Geogra3: Documentaries on Earth's layers, India and urban regeneration

In this month’s Geogra3, I’m sharing three geographical documentaries to help you teach about the layers of the Earth, urban regeneration in Portsmouth and India’s future role as an economic superpower.

Each one of the documentaries also have question and answer sheets that you can find within the GTB vault, helping to save you time with planning and resource creation.

Let’s dive in.

1. Richard Hammond’s journey to the centre of the Earth

Understanding about the layers of the Earth is fundamental to our teaching of plate tectonics.  Richard Hammond explores what is beneath our feet using an impressive 3D virtual Earth, satellite imagery and beautiful locations around the world.  

Richard explores why we have volcanoes, earthquakes and fold mountains, where diamonds come from and what makes the Northern Lights. 

It’s close to an hour long, and can be found on Daily Motion with subtitles (see below), Clickview and it's also on the Educational Recording Agency website.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1cjho2

2. Will India become an economic superpower?

We know that India has overtaken China in terms of population growth, but does that mean the country is on course to become the next biggest economic powerhouse? This video explores the advantages of India’s population structure and its rapid GDP growth, but also considers the country’s challenges with regard to job creation, pollution and education quality.

Despite the rapid development, the video questions whether entire social norms and political outlook needs to change for progress to be sustainable.

The video is 23 mins long and available on Youtube from the Business Beyond series provided by DW (see below):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_SEBHQTGJw

3. UK urban regeneration - Portsmouth

I’ve been doing a lot of wider reading and research in preparation for teaching the A-level unit, Changing Places and have found an excellent couple of clips on the wonderful Time for Geography website.  There’s one on meaning and representation of place, that goes deep into reading and deconstructing the famous Mr and Mrs Andrews painting by Gainsborough.

However, the video that I thought I would showcase, follows on nicely as it considers the idea of redevelopment specifically in Portsmouth.  In the realm of placemaking, with rebranding, re-imaging and regeneration, this video offers a perfect flash case study to illustrate some of the concepts that come up in the Changing Places.  

You can find the 9 minute video here: https://timeforgeography.co.uk/videos-list/cities/urban-regeneration-portsmouth/

Don’t forget, I’ve already created question and answer sheets to go alongside each of these programmes so you don’t need to feel guilty about using video in the classroom!  

There is a whole library of over 90 different resources in the Geography Teacher Box vault, helping you to claw back valuable time to spend with your family and friends.  

Teaching is a job; don’t let it take over your life!