Introduce a huge dollop of fun and adventure into your geography class.
Read on to find out how
Fun and Adventure Guaranteed!
If you can weave fun, adventure and some romance into your teaching, you are going to get the following results:
Raving kids....
cracking amazing grades
resulting in happy parents
an impressed head teacher
and a wonderful legacy
If you want to be the best that you can be, learn all there is to know about your subject, build lasting relationships with the kids, their parents, your colleagues, and want to leave an amazing legacy, then you are in the right place. Being the explorer that you are, I know that you will keep on reading. And what's more, this is all going to be great fun. What is there not to like?
We had a wonderful field trip on the Hilton College Estate with the help of Gerald Davie. We focused on the geology of the area as well as fluvial geomorphology..... He is a passionate geologist who wants to inspire students and bring life to the syllabus.
Karen Koopman
HOD Geography
Hilton College
The boys got to get their hands on different types of rocks and interacted with them firsthand. Gerald’s enthusiasm for the subject matter made the experience really worthwhile. I would recommend him to any schools for any geomorphology presentations.
Matt Savage
HOD Geography
Kearsney College
How do we bring fun and adventure into the classroom?
How do we make your geography lessons so creative, so engaging, and so exciting that the kids can’t wait to get to your class, and the head teacher and your colleagues wonder what is going on down the hallway in the geography classroom?
Rock and Sky is here to help you answer that question.
Keep on exploring!
Becoming an amazing teacher is hard work. You have to make yourself familiar with the syllabus, scour the internet for the information you need, ask for help from colleagues and other teachers on on-line forums and groups, watch YouTube videos, extract material from Wikipedia, and so the list goes on.
Bring the landscape to life
Then there is the issue of real-life examples. It is always easy to default to those that are already documented in the text books or the online equivalent, but what about the local examples that you don't know about, or aren't sure about? And as we all know, local examples bring the landscape to life and adds a degree of immediacy to the subject which the text book examples do not.
Showing real life examples is also a great way of teaching
Bringing real life examples of rocks and minerals into the classroom is also a great way of teaching, but perhaps you don't know the names of the rocks, or what their mineralogy is, let alone their geological history. Which makes you uncomfortable in that space.
Rock and Sky solves all of those problems
Rock and Sky Online Courses
Create amazing lessons with the help of the Rock and Sky online courses. Our courses are structured around the A-Level, Edexcel and IEB geography syllabuses.
The advantages of the Rock and Sky Geography Courses are many, not least of which they have been built by practicing earth scientists and geographers who have many years of experience gained in sometimes challenging environments.
Find out how Rock and Sky is adding immense value to classrooms around the world by clicking on the link below
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We learned so much from the Rock and Sky team - their depth of knowledge is amazing and their enthusiasm is infectious. The kids loved it all.
Anna S - teacher
Rock and Sky School Outreach
One of the most fun things we can do is to spend a morning with you. These outreach programmes allow us to interact with you and the kids, as we bring our unique perspective into the classroom. We talk about plate tectonics, geology and how it affects the geomorphology. We place your school slap-bang centre stage, and refer to local geological and geomorphological features. It is a beautiful thing to see the spark of recognition when we talk about a familiar mountain or landscape.
Once we are done talking, we have rocks and minerals, maps and models to examine, handle and marvel over. Some of these things are almost magical, but I will keep those secrets when we meet in the classroom.
What is more, having an earth scientist confirming what you have been telling the kids all year is priceless. They may disbelieve you when you tell them that a rock is 1.1 billion years old, or that the whole region was once under ice 290 million years ago, but when it comes from the Rock and Sky team, then that is affirmation indeed.
To find out more on our school outreach programme, please click on the link below.
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You have to get the Rock and Sky team to talk at your school. They brought themselves, their enthusiasm, their rocks and their minerals, and kept us entertained, enlightened and engaged for the entire morning. I can't recommend them more highly.
Mary W - teacher
Rock and Sky Teacher Workshop
Why not attend one of the Rock and Sky Teacher workshops? When the text books drone on about hard rock and soft rock, folds and faults, weathering and mass wastage, we do exactly the opposite. By that, we mean that we actually go and see some of these things in the field - things like folds, faults, igneous intrusions, coastal landscapes and river processes. We also bring rocks and minerals, models and maps to the workshop so that you can look, feel, touch, hold, mould, crush and taste some of these things which up until now are just abstractions in the literature.
When you leave you will have had a weekend of fun and enlightenment, and will have your own rocks and minerals to share with your class, a geological map of your school surrounds, and insights into plate tectonics, the rock cycle, faults, folding and how the underlying geology controls the geomorphology.
