BFS Logo
 Bristol Free School

BFS Logo

Image of student
KS3 Curriculum Guide - Year 8 Geography
Term 1Our Sustainable World   
Sustainability is one of the most important areas of geography. To be sustainable requires meeting the needs of the present, without jeopardising the needs of the future. To take sustainability seriously requires us to examine our ideas about growth, social equality, consumption, and "standard of living". In this unit of work, students get to grips with the concept and explore it through different examples; food, cities and lifestyle.
Assessment: Students will evaluate a sustainable city project to suggest whether it is truly sustainable or not.Key Words and Terms
 
Term 2How is China managing its population?   
China has a falling birth rate, but it hasn't always been this way. With the largest population in the world, China has had to take drastic and sometimes stark action to manage its population. This unit looks at the human and physical geography of China with particular reference to the one child policy and recent Hong Kong Security laws.
Assessment: Students weigh up the effectiveness of the One Child policy at different scales; local, regional and national.Key Words and Terms
 
Term 3Glaciers over time   
Students study an important link between glaciers and geology. This unit makes the link between the topics of glaciation and contemporary climate change. Having gained an understanding of how glaciers work from lesson two, students should be able to see quite easily why glaciers are monitored by scientists to track global warming. The majority of the module is focused on glaciers and glaciation, but two of the lessons deal specifically with aspects of geology and geological time. Throughout the module, students should be encouraged to make links between the two topics wherever possible. From a teaching point of view, glaciation and geological time make a good pairing given the relatively long timescales over which glacial processes operate, especially when viewed in relation to Ice Age changes; and students should find study of the two topics mutually reinforcing.
Assessment: Students will undertake an end of unit assessment that has a range of short and long answer questions. They will need to know the features of glaciers, why they are important and the impact that glaciers have on the landscape.Key Words and Terms
 
Term 3River and coastal hydrology in the U.K   
This module looks at the concept of hydrology; how water moves and shapes our landscape and coastline. We look at the water cycle and how water is transported from the sea to land and the effects of water on the land. Concepts of erosion, transportation are explored in river systems and at the coastline and how these work to create distinct landforms. We look at the importance of understanding hydrology and how significant events can have severe impacts on humans on the land (flooding) and at the coast (storms).
Assessment: Students will be assessed through an extended writing piece which requires them to understand the physical processes of erosion and how they link to the formation of a landform. Key Words and Terms
 
Term 5The Amazon Rainforest - A fragile environment   
Students will understand the climate of the tropical rainforest, and how humans, plants and animals adapt to live in these environments. The module then focuses on how human influences are changing our rainforests around the world, and whether we can develop the rainforest sustainably.
Assessment: Students will be assessed by a written assessment that looks at looks at their place knowledge.Key Words and Terms
 
Term 6Fieldwork - a trip to a river or coastal environment  
Building on their knowledge and understanding from Term 4 - our students will be looking at investigating the the impact which water has on the land. Depending on the state of play with Covid, students will either travel to Minehead where they will be evaluating the effectiveness of sea defences. They will collect different types of primary data including beach profiles and sediment analysis. Should Covid persist, we may scale things back to a local river and explore the Trym Valley and surrounding river. Students will collect primary data on the speed and velocity of the river. Students will build on their knowledge from Year 7 by conducting statistical analysis on their data (mean) and using scatter graphs to plot and evaluate trends between variables. Students will look to increase their independence further by gathering further secondary evidence to add to their fieldwork investigations and draw stronger conclusions. Students may also being to reflect on their fieldwork against the Bradshaw model.
Assessment: The whole inquiry will be assessed including methods, data presentation, analysis, conclusion and evaluation.Key Words and Terms
 

Login