Sunday 2 March 2014

Impossible Places

Ideas I came across while updating a Year 9 SOW about 'Impossible Places'...

1. Masdar City

A city in the United Arab Emirates which claims to be the first sustainable and carbon-neutral city. Useful way to start teaching renewable energy (as it relies heavily on solar power) or sustainability.

The videos and links below give an introduction to the city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V7UpFOm8w0

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8586046.stm

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/apr/26/masdar-city-desert-future

2. Neft Daslari

A settlement in Azerbaijan which is an offshore oil platform. It is actually a functional town with over 2000 residents. An interesting place in the world, could be used to teach about fossil fuels and the impact of using oil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neft_Da%C5%9Flar%C4%B1

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/exploring-the-crumbling-soviet-oil-platform-city-of-neft-dashlari-a-867055.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6lGa-Ow8XE

3. This website has some interesting ideas of places that are nearly impossible to get to:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/dray/8-places-that-are-nearly-impossible-to-get-to-and-4666

A range of landscapes and environments, the Yemeni town of Qalansiyah is remote and has some fantastically strange trees.