In this recording, provided by the Rotal Geographical Society (RGS), we hear from 5 geography professionals speaking about their study and career paths to their jobs. You’ll hear the ways in which studying geography has given them useful skills to carry out their jobs and hear about the work and projects they engage in in their roles.

Click here to access the RGS website and recording.

We have brought together a wide range of GCSE resources produced by Internet Geography. Students and staff have found their resources to be very useful in recent years.

In the ‘shared folder’ there is a range of resources to help learn, check your understanding, fill in gaps and revise the topics we study in class. Alongside guidance from you teacher these resources can help you catch up after an illness, complete units of work missed, check your understanding of classroom learning or to revise.
Please take a few minutes to take a look! You can find them by heading to your Geography ‘Team’ and clicking on the ‘Resources – Year 11’ tab at the top.

Please see your teacher is a printed hardcopy of any of the resources is needed.

Resources and support from the RGS-IBG and beyond for teaching and learning #geographyathome

Support and resources from the Society

• Podcasts focusing on topics from wildfires, weather and the high street to plate tectonics, cities and the carbon cycle. These are perfect for your students to listen to current geographical themes and keep up to date with their subject knowledge.
• A wide range of articles and case studies based on geography in the news – these link directly to specification content and can help your students to read around topics presented in your online lessons.
• Our catalogue of online lectures by leading geographical experts for you and your students to watch, some of which are supported by resources that can be used to teach a lesson based on the lecture.
• You might like to encourage your students to think about geographical fieldwork within their home space. We have selection of ideas for school grounds fieldwork which could be adapted, plus ideas for creating your own fieldwork equipment at home.
• Use this opportunity to get to grips with GIS and pre-plan some lesson content to use with your students. We have a range of support for GIS, plus some information about using data sets.
• Our news roundup will help students stay aware of geographical stories in the press.
• Why not think about how you are presenting careers with geography to your students? We have a wealth of careers resources; this is an ideal time to show students how geography works in the real world.
• Our animations and interactives explain geographical processes and concepts in a visual way – excellent for getting parents to get to grips with the concepts your students are learning about at home.
• Our resource modules span Key Stages Two to Five and are perfect for getting students to work through at home with their parents – they provide background information about the topic, lesson plans and all the resources needed to teach up to six lessons.
• Remember to check our events pages for students and teachers for details of online event opportunities.
• Discovering Antarctica / Discovering the Arctic / Discovering Galapagos / Discovering Britain.
• Explore the Society’s film collection on BFI Player.
• Geography at Home worksheets and ideas for teachers
• Check out our brand new Geography Directions schools enrichment resource portal. Our Geography Directions blog applies geographical insights to better understand and explain contemporary issues. Each blog post is written by a relevant expert geographer and many draw directly on the latest research, as published in the RGS-IBG journals, book series, and beyond. This schools enrichment resource portal filters this content into easily accessible streams, based on topic areas at A-Level and GCSE, which can be used by teachers to enhance their knowledge, or shared with their students as part of their course materials and to provide stimulus for

There are an increasing number of podcast recordings of geographers talking about their professional areas of interest as well as their passions. Below we shall bring together recordings that will allow us to extend our understanding of classroom studies and/or may introduce interesting narratives on local, national and international issues of interest. Some recordings are aimed at an older audience, however, there is no reason why that should stop you tuning in!

Additional recommendations are available on the Internet Geography website.

• Plate tectonics and earthquake prediction with Dr Rebecca Bell
• Hazards and volcanic gas emissions with Dr Tom Pering
• Prisoners of Geography – RGS Schools Literacy Lowdown Review
• What are the big challenges for global water security? Professor David Hannah
• How is internal migration changing cities? Professor Michael Collyer
• What is rural gentrification? Professor Martin Philips
• How does international aid work? Dr Emma Mawdsley
• How is globalisation changing the countryside? Professor Michael Wood

“Studying geography gives students the opportunity to travel the world via the classroom, learning about both natural and social sciences along the way. They will understand how geography impacts everyday life and discover the key opportunities and challenges facing the world. Students will also develop academic and life skills from writing, teamwork and communication to analytical skills.” (AQA Website, 2020)

Click here to drop into the AQA website and have a look at the GCSE specification ‘at a glance’.

