https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW24AvTo_hM

Christian Kingdoms

2º ESO  Molly

• The Essence of Money: A Medieval Tale that illustrates the principle of "market money" used in medieval trade fairs.

http://iespebilingue.wikispaces.com/Christian+Kingdoms

Watch the last video of the page presented with the help of Molly and explain the main ideas next day in the class.

Trip field Museo Geominero

https://vimeo.com/46197549

Marco Polo

Famous Italian explorer Marco Polo is credited with being the first Westerner to travel to China and for bringing spaghetti back to Europe. But growing doubt among scholars suggests that his real-life adventure may be a mythological legend. The famous account of his travels wasn't even written by Marco Polo but rather by an Italian romance novelist. Join scholars as they comb the streets of Venice and pore over ancient Chinese texts in search of evidence that proves the great voyager ever existed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkA-iSlfQfs

DEBATE 3º ESO A

Power point DEBATE

As it happened: Charlie Hebdo attack

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-30710777

Charlie Hebdo: Gun attack on French magazine kills 12

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Gunmen have shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack.

Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers.

A major police operation is under way to find three gunmen who fled by car.

President Francois Hollande said there was no doubt it had been a terrorist attack "of exceptional barbarity".

It is believed to be the deadliest attack in France since 1961, when right-wingers who wanted to keep Algeria French bombed a train, killing 28 people.

The masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car. They later abandoned the car in Rue de Meaux, northern Paris, where they hijacked a second car.

Death threats

Witnesses said they heard the gunmen shouting "We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad" and "God is Great" in Arabic ("Allahu Akbar").

The number of attackers was initially reported to be two, but French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve later said security services were hunting three "criminals". He said that Paris had been placed on the highest alert.

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Footage taken from a rooftop in Paris shows two gunmen firing shots

Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, 47, had received death threats in the past and was living under police protection.

French media have named the three other cartoonists killed in the attack as Cabu, Tignous and Wolinski, as well as Charlie Hebdo contributor and French economist Bernard Maris.

The attack took place during the magazine's daily editorial meeting.

At least four people were critically wounded in the attack.

The satirical weekly has courted controversy in the past with its irreverent take on news and current affairs. It was firebombed in November 2011 a day after it carried a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.

Global condemnation

The latest tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account was a cartoon of the Islamic State militant group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Charlie Hebdo's website, which went offline during the attack, is showing the single image of "Je suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie) on a black banner, referring to a hashtag that is trending on Twitter in solidarity with the victims.

People had been "murdered in a cowardly manner", President Hollande told reporters at the scene. "We are threatened because we are a country of liberty," he added, appealing for national unity.

French government officials are holding an emergency meeting, and President Hollande is due to give a televised address later.

US President Barack Obama has condemned the "horrific shooting", offering to provide any assistance needed "to help bring these terrorists to justice".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said: "It was a horrendous, unjustifiable and cold-blooded crime. It was also a direct assault on a cornerstone of democracy, on the media and on freedom of expression."

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in a tweet: "The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press."

The Arab League and Al-Azhar mosque, Egypt's top Islamic institution, have also condemned the attack.

Analysis: Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris

Charlie Hebdo is part of a venerable tradition in French journalism going back to the scandal sheets that denounced Marie-Antoinette in the run-up to the French Revolution.

The tradition combines left-wing radicalism with a provocative scurrility that often borders on the obscene. Its decision to mock the Prophet Muhammad in 2011 was entirely consistent with its historic raison d'etre.

The paper has never sold in enormous numbers - and for 10 years from 1981, it ceased publication for lack of resources.

But with its garish front-page cartoons and incendiary headlines, it is an unmissable staple of newspaper kiosks and railway station booksellers.

Charlie Hebdo and its satirical role

Live updates

The gunmen targeted the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris in the late morning

France has raised its security alert for Paris to the highest level

'Blood everywhere'

Footage shot by an eyewitness outside the magazine's office shows two armed men dressed in black approach a wounded police officer lying on a pavement. One of the men shoots the officer in the head, before both men are seen running back towards a black vehicle and driving away.

