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Last updated 18 November 2009
Archive of News 2007

Report from the Second Global Economic Geography Conference, Beijing 2007

In 2007 the Auckland branch of the Society provided Steffen Wetzstein a grant in aid to assist with conference attendance at the Second Global Economic Conference in Beijing. In return Steffen has provided this report on his conference experience. We are sure you will enjoy his insights. If you are an Auckland member and would like to apply for funding see the Auckland branch page for details.

Distinguished Geographer Medal Recipients, a new Life Member and 2007 President's Awards

Warwick Murray, President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, Dick Bedford and Eric Pawson, Distinguished Geographers, Eugene Rees, President's Award for Best Doctoral Thesis, and Michael Shepherd, Honorary Life Member, at the recent AGM.
Eric Pawson and Dick Bedford were awarded Distinguished Geographer's Medals at the NZGS AGM in Canterbury, on Wednesday 21 September, 2007. Congratulations and best wishes to Eric and Dick who have served our subject with distinction over many years. Further information is available here.

Dr Warwick Murray received his President's Award for Teaching Excellence and Dr Eugene Rees received his President's Award for Best Doctoral Thesis in Geography at this meeting also. Warmest congratulations to both Eugene and Murray.

Dr Michael Shepherd was made an honorary Life Member in appreciation for his dedicated services to the society. Further information is available here.





Return to a Pacific Paradise
Kenneth Cumberland, one of our life members, wrote the following account of his return trip to Samoa after a 51 year absence. We are sure you will enjoy his account and the insights it provides. Ken is now a spritely 93 years old.

Archive of News 2008

Sad news

Life member, Leigh Pownall, has died, aged 87. He was professor of Geography at Canterbury University (1960-1961) and Vice-Chancellor from 1961-66). He was an early advocate of systematic town planning and his work in the 1970s as the Chair of the Planning and Environment Commission of NSW  led to the planned development of Sydney and NSW. He was awarded a life membership of the Society in 1961.

Professor J.W. Fox died early in August, 2008. Professor Jim Fox was part of the formative years of the Geography Department (along with Professor Kenneth Cumberland) at Auckland from 1947 to 1963 and was awarded life membership of the Society in 1963.

Jeff Pepper was made a Life Member in 2005 and died suddenly on 28 August, 2008 while on holiday in England.  He made a tremendous contribution to secondary school Geography during his teaching (1971 to 1990), Senior Lecturer in Social Science Education at the Christchurch College of Education (1990 to 1994, and from 2000 as Academic Dean, School of Secondary Teacher Education), and was appointed to the staff of NZQA in 1994.


Geographers Honoured in the New Year's Honours List

Congratulations to Dick Bedford who has been appointed as a Companion to the Queen's Service Order for services to geography and to Graeme Campbell who was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to conservation. Both Dick and Graeme have been acknowledged by the NZGS as Distinguished Geographers   for their outstanding contribution to our discipline and to society. It is wonderful to see their contributions acknowledged at the highest level.

Emeritus Professor Peter Holland awarded a Distinguished Geographer Medal at AGM 2008.

The Society AGM was held in Dunedin at Otago University on Wednesday 24 September from 4.30 - 5.10pm in  Room 5N4, Richardson Building, Department of Geography. Please find the Minutes of this meeting attached. The AGM was followed by a lecture by Dr Janet Stephenson "Understanding the Elephant: the role of collaborative research in the energy transition". At the conclusion of the lecture Emeritus Professor Peter Holland was awarded a Distinguished Geographer Medal in recognition of his contribution to Geography and society.

Year 12 National Geography Photographic Competition 2008

This competition is open to Year 12 students from member schools.There was a good level of interest in the competition again in 2008. Again there is ample evidence from the photos submitted that Geography teachers in New Zealand expose their students to some fantastic field work opportunities in a variety of environments.  Determining winners was a challenging job. Those that were successful were judged on how well their photos reflected the theme - "My Interacting World". First prize is $250 and there are four runners up prizes of $50 each.

1st prize: Sean Clynes (Glenfield College)

Runners Up:
Tanui Ashok (Queens High School)
Candy Tana (Okaihau College)
Lauran Brown (Marian College)
Alana MacGregor (Burnside High School)

Maatangi Whenua Competition 2008
Annette Lanigan (Chair, NZBoGT), Duncan Wilson, Nathaniel Christensen, Andrew Dysart, (John McGlashan College) and Don Campbell, (teacher).

The Maatangi Whenua competition is run by NZGS and NZBoGT, and is open to Year 11 students from member schools. The annual competition includes a regional round and then a finals round which was held in Wellington on 21-22 September. In 2008 the competition was won by John McGlashan College, by team members:  Nathan Christensen, Andrew Dysart, Duncan Wilson. The Society would like to thank all participants and their teachers, for a great competition and extend their congratulations to John McGlashan College (1st), Otumoetai College (2nd) and Riccarton High School (3rd).  

1st John McGlashan College. Team members: Nathan Christensen, Andrew Dysart and Duncan Wilson.

2nd   Otumoetai College   Team members: Dylan Cliff, Carl O'Neill, Evan Staats.

3rd   Riccarton High School  Team members: Connor McIver, Janty Post, Timothy Wong.