Find out more about the Rock and Sky Weekend Workshops by clicking on the link below.
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I had an amazing weekend with the Rock and Sky team. We learned so much about our planet, about plate tectonics, different rock types, and actually went to see some examples. Now I know what a fault and an igneous intrusion looks like. This workshop has given me so much more confidence when teaching my class.
Thandi N - teacher
Rock and Sky Field School
Each year we spend 4 days in the most scenic national park in the country. Great scenery is always a product of wonderful geomorphology, which is by extension a product of the underlying geology. The rocks here record the final days of Gondwana and the massive ructions that led to its breakup. Reasons for attending the field school are many, least of which are:
- 190 million years of Earth history written in the rocks
- geological faults
- igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks
- volcanic eruptions
- great examples of mass wastage and rockfalls
- Evolution of landscapes due to uplift and erosion
Find out how you can attend the Rock and Sky Field School by clicking on the link below
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Our four day field school really was a winner. It was hard work, but we saw some fascinating things. We stood on the contact between the Karoo flood basalts and the underlying sandstones and learned how this event heralded the breakup of Gondwana. We put our hands on a fault, walked the dolerite dykes and even visited some dinosaur footprints.
Peter V - teacher
Rock and Sky Lab
We have built a mobile laboratory just for you. It comes in a box - a box full of wonders that provide insights into the physical world. One side of the box is called the Rock Lab, and the other side the Sky Lab. In the box is the following:
- rock, mineral and soil collections
- sieves and a scale for analysing soils
- scoops and an auger for soil sampling
- sample bags and labels
- some simple chemicals for testing soil and rock
- a plane table for making maps
- models of geomorphological features
- a geological map of your region
- a weather station
- infographics
- instructions on how to sample, test and plot up your data
Want to know more about the Rock and Sky Lab, and how it can add another string to your teaching bow? Then click on the link below.
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That Rock and Sky Lab has provided us with all sorts of insights into our world. We can now predict the arrival of a cold front, collaborate with other schools who have the same system, which then brings the synoptic charts to life. Hey,we have even sieved some soils, made our own maps which is great for learning about scales and those knotting problems.
Bradley B - teacher
Who are our courses for?
Geography Teachers
Getting through the geography syllabus is a tough call. Keeping the kids happy and engaged is also tough. Where do you find great local examples of the features you have to talk about in class? What if you don’t even know where to start looking for local examples? Perhaps the talk in the syllabus is just that – lots of text, wonderful diagrams and pictures from some distant place, but somehow so disconnected. If this sounds like you, then the Rock and Sky courses are going to help you climb to the mountain top.
Geography Learners
You signed up for Geography, hoping that it would be interesting and exciting, and now it is just the opposite. No fieldwork, no outings, no real examples in the classroom. Plate tectonics and the rock cycle is a great story, but where are the rocks, and besides, the nearest volcano is hundreds of kilometres away. And who cares about hurricanes – those things happen in the tropics far from my front door. If this is you, then Rock and Sky is here to help by bringing the syllabus to life with fantastic examples, real life people, and grand tales of adventure.
Home Schooling Parents
Being a homeschooling parent is perhaps tougher than being a teacher. Where to find good content that is relevant, syllabus focussed and sufficiently comprehensive to make sure that your kids succeed? Imagine if you could find this all in one place - good examples, great infographics, short videos, tales of grand adventures, mixed in with coaching on how to crack the exams? If this sounds like wonderful stuff, well you would be right, for this is what Rock and Sky is all about.
Home Schooling Groups
Homeschooling comes with its own particular challenges, and as a parent you will have reached out to like minded people for support, feedback and advice. You may be part of a support network already, or a more formalised home-schooling group. Whichever form it takes, your network is already providing advantages in terms of purchasing power, sharing of ideas and resources. Rock and Sky is one resource that you cannot be without so it is well worthwhile adding us to your home schooling mix.
Come Exploring with Us
Whether you are a teacher, learner, or at home schooling the kids, Rock and Sky will be your first port of call for syllabus-focused study material. So be sure to come exploring with us.
Don't miss out
Would you want to miss out on all this amazing material brought to you by the Rock and Sky team? We are earth scientists and film makers passionate about bringing the physical world into the classroom and sharing it with you. Just one click could change your life and the lives of so many kids.
You will leave a legacy
Remember, when we are done, your learners will be cracking amazing grades, the headmaster and parents will be singing your praises, and you will leave a legacy in the lives of those kids for decades to come.
What is there not to like?
Oh Fellow Teacher, now is your time to shine
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Guaranteed
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