Chris Jordan: Polluting Plastics from PopTech on Vimeo.

A very moving account of the issue of marine plastics by the photographer Chris Jordan. If you haven’t seen his work, take a look at the Running the Numbers series, a emotive take on our attitude to ‘stuff’.

It’s not that I am necessarily against the teaching of computing in schools. Running an organisation called Digital Explorer, it would be pretty contrary if I were. However, statements such as Ed Vaizey’s comment that knowing how a computer works should be “on a par with a knowledge of the arts and humanities” don’t really help.

It would be great if this latest fad in the national education conversation actually highlighted the good practice that exists in UK schools rather than repeating how poor everything is.

There needs to be a three-pronged approach to the issue of ICT in schools:

First, a decision about which items of ICT usage should be taught through other subjects (if they still exist in a years’ time). Examples could include:

• Use of word processing in English
• Use spreadsheets and databases in Science and Maths
• Internet research and analysis of reliability of sources in History
• Video conferencing with partner schools in MFL
• Digital photography and video in Art
• Online and social media safety in PSHE
• Blogs and digital mapping in Geography
• Use online campaigning tools in Citizenship

You get the idea. Pupils use digital tools to learn and communicate their ideas throughout the curriculum, a bit like previous national strategies on literacy and numeracy. This is already happening in many schools. It may well save time and energy for teachers if levels of competence in using various tools were agreed between departments. This would mean that as a Geography teacher you would know what your GCSE class should know about using spreadsheets and creating and interpreting graphs (they learnt this in Key Stage 3 Maths of course!).

Second, decide what should go into a computing class. ICT is probably a misnomer as this subject develops. This is where I become a bit stuck. What would I expect an intern to be able to do, when they come to work for Digital Explorer?

• An understanding of how to write a blog post and use html tags
• Formatting a range of digital media for use online, using tools such as image and video editing software
• An understanding of media sharing platforms and their relative benefits
• Use of digital mapping
• Basic coding (I taught myself how to write simple games in Basic using a Spectrum many moons ago and I think that this introduction made it easier for me to pick up using coding languages such as kml later in life)

I would like to be able to adapt and fix hardware in the same way that I would like to be better at car maintenance. I would love to be able to write little scripts that made life easier for me. In short, computing appeals to my creativity. I want to be able to make stuff. I find joy in the translation of lines of code into a wondrous digital environment.

The third aspect is rather more prosaic: infrastructure. Are there enough computers in working order for ICT to become a regular facet of teaching and learning across the curriculum? Will our attitudes to mobiles change with most students bringing a pocket to computer to school every day? Who will come to teach coding? Out of 28,000 new teachers in 2010, just 3 had computing-related degrees. I don’t blame them, when they can be out making a mint in the digital economy. Gove, do something clever, like subsidise company NI contributions if digital employees volunteer in schools once a week.

A caveat to end: technology is a tool not an end in itself. Digital Explorer uses technology because it enables us to share stories from the far-flung corners of the planet with classrooms across the world. Technology allows us to create and share content with a new ease. It cannot and does not replace the physical, personal and emotional journeys that lie at the centre of our work. This new emphasis on digital literacy in education must remember that young people still need to communicate and learn about ‘something’. My favourite example of innovation in ICT was the example of a school a few years ago now that had scrapped ICT classes completely and instead taught the Citizenship curriculum full-time, using ICT as a tool to support and extend the development of young people as engaged citizens. Now there’s an idea.

Also have a look at resources on English, Citizenship and RE on the newly launched Culture channel! Here you can watch film episodes from last year’s Journey to Pakistan expedition or even book a student Ambassador from the trip to visit your classroom. All of these resources are designed to increase your pupil’s understanding of other cultures and perspectives through interactive  peer-to-peer education!

Happy exploring!

Frozen Planet takes you on an adventure through the Arctic and Antarctic environment and wildlife through a 7-part series narrated by Sir David Attenborough who has spent quite a bit of time exploring these regions. One of the short clips that links well with our Frozen  Oceans resources is titled On Thin Ice, and discusses the effects of climate change on regions such as the poles and the ways scientists are now trying to understand it.

Check it out at BBC-One Frozen Planet!

So as the oceans are so important, we’ve been through every GCSE specification for science and geography searching for the terms fish, marine, sea and ocean. They should be well represented. This is what we found out.

Top prize for a great section on the urgent issue of ocean acidification goes to the AQA Science team and their new Chemistry GCSE. Loving your work and hope that the rest of the exam boards follow suit. There’s also a nice reference to the issues of over-fishing, but no mention of marine case studies for species adaptation, mutualism, etc. It would also have been nice to connect in the chemistry of ocean acidification with some more on biological impacts say on zooplankton.

For Geography, we have an out and out winner with the team who came up with the Edexcel B GCSE and their Oceans on the Edge option. But it is still an option, however good it may be, and oceans don’t come up too strongly in the Edexcel A course.

So here’s what we’d like to see happen:

AQA Geography team
Talk to your science colleagues, have a look at the Edexcel B oceans option and get a really nice topic on the oceans in both your papers.

OCR Geography team
Really quite a lot of work to do if you’re to represent properly 71% of the planet’s surface in your GCSEs. The answers are out there.

Edexcel Geography team
Make ocean topic compulsory in A & B options. You’re way ahead, but this is no time to rest on your laurels.

