Key Stage 4

Qualification

GCSE (Edexcel B)

Geography looks at the issues that are facing people in all parts of the world today.

• Find out more about how people use different environments all over the world.
• Will the Earth be able to provide us with all the resources we take for granted now?
• Is global warming happening? How will it affect the Earth?
• Where should we build the new houses we need? Should the countryside be protected?
• What sort of jobs will there be in the future? Where will they be?
• How can people cope with 'natural disasters' like floods and earthquakes?

Curriculum

Two one-hour lessons each week and homework

Course Delivery

You will enjoy this course if you want to study a subject that:

• Encourages you to discuss current affairs and issues
• Involves practical work outdoors
• Is studied through investigation, not just listening and reading
• Uses ICT to help understand and present information
• Uses the Internet to help research
• Makes you think about your opinions and beliefs

You will do some fieldwork as part of your course, where you go out and put your skills and knowledge into practice. The information for this will not come from textbooks or videos, but will be an opportunity for you to investigate what is happening in the real world. You must write up a report of your investigation, including diagrams to present the information you have found out. This is marked by your teacher and the marks go towards your final exam result. You will have plenty of time to carry all this out, and it means that you won't just be judged on how well you do in the exams.

Assessment Method

At the end of Year 11 you will take two exams - they contribute 75% of your marks. You will also have completed one piece of coursework, which contributes the other 25% of your marks. The first exam paper is a Decision Making Exercise (DME). A few weeks before the exam you will be given information about a particular issue.

You will have the chance to go through this information in detail with your teacher. In the exam you will be asked questions about the issue, and be asked to decide what is the best way of handling it. The second paper has questions covering the rest of the information and skills you have learned on the course. There is a choice of questions; depending on which topics you have studied. Each question is broken down into a number of shorter parts.