Year 10 Geography Curriculum Plan
Overview
The department follows the AQA Specification A course. The course is taught in mixed ability groups for 5 lessons per fortnight. Each student has a copy of the textbook ‘AQA Geography A GCSE' by Judith Canavan, Alison Rae and Simon Ross, published by Nelson Thornes.
The full specification can be viewed at the AQA site.The course is modular with the Physical Geography paper (Unit 1) worth 37.5 % of the GCSE. This paper is taken at the end of year 10 in a 1 hour 30 minute examination.
The Physical Units studied are:
Ice on the Land
The Restless Earth
Water on the Land
Unit 2 Human Geography worth 37.5% of the GCSE is studied in Year 11 and examined at the end of the year in another 1 hour 30 minute examination.
The Human Units are:
Changing Urban Environments
Globalisation
Tourism
Unit 3 Local Fieldwork Investigation is worth 25% of the GCSE.
The controlled assessment of this unit requires candidates to use fieldwork to investigate one question or hypothesis at a local scale. Students submit an extended piece of work prepared under controlled conditions.
Year 10 course content
Ice on the Land
The last ice age - time scale and extent. Present extent of ice cover. Evidence of changes.
Glacial Budget - accumulation and ablation, advance and retreat. Case Study: The Swiss Alps
Glacial Processes - Freeze thaw weathering. Processes of erosion, movement and transportation. Deposition.
Glacial Landforms - resulting from erosion. Corries, arêtes, pyramidal peaks, truncated spurs, glacial troughs, ribbon lakes, hanging valleys.
Glacial Landforms resulting from transportation and deposition.
Glacial Landforms on maps. O.S. Map study. Case Study: Nant Ffrancon Valley, Wales.
Alpine Areas - Case Study: Chamonix, French Alps. Attractions for tourism. Social, environmental and economic impact. Management strategies. Avalanche hazards
The Restless Earth
Distribution of plates; contrasts between continental and oceanic plates. Destructive, constructive and conservative plate margins.
Location and formation of fold mountains, ocean trenches, composite volcanoes and shield volcanoes.
Case study of Fold Mountains: The Andes. How they are used; farming, mining, Hydro Electric Power, tourism and how people adapt to limited communications, steep relief, and poor soils.
The distribution of volcanoes. Case study of Mt St Helens - cause; primary and secondary effects; positive and negative impacts; immediate and long term responses. Monitoring and predicting.
Volcanoes and Volcanic Eruptions
The characteristics of a supervolcano and the likely effects of an eruption.
Location and cause of earthquakes. Features - epicentre, focus, shock waves. Measurement using Richter and Mercalli Scales.
Case Study: Kobe and Sichuan. Causes, primary and secondary effects; immediate and long term responses - the need to predict, protect and prepare.
Tsunamis Case Study: The Indian Ocean tsunami - its cause, effects and responses.
