Higher Geography

Topic Areas

The Higher Geography course covers three main units which teach pupils a range of skills and increase their awareness of the world around us. These 3 units are divided into different topic areas as outlined below. Skills taught build on work done at National 5 (particularly relating to the Hydrosphere, Population, Urban and Development and Health topics) and help prepare for the transition into the Advanced Higher course or further education .


Unit 1 - Physical Environments

  • Lithosphere (focusing on glaciation and coastal features)

  • Hydrosphere (river features and their formations, the hydrological cycle and interpreting hydrographs)

  • Biosphere (characteristics of 3 soil profiles)

  • Atmosphere (ocean currents, wind currents, solar insolation, the global heat budget and the ITCZ)


Unit 2 - Human Environments

  • Population (looking at population pyramids, consequences of population structures, methods and issues of gathering population data, plus 2 migration case studies)

  • Urban (Glasgow and Rio de Janeiro case studies)

  • Rural (focused on land degradation in the Sahel plus land use conflicts/solutions in the Cairngorms)


Unit 3 - Global Issues

  • Development and Health (development indicators, reasons for differences in levels of development between countries, malaria and primary healthcare strategies)

  • River Basin Management (focused on our case study of the Colorado River)

  • Application of Skills (a map work question requiring pupils to use knowledge of 6-figure grid references and other sources to analyse and evaluate the impacts of a proposed development)


Skills

The Higher Geography course further builds skills in answering 'explain' questions, as well as developing skills in fieldwork techniques and data processing. These are all key components of the Higher course and have a strong emphasis on expanding on explanations and backing up points made with references to case studies learned. The course also focuses on developing critical thinking skills throughout along with literacy, numeracy and ICT skills.


Assessment

Pupils will be regularly assessed on course knowledge via 10min tests. Prelims will take place at the beginning of Term 3, with a top-up prelim once the course is finished towards the end of Term 3.


The Added Value Unit (AVU) forms 27% of the final grade at Higher. This is a written report based on fieldwork usually undertaken during Term One when the weather is better! Here, pupils develop skills in gathering data as well as processing their data once back in class. The Higher write-up takes place under SQA exam conditions and this is then externally marked by the SQA to form that 27% component of pupils' final grade.


The Higher Geography exam is split into two papers:

Paper One - Physical (50 marks) and Human Environments (50 marks), totalling 100 marks in 1hr 50mins.

Paper Two - Global Issues (40 marks) and Application of Skills (20 marks), totalling 60 marks in 1hr 10mins.


Progression

Progression from Higher Geography will lead to either Advanced Higher Geography or for some pupils it will be more appropriate to progress into another Social Subject at Higher level or even onto further education once pupils have left school.