AS Course Outline

What is Geography?
'Geography is one of those richly comprehensive subjects, whose relevance is all around us…More than ever we need the geographer’s skills and foresight to help us learn about our planet – how we use it and how we abuse it.'
Michael Palin – comedian, BBC presenter, and travel journalist

AS Level
Unit One: Physical and Human Geography
The study of core geographical concepts along with contrasting themes of contemporary or environmental impact, management and sustainability. Students must study the core, and then select one of the physical options and one of the human options.

• Core Physical Section – Rivers, Floods, and Management.
  • This unit consists of the study of river systems, their associated landforms, and the interaction of humans with these systems (e.g. flooding and flood management.
• Optional Physical topics
  • Cold Environments – to include glacier formation, glacial landforms, and the management of cold environments such as the arctic and Antarctic.
  • Coastal Environments – processes of coastal erosion and deposition and the associated landforms, and the management of these coastal processes
  • Hot Desert Environments and their Margins – Location and causes of aridity, and associated landforms, and desertification issues in the Sahel
• Core Human Section – Population Change
  • This part of the unit involves the study of the components of population change, population structure, and the social, economic, and political implications of population change.
• Optional Human topics
  • Food Supply Issues – global patterns of food supply, consumption, and trade. Managing food supply, changes in demand, and the potential for sustainable food supplies.
  • Energy Issues – types of energy, distribution of energy resources, geopolitics of energy, and the environmental impact of production
  • Health Issues – global patterns of mortality, the study of infectious diseases, food and health including obesity epidemic in western countries.

Unit Two: Geographical Skills
This unit will develop the use and application of a variety of geographical skills. These skills will be taught as an integral part of unit one, and not as a separate unit, but will be assessed by a skills exam paper. This will test the following skills:

• Basic Skills – including the annotation of illustrative material, map interpretation, graphs, sketches
• Investigative Skills – including the identification of geographical questions and issues, identification of quantitative and qualitative evidence from primary and secondary sources of information, processing and presenting data, drawing conclusions and showing awareness of the validity of those conclusions
• Cartographic Skills – including the use of atlases, base maps, sketch maps, OS maps, and maps displaying a variety of different types of information overlaid onto a physical or political base.
• Graphical Skills – including the use of a variety of graphs and charts of varying complexity
• ICT Skills – including the use of remotely sensed data, digital images, the use of databases (e.g. census data), graphical information systems, and the presentation of text and graphical and cartographic images.
• Statistical Skills – including measures of central tendency, dispersion, correlation, and the application of significance level.

Structure of the Course
This course will be taught for 6 hours per week. Homework will be set weekly and deadlines must be strictly adhered to. Reading of textbooks, journals, and news media is essential. Tests are set frequently and Mock Exams once a month.

Recommended Reading
Geography: An Integrated Approach 3rd Edition David Waugh