That Blue Square Thing

Economic Activities Resources

Superstore in BecclesSome ideas here, including the Coventry Supermarket work, a bit about Norwich Riverside and some resources I used a while back whilst teaching about Chocolate. Yes, chocolate!

The Fashion industry page is also more specialised and has some quite interesting ideas on it.

Coventry Supermarket DME Resources:

I originally produced these years ago but have sent them to a few people and figured they'd be better off stuck on the web somewhere.

The idea is applicable in lots of different places and to lots of different development issues - it could be a housing development next to the A63 in Selby, the development of a new football stadium on the outskirts of Bristol or a new industrial development on the edge of Odense.

The files are image files for no reason other than that I lost the original word versions but fortunately had a scan I'd made. I've used this with Year 9 and Year 10 students, but it's adaptable for lower year groups as well I reckon.

image iconThe Tasks sheet - there are lots of different ways you could ask these questions

image iconThe Speech Bubbles sheet - speech bubbles were always used well in the AQA C spec DME and I've always felt they're a helpful way to present points of view to students. Of course, getting them to write their own speech bubble (or a series of them - perhaps to form a conversation) is a good idea as well.

image iconThe Maps and Photos sheet - there's an OS map on here which I must get around to doing something copyright-ish with at some point. There are also some images from Google Earth - of course, using Google Earth or Google Maps directly would be even better. It would also be nice to have your own photos of any development.

The idea here will, of course, apply just as well to any area. Your home town would be even better than Coventry in some respects - although watch local knowledge creeping in rather than the resources being used directly. Sometimes you want that, but in a real GCSE exam, for example, it's actually a disadvantage to have a case study chosen which is too local to you as markers can only credit use of the resources provided.

Here's a link to the site on Google MapsExternal link icon. As of 2022, it appears that there was some sort of construction going on on it - more up to date OS maps suggest that this has been completed. It might be worth using Google Earth to capture some older satellite imagery of this.

And here's a link to the historic OS mapsExternal link icon at the wonderful National Library of Scotland.

Norwich Riverside:

pdf iconNorwich Riverside Revision sheet. This is getting on a bit now but might be useful for someone.

The Location of Silicon Chip Factories

image iconThis is a copy of a map I developed for an exam paper. For lots of technical reasons I feel I can present it here. It shows, well, where silicon chip factories are located. More or less.

The Chocolate Industry

These were developed as fairly simple resources I could use with Year 9. The chocolate industry has lots of good stuff to teach about, and it can be linked to Fair Trade stuff too.

MS Powerpoint logoThe £1 bar of chocolate - a simple Powerpoint to explore where the money you pay in the shop goes. For the life of me I can't recall where I got the information from...

MS Powerpoint logoFair Trade - am I bothered? An introductory Powerpoint. I think this could be tweaked around a little now - too much text in places I think

pdf iconChild Labour - a resource sheet which can be used to help answer some of the questions on the Fair Trade - am I bothered Powerpoint

MS Powerpoint logoCocoa producing countries - oh, a one slide Powerpoint with a list of countries on it. Hmm, this must have been useful for something or other - perhaps a mapping task?

MS Powerpoint logoThe chocolate production process - another single slide Powerpoint which might be useful to explain quite what goes on. I think I used it as a way to get into primary, secondary and tertiary industry perhaps.

MS Powerpoint logoThe Fairtrade chocolate investigation - oh yes, a subtle way of encouraging the eating of chocolate in class!

MS Word iconChocolate Results Sheet - needed for the fairtrade chocolate investigation!