Eyewitnesses described seeing two black-hooded men entering the building carrying Kalashnikovs, with reports of up to 50 shots fired.

Large numbers of police and rescue services rushed to the scene

The attackers switched cars after fleeing the scene

Gilles Boulanger, who works in the same building as the office, told French TV channel Itele: "There were several shots heard in the building from automatic weapons firing in all directions. So then we looked out of the window and saw the shooting was on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, with the police. It was really upsetting. You'd think it was a war zone."

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French President Francois Hollande: "This is an act of exceptional barbarism"

Wandrille Lanos, a TV reporter who works across the road, was one of the first people to enter the Charlie Hebdo office after the attack.

"As we progressed into the office, we saw that the number of casualties was very high. There was a lot of people dead on the floor, and there was blood everywhere," he told the BBC.

After the attack, which occurred at about 10:30 GMT, police warned French media outlets to be on alert and pay attention to security.

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The country was already on the alert for Islamist militant attacks after several incidents just before Christmas.

Cars were driven at shoppers in two cities, Dijon and Nantes, and police were attacked by a man wielding a knife in Tours.

While the French government denied the attacks were linked, it announced plans to further raise security in public spaces, including the deployment of about 300 soldiers.

Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 sparking riots in Muslim countries, says it has stepped up security in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Christmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcujD96Vdo8

Resourses

Education and citizenship

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16/site/citizenship.shtml

Unit 3 POPULATION

7 billion video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2xOvKFFz4

Spain's unemployment rate 

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/spain/unemployment-rate

video unemployment figures in Spain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooykPM-eaUY&feature=fvsr

Immigrants who attempt to gain access to Europe via Spain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mruYzNjRkXg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/

La Ciudad Encantada is an unusual & fascinating geological landscape which consists of a group of phenomenal rock formations resembling humans, animals and various objects (or whatever your imagination tells you). These are actually limestone rocks that are sculpted into strange forms by wind and water erosion over time, thousands of years ago. I can only imagine what this ‘City’ actually looked like back then.


Above: Upon entry, the first rock you'll see is this iconic top heavy, 'Tormo Alto'.




Above: One of the 'Mushrooms'.


Above: The 'Roman Bridge'.

 

 
Above left: Walking in between the stone walls.
Above right: The 'Convent'.


Above: The 'Crocodile and Elephant'.


Above: This one seems pretty obvious to me. It's 'The Bear'.


Above: The side profile of a pair of 'Lovers'.





Entrance to the park costs 3euros and if you follow the marked signposts and path, you’re likely to complete it in under 2 hours (the route is estimated to be 3km long).

As the world´s population grows, more and more wild animals are being forced out of their traditional habitats. Some endangered species are being killed for food or because they compete with humans for territory or food supplies, while others are valued for their fur or uses in medical research. This type of killing has completely wiped out some species of wild animals and is threatening many others. Fortunately, animal rescue organisations are working hard to preserve endangered animals such as elephants, jaguars and chimpanzees.

In Thailand, the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand (WARF) is working to stop human-elephant conflicts in Prachuab Kiri Khan province. Much of the forest in this area has been cleared by farmers and is now used for planting crops, wich has destroyed the elephants´natural habitat and caused a continuing food shortage for them. Elephant herds have begun to come out of the forest and feed on the farmers´ crops, so the farmers often shoot or poison the animals. The Elephant Feeding Project aims to create an ecosystem that will allow animals and people to live together in peace. WARF gradually restores the forest areas, while teaching people who must give up farming other ways to earn a living.

In Central and South America, ecological groups are attempting to increase the number of jaguarse, the largest cats found in the Western hemisphere. Adult males can be uo to 2.3 metres long and weigh up to 250 kilograms. There are still jaguars in the area near the Amazon River; however, the population eleswhere in South America is very small and the jaguar disappeared completely in the United States during the 1940s. At one time, the jaguar´s skin was considered very valuable, but today laws preventing the trapping or shooting of jaguars have reduced the demand for the skins. Many animals are still killed, however, because these predators often turn to cattle and other farm animals for food when their natural habitat disappears.