AQA Science
Nice work. You’re out in front and the ocean carbon cycle topic can really be a trend-setter.

Edexcel Science
Good on mutualism and adaptation in the biology section, but chemistry needs a bit of work. See above for AQA.

OCR Science
A lot of catch-up.

We want to see more young people have the opportunity to study the oceans. We’re here to help. Do be in touch!

An article published a few days ago by Richard Black of the BBC reveals a new controversy over the amount of sea ice present in Greenland. According the newly-published Times Atlas, Greenland has lost 15% of its former ice coverage in just 12 years. This figure has caused concern around the world as it suggests that the climate is warming at a rapid rate and resulting in negative consequences for the environment.

Yet scientists from the Scott Polar Research Institute claim that this figure is exaggerated.  The Scott Polar researchers do not deny that increased temperatures have resulted in loss of sea ice in Greenland, but they do have evidence that contradicts the estimated rapid speed of  melting as shown in the Times Atlas. This evidence comes from new satellite images that show ice coverage and glaciers where the Times Atlas depicted as ice free zones and new land.

The Scott Polar scientists are unsure how the mistake occurred, but they want to make sure that we are only informed with ‘concrete and correct evidence’.

New studies and research have found interesting patterns in the way the oceans absorb and store energy.  As discussed in a  Science Daily article, even when the atmospheric and global climate conditions appear stable, our oceans are still experiencing great change.

Simulations performed by scientists, using the Community Climate System Model, found that continued emissions of greenhouse gasses caused by humans will result in a temperature increase of 1.4 degrees Celsius between 2000 and 2100. Yet, the more intriguing discovery of this experiment was that there were two 10 year periods of stability during which no obvious atmospheric climate changes occurred. During these ‘hiatus’ periods ocean waters, below 300 meters, warmed 18% to 19% more rapidly than during other times. Researchers attributed their findings to the idea that changing ocean circulations cause deep ocean waters to absorb heat more rapidly.  The results also correspond with patterns of La Nina events and the two occurrences are believed to be connected in some regions.

The article and experiments attempt to show that we cannot ignore the missing heat that the oceans absorb. As stated by NCAR researcher Kevin Trenberth, “The heat has not disappeared, and so it cannot be ignored.”

As discussed in Quirin Schiermeier’s article, this is very important evidence of the changes going on within our oceans. The loss of Arctic sea ice indicates climate change and scientists from the Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado believe that it may result in “a greater potential for late season ice-loss, caused by warm water melting ice from below or winds that push the ice together”.

I am Elliott Murray, one of the chosen few who was given the incredible opportunity to visit Pakistan late last year. This year, I traveled over 3 months, across 3 countries in Asia, Thailand – Cambodia and India. I should point out that this is the first solo traveling project I have ever done, it would be very fair to say that the Pakistan expedition was a great starting point that gave me the confidence and thirst to explore more of the world.

In Thailand I spent one week volunteering at a self sustainable environmental community, consisting of 12 or so people from around the world. A lifestyle I had never been close to, and being fed on a daily diet of deep fried and oven baked dinners back home, was indeed a shock. Still, an interesting experience that taught me about how an alternative group of people live their life. We then did one week solo travel of Thailand. Pakistan taught me that their is no generalisation that can be made about a whole country, or community, that is always true, and that to learn about these things intimately, one must explore for oneself.

We then flew to Cambodia where we had arranged some time working at an orphanage for disadvantaged children in a small, remote village. We taught English, and knew that even our limited expertise of teaching was doing a great amount of good amongst this small community. Before Pakistan I was cynical in that I always believed if we where to ever make a social change for good, it must be achieved en masse. I then learned how small intimate projects change a selected group’s minds for tomorrow, who may indeed themselves take it upon themselves to re-teach what has been taught, to 20 more, and hence the cycle continues.

Finally I arrived in India, where I traveled independently. What I loved most was exploring other people’s cultures – drinking tea (or chi) with the locals, speaking with them and telling them of all the places I’ve seen in their country, and just understanding what their culture consists of. Whilst traveling I did see many tourists who would keep to themselves, and not be as talkative with the locals, and stay rather in their own bubble (taking private taxi’s opposed to local buses, staying in hotels with a price that could only be for foreigners etc etc..) which is fine, and maybe I would too have been comfortable traveling that way a few years ago, but since Pakistan I yearn to explore countries intimately, and find out what it’s real side is like.

Visiting Pakistan taught me to realise a country is always more than a 10 word headline, and that before passing judgment with a personal opinion, you must embrace it personally. It was without a doubt a huge part of my life, that has shaped the way I look at our world.

It becomes clear through examining the history of past marine life extinctions that our oceans are once again headed towards a period of decline for various species. A study on past ocean extinctions, explained in Emily Shon’s article, concluded that past marine life extinctions were due to high levels of CO2 and low levels of oxygen. This is relevant to today’s oceans as there has been an  increase of CO2 in the oceans due to the release of fossil fuels and other sources into the atmosphere. Many species who produce calcium carbonate shells are unable to adapt to the quickly changing pH levels in the oceans. It is predicted that between 2030 and 2050 that we will see a decline in pteropods, an organism at the bottom of the food chain and so crucial to maintain its balance. With this being said, we need to look at our oceans’ histories in order to preserve them in the future.