GA Pilot GCSE

1. SPONSORED BY THE GA
cern with human emotions
and values, of the multi-
layered nature of explana-
tion, and of the need to
involve young people as
active participants in and
constructors of their own
meanings. All these are
fundamental to the
changes taking place in
university geography,
particularly the ‘cultural
turn’. But the significance
for us as teachers is that
these are also crucial to
geography’s educative
role in developing global
citizens.
Not surprisingly, it is diffi-
cult for us to find the time
to read up the latest de-
velopments in academic
journals or to spend as
long as we’d like digging
A main aim of the pilot
GCSE course is to intro-
duce more lively and in-
novative geography to 14-
16 year olds, drawing as
appropriate on the latest
developments in aca-
demic geography. There
are strong hints given in
the pilot specification of a
dynamic rather than a
static geography, of a con-
EXPLORING THE CORE THEMES
JANUARY 2006
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
THE PILOT
each core theme, to-
gether with at least one
reference for further
reading. I hope it is use-
ful…..
See p. 2 for the complete
table
Eleanor Rawling
Ice fall in the
French Alps
Developing support
As the Pilot continues to develop rapidly,
so to does the support which can be pro-
vided for those managing and teaching
it.
This year, we are trying to develop some
new support ideas which we hope you
will all want to make use of. Firstly, as
you can see, we are developing an elec-
tronic newsletter which we will send out
every other month. We want you to get
involved as we want this newsletter to be
an opportunity for you to develop ideas
and share great practice, so if you would
like to contribute any innovative ideas,
perspectives on the various units, or
ideas for lessons or portfolio work that
have worked really well, please feel free
to e-mail me and we will try to include
them in future issues.
Over the next month or two we are also de-
veloping a virtual learning environment
which will be hosted by the Geographical
Association, allowing centres to contribute
and access resources, ideas, and a number
of discussion groups we would like to set up.
Finally, we have booked the Royal Geo-
graphical Society in London on the 6th July
for a conferences focusing on innovative
ideas and curriculum development across
the Pilot. More details will be sent out within
the next month once we have a more con-
crete timetable for the day. For those want-
ing to start to plan, we expect to subsidise
the cost of the conference leading to a cost
of between £30-40 per candidate for the
day. We would also be interested in
hearing from anyone who might want to
run a 50 minute workshop session focus-
ing on either the core units or the op-
tions,.
A final big thank-you must go to Di Swift
who has developed such a strong founda-
tion on which we can build in the future.
Phil Wood
(p.wood@virgin.net)
Project funded by the DfES
Page
Exploring the core
themes—summary table
2
The place of physical
geography in the core
3
Geography in the news—
reflecting on the unit
4
Cultural geography -
reflecting on the unit
4
Diary 5
Resources at the Royal
Geographical Society
5
Resources at the Geo-
graphical Association
6

2. Page 2
THE PILOT
Core Theme What’s it all about? What are some of the big ideas? What’s been in
the news?
(examples only)
What else can I
read?
(examples only)
My Place Using students’ own
locality and commu-
nity as a jumping-off
point to explore the
dynamics and sig-
nificance of place
(and at the same
time to raise some
big issues about the
geography of the
UK)
Each place can only be explained by
referring to the multiplicity of local,
national and global links and inter-
actions taking place continuously;
Places are always in the process of
being made, never finished;
Places are meeting places in which
people negotiate, compromise and
change as they live their daily lives;
Issues arising from the local also
give access to the national and
global.
What being Brit-
ish means –
Gordon Brown’s
proposal for a
celebration of
‘Britishness’
Jan 2006
* Massey, D (2005)
For Space, Sage
Especially chaps 11
(slices through
space) and 14 (there
are no rules of space
and place)
* Cresswell, T
(2005) Place, Black-
well Publishing
An Extreme Envi-
ronment
Studying one exam-
ple of an extreme
environment as a
way into examining
our changing im-
ages and percep-
tions of landscapes/
environments and
the dynamic interac-
tions between peo-
ple and physical
processes.