In the Bossou Hills of Guinea, West Africa, a Japanese scientist is working to save the area´s rapidly shrinking chimpanzee population. The local population has been cut off from other groups because much of the forest connecting the Bossou Hills area with other forest regions has been cut down. Tesuro Matsuzawa is working to replant groups of trees in the open fields to connect the forest areas once again. However, it may be several yearse before the world knows whether or not his plan will work.

What is Geography?

The term GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is gaining familiarity, but still leaves a feeling of uncertainty with many.  This cartoon’s caption captures [part of] our field: [GIS] helps you understand how the world works.

There is more to GIS too.  To see the full cartoon story, read it here on National Geographic.

Is Global Warming caused by us?

I suppose we are now at the point that we have to accept the science 'fact' that Global Warming is taking place. Nearly every day there is a new story in the news that supports this. The BBC has a great mini site dedicated to Climate Change. One of the most recent stories is related to the disappearing ice and snow on Kilimanjaro. 

However, with the recent winter being the warmest on record and the weather over the last 3 weeks being abnormally warm and dry fo this time of year - people do start to aske questions. So - we can establish that the weather is different, that we don´t quite get the same winter extremes that we used to and that spring plants and butterflies, bees and wasps are all out a lot earlier. But the BIG question remains - is this caused by us or is this part of the natural cycles of world climate.

Would this have happened normally even without our input and production of the so called 'greenhouse gases'? For me, that is the big question and I am not quite sure that the proof is quite there yet.

In saying that how can reducing our carbon emissions and the amount of chemicals and pollution that we pump into the atmosphere be anything but a good thing - but will it help to reduce the way that our climate changes . . . that is the big question. What do you think?

I came across this quote as I have been reading Barack Obama's book - The Audacity of Hope.

"Just about every scientist outside the White House believes that climate change is real, serious, and is accelerated by the continued release of carbon dioxide. If the prospect of melting ice caps, rising sea levels, changing weather patterns, more frequent hurricanes, more violent tornadoes, endless dust storms, decaying forests, dying coral reefs, and increases in respiratory illness and insect-borne diseases - if all that doesn't constitute a serious threat, I dont know what does."

Explain why are some places more 'switched on' to globalisation than others?

Contrasting places: Tomboktou, Mali and Hong Kong, China

Today we were discussing the question in the title above. The aim of this post is to provide some extra guidance to help you improve your geographical writing. Here are some tips:

• Read The Question carefully: Circle the command word and underline any key words.

• Apply Geographical Ideas: Key words in the title suggest that you refer to the ideas of 'switched on' verses 'switched off' and globalisation.  Cities are the most connected places on Earth and as global hubs they are the most 'switched on places'.  Can you think what the main reasons for this could be?

• Explain: The question also asks you to explain, which means you will need to think of REASONS WHY some places are more 'switched on'.  You could provide 3 main reasons.  Remember to use the P.E.E approach of Point, Explain, Example/Evidence.  
• POINT - Make you first point (Reason for being switched on)
• EXPLAIN - Explain why this factor makes it more switched on
• EXAMPLE/EVIDENCE - Refer to your real place.  Write in some detail about it to demonstrate you are writing about a real place (Real people, real places, real geography!)

• Structure: Think carefully about which structure to use.  Here's an example:
• Introduction - define key terms
• Main body - talk about your main reasons.  Use P.E.E
• Conclusion

What are the key reasons then?
The diagram below shows some reasons why some places are more switched on than others.

  

The Essential Historical Perspective
To really understand the reasons why some places are more connected to global capitalism we need to look at the history of a place.  For example Dubai in the UAE has rapidly become a switched on place over the last 40 years.  The BBC Country Profile for UAE clearly outlines the key historical developments and policy decisions which have led to Dubai being a global hub.  In contrast the BBC country profile for the D. R. Congo shows how recent civil war has been a real obstacle to development and establishing links to the global economy.  The BBC also asked the question, 'Can the failed state of Congo recover?' This among other factors have led to the D.R. Congo being the poorest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita (Source: Gapminder).

The presentation below will hopefully extend your thinking further.  Some of the slides have been updated.

Why are some places more switched on to globalisation?

I'm sure if you use these ideas you will improve your geographical writing!