The Geography Collective

Help us give every school in the UK a copy of Mission:Explore Food Taster

Daniel — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:18:52 +0000

We’ll create a printable version of Mission:Explore Food and send it to every school in the UK for free if we hit our crowd funding target by the end of February.

Mission:Explore Food Taster will be bigger than our other books, include over 150 missions (including recipes) and be available in a printable PDF that can be freely copied and printed in schools. The Taster book will be a lite version of the main book but still include chapters on growing, harvesting, cooking and eating food as well as waste and soil.

If we fail to meet our crowd funding target then everyone will get their money back. If our target is met we will contact over 25,000 UK schools offering them the free lite version of the book and make it available through selected teaching resource websites.

Help us to bring this awesome resource to schools and you can claim some great rewards for yourself too.

For more details and to pledge your support, please click here. As little as £1 can help.. yes, just £1!

Please help us to spread the word so that we can help to make this happen.

Society of Authors and ALCS on announcing Mission:Explore as a runner up for the Educational Writer of the Year 2011..

“Mission Explore by the Geography Collective and published by Can of Worms Press was ‘mischievous, quirky and fun. full of truly challenging, thought provoking and slightly bonkers activities. Nicola Davies particularly liked the ‘Mint Stint’ which asks readers to see how far they can cycle sucking the same mint, giving page space for the route maps of three attempts.’ But the judges admired the book as being a lot more than frivolous entertainment , liking the way it fosters an attitude of observation , enquiry and engagement with the world,, asking children to interact with their environment, interact question it and think about it – and to play with ideas, places, objects - a playful approach that is the foundation of all creativity.”

Help Mission:Explore Food now!

Urban Story Walks: Degrees of London.. now has a finishing point

Daniel — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:02:56 +0000

I’m very pleased to say that we’ve got a big room in Ye Olde Cock Tavern on Fleet Street for the Degrees of London exploration on March 10th. Apparently this pub was used by Samuel Pepys, Alfred Tennyson and Charles Dickens…

We will use the space to project pictures from our explorations that day and share any words and artwork on its walls.

It’s free to join this epic day. Just click here to sign up.

Help make the next Mission:Explore book… today!

Daniel — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:23:51 +0000

You can help bring Mission:Explore Food to life!

We’re very excited about the next Mission:Explore book. Focusing on food, it’s going to be very different from all the other cookbooks for children and families that are currently on shelves. Yes we’re going to have some great recipes, but we’re also going to be honest about where food comes from… and where it goes to. The book will explore ethical, healthy and tasty eating through our much loved mission-based approach to playful learning.

For the book to happen we need your help. We’re crowd funding the book and must hit our target otherwise everyone gets their money back. We’re not asking for something for nothing though… everyone who chips in will get one of many great rewards.

PLEDGE £1.00 OR MORE

The recession busting package for those who can’t afford £20. You’ll get our thanks in a beautiful email, we’ll do a jig and you can have an optional kiss too!

PLEDGE £20.00 OR MORE

A signed book + a surprise + an invite to the launch party + your name listed in the book as a patron of the culinary arts

PLEDGE £30.00 OR MORE

A signed book + a surprise + an invite to the launch party + an eBook edition + a limited edition Mission:Explore Food poster + your name listed in the book as a patron of the culinary arts

PLEDGE £50.00 OR MORE

A signed book with your name in it! + a surprise + an invite to the launch party + an eBook edition + a limited edition Mission:Explore Food poster + a copy to be donated in your name to a children’s charity + your name listed in the book as a patron of the culinary arts

PLEDGE £100.00 OR MORE

A signed book with your face in it.. + a surprise + an invite to the launch party + an eBook edition + a limited edition Mission:Explore Food poster + a copy to be donated in your name to a children’s charity + your name listed in the book as a patron of the culinary arts + an illustration of your choice going into the book. This could be you, your pet, a place, banana, your kid or a larger goat.

PLEDGE £250.00 OR MORE

A signed book with your face in it.. and 10 extra books! + a surprise + an invite to the launch party + an eBook edition + a limited edition Mission:Explore Food poster + a copy to be donated in your name to a children’s charity + your name listed in the book as a patron of the culinary arts + an illustration of your choice going into the book. This could be you, your pet, a place, banana, your kid or a larger goat.

PLEDGE £500.00 OR MORE

School or Organisation Pack + eBook editions for every family in your school or organisation + an invite to the launch party + 20 signed books + 20 limited edition posters + your name listed in the book as a patron of the culinary arts

PLEDGE £1000.00 OR MORE

School or Organisation Experience Day + A one day visit from the Mission:Explore team to run workshops and play games. You will need to cover travel expenses. + eBook editions for every family in your school or organisation + an invite to the launch party + 20 signed books + 20 limited edition posters + your name listed in the book as a patron of the culinary arts.

These are some fantastic offers, but if all you can afford is £1 (or $1.50) then just having your personal support and vote of confidence would be wonderful.

We’re currently 12% funded with 38 days to go. Thank you everyone who has helped so far!

Thank you so much for reading this blog post and we do hope that you will take a moment help make Mission:Explore Food.

