The Learning Cafe

We thought the mine was pretty big when we conducted our fieldwork. Looks like it is about to get bigger. This could count as an impact on the cultural environment.

Miners go after school’s gold

Today I would like you to develop an answer to the following question:

What environmental Issues are related to Kiwifruit Orcharding and how are these addressed

You should use what we have learnt already and internet resources to develop your answer in Microsoft Word. @ the end of the lesson you should copy and paste your answer as a comment to this post

If you have your own blog, you could write your answer as a post - this gives you more flexibility in terms of layout and pictures etc.

—FOLLOW UP—

1. First I would like you to review your post. Make sure it has a little introduction and is written in complete sentences. Your paragraphs should describe what the environmental problem is AND what can be done about it.

2. Now I would like you to use the case-study sheet (given to you yesterday) to add a real world example to each of you paragraphs.

3. Once you have completed this, I would like you to evaluate someone elses essay, and let them know what was good about it, and any ways it could be made even better.

–NOTE–

Some students have put their answer on their own blog, rather than as a comment to this one. Use the blogroll to find the 11GEO Blogs

Hi team, yesterday we began looking at how Kiwifruit Orcharding operates as a system. We spent a little time in groups thinking about examples for inputs,processes, outputs, losses and feedback.

Today we are going to construct a visual systems diagram. This will be great to revise with as reasearch tells us that having visual cues or anchors helps us to recall information.

You need to find relevant pictures for the diifferent parts of the systems model and create a poster in Microsoft Word or a programme of your choice. The best models will also show the seasonal cycle inside the process part of the diagram.

The following links will help you:

Seasonal Process - click here

Systems Model - click here

Student Example (Thanks Tessa) - click here

A few images from our Mt Tarawera Fieldtrip. Leaving early from Katikati we drove direct to Rotorua and began our fieldwork at the Bath House Museum. The museum delivered a superb presentation detailing the volcanic origins of the region and the violent eruption of Tarawera in 1886.

In the afternoon we visited Waimangu Valley. This area of rich geothermal activity was born from the 1886 eruption. At one time it had the biggest geyser in the world - the Waimangu geyser (450m high). We took a boat ride on Lake Rotomahana to understand the scale of the eruption and visit the currently active lake margins and the site where the ‘eighth wonder of the world’ used to stand - The Pink and White Terraces.

Day two required an early start. We travelled in 4-wheel drives up the side of the volcano with Mt Tarawera Volcanic Tours. Near the top we switched to two-legged transport and scaled the summit in record time. The view over the central North Island and the Bay of Plenty was fantastic.

Now the bit everybody looked forward to, running down the scree slope to the bottom of the main crater! It took around a minute of near vertical ’scoria-skiing’ to reach the bottom. Unfortunately one of our number tripped near the top, and tumbled to the bottom. Degree of difficulty - 9.5

A great experience. And so much useful content and reinforcement for the NCEA exams.

Here is a little taste of the trip.

Download

Today we spent some time learning about how to study a global geographic topic.

Through our discussion we identified two important things to remember.

1. Comprehensively explaining something means giving both depth and breadth.

2. Global pattern should not be described in terms of named countries

Test your knowledge of European countries by playing the mapping game below. This website has heaps of other great geography and general knowledge interactive games.

The Countries of Europe - PurposeGames.com

made by David