What does the course cover? The programme of study and National Curriculum links

  Course introduction

Read the Course Guide and video call with your tutor

Content:

• How Dr Snow used fieldwork to identify the source of a cholera outbreak, work that eventually led to the building of the London sewage system and improved public health.
• Fieldwork students might undertake, the stages involved and how to write a report.
• GIS – what it is, and how it is used to fight crime.

Topics:

• 1.1 The Fieldwork That Changed the World
• 1.2 What Kind of Fieldwork Will You Do?
• 1.3 What are the Stages in Fieldwork?
• 1.4 A Sample Fieldwork Report
• 1.5 What is GIS?
• 1.6 GIS in Fighting Crime

• Use fieldwork to collect, analyse and draw conclusions from geographical data.
• Interpret maps, aerial photos and GIS.
• Use GIS to view, analyse, and interpret places and data.

Page 6-18

ASSIGNMENT ONE

Content:

• An overview of population growth through history, including the basic principles of how population grows.
• Global population distribution and various reasons for global differences.
• The impact of population growth on resources, other species, and the environment, as well as predictions for the future.

Topics:

• 2.1 How is the Earth’s Population Changing?
• 2.2 So Where is Everyone?
• 2.3 Population Growth Around the World
• 2.4 How is the UK’s Population Changing?
• 2.5 What is Our Impact on Our Planet?
• 2.6 What Does the Future Hold?

• Understand the key processes relating to population growth and distribution.
• Understand how population change interacts to influence and change environments and climate, and how human activity relies on the effective functioning of natural systems.
• Interpret a range of geographical information sources, including maps and graphs. 

Pages 19-32

ASSIGNMENT TWO

Content:

• Learn about Manchester as an example of how British cities grew due to the Industrial Revolution and look at how it has declined and been regenerated.
• Global patterns of urbanisation, including push and pull factors, and the benefits and disadvantages of living in urban areas, including slums.
• How cities can be made more sustainable.

Topics:

• 3.1 How Did Our Towns and Cities Grow?
• 3.2 Manchester’s Story: Part 1
• 3.3 Manchester’s Story: Part 2
• 3.4 Urbanisation Around the World
• 3.5 Push and Pull Factors
• 3.6 It’s Not All Sunshine!
• 3.7 Life in the Slums
• 3.8 How Can We Make Cities More Sustainable?

• Develop knowledge of globally significant places and how they provide a geographical context for understanding urbanisation and sustainability.
• Understand, through exemplars in the UK and Africa, the key processes in urbanisation and making cities sustainable.
• Understand how urbanisation influences and changes the environment. 

Pages 33-50

ASSIGNMENT THREE

Content:

• How waves form and how they shape coastlines, as well as other key coastal processes and landforms.
• Newquay will be used as an exemplar of human activity and impacts in coastal resorts.
• The causes and effects of the December 2013 storm surge.
• Happisburgh and the advantages and disadvantages of using sea defences to protect coastal areas; the factors involved in deciding which areas to defend and which to let go.

Topics:

• 4.1 What Causes Waves and Tides?
• 4.2 What Work Do Waves Do?
• 4.3 Which Landforms Do Waves Create?
• 4.4 What Do We Use the Coast For?
• 4.5 Your Holiday in Newquay
• 4.6 Storm Surge!
• 4.7 How Long Can Happisburgh Hold On?
• 4.8 How Can We Protect Places From the Sea? 

• Understand, through the use of detailed place-based exemplars, the key processes relating to coastal landforms and human use of coastal areas.
• Interpret maps, diagrams and aerial photos.
• Interpret Ordnance Survey maps, including grid references.

Pages 51-68

ASSIGNMENT FOUR

Content:

• What weather is, what causes it, and how heat is carried around the Earth.
• Air pressure, air masses, depressions, rain and tropical cyclones.
• What climate is, and the factors that affect climate, the UK’s climate and climates around the world.

Topics:

• 5.1 Weather: What, Why and Where?
• 5.2 How is Heat Carried Around Earth?
• 5.3 Air Pressure and Our Weather
• 5.4 Why is Our Weather so Changeable?
• 5.5 What’s a Depression?
• 5.6 More About Rain…and Clouds
• 5.7 What’s a Tropical Cyclone?
• 5.8 Climate and Climate Factors
• 5.9 So What’s the UK’s Climate Like?
• 5.10 Climates Around the World 

• Understand the key processes involved in weather and climate.
• Understand the key features of UK weather.
• Interpret local weather maps, global climate maps, satellite images, climate graphs and weather data.

Pages 69-90

ASSIGNMENT FIVE

Content:

• Understanding of how the Earth’s climate has always risen and fallen.
• The factors that influence climate change, including us, and the impacts of human-induced climate change.
• What can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Topics:

• 6.1 Earth’s Climate – Always Changing!
• 6.2 The Climate Detectives
• 6.3 How is the Earth’s Climate Changing Today?
• 6.4 This Time - Is It Us?
• 6.5 Local Actions, Global Effects
• 6.6 What Can We Do? 

• Understand the key processes involved in changes in climate from the Ice Age to the present.
• Understand how human processes influence and change the climate, and how human activity relies on effective functioning of natural systems. 

Pages 91-104

ASSIGNMENT SIX

Asia Content:

• Asia in its world context, before focusing on its countries and main regions.
• How diverse Asia is in terms of physical features, population density, biomes and economy.

Topics:

• 7.1 What and Where is Asia?
• 7.2 Asia’s Countries and Regions
• 7.3 What’s Asia Like?
• 7.4 What are Asia’s Main Physical Features?
• 7.5 Asia’s Population
• 7.6 Asia’s Biomes 

• Develop knowledge of Asia, its physical and human characteristics, environmental regions, countries and cities.
• Interpret maps, graphs, photos and satellite images.
• Communicate geographical information, including through writing at length.

Pages 105-118

China Content:

• An overview of China and its history.
• China’s physical features and population, including life in the megacity of Shenzhen and how this contrasts with rural areas.
• The environmental issues China is facing, and its Belt and Road Initiatives for the future.

Topics:

• 7.7 China: An Overview
• 7.8 A Little History
• 7.9 Mainland China’s Physical Geography
• 7.10 Where is Everyone?
• 7.11 How Shenzhen Became a Megacity
• 7.12 Life in Rural China
• 7.13 What About the Environment?
• 7.14 What’s the Belt and Road Initiative?

• Develop knowledge of China, its physical and human characteristics.
• Understand the contrasts between the massive development of Shenzhen and life in rural China.
• Understand how human processes impact on the environment.

Pages 119–136

ASSIGNMENT SEVEN