geogrAPHY

A LEVEL

Course Overview

1. Dynamic Landscapes: tectonic hazards, landscape systems, processes and change. Coastal Landscapes as a field trip.

2. Dynamic Places: globalisation of the world over time. Shaping urban areas through regenerating them as a field trip.

3. Physical System and Sustainability: water insecurity, energy security, life cycles and future climate change.

4. Human Systems and Geopolitics: Superpowers, Global Development and Connections and Migration, Identity and Sovereignty .

These are some of the topics we'll cover in Geography A-Level. The course content is divided between physical and human topics and is supported with field trips and extra-curricular university conference visits. We look at the processes that cause change and the impacts of that change on human activity. Interpretation of geographical data and fieldwork are integral parts of the course

Target Audience

Anybody who has an interest in what is happening in the world will enjoy A-Level Geography. Do you have concerns about the environment? Do you enjoy fieldwork and practical learning as geographers often enjoy the outdoors and will be inquisitive?

Year 12 Units

Dynamic landscapes

Tectonic hazards – earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and secondary hazards such as tsunamis – represent a significant risk in some parts of the world. This is especially the case where active tectonic plate boundaries interact with areas of high population density and low levels of development. Resilience in these places can be low, and the interaction of physical systems with vulnerable populations can result in major disasters. An in-depth understanding of the causes of tectonic hazards is key to both increasing the degree to which they can be managed, and putting in place successful responses that can mitigate social and economic impacts and allow humans to adapt to hazard occurrence.

Coastal landscapes develop due to the interaction of winds, waves and currents, as well as through the contribution of both terrestrial and offshore sources of sediment. These flows of energy and variations in sediment budgets interact with the prevailing geological and lithological characteristics of the coast to operate as coastal systems and produce distinctive coastal landscapes, including those in rocky, sandy and estuarine coastlines. These landscapes are increasingly threatened from physical processes and human activities, and there is a need for holistic and sustainable management of these areas in all the world’s coasts. Study must include examples of landscapes from inside and outside the UK.

dynamic places

Globalisation and global interdependence continue to accelerate, resulting in changing opportunities for businesses and people. Inequalities are caused within and between countries as shifts in patterns of wealth occur. Cultural impacts on the identity of communities increase as flows of ideas, people and goods take place. Recognising that both tensions in communities and pressures on environments are likely, will help players implement sustainable solutions.

Local places vary economically and socially with change driven by local, national and global processes. These processes include movements of people, capital, information and resources, making some places economically dynamic while other places appear to be marginalised. This creates and exacerbates considerable economic and social inequalities both between and within local areas. Urban and rural regeneration programmes involving a range of players involve both place making (regeneration) and place marketing (rebranding). Regeneration programmes impact variably on people both in terms of their lived experience of change and their perception and attachment to places. The relative success of regeneration and rebranding for individuals and groups depends on the extent to which lived experience, perceptions, and attachments to places are changed. Students should begin by studying the place in which they live or study in order to look at economic change and social inequalities. They will then put this local place in context in order to understand how regional, national, international and global influences have led to changes there. They should then study one further contrasting place through which they will develop their wider knowledge and understanding about how places change and are shaped.

Year 13 Units

physical systems & sustainability

Water plays a key role in supporting life on earth. The water cycle operates at a variety of spatial scales and also at short- and long-term timescales, from global to local. Physical processes control the circulation of water between the stores on land, in the oceans, in the cryosphere, and the atmosphere. Changes to the most important stores of water are a result of both physical and human processes. Water insecurity is becoming a global issue with serious consequences and there is a range of different approaches to managing water supply.

A balanced carbon cycle is important in maintaining planetary health. The carbon cycle operates at a range of spatial scales and timescales, from seconds to millions of years. Physical processes control the movement of carbon between stores on land, the oceans and the atmosphere. Changes to the most important stores of carbon and carbon fluxes are a result of physical and human processes. Reliance on fossil fuels has caused significant changes to carbon stores and contributed to climate change resulting from anthropogenic carbon emissions. The water and carbon cycles and the role of feedbacks in and between the two cycles, provide a context for developing an understanding of climate change. Anthropogenic climate change poses a serious threat to the health of the planet. There is a range of adaptation and mitigation strategies that could be used, but for them to be successful they require global agreements as well as national actions.

Human systems & geopolitics

Superpowers can be developed by a number of characteristics. The pattern of dominance has changed over time. Superpowers and emerging superpowers have a very significant impact on the global economy, global politics and the environment. The spheres of influence between these powers are frequently contested, resulting in geopolitical implications.

Globalisation involves movements of capital, goods and people. Tensions can result between the logic of globalisation, with its growing levels of environmental, social and economic interdependence among people, economies and nation states and the traditional definitions of national sovereignty and territorial integrity. International migration not only changes the ethnic composition of populations but also changes attitudes to national identity. At the same time, nationalist movements have grown in some places challenging dominant models of economic change and redefining ideas of national identity. Global governance has developed to manage a number of common global issues (environmental, social, political and economic) and has a mixed record in its success in dealing with them. It has promoted growth and political stability for some people in some places whilst not benefiting others. Unequal power relations have tended to lead to unequal environmental, social and economic outcomes.

sample lesson

3.2 Sample Lesson Political and Economic Decisions have accelerated globalisation Google

Student testimonials

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Support sessions

Weekly after school sessions run by teaching staff from MSN Sixth form to develop subject knowledge and improvement technique

These workshops are also used to support students whilst completing their independent investigation

Seminars run by the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution

Weekly Online lectures delivered by the Royal Geographical Society

Residential fieldtrips and local urban studies designed to support and develop students in preparation for them completing their own independent investigation

Higher Education Progression Routes

BSc Geography

BSC ENVIRONMENTAL Sciences

BA urban planning

Future Careers

gis analyst

Travel industry

Mapping and cartography

Student Destinations

Cartography: studying, designing, producing and distributing digital and conventional maps, charts, spreadsheets and diagrams for public sector and commercial customers.
Environmental consultancy: ensuring that clients comply with environmental regulations.
International aid work: managing and developing emergency response programmes within areas that have been subject to war, natural disasters or other environmental or developmental problems.
Landscape architecture: planning, designing, overseeing and advising about the development and construction of external land areas such as gardens, parks and recreational areas, and residential, commercial and industrial sites.
Logistics and distribution management: coordinating the storage, transportation and delivery of goods.
Nature conservation: managing, protecting and improving areas of environmental importance through conservation work, publicity and scientific monitoring.
Town and country planning: organising our environment to make it a better place in which to live.
Transportation planning: assessing public, private and commercial transportation needs and analysing and devising new road or transportation schemes.
Water conservation: monitoring, managing, protecting and improving environmental areas where groundwater is critical, such as wetland habitats, and taking action where required to rectify problems.

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