We live in an awe-inspiring world;
The history of our interaction with
extreme environments provides a
fascinating insight into changing
perceptions and images
(incl. eg colonial /exploitation; mod-
ern /personal challenge + adven-
ture tourism)
Studying the physical processes
which give rise to extreme environ-
ments opens our eyes to the holistic
nature and fragility of these places
and reminds us of our responsibili-
ties to the future;
Nature is changing at the same time
as humans develop (“we cannot
celebrate a mobile culture and hold
nature still” Massey 2005)
We are already
too late to avoid
environmental
catastrophe –
James Love-
lock /Gaia Jan
2006
Species decline
– many egs but-
terflies, birds,
fish Oct05-Jan06
* Nash C Land-
scapes and W Ad-
ams Sustainability
in Introducing Hu-
man Geographies
1999, ed Cloke,
Crang and Godwin
Arnold.
People as Consum-
ers
Recognising how
deeply our role as
consumers is inte-
grated into every-
day life and how this
understanding is
crucial to explaining
landscapes and en-
vironments, and to
addressing ethical
issues about power
and responsibility.
We are all consumers making a ma-
jor impact on landscapes, environ-
ments and people throughout the
world through the products and ser-
vices we chose/use;
There are specific landscapes that
can be recognised as landscapes of
consumption;
Producers and consumers are inex-
tricably linked in relationships of
power and dependency;
There are ethical and moral issues
raised by our consumer actions and
choices;
Advertising and the media play a
major role in influencing the geog-
raphy of consumption.
State of National
Health service,
Jan 2006
G8 discussions
world trade/
debt/aid
Autumn 2005
* Goss, J Consump-
tion in Introducing
Human Geographies
ed Cloke, Crang,
and Godwin Ar-
nold.
* Dicken, P (2003)
Global Shift; reshap-
ing the global eco-
nomic map in the 21st
century Sage
* Also fascinating
background for
teachers is Kenway J
and Bullen J, 2001
Consuming Children
Open University
Press (draws atten-
tion to the culture of
consumerism kids
live in/implications
for education)

3. Page 3
THE PILOT
Phwarr – look at
that arête….
A quick survey of people in
the street reveals that for
many their most
poignant memories
of physical geogra-
phy are ones of ox-
bow lakes, corries
and standing in a
cold stream.
The core unit ‘An
Extreme Environ-
ment – exploring
landscape and proc-
esses’ is about far more
than the harshness of the
Himalayas, the dryness of
the deserts, the iciness of
the extreme cold places.
Whilst studying the land-
forms and processes stu-
dents also consider the
challenges of the extreme
environments, the interac-
tion of people with their
environment and the con-
cept of a sustainable future.
Only ONE of the three
extreme environments
needs to be studied.
In the majority of cen-
tres the decision will
have been made by
teachers, however, it
would also be possible
to offer a choice of
environments to stu-
dents by using a pro-
ject based learning ap-
proach to the unit.
Is this unit the only
focus of physical
geography in the
core units? A study of the
local area in ‘My Place –
Living in the UK Today’
would not be complete with-
out some understanding of
the physical geography of
the local area. For some
places, the physical fea-
tures may be some of the
defining characteristics of
the place. Changes result-
ing from physical processes
may be the underlying
cause of issues in the area,
and an understanding of the
processes and landforms
may be key to a deeper
understanding of the chal-
lenges, issues and
changes.
Within the ‘People as Con-
sumers’ unit, an investiga-
tion into the issues of the
Coca Cola factory in Kerala,
India leads to the inequali-
ties in water resources.
How can the depletion of
groundwater resources be
fully explained without also
exploring the processes
associated with groundwa-
ter storage, depletion and
replenishment.
Meeting the resource re-
quirements for teaching the
physical geography is not a
landslide of a task – most
GCSE textbooks provide a
good resource for teaching
the processes and land-
forms – this coupled with a
creative approach – anno-
tated models for example,
enables students to demon-
strate their learning in a
more unusual way.
