Geography

Meet the Team

Faculty Leader: Miss L Whitehouse whitehouse.l@welearn365.com

Deputy Faculty Leader: Miss K Taylor taylor.k7@welearn365.com

The Team:

Introduction

Geography will help students to be curious and enthusiastic about the ever changing World we live in.  It will equip students with knowledge and understanding of human and physical processes and how they interact.  Students will develop a range of skills and will be encouraged to think critically about the issues facing the planet at a variety of scales and how they can develop sustainably.

Why it is important to study Geography?

Geography is a topical subject, bridging the arts and sciences. It helps students understand the social, economic and physical forces and processes affecting the Earth and provides knowledge about diverse places, people, resources, and natural and human environments.  A wide range of transferrable skills are developed in Geography through classroom teaching and fieldwork opportunities.

What do we study in Geography?

Year 7

  • Fantastic Places – Examining a range of diverse places to improve geographical knowledge of place and human and physical processes.
  • Guide to the Galaxy – Developing key geographical skills from mapping, grid referencing, climate graph construction, contour lines and choropleth maps. Designed to prepare learners for fieldwork and presentation of data.
  • Food for Thought – Exploring the geography of the food we eat. From the way climate affects crop growth to how technologies are helping us adapt to feed our growing population.
  • Coasts – Processes that affect the geology of our coastline, the landforms that are created and how we are managing our coasts to prevent erosion.
  • Weather – Examining how the difference between weather and climate and how weather is measured. Investigating the physical and human factors that change climate and how we are responding to extreme weather events.
  • Cities – Exploring the formation of cities, the effects of megacities, how migration affects cities, how cities have been changed by the loss of industries and what is being done to manage their growth.

Year 8

  • Ice Age – Geological processes that influence cold landscapes, landforms created by glaciers, how we adapt to cold environments and how landscapes are managed to respond to climate change.
  • Migration – Examines the causes of national and international migration, how population structure changes due to migration, the effects of migration and how migration is being managed in developed and developing countries.
  • Rivers – Investigates the processes that affect the shape of rivers, the landforms created by river processes and how hard and soft engineering is used to manage river flooding.
  • Crime – Causes of crime and how they vary across the globe, the effects of crime within Mexico and Birmingham and how both areas respond to rising crime rates.
  • Rainforests and Deserts – Characteristics of a desert and rainforest, how animals and plants adapt to these biomes, the effects of human interaction with these ecosystems (deforestation and desertification) and how rainforests and deserts are being managed.
  • Tourism – Explores how tourist locations are created, how National Parks are used and managed, the effects of man-made tourist attractions and how tourism is being made sustainable.

Year 9

  • Restless Earth – Examining plate tectonics, the characteristics of plate boundaries, the creation of volcanoes and the effects of their eruptions, the causes and the effects of earthquakes, and the effects and responses to tsunamis.
  • Fashion Victim – Defining the different types of industries, investigating the causes and effects of de-industrialisation and globalisation, how transnational companies (McDonalds and Nike) affect countries they operate in.
  • Energy – Definitions of the different types of energy.   How non-renewable energy is used, the effects of its extraction, and the impacts of its use. How new technology such as nuclear and fracking are impacting the environment and people.
  • Brazil – Locational factors that influence the development of Brazil, the physical, economic and political factors that influence Brazil’s growth. How Brazil’s growth has affected the people and the environment and how it is being managed.
  • UK Challenges – Investigating the political and social issues affecting the UK such as population and energy. How the two speed economy is being managed through HS2. How sea level rise are impacting upon flooding and storms in the UK.
  • China – Locational factors that affect China’s growth, how political and social issues such as the one child policy have contributed to China’s development, how China is managing the increasing demand for sustainability.

Year 10 and 11

Specification: Edexcel Geography A

Three written examinations.

Paper 1 lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes, it is worth 37.5% of the qualification and has 94 marks.  It includes the following units:-

  • The Changing Landscape of the UK –The UK’s main rock types will be identified, the role of geology and tectonic processes in forming distinctive landscapes and how human activity changes these landscapes will be examined. Physical processes shaping rivers and coasts, the effects of the UK’s weather and climate on these landscapes and how our coasts and rivers can be managed will be explored.
  • Weather hazards and Climate Change – How and why climate varies across the globe, the human and physical causes and the impacts of climate change on both the UK and the rest of the World will be discussed. The climate of the UK, why it varies regionally and why it has changed over time will be examined.  The formation and impacts of tropical storms, the causes and effects of drought and the responses to these extreme weather events will be investigated in areas at different levels of development.
  • Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management – The role of climate in influencing the ecosystems of the World, the importance of the biosphere to people, what the ecosystems of the UK are (including marine ecosystems) and what they are like will be researched. Tropical rainforests and temperate deciduous woodlands will be investigated in terms of their key features, adaptations, interactions and interdependence, the threats to these biomes and sustainable management of them.

Paper 2 lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes, it is worth 37.5% of the qualification and has 94 marks.  It includes the following units:-

  • Changing Cities – Factors causing and affecting the rate of urbanisation in emerging, developing and developed countries will be researched.  The site, connectivity and structure of Birmingham and Mexico City, the effects of national and international migration on these cities, the issues created by their growth and the management of them to improve sustainability and quality of life will be contrasted.
  • Global Development – Measures of development, causes of the development gap globally and in the UK, consequences of uneven development and strategies both top down and bottom up to reduce the development gap will be examined. India is the main case study in this unit.  How India’s location, the interaction of social, economic and demographic factors and the role of geopolitics and technology on its level of development will be investigated together with the impacts of rapid development on the people and environment.
  • Resource Management (Energy option): – The classification of natural resources, resource distribution globally and in the UK and the patterns of food, energy and water consumption will be studied.  Non-renewable and renewable energy developments, changes in demand and supply in the last 100 years and the views of stakeholders (individuals, organisations and governments) will be researched.  The impacts of energy use on people and the environment, the role of new technologies such as fracking to manage resources and sustainable strategies in China and Germany will be examined. 

Paper 3 lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes, it is worth 25% of the qualification and has 64 marks. It includes the following units:

  • Geographical Investigations, Fieldwork: Section A will focus on a physical investigation (river study at Carding Mill Valley) and section B will focus on a human investigation (urban area study at Birmingham city centre).  Questions can be asked on any aspect of the investigation, for example, planning the investigation, the enquiry questions, data collection both primary and secondary, presentation techniques, data analysis, how physical and human processes interact, conclusions and the overall evaluation of the study.
  • Geographical Investigations, UK Challenges. Questions will be asked on one of the 4 topics below:

The UK’s resource consumption and environmental sustainability challenge. This topic explores the changes in the UK population over the next 50 years and its impact on resource consumption and the pressure it places on ecosystems.  A range of options for national sustainable transport schemes in the UK are also examined.

The UK settlement, population and economic challenges. The ‘two-speed economy’, the development of greenfield site and redevelopment of brownfield sites, and patterns in migration and the views of different stakeholders are explored.

The UK’s landscape challenges. Approaches to conservation and development of UK National Parks and managing river and coastal UK flood risk are studied.The UK’s climate change challenges.  Uncertainties about how global climate change will impact on the UK’s future climate. Impacts of climate change and responses to it at a local and national scale are investigated.

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