Years 11 Geography Curriculum Plan

Overview
The department follows the OCR Specification A course. The course is taught in mixed ability groups for two lessons per week. Each student has a copy of the textbook, A new introduction to Geography for OCR GCSE Specification A, which they use throughout the two years.

The four units of the specification are:

People and the Physical World.
People and Places to live.
People and their needs.
People and the Environment.

The scheme of assessment consists of coursework (25%) and terminal examinations (75%).

For the terminal examinations, Papers 1 (Foundation Tier) and 2 (Higher Tier) last two hours and assess candidates' knowledge and understanding and carry 50% of the total assessment. Paper 1 contains four questions, one for each unit of the specification content. Paper 2 contains eight questions, two from each of the four units of the specification content. Candidates answer one question on each unit.

Papers 3 (Foundation Tier) and 4 (Higher Tier) assess candidates' understanding and skills. These include the interpretation of maps, including Ordnance Survey maps at 1:25000 and 1:50000 and photographs, which may include satellite images. Each paper lasts 1 hour and carries 25% of the assessment. Each paper contains two questions which may link the physical and human Geography in the specification content and candidates will be required to answer both questions.

Topics Covered

Population

Population distribution - Factors affecting population density.
Population issues.
Family Planning in China - One Child Policy.
Changing populations - Population Structure. Population Pyramids.
Migration. Push and Pull Factors.

Settlement

Urbanisation. Rural to urban migration. Improving squatter settlements.
City structure in MEDCs - CBD. Rural Urban Fringe.
Traffic in urban areas.
Rural settlement in the UK.

Coasts

Wave power - destructive and constructive waves, swash and backwash.
Erosion - hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition, solution.
Features produced by erosion - arches and stacks.
Features produced by deposition - beaches, spits, bars, tombolos.
Coastal defences on the Holderness Coast of Yorkshire.

Quality of Life

Indicators of development - MEDC v LEDC.
Industrialisation and Economic growth.

Farming

Farming as a system.
Commercial farming in an MEDC.
Subsistence farming in an LEDC.
The Green Revolution - Case study.
Changes in Farming in MEDCs.
Environmental impact of farming.

Industry

Location of Industry.
Distribution Industry.
Manufacturing Industry - Case Study BMW.

Tourism and its effects

Effects of tourism in an MEDC.
Effects of Tourism in an LEDC.

Energy

Changing energy use in the UK - Case Study.
Meeting future energy demands - Non renewable energy. Renewable energy.
The impact of coalfield closure.
Industrial decline and redevelopment.

Plate tectonics

What causes volcanoes and earthquakes?
Plate boundaries - Map. Constructive. Destructive. Conservative.
Earthquakes - Causes . Effects. Case Study San Francisco 1989.
Volcanoes - Case Study Mount St Helens.
Living in areas of risk.

Local Environment

Limestone.
Tropical Rainforests - Vegetation. Case Study The Amazon Rainforest.
National Parks, land use conflicts.
Water Pollution - Case Study The Guadiamar River.

The Global Environment

Acid rain - causes.
Global warming - The Greenhouse Effect.

Rivers

Hydrological cycle - The Drainage Basin System.
River processes - Erosional Processes.
Transport processes.
River deposition - Flood Plains, Deltas, Levees.
River landscape features - Erosional Features Interlocking spurs, meanders, V- shaped valleys, waterfalls.
River Regimes - Flood Hydrographs.
River flooding in MEDCs and LEDCs.

Useful Geography Websites:

Bitesize
Internet Geography
Geography in the News. Login required.

GCSE Coursework

Overview
The students complete one piece of coursework which should normally be 2500 - 3000 words in length and represents 25% of the scheme of assessment. The aim of the study is to delimit the CBD of Lytham.

Students carry out a number of fieldwork exercises to obtain primary resources such as pedestrian counts, land-use maps and field sketches on a field-trip in June.

The first two hypotheses of the study are teacher-led and the students are provided with a booklet on how to produce a piece of geographical coursework. A wide range of geographical techniques are obtained from low to high order skills, for example pie charts, stacked bar charts, isoline maps and Spearman-Rank correlations.

In September, the students return to Lytham to collect data for a third hypothesis which is a completely individual piece of work, required by the board to access the highest marks. Students are given two weeks lesson time prior to the fieldtrip for preparation and two weeks lesson time afterwards for the collection of group data and explanation of techniques. Students are set deadlines for each section, for example, Introduction, Methods etc. and a final handing-in date which is set for November.