We’ve compiled a PDF file you can share with students containing QR codes and short URLs so they can get straight to the area they want to revise. Just click the image below to download.
We’re collating resources to support teachers covering the recent devastating earthquake in Turkey. First and foremost, we’ve shared links to anyone who can support NGOs working to help those affected. Additionally, there are links to support teachers in sensitively delivering events such as the earthquake, including advice on supporting the young people affected.
Earthquake Relief
There are many aid agencies providing support to those affected by the recent earthquake that has affected tens of thousands of people in Turkey and Syria, including:
Please email us if you are aware of other aid agencies providing support or can provide a link for donations to aid agencies.
Support
Teachers
Below we have included links to websites that support teaching events such as this in a considered way. After all, many children from Turkey and Siria are being educated in schools outside of the country and may be in one of your classes.
Newly available Maxar satellite imagery shows several hundred meters long surface rupture with horizontal displacements up to 4m near Nurdağı, Gaziantep province, Turkey. pic.twitter.com/3JVZTTHrk1
The M7.8 earthquake in Türkiye occurred on a strike-slip fault. During this type of faulting event one side of the fault slides horizontally past the other. Things that cross the fault like fences, roads or train tracks are good markers for showing the way the fault moved. https://t.co/uAxHsDnf59pic.twitter.com/XreVABZnl1
The Final Countdown is a comprehensive set of resources to support students in the run-up to exams. The work of JB GeogTeacher inspired the initiative.
The Final Countdown has been created to provide students with weekly revision activities in the run-up to the AQA GCSE Geography exams in May and June 2023. Each set contains a six-week revision plan to support students in organising their revision. In addition, each week has a QR code to online resources, guides, quizzes and exam questions (including example answers and mark schemes) for students to use to prepare for their final exams.
Feedback from an Internet Geography Plus subscriber
The image below illustrates how The Final Coundown works.
The Final Countdown overview
Internet Geography Plus subscribers can access the six-weekly revision sheets when they are published (week 1-6 is available now!).
Each week, revision is divided into three sections, revise, quiz and exam questions.
Revise
Students revise an area of the specification, and the QR code will take them to a menu of pages on Internet Geography to support this. In addition, we’ve provided A3 templates for the students to use to structure their revision. These include knowledge organisers and mind maps. The image below shows examples.
Knowledge organiser and mind map templates are provided for each week
Internet Geography Plus subscribers can download the first batch of knowledge organisers and mind maps for lessons 1-3. More are coming this week!
Review
Review is an opportunity for students to revisit their learning by completing online multiple-choice quizzes to test their knowledge. These are all available on Internet Geography for free. Alternatively, Plus subscribers could direct their students to the Internet Geography Plus MS/Google forms quizzes to monitor progress (and completion!).
Exam Questions
Finally, students complete exam questions based on the area they revised the previous week. To support students, we’re putting together a guide to completing each question and an example answer.
We’ve published the first couple of student pages if you want to see an example here.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll add many resources to support The Final Countdown. Internet Geography Plus subscribers can access the resources here. However, if you’re not a subscriber, why not join to access this and hundreds of other resources? Please take a look at our subscription options.
https://www.internetgeography.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Final-Countdown.png6701200Anthony Bennetthttps://www.internetgeography.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IG-logo--1030x115.pngAnthony Bennett2023-01-24 20:34:512023-01-24 20:34:51What is The Final Countdown?
We’re excited to announce that we’ll soon be launching Internet Geography Primary Plus. As you might have guessed, we’re extending our Plus family to include resources specifically developed for the primary school curriculum. Our team of writers are currently developing editable resources for use in your classroom!
We want to make sure Internet Geography Primary Plus works for you! So, we’d love to hear your views about the types of resources you’d like to see made available on Internet Geography Primary Plus. As a thank you for taking the time to share your views, we’ll make sure you’re the first to know about the launch of Internet Geography Primary Plus and will throw in a discount on your first annual subscription!
At least 1,036 people have died, and another 2,949 were injured in an earthquake that struck Afghanistan’s Paktika province on the morning of Wednesday 22nd June 2022. The earthquake struck about 44km (27 miles) from the south-eastern city of Khost shortly after 01:30 local time (21:00 Tuesday GMT), when many people were asleep at home.
Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan’s mountainous province of Khost — nearly 50 have been recorded over the past five years, according to the US Geological Survey.
Afghanistan is earthquake-prone because it is located on the Alpide belt, the second most seismically active region in the world after the Pacific Ring of Fire.
The Alpide Belt
The Alpide belt runs about 15,000 kilometres, from the southern part of Eurasia through the Himalayas and into the Atlantic. Along with the Hindu Kush, it includes a number of fold mountain ranges, such as the Alps, Atlas Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains. It has been formed by the collision of a number of tectonic plates.
