The 2018 Geographical Investigation

Peter Lydon will present on the 2018 physical investigation at Waterford teachers centre at 7.30 on March 22nd. This will be followed up in May with a coastal workshop with Kieran McCarthy (pictures below from 2014)

Branch meeting

A long overdue SE branch meeting will take place on November 30th in the Waterford Teachers Centre at 7.15 p.m

Peter Lydon, President of the AGTI will bring his box of tricks that he presented to the annual conference. He will discuss AfL and assessment approaches that can be used at both JC and LC



Michael Organ author of the new LC textbook Earth will focus on a combination of active methods and some revision/study skills that he presented at the annual conference.

Orienteering workshop

Pacing distance

For those who would like a copy of the handout in colour from the Orienteering workshop at the recent AGTI annual conference in Waterford, click here for a pdf version. For any questions about orienteering in schools contact Andrew Cox development at orienteering dot ie.
You can download a copy of the schools brochure here.

Andrew giving instructions

Computer whizz, Jana

around the bandstand

Good teamwork

Thanks to our photographer Julien

Striding it out

Almost there

Ms. competitive!

Do I put in the map or   ?

At last the Finish

Subject co-ordinators meeting

Geography Subject Coordinators Network Meeting

Dublin, Ireland | Dublin West Education Centre

Wednesday, September 23, 2015
from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM (IST)

Free-to-attend,  Book here

Annual AGTI AGM

41st Annual Conference 

of the Association of Geography Teachers of Ireland

at the Tower Hotel, Waterford

(organised by Central Branch)

on Friday 18th and Saturday 19th September 2015

 

‘Kickstart Geography’ 

This year’s conference is a little earlier this year and contains a number of changes to our usual program style. We’d like you see this year’s conference as a kickstart to the year. We have chosen presentation ideas that we think will help you get the year off to a great start; we have to mind ourselves as we go about teaching geography; the geographical investigation and changes to the OS Discovery Series maps challenge us to be on top of our game from the get-go; our conference is in Waterford, a region rich in geography and this is a great chance to look at tourism and geology through the lens of Waterford.

We are confident you will find this year’s conference rewarding.

Friday 18th September 2015 

7.30pm: Registration

8.00pm: Geographical Investigation 2016 - Plenary Session 

In a change from our usual programme…….this plenary session will be an opportunity for geography teachers to discuss and share ideas for Geographical Investigation., Chaired by Peter Lydon  

Wine and finger food reception follows

Saturday 19th September 2015

8.30 – 9.00         Registration 

                         Teacher Wellbeing 

9.00 – 10.00      TBC         

9.30 – 10.00       

Thirty Mindful Moments   with Máire O’Higgins, Larkin Community College

10.00 – 10.30        Digital Literacies

Using online media for Geography  with Siobhan O’Sullivan, PDST                            

10.30 – 10.45                   Tea & Coffee 

10.45 – 11.30         Ordnance Survey Maps

Ireland’s National Mapping Agency – Ordnance Survey Ireland. A products and key developments update with Tony Murphy & Eugene McMorrow, OSi                    

11.30 – 12.20           Regional Geography

Active Approaches for Teaching Regional Geography at Leaving Certificate with Charles Hayes

12.20 – 12.30             AGTI AGM.....How do we spend your membership fee?

12.30pm - 2.30pm                Lunch and/or Tour
12.30 – 1.30       1^st Tour – Walking Tour of Waterford with Jack Burtcheall
1.30 – 2.30         2^nd Tour - Practical Orienteering and Map Work with Andrew Cox & Jana Cox 

2.30pm - 3.30 pm        Tourism Region in Ireland

                      Details to follow with Eimear Whittle

3.30 – 3.45      Tea & Coffee

3.45pm - 4.45pm              Irish Geology 

Waterford, 460 Million Years in the Making: "A brief geological history of Waterford & the Copper Coast" with Tina Keating, Geologist, Copper Coast GeoPark

4.45pm – 5.15pm             Plenary Session & Closing

Post Marking Review; Continuous Professional Development (CPD);AOB.

To register, click here to bring you to eventbrite.

Investigation topics for 2015-16

1. Traffic patterns in a local area
2. Population in a local area
3. A local environmental issue
4. Changing land-use in a local area
5. Local weather patterns

 Take your pick?

6. The impact of geomorphic process/processes and/or human activity on the development of landform(s) in a glaciated or fluvial or karst environment

SE Branch Meeting

 Geography in the South East

Monday March 2nd at 7 p.m. in the Waterford Teacher's centre

• The Geography Department and Inspection.                                                                        Presenter: Domnall Fleming Senior Inspector                                                                                            

• Soils in the curriculum: (Some resource ideas and development in the Soils and Biomes option) Presenter: Rachel Creamer, Soil Quality and Classification,Teagasc . Editor of the new Soils map of Ireland.                                                                                   

• Waterford City celebrates 10 years of being a Fair Trade City...how can you can introduce Fair trade concepts into your Geography programme? Global Interdependence option? Presenter: Jennifer Harris, Waterford One World Centre      

• Education packages at Castlecomer Discovery Park.  Presenter: Nichola Salamon

Dunmore coastal investigation

17 enthusiastic geography teachers prepare for 2015 geographical investigation at Dunmore East led by guru, Kieran McCarthy.

