Alistair Hamill

My thoughts exactly! Do you have any recommendations re the VPN?

On the plus side, maybe you'll learn some Swedish?!?

Anyone have any views on or experiences of the age verification process on here? I guess it's inevitable now, but should I be concerned about the storage of my personal data?

GCSE Fieldwork day! It may have been a bit rainy, but the spirits of my Y11s were anything but dampened!

Great to get out exploring geography in the real world!

#HowIUsedGISToday

Prep for GCSE fieldwork on Monday meant using the Chromebooks to allow the pupils to explore the area we'll be visiting to familiarise themselves with the geology.

Embedding GIS as the norm involves little moments like this when I choose GIS over paper.

I saw that! Crazy, isn't it?!

Seagull Island at the Giant's Causeway, with some gorgeous painterly light.

The glorious Lacada Point at the Giant's Causeway. It's quite the scramble to get here, but the views are always worth it!

This is the aurora you've been looking for.

Star Wars Day aurora around 23.35 on May 4 2025, beating both the twilight and the bright moonlight.

A special on-location episode recorded at Oxford Brookes University for the Geographical Association Annual Conference 2025 (https://geography.org.uk/events-cpd/ga-annual-conference-and-exhibition/). Part of our season-long special focusing on #ClimateAmbassadors, Kit Marie explores the multitude of Coffee & Geography 5x15 Climate Action at the Geog Association Annual Conference 2025 #GAConf25

🌳 Explore meaningful local climate action through the #Geography curriculum, like mapping trees in Lurgan, championed by @ahamill.bsky.social, in our special #CoffeeGeogPod episode from #GAConf25.

WATCH: youtu.be/PMwo_b3E8nU #ClimateAmbassadors #GeographyTeacher

Excellent day yesterday on 6th form fieldwork around Belfast. We started collecting river data along the Colin River. It was great to see the pupils enjoying geography in the real world on the warmest day of the year so far!

I like to zoom in and zoom out a lot, too, as it helps build the schema. I'll look at how I can weave that into my analogy more explicitly.

...in providing that cognitive cohesion. I'm then including in each chapter about the substantive knowledge the relevant Big Ideas that can be explored there. So perhaps that empowering explanation element will come out more fully in that context.

Then I go on to discuss the challenge in geography of the fact that there is not one agreed route through the topics, so it can mean that pupils struggle to see the connections between all the topics we do. Finally I discuss the role of Big Ideas as part of geography's disciplinary knowledge...

Thanks, Lee. There's lots that could be said about Big Ideas, including their explanatory power. Where this sits in the flow of the chapter is that I start by discussing the dangers of teaching unconnected, "factoid" knowledge that fails to build strong schemas & connect with prior knowledge.

As I continue to write my book, Teacher Hacks: Geography, I'm drafting something on the role of Big Ideas in creating geographical meaning, exploring the metaphor that knowledge had a topography.

Thoughts and feedback welcome!

Check out my video showing how Tectoglob3D can help you take fieldtrips to the mantle.

This is the presentation I made as part of the @gasigict.bsky.social session at the GA Conference this week.

docs.google.com/videos/d/1kL...

Now that's one I would definitely love to have been at! Alongside yours, too, of course! Talking of which, I'd love to hear more of what you shared.

I was delighted to be able to share the story of my Climate Change Citizen Science project as part of @geogramblings.com's #GAConf25 session.

It's a powerful story of agency in action, inspiring hope.

Here's the video youtu.be/tTWvYb4tJlA?...

A whole new volcanic hazard map for the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland has been published by the Icelandic Met Office (Veðurstofa Íslands). Find out more about the redesign at en.vedur.is/about-imo/ne...

Cheers, Conor.

Thanks, James!

Volcanic ash is a silent killer, more so than lava: What Alaska needs to know with Mount Spurr likely to erupt When volcanoes like Alaska’s Mount Spurr erupt, the ash can damage people’s lungs, smother crops and kill animals, and the harm can continue to spread long afterward.

And...geology matters to public health. Support science. It helps us all🧪

Volcanic ash is a silent killer, more so than lava: What Alaska needs to know with Mount Spurr likely to erupt theconversation.com/volcanic-ash...

Cheers, Dominic!

Thank you!

Thrilled to have been awarded the GA Teaching Geography Journal Award for the second year running!

This is for my second article on plate tectonics, Taking Fieldtrips to the Mantle.

This award is voted for by my geography colleagues, so I'm happy the articles are proving helpful.

'GIS: the key to understanding our interconnected world – seven ideas'
(at least seven!)
15.30-16.20 Wed 16 April
Chakrabarti room
#GAConf25 @geographicalassoc.bsky.social
#GIS #geospatial
sched.co/1snE4

Not long now to @doctorpreece.bsky.social & my presentation at the @geographicalassoc.bsky.social Conference where we'll discuss how to support ECTs & non-specialist teachers of geography in developing geographical meaning through the content they are teaching.

Thanks!

Moonlit aurora at the Giant's Causeway last weekend. I love the detail in the stones picked out by the moonlight.

And I posted some qualitative data, too, to illustrate how students reported using AI, not just *that* it was being used. Combine that with a four week programme with lots of conversations between my pupils and me during that time and I'm happy to stand over my claims.