Individual placings: 

1: Andrew Dysart, John McGlashan College,

2: Nathan Christensen, John McGlashan College,

3: Conner McIver, Riccarton High School

Current Network - November 2008

Year 12  Photographic Competition


This competition is open to Year 12 students from member schools.There was a good level of interest in the competition again in 2008. In all, 50 photos were received by 20 Year 12 Geography students from 11 schools. Again there is ample evidence from the photos submitted that Geography teachers in New Zealand expose their students to some fantastic field work opportunities in a variety of environments. Determining winners was a challenging job. Those that were successful were judged on how well their photos reflected the theme - "My Interacting World". First prize is $250 and there are four runners up prizes of $50 each.

1st prize: Sean Clynes (Glenfield College)

Runners Up:
Tanui Ashok (Queens High School)
Candy Tana (Okaihau College)
Lauran Brown (Marian College)
Alana MacGregor (Burnside High School)

This competition will run again next year - look for the details and entry form in the Network for term 1 2009. They will also be available on the NZGS website School Competitions page. Teachers - don't forget to make the details known to your students early on next year, so that they can take relevant photos on your field trips in 2009.

Maatangi Whenua Competition 2008

Annette Lanigan (Chair, NZBoGT), Duncan Wilson, Nathaniel Christensen, Andrew Dysart, (John McGlashan College) and Don Campbell, (teacher).

The Maatangi Whenua competition is run by NZGS and NZBoGT, and is open to Year 11 students from member schools. The annual competition includes a regional round and then a finals round which was held in Wellington on 21-22 September. In 2008 the competition was won by John McGlashan College, by team members:  Nathan Christensen, Andrew Dysart, Duncan Wilson. The Society would like to thank all participants and their teachers, for a great competition and extend their congratulations to John McGlashan College (1st), Otumoetai College (2nd) and Riccarton High School (3rd).  

1st John McGlashan College. Team members: Nathan Christensen, Andrew Dysart and Duncan Wilson.

2nd   Otumoetai College   Team members: Dylan Cliff, Carl O'Neill, Evan Staats.

3rd   Riccarton High School  Team members: Connor McIver, Janty Post, Timothy Wong.

Individual placings: 

1: Andrew Dysart, John McGlashan College,

2: Nathan Christensen, John McGlashan College,

3: Conner McIver, Riccarton High School

International Geography Olympiad Tunis 7 – 12 August 2008
New Zealand entered a team of four into the International Olympiad held in Tunisia in August this year. The team was accompanied by Anna Wilson, Hutt Valley High School and Lex Chalmers, Waikato University. The team performed very creditably and gained a silver and two bronze medals. For a full report on their adventures see the School Competitions page.

Transport NZ Year 13 Geography Competition (formerly Planning and Decision Making)


This competition was won by Carley Sheerin, Katikati College. Runners up: Nicky Wilcox and Abbey McMillan, both from Chilton St James School in Lower Hutt. Further details are available on the School Competitions page.
EXITO Waste Management kit - OMISSION ALERT Level 1 Internal Assessment Resource

PRINTING ERROR - The last three pages (13, 14 and 15) were omitted in the printed booklet.  The items omitted: Marking Schedule for Task 3 and end judgement.

Fortunately the CD included in the kit has complete files of all the material to be printed.  Please go to:

Folder 1 WM Resources; then Level 1 Assessment Resource and you will find Pages 13, 14 and 15 (Task 3a, 3b and Judgement Record Summary)to download and print.

2008 GIS in Schools Institute

This seminar has been postponed from the original proposed dates 4-6 October 2008, due to insufficient numbers of participants. For further information please email institute2008@gismaped.co.nz.

 This workshop could be for you if you are:

  • Interested in improving spatial awareness and spatial analysis in Social Studies, History, Geography or Earth Sciences
  • Interested in increasing the ICT content of your school programme
  • Interested in using and creating maps on the computer
  • Interested in real-world interactive inquiry learning
  • Teaching any year level from Y6 -Y13
This GIS Institute will be using Arcview GIS 3.2 and ArcView 9 .  Teachers who attend need to be able to work with some confidence in a Microsoft windows environment.

For further information about course costs and registration please click here.

Curriculum project-Update

NCEA assessment Snippets

Results of the Exam Survey


EXITO Quarrying Kit Update
Gold Mining
Grey River dredge to start up again in early 2007. The Grey River gold dredge plans to begin operating in February 2007 following the recent increase in gold prices.
See http://www.crownminerals.govt.nz/news/news.asp?newsID=362242433
 
CD Rom on Global Disparities
The Global Education Centre has produced a CD Rom and poster to support the teaching of standard 2.3 Disparities in Development. Full Advertisement.

Virtual Fieldtrips for Mining Topics
LEARNZ has produced a series of virtual fieldtrips. See http://www.learnz.org.nz/ or phone 0800 22 55 53 for details. For further information see the attached -full advertisement.



Archive of News 2009

Sad News
Joy Macaulay, wife of Life Member John Macaulay, died suddenly this week (end of January) at her home in Christchurch. Joy worked in a low key but very supportive role for the GRC between 1985 and 2001.