Identifying landscapes
through a wide variety of
media, including pictures,
photographs, film, en-
hances students interest
and awareness of physical
geography. For instance,
the deserts of Wadi Rum
depicted in the film
‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and
other desert scenes quickly
impart a sense of the ex-
treme heat, dryness, and
lack of vegetation – taking
the students’ imagination
beyond their personal ex-
perience.
Whilst there are three core
units in the Pilot GCSE Ge-
ography on the surface
appear to have a focus on
the physical, human and
place themes the key com-
ponents of geography are
fully embedded in each of
the units.
Successful learning is….
sitting on a coach having
just disembarked from an
aircraft at Lourdes en route
to the Pyrenees and hear-
ing a 14 year old student
shout out from the back of
the coach ‘Phwarr look
at…’ (no, not the attractive
young lady who had just
walked past…) ‘…the
arêtes on that mountain’
Jane Girlow
The Place of Physical Geography in the
Core units

4. Page 4
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
The teaching of this unit could be
done in a wide variety of ways and
can be arranged to suit the teacher,
the ability and motivation of the
students and the facilities and op-
portunities available to you. The
two portfolio pieces should form
part of a wider body of work that
students complete. There are dif-
ferent ways of organising lessons
in this unit, for example:
Whole group activities – tradi-
tional lessons where you teach the
geography behind a particular
news story, so that students can
produce a piece of written (or al-
ternative) work. (Teaching tropical
storms – Hurricane Katrina) This
approach worked quite well for
lower ability students who needed
structured lessons and struggled
with individual research.
Student choice – give students
carte blanche. Choose a news
story and research it, this can be
particularly useful for high ability
classes and students who have
particular geographical interests.
This can be problematic if stu-
dents are not well organised and
providing support can be quite
daunting for staff.
The group task in this unit is vital,
this is where students can gain a
real understanding of how the
media works – by doing it them-
selves. The presentations could
be set out as a news broadcast or
as a presentation about the local
issue. (In my classes it was a mix-
ture of the two). It is important
that the local issue can be linked
to Geography and to the key
themes of the GCSE, for example,
the opening of a local by-pass
included sustainability, globalisa-
tion, interdependence and un-
even development.
Finally it is very useful to have les-
sons looking at general issues, like
how the media works. The BBC has
some useful information about how
their correspondents file stories and
where they get their information.
The idea of different news agencies
or papers covering the same story in
different ways – we made use of lots
of web based papers and some stu-
dents make a point of checking
these for every piece of work.
This is a very flexible unit and the
flexibility can seem daunting, it did
(and sometimes still does) to me.
Every time that we teach this unit we
will be doing something new which
means that if something does not
work once, you can always change
it!
Jenny Brassington
resultant effects is to be written and
presented.
The centre-piece of the unit assess-
ment is a group developed multi-
media installation focusing on a par-
ticular place and its different repre-
sentations. We have used this as a
real opportunity to show the school
playing a part in the local commu-
nity, with the student groups each
taking responsibility to collect infor-
mation about the local area. Some
have videoed other teenagers from
the area to create a bank of short
‘voxpops’ giving different views and
perspectives about the location. Oth-
ers have searched for images going
as far back as they can find. Yet oth-
ers have interviewed grandparents
who have lived in the area their
whole lives and who can therefore
provide personal, oral histories.
From this we are creating a local
cultural archive which will act as the
main bank of information from which
the groups can draw to develop
their multi-media installations. A
copy will also be lodged in the local
This is a new option for this year
which very much reflects the pre-
dominant approach to Human Ge-
ography found in many university
departments across the country. It
has several main themes, including
the scope for detailed considera-
tion of local places, directly follow-
ing on from My Place in the Core
units. There are also in-depth areas
of study centred on multiculturalism
and the U.K., and the effect of glob-
alization on culture across the
planet.
Assessment is by three tasks as well
as a wider consideration of work as
a whole. The focus here is on origi-
nality and students developing very
personalised ways of explaining
and exemplifying the concepts cov-
ered. Two pieces are individual
responses, one being a magazine
or newspaper article. This has
proved a rich experience as we
have explicitly linked ideas devel-
oped in English about genre and
style to inform how the piece on the
potential for a global culture and its
library. One issue to consider in this
group task is the technical structure
you want to allow a multi-media in-
stallation to be developed. This
needs to be thought about early on
and built in to any activity which is
developed.
