Geographical Association

Branch Secretary: Samantha Willows
GA York Branch
c/o Cranedale Centre
Kirby Grindalythe
YO17 8DB

Email: samantha@cranedale.com

Annual Membership of the York & District Branch is £10 with a concessionary rate of £5 available to students. Individual lectures for non members cost £3 and £2 for students.

The AQA GEOG4B workshop and Sixth Form Conference cost £2 per student.

Lectures are held at Bootham School, Boothamgate, York by kind permission of the Head Teacher.

Climate, atmospheric chemistry and ocean interactions
Tuesday 13 September 2011, 7.15pm
Professor Lucy Carpenter, Department of Chemistry, York University.

No development without security and no security without development
Wednesday 23 November 2011, 7.15pm
Dr Adrian Leftwich, Department of Politics, York University. A joint RGS-IBG event.

AQA GEOG4B Examination preparation workshop
Friday 9 December 1.30pm - 4.00pm
John Smith, Principal Examiner for AQA
An opportunity for Sixth Form students to get a real handle on the Geographical Issues Evaluation paper.

Earthquakes in mountain areas, experiences from Taiwan, Pakistan and Chinad, Risk and Resilience
Tuesday 24 January 2012, 7.15pm
Professor David Petley, Director of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience, University of Durham.

Waking the Giant: looking at how climate change and geological hazards are linked
Thursday 9 February 2012, 7.15pm
Professor Bill Mc Guire Director of the Benfield Hazard Research at UCL. A joint RGS-IBG event.

Sixth Form Conference: GIS, Geomatics and Hazard Surveying
Monday 12 March 2012, 1.30pm-4.00pm
Dr Tom Bramald,  Department of Geomatics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Sixth Form Conference

Nearly 70 students from Bootham School, Fulford School and Barnards Castle attended the sixth form conference at the beginning of March 2010.  The conference was run by Dr Alison Willows of the Open University and the University of Brighton. The conference, 'Changing climate in a changing world', looked at IPCC emission scenarios with students calculating their own carbon footprints. Dr Willows devised the task 'If I ruled the world' where students were elected to run the Island of Grona. The elected Governments were entrusted, with a limited budget, to try to reduce the islands energy consumption and to reduce the need to import fossil fuels.  Students worked together in small groups to come up with the most appropriate and cost efficient methods of reducing energy consumption and energy dependency. The task was challenging with all groups working hard to calculate the amount of energy saved and how to get the best value for money. Each Government then presented their proposals to the other groups; justifying their choices.

The team from Fulford School won first prize with a holistic mix of low and higher technological approaches to energy reduction with a group from Bootham School coming second. 

Overall, this was an enjoyable afternoon with students being able to gain a better understanding of some of the issues and challenges facing planners when dealing with climate change.

I would like to pass on my thanks to Dr Alison Willows and those who took part and helped make the afternoon enjoyable.

Sam Willows, Secretary, York and District GA branch
samantha@cranedale.com

Creating a Sense of Place in your School Grounds was an INSET session held in collaboration with York and District GA, Gyles Morris from Naturesbase and Archbishops of York School. From hunting mythical dragons, to using haikus to help students engage more deeply in the environment, twelve teachers from primary schools in York spent a sunny day gaining new ideas and inspiration for getting students outside of the classroom.

Using Archbishop of York school's playing field to provide the venue for exploring local environments, we spent the day trying out a number of activities including:

• Building an ant theme park – used for exploring landscapes and as an introduction to mapping and describing routes,
• A microclimate investigations using bubbles and solar powered turbines to find out wind speed, wind direction and amount of sunlight
• Writing Haikus – allowing students to find a personal space to explore the sight, sounds, textures and feelings of a place.  Giving students time to reflect and 'see' a familiar location.

York and District GA would like to thank Archbishop School for hosting the event and providing us with fabulous food. We would also like to thank Gyles for providing us with the latest information on the Learning Outside the Classroom manifesto as well as giving us countless ideas on how to incorporate it into the primary curriculum. Here is what some people had to say about the day:

"Most enjoyable"

"Had fun and learnt lots"

"Enthused to go back to school"

And here are some photos from the day:

Ant Theme Park

Exploring Place

Writing Haiku

Sam Willows, Secretary, York and District GA branch

<<< back to Branch list