Education Update - November 2019

We’re now well into the second half of the Autumn term and we wanted to share with you some more information on the educational activities of the Society over the past few months, including the launch of several new resources for schools, with more in the pipeline.

Tropical cyclone scheme of work

Firstly we were delighted to launch a tropical cyclone scheme of work for 11-14 geography, which we produced with a consultant teacher.

What is the Coriolis Effect?

Possibly one of the trickiest resources we have been involved in developing was a short explainer of the Coriolis Effect! Alongside the challenge of simplifying (but not oversimplifying) the science, the film turned out to be technically very difficult to produce.

The passage of a depression

On a lighter note, we have produced an animation showing the weather associated with the passage of a depression. The motivation for producing this was the popularity amongst teachers of similar films which were inaccurate. Hopefully, our film will slowly become the go-to film for teachers.

Upcoming activities

We will be visiting universities around the country to deliver weather subject knowledge days for secondary geography teachers again this year, starting in Belfast in a few weeks’ time.

On a related note, our online weather course for geography teachers and anyone with an interest in the weather, Come Rain or Shine, starts again on 7th October. 

What does the future hold?

2019/20 will be an exciting year for the Society’s formal and informal education work, and we are currently planning how we will build on the momentum and energy associated with COP26. We hope to respond to calls from teachers and students for more climate change education in schools by working together with other organisations to develop teacher training and other teaching resources to improve the quality and amount of climate change education in secondary science.