A geography podcast for A Level students: Get it in 10

Harri Hegarty, teacher and podcaster 

Harri Hegarty is a geography teacher and the creator of the Get it in 10 podcast which launched earlier this year. Subject advisor Kerry Sage caught up with Harri to hear more about his podcast which is aimed at supporting students with their A Level Geography studies. 

What is the Get it in 10 podcast?

It’s a geography podcast with a simple concept at its core: to teach geography students a key idea in short 10-minute episodes. 

The format is designed to quickly convey an important message, a useful concept, or key information, with the language pitched at secondary school students. Each episode features a different guest from the world of geography, and each series is on a new topic. 

Get it in 10 follows the OCR A Level course, each series is focused on a different part of the syllabus. Students can find and listen to my podcasts on Spotify. All of my podcasts are downloadable and free. 

What made you decide to launch your own podcast?

There are plenty of great resources online, if you know where to look, but they can be either too advanced (often aimed at teachers) or don’t always align with the curriculum. In my own A Level classes I found that podcasts were a great way to enrich student learning. 

In every classroom there are always some students who finish work a lot faster than others, and yet still want more! In my experience it is often these students who succeed with something a little different to capture help their imagination, and that’s where the idea for my first series of student geography podcast came about.

What does Series 1 cover?

Series 1 has been a roaring success and focuses on the optional OCR A Level Global Systems topic, Global Migration. Series 1 consists of 11 episodes, and features 11 different experts from around the world, providing students with valuable context.

Creating the series involved talking to people from many different universities, and from places as far afield as The Hague in the Netherlands and Washington, D.C. in the USA.

Series 1 looks at the key ideas in the specification from general trends in migration to case studies of migration corridors and global migration opportunities and challenges.

What’s the plan for future Get it in 10 episodes?

My goal is to record at least two series every year for students to access and enjoy.

I am currently working on Series 2, titled Hazardous Earth, which will be on physical geography. This will include topics covered in the OCR A Level Physical Systems component (H481/01), and aims to help students develop an understanding of the dynamic nature of landscapes and the water and carbon cycles. It could also appeal to a wider audience of geography, geology and geophysics students. There are 14 episodes scheduled in this series with the first due for release after October half term, featuring Professor Jenny Collier from Imperial.

The podcast series is advertised as a term-time podcast with new weekly episodes. However, researching, preparing, and editing podcasts can be a time-consuming activity. Due to guest availability and workload, there will be some gaps in the schedule, to allow for production time and for the inevitable admin tasks. 

What have you got out of producing these podcasts?

Making podcasts can be intensive and has the potential to be time-consuming. However, I would encourage teachers to consider doing it, or something similar. On a personal level this project was useful for my students, and it has also reignited my interest in the geography subject. Doing something fun and unique outside the classroom, like learning a new skill, can really refresh your spirits. 

This personal venture into podcasting has piqued my curiosity in so many facets of geography and has allowed me to meet some very interesting people, albeit online. If you can think of something work-related, which might personally advance and motivate you, go for it. 

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About the author

Harri Hegarty is a geography teacher and podcaster. His podcast series Get it in 10 is available on Spotify with series 2 due for release in October 2024. Harri has worked in four different schools over this career, for several charities, such as Outward Bound, and as a Project Coordinator for the Royal Geographical Society.