Curriculum Portal

neurologyYou need to know

• Geography is the study of the Earth's places, environments, and processes, including how people interact with them.
• The three branches in this scheme are physical geography, which studies natural processes and landforms, human geography, which studies people and settlements, and environmental geography, which studies interactions between people and the natural world.
• Geography influences daily life through weather, travel routes, workplaces, schools, access to resources, and decisions about where people live.
• Geographical knowledge helps explain and address real-world issues including climate change, natural hazards, pollution, and population change.
• Geography supports careers such as meteorology, town planning, farming, and aviation, which require specialisms such as weather analysis, GIS, land-use planning, soil management, or navigation.
• The seven continents are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania, while the five oceans are the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern oceans.
• Great Britain comprises England, Scotland, and Wales, the United Kingdom comprises Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the British Isles is a geographical term for Great Britain, Ireland, and surrounding smaller islands.
• An atlas is a collection of maps used to locate places and investigate physical, human, and political features.
• The eight compass directions are north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-west, west, and north-west, and most maps place north at the top.
• Map symbols represent features such as roads, buildings, vegetation, and water, while the legend or key explains what each symbol means.
• Map scale expresses the relationship between a distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground, allowing straight and curved real-world distances to be calculated.
• A map scale shows the relationship between map distance and real-world distance. On a 1:25,000 map, 1 cm represents 250 m, and map and ground distances must be converted into compatible units when calculating distance.
• Eastings are vertical grid lines whose numbers increase eastwards, northings are horizontal grid lines whose numbers increase northwards, and grid references are always read eastings first.
• A four-figure grid reference identifies a grid square, whereas a six-figure grid reference divides that square into tenths to locate a feature more precisely.
• Contour lines join places of equal height, close contours show steep slopes, and widely spaced contours show gentle slopes.
• A geographical information system, or GIS, is a digital system for capturing, storing, mapping, and analysing spatial data.
• Svalbard is a Norwegian Arctic archipelago north of mainland Europe within the Arctic Circle, characterised by a polar climate, glaciers, ice caps, fjords, mountains, and small settlements such as Longyearbyen.
• Svalbard's wildlife includes polar bears, Arctic foxes, and Svalbard reindeer, which have adaptations that help them survive low temperatures and seasonal changes in daylight.
• The Svalbard Global Seed Vault stores duplicate crop seeds to protect genetic diversity, and its remote location, political stability, permafrost, and cold climate support long-term storage.
• Racetrack Playa is a dry lake bed in Death Valley, California, where sailing stones leave tracks when thin floating ice panels, driven by light winds, push rocks across shallow water and soft mud.
• Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, with about 98 per cent of its land covered by ice, no permanent population, and environmental pressures from tourism, research, fishing, pollution, and wildlife disturbance.

• Classify a geographical scenario as human, physical, or environmental geography and justify the classification using relevant evidence.
• Describe how geography influences at least two aspects of daily life and link geographical careers to their required skills or specialisms.
• Locate and label the seven continents, five oceans, and selected countries accurately on a world map.
• Orient a map to the ground using a compass, then use the eight compass directions and map symbols to describe locations and routes.
• Measure straight distances with a ruler and curved distances with string or a paper edge, then use the map scale to convert them into real-world distances.
• Read eastings before northings to locate features and state accurate four-figure and six-figure grid references.
• Interpret landforms from contour lines.
• Select and combine appropriate GIS layers to identify spatial patterns, compare locations, or propose a solution to a geographical problem.
• Identify a question, select and present spatial evidence, describe patterns and anomalies, explain them, reach an evidence-based conclusion, and evaluate data limitations.
• Describe Svalbard's global position and human and physical characteristics, then explain why its climate and physical location make it suitable for the Global Seed Vault.
• Investigate the sailing stones using mapped distances and evidence about wind, water, and ice, then evaluate competing explanations and justify the best-supported theory.
• Analyse Antarctic data to identify patterns in temperature, wildlife, and human activity, and predict the resulting challenges.