Geographical Association

Dawn Atkinson
Branch Secretary
Email: dawn.atkinson@wellbeck.newcastle.sch.uk

Our next GA public lecture will be on Wednesday 10 February in room A102A of the Ellison Building, Northumbria University, . The public lecture is by Andrew Stephenson regarding his expedition to the Arctic in 2009. Everyone is welcome and elements are also linked with A Level syllabuses.

Emergency Response to Floods in Morpeth
Wednesday 2 Decemeber 2009

Dr Maureen Fordham gave a fascinating talk on the 2008 Morpeth floods. The talk was very well attended by university lecturers, teachers and A Level students from surrounding schools. It was interesting to learn about the factors which led to the severity of these floods and to discover more about what is being done in terms of flood preparedness and mitigation. The information given in the talk was useful to our A-level students who require knowledge of a local case study.

The presentation that accompanied the talk can be downloaded below in four parts:

Annual General Meeting
Tuesday 14 July 2009

"We discussed a very successful year of public lectures regarding a variety of topics and a wonderful day at Northumbria University where year 5, 9 and 12 pupils came to experience university life with specific workshops geared towards Geography and Environmental Studies.

There have been a number of changes within the committee: "a big thank you to James Armstrong who has been our Branch Secretary for the past few years and a welcome to Dawn Atkinson who is our new branch secretary with Emma French and Eileen Regan as deputy secretaries. We also welcome Lucie Chruszczewski who is our new Press Officer who is replacing Jane Entwistle. Thank you to Jane for all of her hard work over the years and we welcome her now as our new Discipline Rep. within Northumbria University. We also created new positions to ensure that we are open to everyone: Steph Mathison is now our Student Rep. Officer, Steve Rawlinson is now our National Primary GA Link and Education Dept. Rep. within Northumbria University, Michael Found is our Secodnary Education Rep. for Sunderland University, Richard Kotter is the Committee's Access to Higher Education and finally our link to North Tyneside is Emma French. Welcome to everyone and I hope we will all enjoy working together and promoting the wonderful subject of geography to everyone in the north east!"

Positions that were voted to remain are Lisa Conlan as Chairperson and Cath White as Treasurer.

Many thanks to everyone who has supported us over the last few years. Read the full Chairperson's Report here:

Human Health at Risk: The Case of Cholera in Peru and Bangladesh
Lecture by Ross Edgeworth

"This was the second part to the Medical Geography public lecture by Andrew Collins which we held in February (see below). The evening was well attended and was particularly useful for A level students and teachers with regard to exam content of health hazards. It was very interesting and thought provoking to learn what the people of Peru go through with regard to living conditions, health care and health hazards. It really made everyone realise how lucky we are and thankful for what we have. Thank you to everyone who attended, for your support."

Ross's lecture was so popular that he will be returning to give another in November this year. Watch this space for more details!

Here are two PowerPoints that accompanied the lecture:

Biodiversity, a public lecture by Mike Jeffries
Wednesday 11 March 2009

"Biodiversity is not an area of geography I know about in great detail, however after Mike's very interesting lecture I feel ready to incorporate it into a scheme of work possibly for year 7. Although attended by reduced numbers compared to last month, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the content and the texts that were brought along in case we wanted further reading around the subject. I certainly will be looking into biodiversity more as the area could be brought into many different topics from rivers to conservation to soil analysis and ecosystems. The lecture will be taking place again in the next academic year as it was so appealing to all age ranges and teachers from primary through to sixth form."


Where will Geography lead me? Why does Geography need me?
Friday 6 March 2009

Teachers and students took part in a day of fun activities at Northumbria University aimed at promoting geography in higher education. The workshop, 'Where will Geography lead me? Why does Geography need me?', was organised by the Tyne and Wear branch of the Geographical Association in conjunction with staff at the Disciplines of Geography and Environmental Management at Northumbria University. The first event of its kind in the country, it aimed to give teachers new and exciting ideas to use in the classroom and to encourage children to have an interest in the subject.

The day saw teachers discussing exam marking, fieldwork and geophotography, while the children took part in a range of activities, including analysing pollen and looking at the texture of rocks by comparing the textures of different chocolate biscuits. Steve Rawlinson, Principal Lecturer and Deputy Programme Leader in PGCE Primary at Northumbria University, said: "We feel that events like this will open young people's eyes to the many opportunities and interesting careers that exist in the field of geography."

For a full report see the Northumbria University website.


Medical Geography, a public lecture by Andrew Collins
Wednesday 11 February 2009


Cheese and Wine event
Tuesday 8 July 2008


Vulnerability and Climate Change - the Development Challenge
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Here is the PowerPoint used in this lecture:

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