Kate Humble joins a team of geologists on a journey right to the heart of one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
On the island of Tanna in the Vanuatu archipelago lies Yasur - a volcano that erupts constantly, firing out red-hot lava bombs and showering the island in thick black ash. To discover whether another devastating eruption might happen, the team needs to collect a lava bomb the minute it is hurled from the crater.
As they prepare for their death-defying mission, Kate explores the island and discovers how the volcano shapes the lives, traditions and beliefs of everyone who lives in its shadow.
Written in Publisher and formatted to A3, the resource can be saved as a PDF for A4 printing
Geologist Professor Iain Stewart shows how the continent of Africa was formed from the wreckage of a long-lost supercontinent. He discovers clues in its spectacular landmarks, mineral wealth and iconic wildlife that help piece together the story of Africa’s formation. But he also shows how this deep history has left its mark on the modern-day Africa and the world.
Iain starts at Victoria Falls, with a leap into the water right on the lip of the 100m waterfall. Hidden within this cliff face is evidence that the falls were created by vast volcanic eruptions 180 million years ago, marking the moment when Africa was carved from the long-lost supercontinent of Pangaea and became a separate continent.
The creation of Africa had a surprising impact on evolution. At the pyramids of Giza in Egypt, Iain finds marine creatures that reveal that this part of Africa was once a shallow sea that formed when Africa was created. And within the arid Western Desert, he reveals 17m-long skeletons of early whales revealing how land-dwelling mammals were lured back into the shallow seas created by the birth of the African continent, leading to the evolution of whales.
At the diamond mines of Sierra Leone, the vast gravel pits once fuelled the devastating civil war. These diamonds reveal not just the very earliest origins of the land that makes up Africa today, but how the very first continents came into existence.
On the Serengeti Plains the wildebeest migration is fuelled by a process that will eventually lead to Africa’s destruction. Every year the wildebeest return to give birth in an area of nutrient-rich grass growing on fertile volcanic soil and ash and lava from the nearby volcano reveals that beneath Africa there lies a mantle plume of molten rock. This volcanic upwelling is so strong that scientists predict it will one day tear the ancient continent of Africa in two.
Written in Publisher and formatted to A3 the resource can be saved as a PDF for A4 printing
BBC - Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey Episode 3
Right now you’re hurtling around the sun at 64,000 miles an hour (100,000 kms an hour). In the next year you’ll travel 584 million miles, to end up back where you started.
Presenters Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski follow the Earth’s voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, to witness the astonishing consequences this journey has for us all.
In this final episode we complete our journey, travelling back from the March equinox to the end of June. Kate Humble is in the Arctic at a place where spring arrives with a bang, whilst Helen Czerski chases a tornado to show how the earth’s angle of tilt creates the most extreme weather on the planet.
written in Publisher and formatted to A3 the resource can be saved as a PDF for A4 printing
Andrew Marr - Mega Cities - Ep1 - Living in the Cities - Worksheet to support the BBC documentary
‘For the first time in history, more people live in cities than the countryside. Across the globe, we have 21 cities with more than 10 million people, and these numbers are set to increase - busy, noisy, crowded megacities are the future. In a fascinating three-part series, Andrew Marr finds out how these heaving mega-metropolises feed, protect and move their citizens.
In the first episode, Andrew looks at how people live in five of the world’s biggest megacities: London, one of the world’s oldest megacities; Dhaka, the world’s fastest-growing megacity; Tokyo, the largest megacity on Earth; Mexico City, one of the most dangerous cities in the world; and Shanghai, arguably the financial capital of the world.’
The worksheet is written to provide independent learning and enrichment opportunities through a variety data collection and analytical tasks.
The worksheet has been written in Publisher to an A3 format but can be amended and printed as a PDF to accomodate A4 printing. I have included an A4 Word document version to allow for use in Google Classroom
Richard Hammond -Wild Weather - Ep2 - Water: The Shape Shifter - Worksheet to support the BBC Documentary
‘Richard Hammond investigates the crucial role water plays. Without water there would be almost no weather: no rain, no snow, no hail, no clouds. So Richard goes in pursuit of water in all its forms. He tries to weigh a cloud, finds out how rain could crush a car, and gets involved in starting an avalanche’
Iain Stewart travels across mountain ranges and glaciers to reveal ten remarkable stories about avalanches.
Over a million avalanches happen throughout the world each year, and yet we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the chaotic turbulence inside an avalanche. Scientists have had to put themselves right inside a raging avalanche to find out more.
Stewart shows how the deadliest avalanche in history killed 18,000 people in three minutes; how Hannibal’s army was devastated by avalanches as he crossed the Alps to fight Rome; why an avalanche was key to one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time; and how global warming may increase the rate of ice avalanches in the future.
Written in Publishers and formatted to A3 the worksheet can be edited and saved as a PDF for A4 printing
BBC - Extinction - David Attenborough - Worksheet to support the BBC Documentary
With a million species at risk of extinction, Sir David Attenborough explores how this crisis of biodiversity has consequences for us all, threatening food and water security, undermining our ability to control our climate and even putting us at greater risk of pandemic diseases.
