SUBJECT AIM
IGCSE Geography encourages learners to raise questions and to develop and deploy geographical skills, knowledge and understanding. This in turn fosters pupils’ interest in, and enthusiasm for, understanding the geography of the planet. Pupils will be given the opportunity to explore a wide range of concepts through the investigation of contemporary geographical issues affecting real people in real-life case studies.
WHAT YOU WILL STUDY
IGCSE Geography is a 2-year course that offers pupils the opportunity to study a range of both human and physical geography themes as well as having the opportunity to complete a fieldwork investigation. The themes covered are economic activity and energy, coastal environments, urban environments, hazardous environments and development and human welfare. Learners will explore geography from a diversity of perspectives, including social, economic, cultural and political.
HOW WILL YOU BE ASSESSED
Paper 1 – Physical Paper | Paper 2 – Human Paper |
1 hour and 10 minutes (40%) Candidates answer 3 questions in total, 2 from section A and 1 from section B. | 1 hour and 45 minutes (60%) Candidates answer 4 questions in total, 2 from section A, 1 from section B and 1 from section C. |
WHAT THIS SUBJECT CAN LEAD TO
· A wide variety of potential careers including (but not limited to): Town Planner, Geography Teacher, Meteorologist and Climatologist, Vulcanologist, Tourism Industry, The Foreign Office, Environmental Agencies, Resource Management
· A deeper and better understanding of, and tolerance for, people, places and cultures around the world.
· A desire to help look after our planet for the benefit of future generations.
Useful websites:
Edexcel International GCSE Geography (2017) | Pearson qualifications
Please click on the arrow for a detailed breakdown:
| THE LEARNING JOURNEY FOR GEOGRAPHY | |||||
| Topic | Lessons | Additional Detail | Length of time. | Possible Symbol? | Learner Attribute(s) |
| Economic Activity and Energy | 1. Employment Sectors | 9 lessons | Currency symbols | Caring | |
| 2. Economic changes overtime | |||||
| 3. Factors affecting economic activity | |||||
| 4. Positives and negatives of sector shifts | |||||
| 5. The informal economy | |||||
| 6. Population and resources | |||||
| 7. Energy demand and production | |||||
| 8. Sustainable energy | |||||
| 9. Carbon footprint | |||||
| Coastal Environments | 1. Physical processes | 17 lessons | Knowledable | ||
| 2. Wave types | |||||
| 3. Erosional landforms | |||||
| 4. Depositional landforms | |||||
| 5. Physical factors affecting the coastline | |||||
| 6. Human activities affecting the coastline | |||||
| 7. Coral reefs location and characteristics | |||||
| 8. Coral reefs under threat | |||||
| 9. Protecting coral reefs | |||||
| 10. Mangroves location and characteristics | |||||
| 11. Mangroves under threat | |||||
| 12. Protecting mangroves | |||||
| 13. Coastal flooding | |||||
| 14. Preventing flooding | |||||
| 15. Hard and soft engineering | |||||
| 16. Coastal conflicts | |||||
| 17. Management strategy case study | |||||
| Fieldwork | 1. Physical fieldwork – coastal environments | 6 lessons | Inquier | ||
| 2. Human fieldwork – urban environments | |||||
| 3. Unfamiliar fieldwork | |||||
| Urban Environments | 1. Urbanisation and megacities | 9 lessons | Balanced | ||
| 2. Problems with rapid urbanisation | |||||
| 3. Urban land use patterns | |||||
| 4. Urban challenges in a developed country | |||||
| 5. Urban challenges in an emerging country | |||||
| 6. Developments on the urban fringe | |||||
| 7. Sustainable urban living in a developed country | |||||
| 8. Sustainable urban living in an emerging country | |||||
| 9. Key stakeholders | |||||
23-24
| Topic | Lessons | Additional Detail | Colour Code | Length of time. | Time Save Tips | Integrated Skills | Skills to be taught; | Where? | |
| Rivers | 1. Traffic solutions Mumbai (Settlement tidy up) and environmental impacts of urban sprawl | 6 hours including assessment. Finish by 22/09 | River on a map. Relief and height of land. | Compass Directions (16 point) | |||||
| 2. Formation og levees and floodplains and deltas. | 4/6 figure grid reference | Coasts | |||||||
| 3. Causes and impacts of flooding | Pakistan. | Straight line distance | |||||||
| 4. Opportunities of living near a river | CS. Pakistan. | Curved Distance | |||||||
| Scale/conversions | |||||||||
| 6. Management Strategies of rivers | CS. Pakistan. | Cross Section | CW | ||||||
| Contour Lines | Industry | ||||||||
| Map Symbols | Throughout | ||||||||