Useful apps: 
Tides near me; 
Zephyrus WindMeter

Coastal Fieldtrip

The SE branch of the AGTI will host a fieldwork exercise at Dunmore East, County Waterford on Wednesday May 7th. Meet at the strand at 5.45 p.m. Please bring any equipment that you have available at school. Online registration at the foot of this blog message








Mr Kieran McCarthy will look at the 2015 topic:

An investigation of the geomorphic processes of erosion 

in a coastal environment

 

Can you believe it is 10 years since these pictures were taken?

There will also be a short input from Mr Andrew Cox on the topic:

An investigation of the relationship between economic activity and a local area.

GAG (Geography Awareness Week)

Geography Awareness week

 Geographical Awareness Week (GAW) November 18th to 22nd is being run by the Geographical Society of Ireland;;;find out more from their website and their blog...the theme is An Exploration of Water.
other media links are: gawireland@gmail.com        @GAWIreland       facebook.com/gawireland

 What I found useful...
Storytelling with maps from the ESRI: they publish story maps with three goals: To showcase interesting and important topics; to explore techniques and best practices for map-based storytelling; and to help enable people to make their own story maps.Examples I found interesting were Renewable energy; 50 largest container ports; Refugee camps; Top 10 most damaging Hurricanes; Population 7 Million;

SE Branch AGM

The AGM of the South east branch will take place at Castlecomer Discovery Park on Saturday November 16th. 
The guest speaker will be Ian Saunders from Trinity College Dublin

Explain and illustrate the continual process of rock formation, change and destruction

(Curriculum outcome from LC Geography Syllabus)

• 10.00  Rocks and the geographical investigation, an overview by Kieran McCarthy: 
• 10.30  Educational programmes on offer at CDP. 
• 11.00  Getting to know your rocks by Ian Saunders from TCD. Dr Saunders was the author of the booklet that went out with the rock sample packs to secondary schools. 
• 12.45  Break for lunch 
• 2.00 Optional visit to the History of  Coalmining exhibition  and/or an introduction to using the Permanent Orienteering courses for anyone interested

  

Please contact agtise2011@gmail.com if you are planning to participate to guarantee your place by 11^th November

Annual Conference

39th Annual Conference

Thurles, Co. Tipperary

 

‘Geography: Past, Present and Future’

 

Friday 18th October /Saturday 19th October 2013

The Anner Hotel, Thurles

Word exercise

How many 4+ letter words can you make out of the word

ENVIRONMENT?

...it does depend if you spell it write!
 Did you put an IRON in the middle?
How many 8 letter words did you get? More than 8?
61 more 5+
Look up Litscape.com


How do you spell RESERVOIR?
I found only 20% of 5th years spelt it correctly...there were 6 different versions. Some avoided the issue by writing artificial lake?

.....best mine could come up with...EROSIVE...not bad when you REVISE  RIVERS.
Be careful not to make any ERRORS

Urban fieldwork

Kieran McCarthy facilitated an insightful urban workshop at the Waterford teacher's centre. 
The focus was the 2014 urban topic:

 

Analysis of the relationship 

between land use and traffic flow in a local area

Fieldwork Investigation

Kieran McCarthy will run a workshop on March 2nd at the Waterford Teachers Centre (and nearby) on the urban topic for the 2014 Fieldwork Investigation.

We hope to gain a better understanding of the reporting Booklet and to share ideas and experiences on the investigation.

Topic: Analysis of the relationship between land-use and traffic flow in a local area.

• Identifying themes or aspects suitable for investigation
• Setting out aims / hypotheses
• Planning for the investigation
• Identifying tasks and methodologies needed to undertake the investigation
• Trialling / practicing some of the activities
• Identifying sources of secondary information
• Providing resources for undertaking the investigation (worksheets etc)

 The workshop will begin at 10.00 and end by 13.00. Coffee/tea on arrival at the teacher's centre.

In order to book a place at the workshop, please send a refundable cheque of €10 to Andrew Cox c/o Newtown school, Waterford. Cheques should be made out to :AGTI. Anybody who has not paid their membership will be expected to sign up before or on the day of the workshop. The SE branch are subsidising the costs from membership fees. Thank you for your understanding.

Autocomplete Maps

Have you ever wondered how geeks perceive maps?

Resource Blog

Over the past 4 years I have put together a series of resource links using a Blog. This resource is available for all teachers to use. I would welcome input and suggestions at any time. If you find a good link, post it on to Andrew Cox. The latest entries are on Irish Geology and Discover Ireland (useful for those doing Tourism Awareness in TY)