Extinction is now happening up to 100 times faster than the natural evolutionary rate, but the issue is about more than the loss of individual species. Everything in the natural world is connected in networks that support the whole of life on earth, including us, and we are losing many of the benefits that nature provides to us. The loss of insects is threatening the pollination of crops, while the loss of biodiversity in the soil also threatens plants growth. Plants underpin many of the things that we need, and yet one in four is now threatened with extinction.
Last year, a UN report identified the key drivers of biodiversity loss, including overfishing, climate change and pollution. But the single biggest driver of biodiversity loss is the destruction of natural habitats. Seventy-five per cent of Earth’s land surface (where not covered by ice) has been changed by humans, much of it for agriculture, and as consumers we may unwittingly be contributing towards the loss of species through what we buy in the supermarket.
Our destructive relationship with the natural world isn’t just putting the ecosystems that we rely on at risk. Human activities like the trade in animals and the destruction of habitats drive the emergence of diseases. Disease ecologists believe that if we continue on this pathway, this year’s pandemic will not be a one-off event.
Written in Publisher and formatted for A3 printing, the resource can be saved as a PDF for A4 printing
The worksheet is a 3 page resource
Richard Hammond -Wild Weather - Ep3 - Temperature: The Driving Force - Worksheet for the BBC TV Documentary
Written in Publisher to for A3 formatting editable and savable as a PDF for A4 printing. A Word version is provided for ease of upload to Google Classroom
Richard Hammond -Wild Weather - Ep1 - Wind: The Invisible Force - Worksheet to support the BBC Documentary
Richard Hammond investigates how wind actually starts. He visits one of the windiest places on the planet, walks into the centre of a man-made tornado and creates a 10-metre high whirlwind - made of fire!
Andrew Marr - Mega Cities - Ep2 -Cities on the Edge - Worksheet to support the BBC documentary
*'For the first time in history, more people live in cities than the countryside. Across the globe, we have 21 cities with more than 10 million people, and these numbers are set to increase - busy, noisy, crowded megacities are the future. In a fascinating three-part series, Andrew Marr finds out how these heaving mega-metropolises feed, protect and move their citizens.
*‘Love them or loathe them, fear them or embrace them, the megacities are the human future of the planet. 'They are also Man’s biggest and most dangerous social experiment yet.’
The worksheet is written to provide independent learning and enrichment opportunities through a variety data collection and analytical tasks.
The worksheet has been written in Publisher to an A3 format but can be amended and printed as a PDF to accommodate A4 printing. I have included an A4 Word document version to allow for use in Google Classroom
Andrew Marr - Mega Cities - Ep3 -Sustaining the City - Worksheet to support the BBC documentary
‘In this film, I’m going to be asking how our megacities can survive without having a colossal heart attack. Motorways, the freeways, the railways below us are the veins and the arteries. But all round the world, these arteries are getting clogged up and congested.’
Worksheet to support the BBC David Attenborough Documentary - Climate Change the Facts.
The worksheet is written to support the viewing of the documentary and involves a variety of data collection , interpretation and map work activities.
The worksheet is written in Publisher and formatted to A3. It can however, be saved as a PDF file for A4 printing
More than half of us now live in cities. Crowded, chaotic and bursting with life - these are places under pressure. In this series, Dan Snow, Anita Rani and Ade Adepitan go behind the scenes to reveal the hidden systems and armies of people running some of the greatest cities on earth.
This time, they are in Hong Kong, where space is at a premium and real estate is the most expensive in the world, so Ade heads into the high rises to find people living in tiny spaces no larger than a cupboard. This former British colony, handed back to the Chinese in 1997, is a city driven by trade and commerce and Dan discovers how it is adapting to life in China’s embrace, while Anita learns about the city’s many traditions - from bamboo scaffolding to banishing bad spirits on the daily commute. Ade heads to the races at Happy Valley, and Dan discovers the history of the origins of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation - HSBC. Hong Kong is crowded, chaotic and facing an uncertain future. How does this city of contrasts manage the delicate daily balancing act that keeps it on track?
This worksheet is written in Publisher and formatted to A3. It can be edited and saved as a PDF for A4 printing
Iain Stewart reveals the stories and science behind some of the world’s most dramatic earthquakes, including how 1960s Cold War spying gave scientists a clue to understanding them.
Iain Stewart looks at some of the world’s most dramatic earthquakes and reveals the stories and science behind them. In seconds, these powerful forces of nature which cannot be predicted or prevented can shake a town to destruction and shift the landscape forever. We discover why quakes can last 60 times longer on the moon than on Earth, how one particular earthquake fault line can produce hallucinations, and how 1960s Cold War spying gave scientists a crucial clue to understanding them.
Written in Publisher and formatted to A3 the worksheet can be saved as a PDF and printed as A4
Ray Mears explores how 500,000 square miles of flat, treeless grassland was the setting for some of the Wild West’s most dramatic stories of Plains Indians, wagon trains, homesteaders and cattle drives.
