroventures to do some swoops and bungies for those who are keen. Exciting Geography stuff!

This is hopefully something for you all to look forward to you in Year 13!

ENOUGH SILLINESS, YOUR WORK FOR TODAY!

Your task for today's class is to work through the population characteristics in India worksheet that should by now be glued into your 2B8 exercise book (if it is not, can you do so now!)

Most of the information needed can be found through The World Factbook which is a reliable site that has information about different aspects of countries all over the world.

Click HERE and you will be magically transported by the wonders of the interwebs to the correct World factbook page for India. On this page, information about India is divided into sub-headings, click on the plus at the right hand side of each sub-heading to expand the article and read more about it.

If you finish this worksheet in a speedy fashion, go to the top of the page and select New Zealand in the drop down menu as the country to view. Compare the statistics that you gathered for India in the table at the bottom of the worksheet to New Zealand's statistics.

Have an enjoyable weekend and I will see you all on Monday. Look forward to some enlightening learning about migration in India!

Gandalf knows whats up

The countdown to exams has begun! There are now 25 school days left before your practice exams and it is SO important that you start thinking about a revision program so that you can give these your best shot.

To help you with this, myself, Miss Gill and Miss Kelly have decided to run some workshops. As we are currently studying India,  we have decided to focus mostly on Volcanic Eruptions for these revision sessions. 

There will be 3 sessions  a week which will cover the same topic so hopefully there will be a time that suits you. You only need to attend one per week.

Check out the timetable and topics to be covered below, sessions start next week #YOLO (You Only Learn Once)

WEEK 4 PROCESSES CAUSING VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
WEDNESDAY MORNING GL: RR84 9 – 9.30am	WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIME KH: RR84 1.30 – 2pm	THURSDAY LUNCHTIME SL: RR85 1.30 – 2pm
WEEK 5 EFFECTS ON THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT CAUSED BY VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
TUESDAY LUNCHTIME KH: RR84 1.30 – 2pm	WEDNESDAY MORNING GL: RR84 9 - 9.30am	THURSDAY LUNCHTIME SL: RR85 1.30 – 2pm
WEEK 6 VULNERABILITY OF AN ENVIRONMENT TO VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
WEDNESDAY MORNING GL: RR84 9 – 9.30am	WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIME KH: RR84 1.30 – 2pm	THURSDAY LUNCHTIME SL: RR85 1.30 – 2pm
WEEK 7 HOW TO DRAW ANNOTATED DIAGRAMS USING RESPONSES TO A VOLCANIC ERUPTION AS AN EXAMPLE
TUESDAY LUNCHTIME KH: RR84 1.30 – 2pm	WEDNESDAY MORNING GL: RR84 9 – 9.30am	THURSDAY LUNCHTIME SL: RR85 1.30 – 2pm
WEEK 8 Q AND A SESSION ON SKILLS (YOU BRING THE QUESTIONS, WE’LL PROVIDE THE ANSWERS!)
	TUESDAY LUNCHTIME GL & KH: RR84 1.30 - 2pm

So.... I hear reincarnation is making a comeback

A bit of a belated blog to recap what we covered yesterday in class. The basic gist of this was looking at the cultural characteristics of India and it's people. We covered a brief outline of their history, if you missed the timeline, click HERE to access it.

Click HERE to go through the PowerPoint of cultural characteristics of India. The basic points this covers is:

• The British colonisation of India up until 1947 which helped to create an extensive railway system and ports like Mumbai and Kolkota
• 80% of the population is Hindu.
• A caste system exists, meaning you are  born into a specific level of society which you then cannot change
• Women are undervalued in society - this means they are less likely to receive an education and receive less freedom
• This idea about women is perpetuated by the fact that dowries(bride prices) are still paid in some areas

Extreme commuting!

Until next time! 

Geo Slades out

But what does it all mean man?! Interpreting Age-Sex Pyramids

So if you missed today's exciting class which included some accidental class destruction (by me), a great Geo joke (by Elise ) and some outstanding population pyramid learning (by everyone) HERE is the PowerPoint we went through which looked at what the different shapes of an age-sex pyramid mean. Basic points to remember were:

• a wide base = a high birth rate (India's BR is 21/1000)
• a tall pyramid = a high life expectancy (India's average life expectancy is 66)
• steep sides = a high death rate (India's DR is 8/1000)

• 0-14 are YOUNG dependents (30% or approx. 1/3 of India's population are these ages)
• 15-64 are WORKING age and support the young and old dependents
• 65+ are OLD dependents.
• Lots of YOUNG dependents mean's a country has a YOUTHFUL population. Lower economically developed countries usually have this problem.
• Lots of OLD dependents means a country has an AGEING population. More economically developed countries like NZ have this problem.

Make sure you have completed the paragraph FULLY DESCRIBING the population of India's population pyramid and that you have included the statistics above. 

Also, don't forget, your population distribution essay is due TOMORROW. Click HERE for instructions and the essay question information. Well done to those who have already completed this, it is great revision for your mock exams which are coming up in a mere 27 school days! 

I look forward to reading the rest of your literary masterpieces tomorrow :)

GEO JOKE OF THE DAY

Knock, Knock
Who's there?
Korea
Korea who?
Nothing beats a Korea as a Geographer

Age-Sex Pyramid Construction on the blog

Hi Year 11 Geographers,

Another post on the blogisphere for your education and enjoyment. Today in class we had a classic Geography lesson, breaking out the colouring-in pencils and using them to complete some great graphs. Check you all out, hard at work......

The Age-sex pyramids or population pyramids you drew are a type of graph geographers use to show how the population is broken up in terms of gender and age groups. From looking at these graphs we can tell if the birth rate of a country is high (fat base), if the birth rate is decreasing or increasing, what the life expectancy is (height of pyramid) and the death rate (how steep the sides are).

If you didn't quite manage to complete your graph today, HERE is the PowerPoint with the table of information for India. Below are some great examples of your super colouring-in and graphing abilities. Great work, Nina and Anneka!

Population Distribution in India paragraphs - homework time

First homework related  blog post!

In class for the last week we have been looking at where people live in India and WHY they choose to live in certain regions. This is a question that could come up in your end of year exam so to prepare for this we have been writing paragraphs to answer this in class. If you have missed any of the information, here are some links to help you out with what you need to do.

Click HERE for the PowerPoint we went through in class that breaks the question down into parts

Click HERE for the information about the reasons for population distribution

Lastly, here is a photo example of an annotated map showing population distribution in India

These paragraphs are due  in Tuesday 5th August. However, feel free to hand in as soon as you have finished!

We have a blog!

Hi Level 1 Geography fans!

Welcome to the Geo Slades Level 1 Geography blog. My intention for this blog is to provide another way to get information to you (and your parents if they wish) about what we are doing in class. I want you guys to use this space as a place to get a recap of important parts of lessons, pick up homework tasks, access revision materials and gather any extra information that might be helpful to you. More posts to follow soon!