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Teaching on Ice

jlee — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:25:09 +0100

The Teaching on Ice blog has now been archived. Teaching materials and resources will be transferred to the Resources section of the site.

Many thanks to Phil Avery for sharing his experiences of Antarctica with teachingexpertise.

Stories and Statistics

Phil Avery — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:49:58 +0000

171,000 air miles
13 assemblies
100% increase in the numbers of students doing the School Expedition
-60 deg C was the coldest temperature I experienced
100s of questions asked by students
1 cold injury within our group
37kg of rubbish created by the team during our 5 weeks on the ice
2500 students spoken to personally by me about the expedition
2009: the next group of teachers will fly to the Arctic with the Fuchs Foundation
4000 calories a day
32.5km of sledge hauling in 17 hours to beat the bad weather back to camp
£13,500 of costs to me personally

Snowed under

Phil Avery — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:50:48 +0000

It's very rarely that I feel overwhelmed, but now is one of those times. A couple of weeks ago all was well, lots on, but I was on top of it and making deadlines the day before. Now I'm just fire-fighting non stop and today I finished my 85 Y9 reports with only 5 seconds to spare before the 4pm report shut down!

The to-do list is never-ending and growing: the letter for the Ghana link, assessments for Y7, feedback on last weeks inset workshops, assemblies on Antarctica, G&T meeting, T&L meeting, Fast Track meeting, Ski Trip meeting, meeting with the Head re training courses, running club, Duke of Edinburgh, True Adventure trip to Borneo etc. etc. Normally all these balls are kept in the air, but currently they're all falling fast towards me. Oh and there's lesson planning and teaching to do.

Geography in the Doghouse

Phil Avery — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:07:27 +0000

Just before Food Technology stole the limelight Geography got its 15 minutes of infamy; an Ofsted report had highlighted many issues that were leading to declining numbers of children taking Geography at GCSE and beyond despite the subject getting great results:

lack of fieldwork
lack of relevance
non specialist teachers
students having a greater range of subjects to choose from
students having a reduced choice due to languages being compulsory in some schools (including my own)

My school is certainly one of the schools suffering this malaise despite a number of initiatives:

Market Research

Phil Avery — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:35:56 +0000

Being confined to your tent by ridiculous temperatures and ludicrous wind speeds for 24 hours is bad enough. Having to pee in a bottle, eat yet more Haribo and put up with the effects of last nights Spag Bol in a confined space makes things even worse. Then, on top of all of that, you can't lie in any other position other than on your back otherwise your hands go numb due to trapped nerves. Little wonder then that, in such situations, Ian (my tent mate in Antarctica) and I hankered after a good argument to relieve the boredom/frustration. There was one argument, however, that we couldn't have as it got Ian too irate; whether or not our teaching should be assessed, in part, by students. I was for, he was very much against ... and as we both carried knives and he was looking after our block of cheese I didn't push my point.

One of the dangers of a fitness campaign

Phil Avery — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:16:13 +0000

Due to the hours spent trudging along with a sledge attached to me my fitness and strength are currently pretty good. Not wanting to lose what I worked hard to gain I've accidentaly entered the ballot for the Edinburgh Marathon; it will give me a focus that will encourage me to train. Today I decided to test my legs by going for an 80-90 minute run. The problem was that none of my current routes are that long, so I did some research. Armed with directions scribbled on the back of an envelope and a little bit of water I headed off ...

The first 65 minutes went well, then I lost the path, then I discovered another one in the corner of a field and followed it. The path led into a field of shouty women and men armed with green barber jackets and guns. Not wanting to be shot or concussed by falling pheasants I ran away, then I lost the trail again, I found another but, according to the compass on my watch, it was heading 180 degrees in the wrong direction, little bother as soon I'd lost that path as well.

Lesson plans: extreme environment

jlee — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:06:55 +0000

Phil has written two lesson plans based on his experience of recording and analysing data on weather and psychological effects. The lessons are for Key Stage 3 and 4 students and draw upon a data spreadsheet, a questionnaire, and a previous entry on this blog.

The lessons explore the effects of an extreme environment on humans, and include:

creating a graph
interpreting evidence
generating a hypothesis
note-taking
creating a questionnaire
presentation

Download the lesson plans, questionnaire and spreadsheet from the links below.

Assemblies and Borneo

Phil Avery — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:20:27 +0000

I think that even the Top Gear presenters would struggle to put into words how quickly the school term gets up to speed. The students have woken up, parents evenings are underway, AS exams are racing closer and meetings seem to be a daily occurrence. But Antarctica, and the aims of the expedition, are not forgotten. In two weeks time I'll start the run of five assemblies required to talk to all the students in the school, I'm talking at other local schools before half term, I'm planning an evening for staff and ideas for the teaching materials I'm producing are coming along well.

Excitingly, planning for my next expedition has started! In 2009 I'm one of eight teachers and four guides taking around 65 students to Borneo for four weeks with True Adventure. The students have to raise nearly £3000 over the next 18 months. My experience of fundraising, as well as expeditioning, should enable me to motivate the students to have their trip of a lifetime.

Antarctic gallery (2)

Phil Avery — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:23:31 +0000

The scale of Antarctic landscapes is incredible

Vectors - so which trace is pulling the sledge the
most forwards?

Antarctic gallery

jlee — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:55:08 +0000

Here are some highlights from Phil's expedition, in pictures.

Our highest camp at the top of the Connell Canyon Pass
– at a height of 1562m

Lenticular clouds formed as air is forced to rise by the
mountains