The Arabian, Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet In Afghanistan and create earthquakes when they shift against each other at their borders. The boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plates exists near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.
The earthquake in Afghanistan formed when the Indian plate crashed violently with the Eurasian plate. Collisions like this shake and squeeze the ground upwards. Along with causing earthquakes, this movement creates mountains like the Himalayas or the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges in northeast Afghanistan.
What were the effects of the Afghanistan earthquake?
The most recent figures put the death toll at 1,150 people with at least 1,600 injuries. The number of dead and injured is expected to rise as remote areas are reached and rescue workers are able to search collapsed buildings.
The earthquake destroyed critical infrastructure — including homes, health facilities, schools and water networks.
In the areas that have been accessed so far, as many as 1,900 homes have been destroyed including 1,028 in Giyan, 450 in Barmal and 416 in Spera. Many homes had large families of seven or more people, so the number of people affected is significant. This is well over half of Giyan’s housing stock.
As many as 10,000 more homes have been damaged extensively and risk imminent collapse. Many of the homes were comprised of mud bricks, making them very susceptible to damage and destruction. Ongoing assessments of the conditions of the housing are continuing.
At least 65 children have been orphaned or are unaccompanied in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Of the deaths, at least 155 were children, including 134 in the Giyan district, and 250 were injured. Seven schools in Khost and Paktika provinces were damaged by the earthquake (5,135 students) with additional damage reported in Gani Khil and Dor Baba districts.
The risk of communicable diseases, such as acute watery diarrhoea (AWD)/cholera, and malaria increased due to the fragile living conditions in the affected communities and high temperatures in summer. There was an upward trend of AWD cases following the earthquake (Between 3 to 10 July, a total of 464 AWD cases were reported).
What were the responses to the Afghanistan earthquake?
Since the take over of government by the Taliban in 2021, Afghanistan has experienced a humanitarian crisis, especially since many countries cut diplomatic ties with the country. The new regime has struggled to get to grips with food shortages and a flailing economy. More than a third of people cannot meet their basic needs, women’s rights have been restricted and foreign aid has evaporated.
Dr Orzala Nemat, an Afghan researcher and human rights activist based in the UK, fears that the response could quickly become chaotic without “systematic governance” structures in place since the Taliban takeover.
In a rare move, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzadah, who almost never appears in public, pleaded with the international community and humanitarian organisations “to help the Afghan people affected by this great tragedy and to spare no effort”.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged not to interfere with international efforts to distribute aid to tens of thousands of people affected by the earthquake.
Humanitarian aid has continued, with international agencies, such as the United Nations, operating.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said Afghanistan had asked humanitarian agencies to help with rescue efforts, and teams were being sent to the quake-hit area.
Afghanistan military provided support in search and rescue operations.
International Aid
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates all offered to send aid. Supplies from neighbouring Pakistan crossed the border.
On July 12, the Government of Japan decided to extend Emergency Grant Aid of 3 million US dollars to Afghanistan in response to the damages caused by the earthquake that had occurred in eastern Afghanistan on June 22. The Government of Japan offered to provide assistance in areas such as health and medical care, shelter, and water and sanitation through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to the Afghan people affected by the devastating earthquake.
Non-Government Organisations (NGOs)
The World Health Organisation’s polio team was on the ground joining forces with UN agencies and NGOs to ensure an effective and coordinated relief effort. The team’s invaluable experience and local knowledge gained from more than 2 decades working among local communities in both Paktika and Khost provided the foundations of an assessment tool to map communities (the Open Street Map Humanitarian team issued a request from arm-chair mappers to use satellite images to create and update maps in the area) and assess the number and extent of casualties as well as the destruction to homes and buildings. This ensured accurate data guided a focused response in the immediate aftermath, including the rapid construction of tents for shelter, as well as housing ad hoc health camps.
Polio teams turned a helping hand wherever needed including digging for survivors, building tents, unpacking trucks and distributing shipments of WHO emergency and surgical kits, medical supplies and equipment, and the heartbreaking task of preparing and assisting in transporting the dead for burial.
A new EU Humanitarian Air Bridge flight delivered 36 tonnes of life-saving cargo consisting of medical equipment, medication, and relief items to support WHO, UNICEF and Médecins Sans Frontières delivering earthquake response and other humanitarian needs in Afghanistan.
Below is the start of a collection of resources to support educating students about the earthquake in Afghanistan. Please let us know about other resources in the comments below.