Help now

Playful geographies – Love Outdoor Play passes to Play England

Daniel — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:21:13 +0000

Play is deeply linked to geography. From being immersed in deep play and imagining alternative worlds to evading capture in foreign territories while playing hide and seek, play is one of the most enjoyable engagements we ever have with our world(s). It’s also an immensely powerful way to learn about people, social interactions, communication, risk-taking, management, fear, love, worms, trees, strangeness, experimenting, science, being creative and so much more. Despite all of the known advantages of outdoor play many children do not have the opportunity experience it as much as they should do.. and would want to.

That’s why we started Mission:Explore, our playful guerrilla geography project. It’s also why we started Love Outdoor Play, a campaign to bring communities together in order to help create the conditions in which children could play outdoors more.

I’m very pleased to say that from today the Love Outdoor Play campaign is being led by Play England. They are backed by the Free Time Consortium of 17 organisations with a total of £3 million of new funding. This is awesome and fantastic news that is to be celebrated. The work is going to focus on providing opportunities and activities for children to enjoy play more. For full details visit the new Love Outdoor Play blog here.

We will still be supporting Love Outdoor Play however we can, not least with the Mission:Explore website and books. Our very best wishes go out to Play England and the Free Time Consortium at this exciting time.

M:E at the Outdoors Show

geoblogs — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:32:49 +0000

After spending time at BETT launching the two new sets of missions with our new Challenger partners (see previous blog post) I travelled across London to ExCeL to the massive Outdoors Show to join Dan Ellison and Tom Morgan-Jones on the Mission:Explore stand…

We were rather busy helping young explorers to fly spaceships, make explorer helmets and generally provide different ways of viewing the great outdoors….

Mission:Explore and the Geography Collective will also be at the Education Show on March 15th-17th – look out for us in Innovation Alley !!

New challenges: GeoVation and Ordnance Survey – win money for your school

geoblogs — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:27:07 +0000

Alan Parkinson from the Geography Collective was at the BETT Show in London yesterday, presenting a seminar on the work of the Geography Collective in influencing creative curriculum design.
Thanks to Paul Heinrich of NAACE for chairing the session.
Here’s an embedded version of the presentation that Alan used, with some formatting issues on some slides – apologies for the way that it’s viewed in Slideshare…

M:E for BETT12

View more presentations from GeoBlogs

The presentation also saw the launch of two new sets of missions with our partners GeoVation and the Ordnance Survey.

The GeoVation missions offer a chance to win money for the school by exploring a problem related to the idea of FOOD.

From the GeoVation blog:

During a presentation at the BETT Show on Saturday 14 January Alan Parkinson from Mission:Explore will start the GeoVation challenge which will ask children to identify a food related problem in their community, think of a solution and come up with a plan for executing it.The best plans that also make use of Ordnance Survey mapping can win a slice of funding to help turn them into a reality. Children in Key Stages 2, 3 and 4 can enter by doing a series of three GeoVation missions on Mission:Explore to win a GeoVation badge and then completing and entry form.

The Ordnance Survey Missions are called SHARE THE VIEW. They are pinned to around 800 VIEWPOINTS all over the UK, and offer the chance to share your view – not necessarily just a picture of the view, but your impressions on the view…

Finally, thanks to those people who came along to the seminar and said some kind words about it.

Thank you so much to Nick Gibbs, Cath Prisk, Helen Jarvis, darren moore, Steve Bunce, Phil Jones, Niamh Carey, Matthew Pod, Helen Leigh Steer, Rachel Goddard, Clare Rishbeth, Jenny pickerill, Caroline Room, David Pickles, Richard Allaway, David & Hilary, kye askins and Janet Townsend for helping us to fund Mission:Explore Food.

Daniel — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:47:54 +0000

We’re so pleased to have so much support for Mission:Explore Food. We’re over 10% funded now and that’s all down to these wonderful people being so supportive. Thank you!

With 52 days left to contribute to the crowd funding of Mission:Explore Food, we’d love to add your name to the increasing list of supporters. The 320 book is going to be priced at £20.. contribute £20 to the crowd fund and you’ll get a signed copy of the book, an invite to our book launch, a surprise and free delivery. There are lots more levels that you can pledge at though… and rewards that include someone of your choice being illustrated into the book.

Please contribute to Mission:Explore Food now.. here.

The Very Wasteful Caterpillar

Daniel — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:40:08 +0000

This is one of the new characters that will be featuring in Mission:Explore Food, the next book in the series. We hope you like them… If you do, why not chip into our crowd fund and help to reveal the The Very Hungry Caterpillar for what (s)he really is!

http://www.pleasefund.us/projects/missionexplore-food

Thank you!

Nature reserve? Museum? Learning destination? Charity? Host a free Mission:Explore Mission Making and activity creation camp

Daniel — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:47:44 +0000

It’s now free for charities, not-for-profits and public sector organisations* to create missions, trails, games and activities on Mission:Explore, our social gaming and learning platform. The website can be used by partner Challengers to make missions that can be done ‘anywhere’ or mapped to specific places. You can make a nature trail or create a game, with points being awarded to young people each time they complete one of your missions.

We are now offering a limited number of free Mission Making Camps for organisations. The bespoke camp will cover everything you need to know to get start with Mission:Explore and include time to make missions that meet your needs. For us to run a Mission Making Camp for free your organisation will need to host the camp and invite at least four other organisations to take part.

For further information and to book your Mission Making Camp please contact me directly at daniel@missionexplore.net.

*This offer excludes schools.

A little video describing Mission:Explore Food

Daniel — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:45:59 +0000

Please support us here.