Geography

Head of Department: Miss Alford

Outline of course:

There are three topics, one planned for each of our school terms.

Content:

Autumn term: Rivers and Water – This unit looks at how the environment can be a resource and therefore beneficial to people and also a hazard, which has negative effects on people's lives.

Spring Term: The Impact of People Upon the Natural Environment – This unit deals with the impact of people upon the natural environment and considers the issues through examples taken from the UK and the EU.

Summer Term: The Tropical Rainforest – this unit explores the beauty, fragility, importance and future of this amazing biome

Activities:

• Field work.
• Learn by reference to case studies about the many physical, chemical and biotic processes active within our environment
• Produce field sketches, displays and extended written summaries of findings in the form of structured reports
• Engage in a factory simulation exercise to experience a secondary industrial system, its pressures and challenges

Skills:

• Enquiry process, involving group work
• Map work skills, including latitude and longitude, and topological maps
• Extracting information from a variety of secondary sources
• Role play

Homework activities:

• The pupil will undertake activities at home that will complement and extend the work done in class
• Learn key geographical vocabulary
• Creative writing
• Model making Investigation

Assessment:

• Questioning students during class activities to check knowledge, understanding and skills
• Students will be assessed continually in their learning
• Homework tasks
• Six key tasks

Parental contribution:

• Parental support is encouraged at all times and would typically include:
• Checking their child's exercise book
• Watching geographical programmes with their child
• Encourage their child to read newspaper articles relevant to the area of study
• Helping their child prepare for tests

Useful resources and equipment:

• Key text books include Key Geography and the Geog.series
• Maps, atlas and photographs.ICT and audio-visual equipment
• Digital Camera
• Your child is expected to provide a pencil case containing coloured pencils (not felt tips), a ruler, pencils, eraser, blue or black biros or an ink pen and a basic calculator

Other relevant information:

Good Geographers do not necessarily have encyclopaedic knowledge and recall but know how to find out the answers to queries. They are well organised and keen to make sense of and to recognise patterns, sequences and consequences of natural processes and human activity.