Geography

Course summary

WHY STUDY GEOGRAPHY? In a time of intense climate change, extreme weather conditions, natural disasters, terrorist attacks across the world, conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, and the recent global economic crisis, Geography is becoming increasingly important and relevant as a subject. Geography allows those who study it to bridge the two concepts of human behaviour and the natural world by investigating the causation between them. As a subject, it can take you across the world on fieldwork and will allow you to look at the causes, impacts and solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues found on our dynamic planet. Students study a wide range of topics based on geographical themes and perspectives. Within the geographical themes section, they will study the Geography of Food and Health and Geophysical Hazards. Students will develop their understanding of processes, places, power and geographical possibilities. They will additionally gain understanding of more specialised concepts such as diffusion and barriers, hierarchies, systems and sustainability. Students also study geographical perspectives; this core theme provides an overview of the geographic foundation for the key global issues of our time. Topics studied include issues of global change, such as population distribution, global climate and global resource consumption and security. The content is underpinned by the four key concepts of the course: places, power, processes and possibilities. Higher Level students study a further topic on global interactions as well as an additional option topic of Extreme Environments. Finally, all students (SL and HL) carry out a fieldwork investigation known as the Internal Assessment, which is a written report of 2,500 words. It enables students to demonstrate the application of their skills and knowledge.