Geogra3: Three geography competitions for students

Welcome to this week’s Geogra3 which is all about geography competitions that you could get your students involved in, over the last few weeks of term.

1. The Urban Redesign Project

This first competition is brought to you from MEMF (My Environment My Future) which is an educational programme for schools sponsored by the Chartered Surveyors Training Trust (CSTT).  I first found out about this at the Geographical Association Conference and I was amazed at the quality of resources they have to support the teaching of GCSE and A-level Geography. 

However, what I really liked is their Urban Redesign Project.  This project challenges your Year 9 students to transform their urban environment and design a proposal.  Each entry submitted before the 21st of July will receive feedback from industry professionals and a certificate. 

The key details are available in this document.

Alternatively, send an email to info@memf.careers to request further information or you can find out more about it by registering on their site first here: https://memf.careers/memf-userregister/

They are also looking for schools to pilot their new sustainability club programme called Get Zero.  The have an app and a series of 8 workshops to follow in the form of an extra-curricular club and you can express an interest on their site: https://memf.careers/resources/get-zero/ (but make sure you register first to access the info). 

2. The Young Geographer of the Year Competition

Every year the Royal Geographical Society runs this competition and provides 4 categories of entry from KS2 to KS5. 

The theme for 2023 is “A blueprint for the future” asking students to come up with innovative ideas to address problems in areas such as food production and supply, energy and sustainability, water security, resources, population growth, economic crisis, transport, travel, urbanisation, risk management, trade, environmental management, biodiversity and more. 

The deadline for entry is Monday 2nd October so it’s perfect if you need to set students enrichment opportunities over the summer, especially those going from year 11 to year 12.  More information can be found here: https://www.rgs.org/schools/competitions/young-geographer-of-the-year/2023-competition/

And you can also look at previous winners to see the sort of thing they’re looking for.

3. Physical geography student photo competition

This is the 8th year that the Geographical Association has run this competition and this year the theme is “Mobile Earth” and students are being asked to show or convey movement of Earth material(s), or a landform or feature produced by materials movement, or evidence of a process or an agent that causes movement of Earth materials. 

Examples include 

• Beach
• River sediments
• Sand dune
• Landslides
• Slope collapse
• Glacial moraine

The photograph needs to be accompanied with its (precise) location and up to 250 words that ‘show and tell’ the physical geography, describing the focus your example and explaining what it reveals and/or demonstrates about the mobile Earth, and how the movement happened.

The deadline is 30th September 2023 and full guidance can be found here: https://geography.org.uk/physical-geography-student-photo-competition/

I hope those suggestions help keep students engaged in the coming weeks and offer a bit more excitement in your lessons! 

It would be great to see your entries so please consider emailing me (nicola@thegeographyteacherbox.com) or popping into the Facebook group to share what you’ve been up to.

PS - I love nothing more than supporting Geography teachers as we are a pretty awesome bunch.  

So here are five ways that I can help you….

• The GTB Vault - Classroom-ready presentations and worksheets so you never need to feel guilty about showing a video in class again! New pick up and go lesson resources added every month.
• Changing China - a set of 10+ classroom-ready lessons for students aged 11-44, with homework activities and an assessment PLUS a set of Youtube lessons that you can provide for absent students.
• The Geography Teacher Box bookstore - boost your subject knowledge while supporting local independent bookshops
• Tote-ally Geography - A newly created store with tote bags designed specifically for geography teachers.
• Connect with other like-minded Geography teachers and share resources (suitable for teachers of students aged 11-18) - The GTB Facebook Group