UEA Geographers

Spent most of the day at University of East Anglia today...
Worked with PGCE Geographers: a good group of 19 colleagues. After chatting about curriculum making we had some chance to try it.
The theme was FOOD, and the TASK provided some possible contexts for learning, and some of the tools that could be used.

Thanks also to digitalexplorer for the mugs, which they all took away, along with details on the free OCEANS resources.....

I was pleased with the suggestions on an activity relating to food.
In half an hour we came up with the following ideas (apologies if I've forgotten any of them, which I think I have...)

  • Researching food items and exploring their origins
  • The water that we eat: the water that is involved in food production
  • Top Trumps cards which follow the water etc in food - students creating the card sets
  • Unit of work on Innocent Smoothies, which involved a range of activities including looking at the social responsibility 
  • Fast food geographies - exploring their sustainability - using the corporate social responsibility and other claims, packaging etc. - also a possible look at the siting of a fast food restaurant that is more sustainable than the others
  • Fairtrade and other food projects and campaigns
  • Exploring foods from other countries - and a 'Follow the Things' style exploration
  • Identifying Food miles
  • Comparing production : life cycle style analysis comparing tomatoes grown in different places, and adding in the additional costs

Thanks also to those who Tweeted back with the details on their lunch.

Coincidentally, we talked about FOOD geographies and I found this story when I got home.
I wonder whether this would be a claim to investigate, as well as the impact of this trend, if it is true on people's health and the environment.

Best wishes to all of you for your teaching careers, and the next two terms in particular, and thanks to Nick Gee for the invitation. Hope to see some of you at the GA Conference in April.

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