Week long programmes offered to 11-14 year old pupils each summer. Each course has 25 places offering opportunities to explore natural environments and to develop scientific investigative skills. There is a strong marine biology focus, but freshwater (river and pond), woodland and coastal sand-dune habitats are also visited. Along with habitat explorations, lab exercises, aquarium activities, sand-castle building competitions and artwork, each pupil conducts their own investigative project on an aspect of the natural environment that most interests them. These are submitted for nationally recognised bronze CREST awards, that are awarded by the BA.

This workshop session introduces students to the science of geomatics and gets students to identify how their existing knowledge of geography complements, and can be enhanced by, geomatics. Can also be combined with GPS Orienteering.

This practical, largely outdoor session briefly introduces students to the science of geomatics and goes on to explore the discipline of Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Students will then move outdoors to complete an orienteering and/or mapping exercise using GPS Receivers.

Helping to put the fun back into rocks, learners will be taken on an interactive and practical-based journey around the Earth and the rock cycle. Student involvement with practical models and demonstrations will help to explain the key transitions between the three key rock groups. Sit back and watch the volcano explode as learners grapple with the Earth. A workshop that will go with a bang. Learning themes: Linked to 8G, 8H QCA modules. Learn about major rock forming processes and appreciate how these happen on different timescales. Group activities must be booked at least two weeks in advance. You can book direct by calling 0191 2226865 or by e-mail to stephen.kelly@twmuseums.org.uk

Delivered within your school, this session takes learners on a dramatic exploration of the Earth's history, helping to put a very lengthy and complicated timescale into a snappy, fun and amazing session. Come on a run with us and understand how time has changed. Group activities must be booked at least two weeks in advance. You can book direct by calling 0191 2226865 or by e-mail to stephen.kelly@twmuseums.org.uk.

We start the session by transporting learners into the centre of a Victorian debate, that of an Evolutionist and a Creationist. From here, they will be given the opportunity to explore fossil and contemporary evidence and develop investigative skills similar to contemporary scientists. Using all of this evidence, they will uncover truths surrounding this still controversial topic and make theories of their own. Book this session and get 'A Run Through Time' delivered as a pre-visit session in your school You can book direct by calling 0191 2226865 or by e-mail to stephen.kelly@twmuseums.org.uk

GIS is becoming an intergral part of the Geography curriculum and this exercise is designed to help support the introduction of GIS to your students and/or colleagues.

The session is largely paper-based.  Students will work in small teams (up to 6) and be presented with a wide variety of information about Tyneside, the public transport networks and the Metro light rail system.  Students will be asked to assimilate and analyse the information to determine where an extension to the Metro system could and should go.  After each group has identified a route, the workshop leader will walk the students through a GIS demonstration of the decision making process.

By completing the task in a paper-based environment before seeing a GIS working, the students will understand that a GIS is more than a "map on a computer" and appreciate the potential of these systems.

The exercise was first delivered for the York Geogrpahical Association regional Sixth Form conference in 2009 and received the following feedback:

" This was a practical decision-making exercise based on where to site an extension to the Newcastle Metro network followed by a thought provoking look at the enormous variety of Geography related degrees currently available in the UK. Being able to see GIS used by an expert in a context which was meaningful and accessible to the students was fantastic."

In April 2009, if you used the UCAS website course search tool to look for "geography" courses, more the 1600 different courses were returned!  Why are there so many?  How can your students begin to whittle that down to five entries on a UCAS form?

This half hour presentation explores subjects that are very strongly related to geography and that might offer your students a greater chance of application success and/or a chance to specialise in a geography-related subject that they are particulalry interested in.

Subjects that the talk includes are agriculture, civil engineering, planning, geomatics, environmental science and more.

Newcastle University's School of Civil Enginering and Geosciences can offer free loans of surveying equipment to your school to support fieldwork.  Equipment will be delivered to your school and you return it after an arranged period.  There is no charge for the loans - it is a free scheme!*

You can borrow the following:

• Handheld GPS receivers - great for recording positions of your work and/or points of interest, help to develop map and coordinate skills
• Levels - fantastic for recording profiles.  Out with range poles and clinometers and in with what surveyors use in the field.  Robust and easy to use, they add a professional feel to river and beach work.
• Thedolites - measure horiztonal and vertical angles to record heights, positions and slopes in your fieldwork site.
• Additional equippment - tape measures (up to 30m) and reflective jackets.  The jackets are great if you want to be able to see where your students are quickly and easily in the field.

*We do ask that the kit is insured while you have it and this will normally be covered by your LEA without too much work on your part.  If your LEA wants serail numbers, values etc., let us know and we will send them through to you.  In the Indpendent School sector, schools will normally self-insure the equipment.