| Skecth Map | CW | ||||||||
| Give brief descriptions of basic landscape features using suitable geographical terms (such as ridge, plateau, scarp, flood plain) and simple adjectives showing an appreciation of their nature (such as broad, flat, steep-sided, deeply cut, gently sloping) | Coasts/Farming | ||||||||
| Weather and Climate | 1. What is weather? Collecting weather data | 11 hours including assessment. Finish by 27/10 | |||||||
| 2. What is weather? Recording weather data | |||||||||
| 3. Clouds and rain | |||||||||
| 4. Climatic Factors | |||||||||
| 5. Equatorial Climate | |||||||||
| 6. TRF Ecosystem; climate, natural vegetation, soil and wildlife | |||||||||
| 7. TRF Case Study: Borneo. Threats and management | |||||||||
| 8. Desert Ecosystem; climate, natural vegetarion, soil and wildlife | |||||||||
| 9. Desert Case Study; TBC | |||||||||
| Coursework | 1. Hypothesis/Aims/Geographical Theory | 8-10 hours Finish by Friday 8th December. | |||||||
| 2. Methodology write up | |||||||||
| 3. Data presentation cont. | |||||||||
| 4. Data Presentation cont. | |||||||||
| 5. Analysis | |||||||||
| 6. Analysis cont. | |||||||||
| 7. Conclusion | |||||||||
| 8. Evaluation | |||||||||
| GCSE Mocks 2 weeks? | |||||||||
| Development | 1. Indicators of development | 5 hours. Finish by 26th January | Taught in ‘lecture style’ to reduce time. | ||||||
| 2. Inequalities between countries | |||||||||
| 3. What is globalisation and why is it increasing? | KO | ||||||||
| 4. Impacts of Globalisation | |||||||||
| 5. Case Study: TNC (Boohoo) | |||||||||
| Food Production | 1. What are the different types of farming? | KO All | 5 hours. Finish by 9th February | ||||||
| 2. Farming as a system and Case Study | Lake District, UK | ||||||||
| 3. Food Shortages: Human and Physical Causes | |||||||||
| 4. Case Study Sahel: Causes, Impacts, Solutions | |||||||||
| 5. Assessment for Development and Food Production | |||||||||
| Industry | 1. What are the different types of industry and their manufacturing components? | KO all | 3 hours. Finish by 23rd February | Could be HT Homework with green penned in lesson. | |||||
| 2. What factors impact industry location? | Contour lines. | ||||||||
| 3. Case Study: Pakistan | |||||||||
| Tourism | 1. How and why tourism has changed over time? | 4 hours. Finish by 8th March | |||||||
| 2. What are the different types of tourism and the positives and negatives of this? | |||||||||
| 3. What is sustainable tourism? | |||||||||
| 4. Tourism Case Study: Dubai | |||||||||
| 5. Assessment of industry and tourism | |||||||||
| Energy | 1. Energy sources and change in demand over time | KO. | 4 hours. Finish by 22nd March. (Spring Break) | Potential time saver could be to set as homework as students cover this in science so have prior knowledge. | |||||
| 2. Nuclear Energy: what, positives and negatives | |||||||||
| 3. Advantanges and idsadvantages of renewable energy | |||||||||
| 4. Case Study: Geothermal and HEP in Iceland | |||||||||
| Water | 1. Water supply: how and factors affecting it | Set as homework over Spring Break | Spring Break/Eid Homework | ||||||
| 2. Solutions to water supply issues | |||||||||
| 3. Case Study: Lesotho | |||||||||
| Environmental Risks | 1. What are the environmental risks? | 3 hours. Finish by April 19th | |||||||
| 2. What is climate change and the impacts of it? | |||||||||
| 3. Sustainable Development Case Study: Pearl River |
|
24-25
| Topic | Lessons | Additional Detail | Colour Code | Length of time. | Possible Symbol? | Learner Attribute(s) |
| Hazardous Environments | 1. Types of hazard | 12 lessons + 1 lesson for 12 markers | Volcano | |||
| 2. Earthquakes | ||||||
| 3. Earthquake in a developing country case study | ||||||
| 4. Earthquake in a developed country case study | ||||||
| 5. Tsunamis | ||||||
| 6. Volcanoes | ||||||
| 7. Volcanic hotspots | ||||||
| 8. Volcano case study | ||||||
| 9. Tropical storm formation | ||||||
| 10. Tropical storm case study in a developing country | ||||||
| 11. Tropical storm case study in a developed country | ||||||
| 12. Living in hazardous areas | ||||||
| Development and Human Welfare | 1. What is development? | 11 lessons | ||||
| 2. Natural factors contributring to development | ||||||
| 3. Human factors contributing to development | ||||||
| 4. Development indicators | ||||||
| 5. Patterns of uneven development | ||||||
| 6. Development case study | ||||||
| 7. Comparing development | ||||||
| 8. Reducing uneven development | ||||||
| 9. Types of aid | ||||||
| 10. Differing views on development | ||||||
| 11. DTM |