Ray joins the Blackfeet Indian Nation as they demonstrate bareback riding skills before a ritual buffalo hunt and sacrifice, and learns how their ancestors were dependent upon the buffalo for their survival. He follows in the wagon ruts of the early pioneers along the Oregon Trail and hitches a ride on a prairie schooner with wagon master Kim Merchant. He discovers the stories of the early homesteaders who lived in sod-houses and farmed the wild grassland around them.
At a cattle auction in Dodge City he explores the story of the railways, cow-towns and the buffalo massacre. His journey across the Great Plains ends at Moore Ranch where he joins a long-horn cattle drive and learns about the life and myth of one of the Wild West’s most iconic figures, the cowboy.
Written in Publisher and formatted to A3 the document can be fully edited and saved as a PDF for A4 printing
Mexico City World’s Busiest Cities - Worksheet to support the BBC Documentary
This time, Dan Snow, Anita Rani and Ade Adepitan are in Mexico City, uncovering the hidden systems and armies of people that help run this sprawling megalopolis of over 22 million people. It is crowded, it is congested and this haphazard city sits in a major earthquake zone, but the people here have a strength of spirit that allows them to defy everything nature can throw at them.
Anita discovers how they are trying to stop this megacity from drowning in its own waste, while Ade heads to the edge of the sprawl to find out about the daily struggle for clean, affordable drinking water. Dan reveals how you build a skyscraper in an earthquake zone and learns the hard way that Mexican street food can be hot! Mexico City has grown at a staggering pace. How on earth does this epic sprawl survive its many daily battles?
In Mexico City, Dan Snow, Anita Rani and Ade Adepitan uncover the hidden systems and armies of people that help run this sprawling megalopolis of over 22 million people.
Written as a PDF
Tsunamis - 10 Things You Didn’t Know About… Worksheet to support the BBC Doc with Iain Stewart
Iain Stewart journeys across the oceans to explore the most powerful giant waves in history, with ten remarkable stories about tsunamis.
These massive waves can be taller than the biggest skyscraper, travel at the speed of a jet plane and when they reach land, rear up and turn into a terrifying wall of water that destroys everything in its path. These unstoppable, uncontrollable forces of nature caused the ruin of an entire ancient civilization, may have played a small part in the demise of the dinosaurs, and in World War II were used as a weapon. Yet astonishingly, two men who surfed the tallest wave in history - half a kilometre high - survived.
Written in Publisher and formatted to A3 the worksheet can be edited and saved as a PDF for A4 printing
Two hundred million years ago the continent we know as Eurasia - the vast swathe of land that extends from Europe in the west to Asia in the east - didn’t exist.
To reveal Eurasia’s origins, Professor Iain Stewart climbs up to the ‘eternal flames’ of Mount Chimera in southern Turkey, blazing natural gas that seeps out of the rock. Formed on the seafloor, it shows that where the south of Eurasia is today, there was once a 90-million-square-kilometre ocean known as the Tethys. It is the destruction of the Tethys Ocean that holds the key to Eurasia’s formation.
In the backwaters of Kerala in southern India, he finds evidence of how that happened, in the most unlikely of places: the bones of the local fishermen’s catch. The freshwater fish called karimeen shares anatomical features with another group of fish that live in Madagascar, evidence that India and Madagascar were joined. India was once 4,000 kilometres south of its current position on the other side of the Tethys.
As it moved north, the ocean in front of it closed. And as it collided with the rest of Eurasia the impact built the Himalayas, the greatest mountain range on Earth. Professor Stewart reveals how the mountains aren’t simply pieces of the land pushed upwards. In fact the rock that forms them was once the floor of the Tethys Ocean.
As Eurasia assembled, Arabia, Greece and Italy too moved north, completing the continent we know today and creating a mountain chain that spans the continent. And it was in the shadow of these mountains that the continent’s first civilisations rose.
But the formation of Eurasia is just the beginning, because the process that formed it is still active today. On the island of Stromboli, Italy’s most continually active volcano, the spectacular eruptions show that the ocean floor is being pulled beneath Eurasia. It is this process that closed the Tethys, and today is closing the Mediterranean, revealing Eurasia’s future. 250 million years in the future all of the continents will collide together once more, forming a new Pangea, with Eurasia at its heart.
Written in Publisher andformatted to A3 the resource can be saved as a PDF for A4 printing
Human Planet: Change and Sustainability - Worksheet to support the BBC Documentary
Linked to the KS3 curriculum, this programme looks at how humans have learnt to live with extremes and covers five themes: sustainable waters, pastures, cities, forests and arctic.
The worksheet contains a variety of dat collection activities, map and flag work along with opportunities for extended explanation and analysis
Written in Publisher and formatted to A3 it can be edited and saved as a PDF for A4 printing
Written to support the 2006 Shift happens film (with a link to the YouTube film) the worksheet supports the films content with a mixture of comprehension and higher order questions tailored to the more able or as a flipped learning activity, having students consider the process and impact of exponential change and the impact globalisation will have on their lives.
I use the resource to introduce the Industrial Revolution and its lasting legacy as the changes and pace of change contiune to the present day
Written in Publisher and formated to A3 this resource can be saved as a PDF for A4 printing