Afghanistan Earthquake Relief
While many relief agencies are currently not providing support to Afghanistan there are a number of organisations providing support. These include:
If you are aware of other aid agencies providing support or are able to provide a link for donations to aid agencies please send us an email.
Support
Teachers
Below we have included links to websites that provide support in teaching events such as this in a considered way, after all, there are a number of children from Afghanistan being educated in schools outside of the country and may be in one of your classes.
Check learner understanding of the velocity of a river where there are meanders with this simple activity. Great for discussions and application of geographical understanding of river processes.
Click the image below to download the PowerPoint slide.
Welcome! We are developing a range of resources to support students and teachers in preparing for the AQA GCSE Geography pre-release. This page will be regularly updated over the next few days.
On May 11th author, environmentalist and investigative journalist George Monbiot tweeted an article on The Guardian that really caught my eye.
This is an extraordinary result, suggesting people are ready for a massive change in the way we measure and achieve well-being. It’s the best news I’ve seen for a long time. https://t.co/0epXMUcvgd
His post shared a piece on The Guardian website by Fiona Harvey exploring the findings of a YouGov poll which suggests Britons want the quality of life indicators to take priority over the economy. The results of the survey suggest eight out of 10 people would prefer the government to prioritise health and wellbeing over economic growth during the coronavirus crisis, and six in 10 would still want the government to pursue health and wellbeing ahead of growth after the pandemic has subsided.
The campaign group that commissioned the research, Positive Money, has suggested the government should publish statistics on social indicators, health, the environment and quality of life give a truer reflection of the UK’s status and should be used by policymakers to meet the needs of the population.
The group have produced a report entitled The Tragedy of Growth, backed by politicians from several parties, including Clive Lewis of Labour, the Green party MP Caroline Lucas, and the former Conservative environment minister Lord Deben, who chairs the committee on climate change. The report calls for a shift away from GDP as the government’s core measure of success. The reasoning behind this is that economic growth, through measures such as GDP, masks the impact economic development has on people’s health and well being, the gap between rich and poor and its environmental impact.
Having read the initial article and report I returned to the original tweet and trawled through the replies to the original post. I found myself descending a late-night rabbit hole that led me on a journey exploring changes to how development is being measured in countries such as Iceland, Bhutan and New Zealand.
This included watching a thought-provoking video called the Gross National Happiness The Paradigm (see below) produced by the Schumacher College and the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan. In it Tho Ha Vinh, program director at the GNH Centre, Butan explains how this paradigm shift involves redefining what we mean by development, making a comparison with the natural world, through the growth of a seed, leading to the development of its own nature. He goes on to discuss how foreign ideologies have been forced on countries, and economic development has been prevalent in measuring the ‘success’ of countries to the expense of other indicators. He raises an interesting point that the economy is a mean, not an end. The end is satisfying human needs. He argues that the goal of an economy should be to bring humans happiness and well-being. Additionally, he raises the point that it is not enough for an economy to focus purely on human needs and that the needs of the natural environment should also be met. He finishes by discussing the need for each country to have its own organic development, based on traditions and culture, that it should meet the needs of the whole (humans and environment).
I then went on to discover New Zealand’s new well-being budget that seeks to expand mental health services, reduce child poverty and homelessness, promote Indigenous rights, fight climate change, and expand opportunities and watched Iceland PM Katrin Jakobsdóttir talk about GDP or well-being.
Is it time to change how we measure development? I may be late to the party on all this, but having reflected over the last 24 hours I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a fantastic opportunity to explore the issues raised in these sources with students, particularly given the results of the YouGov poll which are likely influenced by the Covid-19 outbreak. We have been presented with an opportunity to reflect on what is really important to both the human and natural world. As geographers, we are in the perfect position to investigate this question, given the multitude of synoptic links the question draws on from our discipline. The underlying themes of sustainability, conservation, interdependence, international development, the use of natural resources, spatial variation and change over time could provide a wonderful opportunity to pull together the geography curriculum. The question has the potential to be an amazing enquiry to investigate with learners. If you fancy joining me down the rabbit hole, throwing some ideas about for a unit of study, please let me know!
https://www.internetgeography.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Is-it-time-to-change-how-we-measure-development.png6701200Anthony Bennetthttps://www.internetgeography.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IG-logo--1030x115.pngAnthony Bennett2020-05-12 16:39:332020-05-13 13:52:40Is it time to change how we measure development?
Mr Pérez (AKA @mr_perez5 on Twitter), has only gone and shared another fantastic Year 11 transition pack covering Changing Places, on top of his recent Y11 Globalisation transition pack.
If you use this resource, please remove the dept. logos and email and consider donating to the Global Coronavirus Appeal here: https://islamic-relief.org.uk/donation/ – even £1 would be greatly appreciated!