Making the most of the Internet for AS and A level Geography

Chris Durbin

11 October 2000

North Staffordshire Geographical Association

Here are a list of web sites referred to in the lecture:

www.google.com good for quick searches no graphics and advertising.

www.altavista.co.uk www.lycos.co.uk  both allow you to search for UK only, images only, certain languages and do advanced searches.

[www.altavista.au will allow you to search for sites in Australia only]

Yahoo is like Eduweb a series of menus and not the best for open searches but great for pre-defined subject browsing. 

NB.  School internet access often has something called a firewall and will often restrict your viewing – so be careful not to rely on a few sites..

www.sln.org.uk/geography – especially Weblinks and Web Enquiries which have been written by teachers for this site specially and will enable you to work through an issue.

These vary but geography teachers in the UK offer links:

www.georesources.co.uk - is a school in Kent but nevertheless excellent. There is some great information on Sand Dunes.

www.internetgeographer.co.uk 

http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/cti/cat.html – academic geography links

A variety of school and colleges sites have set up weblinks for their courses

http://www.sbirmc.ac.uk/davidg/geog99.htm

http://www.geography.ndo.co.uk/

There are US ones too and these is about the best:

http://geography.about.com/science/geography/index.htm

http://geography.miningco.com/education/scilife/geography/

www.bbc.co.uk well news, education and world service has interesting sources

www.cnn.com for US global perspectives

www.guardianunlimited.co.uk The Guardian adds value to its daily newspaper as do many other newspapers which have websites and archives

www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk is an excellent site from the Sentinel

There is a list of newspapers by country at for alternative perspectives

www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/microforms/geowk.htm

An abundance of satellite images from the USA

http://earthrise.sdsc.edu/earthrise/form/

http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/satlinks.html

http://umbc7.umbc.edu/~tbenja1/freedata.html

http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/

http://geogweb.berkeley.edu/GeoImages.html – a quirky collection from academics but some good images of Rivers and Morocco

http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/menureso.htm – images of development issues and projects

www.onthline.org.uk has fantastic images for countries down the Greenwich Meridian.

www.inpe.br/amazonia – look out for the images of human impact from Dalves

http://www.dpi.inpe.br/grid/quick-looks is a set of images from the Brazilian Space Agency

http://www.bsrsi.msu.edu/trfic/index.html is Tropical Rainforest Info Centre

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sergiok/brasil.html

www.sln.org.uk/geography has a copy of Kevin Connelly’s portrait of Rio and the favela.

http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/w21.htm lists all the UK National Parks

From the Peak Park site – there is a link to worldwide list of NPs.

http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/geographic.html – interesting atlas of the global transfer of information

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html – a list of electronic map sources – but watch for quality

http://www.ordsvy.gov.uk/ - you know who!

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/ - one of the GIS map sites which allows you to put in a post code and create a map!

http://www.cartoonweb.com/main.asp – Ecotoon and Wit of the World are the most useful

Anti-ecohype http://www.ecotrop.org/ from Professor Philip Stott

Bad meteorology and bad science are worth looking at too.

http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/menureso.htm has a great deal of accessible information on development data – including Infonation, an image resource library and global trends – it has links to other UN sites

www.undp.org has the Human Development Reports each year which is the best source of more complex country data.

National and Regional Scale Data is best accessed by downloading spreadsheets from:

www.statistics.gov.uk – take notice of the terms of reference!

www.go-wm.gov.uk/home/index.htm

Local data is patchy but at least you have a chance to find an appropriate contact. Rules of letters still apply be polite, be specific and give plenty of time. Some local government sites are:

www.staffordshire.gov.uk

www.stoke.gov.uk

www.newcastle-staffs.gov.uk

www.staffordbc.gov.uk

www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk

www.lichfield.gov.uk

www.upmystreet.com

www.foe.org.uk/factorywatch

www.sln.org.uk/geography and find GIS for schools

http://www.king.ac.uk/geog/gis_for_teachers/gis_al_geog.htm

If you would like to send me further sites you found useful chris.durbin@staffordshire.gov.uk

You can help your teachers raise standards!

Questions or problems regarding this web site should be directed to kate.russell@staffordshire.gov.uk
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This page last updated 07 December 2000