This online continuing professional development (CPD) course for secondary school geography teachers (provided by the Geographical Association) is a good way of looking at big issues such as sustainability in buildings and urban development – subjects that may not have been on the syllabus at university and bringing these topics back to your own students.
Students at the Earthship community centre, Brighton © Alys Tomlinson
It consists of three units and four activities. These focus on rethinking the topic of settlement and revisiting your settlement scheme of work, along with the topic of sustainable communities. There is recommended reading, some of which is presented on screen with a fuller version available via a link, and this is followed by reflective activities. The course, which is easy to navigate, ends with a summary and a section called ‘Develop your thinking’.
‘Places People Want’ would take several hours to do properly. You could do the course as an individual, but would probably get more from it as part of a group so that the reflective tasks become discussion forums. Ideally, a geography department would do the whole course together on an INSET day or spread it across several twilight sessions.
Key stages: 3, 4 and post-16
Key subjects: geography
Built environment education: environmental sustainability, urban and rural planning, community development
Access from the Geographical Association website
Visit the Geographical Association page
