IB Geography Wiki Blog

Resources and suggestions from a team of IB Geography Teachers

Crowded Planet Series

According to UN calculations, 31st October 2011 is the day that the world's 7 billionth child will be born. The Guardian is running an interesting series of articles on the topic that could be used for teaching and starting discussions on world population, resource consumption, gender, environmental sustainability and urbanisation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/series/crowded-planet-population

And you can find out how big the world's population was when you were born! What are you doing to celebrate/commiserate the birth of the world's 7 billionth child?

Geopolitics and the Ocean

Click here to download:
Geopolitics, The International Community and the Ocean.pptx (926 KB)
(download)

1. Create a case study on "the Scramble for the Arctic" - use some of the following resources
  • An Excellent article from Der Spiegel (a German Newspaper - translated)
  • Some good information can be found from this powerpoint
  • and also from the videos  


2. Describe the issue of Geopolitics and the search for resources in the Ascencion islands - why is it different from the first case study?
3. Read this article and prepare for a 2 minute speech to describe what are the geopolitical issues in the Indian Ocean - Is this an issue of resources?
If you want to know more about Robert Koplan there is a great short video of a speech he gave and a short photo essay

Shrinking world - Adoption of an element of ICT (internet, mobile phones or )

Uganda_age_access_new_media

This website has some great data on various developing countries' rates of adoption of ICT (in particular, mobile phones, internet, radio and television) - click on "country profiles" to see which countries are available. While there is slightly less data available for Haiti, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique, the dedicated mini-sites for each of the other countries include data on access to various forms of "traditional media" (newspapers, radio) and "new media" (internet and mobile phones). There is also data on usage of the various forms of media by age group, gender and socio-economic status. I particularly like the annotations on the graphs, which will hopefully help students focus on the key data and show them how annotations can help add clarity and further information to figures (graphs, maps etc).

http://www.audiencescapes.org/

Oceans and Pollution

Click here to download:
oceans and pollution.docx (955 KB)
(download)

Click here to download:
oceans and pollution.pptx (3.45 MB)
(download)

Patterns in resource consumption

Just started teaching the last topic of the core theme with my Y13.
Last week we were looking at ecological footprints and the biggest consumers, like the UAE.
I found the following animation useful.

Shortly we will be also looking at the changing patterns of oil production and consumption.
I have just found this new peak oil graphic which could be useful.

Core: Atmosphere & Change

I have just spotted the following 3 videos on treehugger, which may prove to be useful when you are teaching atmosphere and change later in the year.

Doubt

Climate 101

Grassroots
Charlotte Lemaitre

Oceans and Resources

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R. Ballard talks about the resources that are to be found in the ocean, and the fact that we have spent more time and effort exploring space than the sea....

July 2011 - Japan announces huge reserves of Rare Earths found on the Pacific floor - What are the advantages and challenges that this find creates?

The use of the Continental floor as a highway for submarine cables and internet traffic - interesting interactive page 

Biotic Resources - How Long will the Fish Last

 

Attempts to Reduce the Problem - 1. Common Fisheries Policy of the EU (much criticised - why) 2. Fish farming (Aquaculture)