Image of the month archive 2003

Geo Image Library - Image of the month archive 2003

If you have a contender for image of the month, please send your image for inclusion here to Kate Russell . It must be your own copyright of a web image we can link to.

December 2003 The Cranberry Harvest
one element of the Christmas Dinner explained.

	1. First find a bog in New England, USA. 2.Surround it with a bank. 3. Then flood your bog.
	4. Then take a water combine harvester and churn away.
	5. Let your cranberries float to the surface. They are less dense than water.
	6. Then gather them in with a boom.
	6. Then pump them out and pump the water back. 7. Take them to the factory where they are tested for bounce. The dud ones don't pass the ramp and hurdle test.
More from the Cape Cod Growers Association at www.cranberries.org	8. They are turned into juice, sauce and sold fresh in punnets and exported to the UK. Thanks to Howard Bagshaw for these stunning photographs.

October/November The worst is the best
H is Hurricane or T is for Tropical Storm

This dramatic photograph of Hurricane Isabel was sent in by Christopher Kelly. It has stayed as 'Image of the Month' because like many of us, including me, we were duped. We might be shocked but we can also use it as an opportunity.

Thanks to David Rayner of www.georesources.co.uk for alerting us to the fact that sad to say, this is a fake image. It has been doing the rounds on the internet for a few years and every so often it resurfaces with a different title. The originator is unknown. More importantly, I am reliably informed by people more expert than me that it does not show a hurricane. One of the key clues to the 'fakeness' is that the sea is far too calm for a ship in this position plus it is highly unlikely that the captain would be steaming towards the hurricane - unless he had a deathwish of course. This website gives what is known about the image and is interesting in itself: http://www.snopes.com/photos/isabel.asp

The worst are the best
As an educator, geographers need to take on board 'critical enquiry' at all ages. This is vital in the campaign for creating critical and discriminating citizens. The web is already a source for pupils at home. I have a view that as teachers, we must juxtapose good and bad sources to help young people discriminate between them. There are several 'quotations' that can be used as hypotheses to investigate such as: 'The camera never lies!' or 'Never let the facts get in the way of a good story'. This hurricane will become a stimulus for a web enquiry shortly. These 'awful' sources are the best for critical enquiry because we can easily juxtapose sources which cast doubt.

September 03 A is for Archipelago

Can we create the visual geography dictionary on line. Here is the first entry. Please send your entries to chris.durbin@staffordshire.gov.uk

Archipelago - An archipelago is a group or chain of islands clustered together in a sea or ocean.

The Stockholm's Archipelago [Skärgården] is a seascape of forested and rocky islands. islets and skerries. MS Vaxen is one of the ferries that 'buses' people too and from the islands. Her it passes through a narrow channel between two island on its way from Stockholm to Sandhamn.

June July 2003 - What has James Bond got to do with geography? - One of the most awe inspiring places on earth - what are yours?

SLNgeography@iceland2003 went to Jökulsárlón a periglacial lake with calving icebergs from a valley glacier - an outlet of the Vatnajökull icecap. It was used to film a scene in "A view to a kill" - and a "Die another day" a apparently they wasted 7 Aston Martin Cars. This photograph is in summer rather than in winter when the movie was filmed.

Click here or on the image for some photo enquiries and splendid trips to Iceland.

May 2003 What is natural and what is human here? When is a tree not a tree?

Thanks to Gavin Richards www.geoexplorer.co.uk for this great image from Thailand.

More about it later in the month. Answers on the forum please. If any has got any more of these 'tree' pictures, let us have them!

Here is number two - from where? It's not what you see it's what you don't see that is at issue.

April 2003 The Cannock Chase Twister

This believe it or not was a twister over Cannock Chase in1999. Thanks to a pupil, his Grandfather and Gail Wilkes from Hayes Meadow Primary School near Rugeley for sending it in. If people have other pictures of this or other extreme weather events we would be grateful to receive them.

More information can be found at: http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~brugge/snow-thunder.html

March 2003 Comic Relief

Check ut the PwerPint presentatins for Cmic relief to find out mre!

http://www.rednoseday.com/schools/assembly/index.shtml

February 2003 Patterns in the sand - What caused this?

Thanks to Noel Jenkins from Hampstead School for alerting us to this. Geography is about patterns at a micro and a macro scale. More about it all at http://www.geography.ndo.co.uk/deathvalley.htm

January 2003

How high is one of the highest hotels in the world? The answer is 4390m

Thanks to Gavin Richards from www.geoexplorer.co.uk and friends and colleagues in the Himalayas for this. A great picture capturing one of the highest hotels in the world. It is from some geography teachers who are currently travelling around the world for a year and mail me a regular diary and photos of their travels which is featured on the GeoExplorer site http://www.geoexplorer.co.uk/sections/diary/diary.htm

The Himalaya Hotel is in a very small settlement called Thare at 4390m in
the Gokyo valley in the Khumbu region (Everest region). It is not the highest hotel in the area, there are higher ones at Gokyo at 4800m and at Gorak Shep (5170m) near Everest Base Camp. It is however the most basic hotel in the area ! Therefore I declare David R the winner!

This page last updated 18 July 2004