There are a growing number of very exciting reference websites and geographical tools online that may help with classroom studies or homework. Below we have gathered together just a few:

Revision:

When selecting revision tools please remember to select the AQA option. Please also remember that the case studies we study may be different from those in other schools. Please focus your attention on the case studies we have focused on.

Podcast – Seneca Learning Revision

Interactive – BBC Bitesize

Podcast – AQA Geography (Spotify)

Mapping & Exploring:

Google Earth

ArchGIS Online

Digimap

Organisations:

The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

The Met Office

U.S. Geological Survey

The Geography Department has run a popular geography trip to Iceland for pupils studying GCSE Geography or those who have a real interest in the subject. Normally the trip is for 4 days and 3 nights and takes place each October half term (numbers permitting). During the trip we visit Vik, Dyrhólaey and the Golden Circle.  Pupils have also had the opportunity to swim in naturally heated pools, visit the ‘The Wonders of Iceland’ exhibition in Reykjavik, be guided through the highly informative ‘Lava Exhibition’ and take part in the following excursions: Secret Lagoon, Eyjafallajokull Volcano, Gullfoss Waterfall, Kerid Crater, Skógafoss Waterfall, Sólheimajökull Glacier, Strokkur Geyser, Thingvellir Rift Valley. We are hoping to reintroduce this trip in academic year 2023/24.

At GCSE we currently run two fieldtrips.

All GCSE students take part in two fieldwork days which are a compulsory element of the GCSE course and will be examined in Paper 3. We have to undertake one physical day and one urban day.

In recent years we have visited Walton-on-the-Naze to complete the physical fieldwork. We spend the day assessing the impact of coastal management and human impacts on the coastline. Sessions are led by staff from Flatford Mill Field Studies Centre.

The second visit also takes place during school time and is currently based in Cottenham.  Recently, the focus of this field study has been “Impacts of Growth in Cambridge on Cottenham”.

During both experiences’ students work individually to design their field study, gather data, practice geographical research techniques before analysing their findings, drawing conclusions and evaluating their study.

If you cant wait to get involved in geographical fieldwork why not visit the Field Studies Council Website for some fun ideas about how to make observations and gather data.

There are many exciting publications available for those wanting to explore the world through a geographical lens! Below are a some suggestions that would develop your knowledge and understanding of global development, sustainability in the 21st century, weather events, courageous expeditions and much more.

We also recommend  magazines such as Geographical. This monthly publication  includes articles and features that examine issues of the day and help us explore fascinating places and people. Finally, a longer list of reads can be found on the Internet Geography website.

“Geography is a broad based academic subject which will open up options for you in your future. Employers and universities see geography as a robust academic subject rich in skills, knowledge and understanding. As a subject linking the arts and the sciences it is highly flexible in terms of what you can combine it with, both at GCSE and A Level. If you choose to take geography on to university there are literally hundreds of courses to choose from and the range of career areas accessed by graduates of geography will probably surprise you.” (RGS, 2020)

You can read more about the benefits of studying geography:

• at the Royal Geographical Society with IBG website
• In the RGS ‘Geography at GCSE‘ overview
• at the Royal Scottish Geographical Society; and
• at the RGS’s Going Places with Geography booklet

For those considering studying geography The Geographical Association provides a wealth of information for GCSE and A level student looking to continue their geography studies.

To help us explore the AQA Geography (8035) syllabus in class and at home we make regular use of the Oxford University Press textbook: GCSE AQA Student Textbook.

As geographers, one of the key skills that you need to learn is how to read an Ordnance Survey map. These skills will be tested throughout the key stages and are a common feature in examinations.

Some of the key map-skills you need to be confident in are:

• Using Map Symbols
• Giving Grid References (4 and 6 figure grid-references)
• Understanding contour lines and how relief is shown on a map
• Measuring distance on a map

It is important to keep practicing these key skills and the best way is to use an actual OS map. However there are some useful online resources to help you recap and also learn these skills.

Map Skills Quizzes

Try the following links to practice your map skills…

Mapzone – the fantastic mapzone from the Ordnance Survey is great for practicing  map skills as well as finding out more about GIS and some great Geography links

KS3 BBC Bitesize – OS Map Skills – you can revise your OS map skills here and get some test questions

GCSE BBC Bitesize – Map skills – revising your higher level OS map skills here.

Map Reading Skills Quiz – an interactive quiz to test your map skills knowledge.

There are some useful videos below to help you recap and learn many of the key Ordnance Survey map skills that you need to become confident in.