As a unit, we have found it very easy
to draw on ideas and issues from the
first year of study, taking into ac-
count not only the local area and its
representation (My Place), but also
the characteristics of other cultures
(Extreme Environments), and the
rise of global cultural influences
through agents such as Transna-
tional Corporations (People as Con-
sumers). Finally, it has really
sparked the enthusiasm of the stu-
dents as they see it as being about
them and the loves they lead every
day of the week— which of course it
is!
Phil Wood
Geography in the News
Cultural Geography

5. Page 5
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
Place separately – that will have to
be a summer holiday job; we are
now starting Extreme Environ-
ments.
I find this unit much more straight-
forward to plan and teach and I
also love teaching it. It was at this
point in the course last year that
students really started to enjoy
themselves, the Himalayas and
glaciation (which I was really sur-
prised by) fascinated them; they
spent the rest of the year trying to
Happy New Year!
I have just about come to the
end of the My Place unit. This is
the third time that we have
taught it and it has overrun
every year. The trouble is that
there is so much to look at and
you can cover so much of Geog-
raphy with in it! Maybe next
year I’ll try a new approach, I
am wondering about looking at
each of the key themes in turn
and applying each one to My
persuade me to take them to a glaci-
ated area! The resources for this
course are similar to those I used last
year, which means that I can get on
with other work, like the Coastal
Management module for year 11 and
planning our coastal fieldwork.
Exam entries need to be in soon and
I must schedule time to mark all of
Geography in the News over half
term. I love the fact that my job is
never dull but it keeps me very
busy!!
Jenny Brasington
Diary
the News site http://
www.geographyinthenews.rgs.org/
Tales of the city -
• World urban update: what do the
latest facts and figures tell us?
• Growing pains: why are shanty
towns being bulldozed?
• Changing places: how did Liver-
pool became a post-industrial
city?
• Suburban shame: why were there
riots in French cities?
• Making places: why do govern-
ments build new capital cities?
Yuletide logging - What
are the true costs of buying real and
artificial Christmas trees?
Politically correct? - Does the UK
political map correctly represent
you? What does politics have to do
with geography and what does ge-
ography have to do with politics?
World war who? - How did events
60 years ago help shape the geog-
raphy of Europe and what does
‘citizenship’ really mean?
Generation lost? - Why was South
News from the Royal Geo-
graphical Society with IBG
The Society’s website provides a
wealth of materials to help busy
teachers and to provide learning
materials for secondary schools.
The education area of the main
Society website www.rgs.org/
education provides CPD materials
enabling the teaching of GIS, ESD
and other geographical curricu-
lum developments as well as re-
sources, case studies and images
from the Society’s research pro-
grammes. Unlocking the Archives
www.rgs.org/education, provides
learning materials using the Soci-
ety’s collections, inspiring stu-
dents to understand our changing
world and its people, stimulating
debate in geography, history and
citizenship.
Geography in the News
www.geographyinthenews.rgs.or
g supports post -14 students, us-
ing the Society’s intellectual re-
sources to interpret the geogra-
phy behind the headlines. The
following articles have recently
been added to the Geography in
Asia so hard hit by a major quake?
What factors determined the im-
pact of this hazard?
Muddy waters - Hurricane blues:
was Katrina a natural or human
disaster? Was the response to Rita
different?
Crazy paving - Why are gardens
disappearing and what is the im-
pact on run-off and flood risk
Watch out for new articles on
China, coasts, energy and tourism
to be added to the site soon.
Judith Mansell
Resources at the Royal Geographical Society

6. SPONSORED BY THE GA
You might be interested in in-
vesting in the STATE OF THE
NATION pack – up to date
data on the UK with mapping
capability and a pack of lesson
ideas – again, with great po-
tential at all levels, but just the
job for providing some enquir-
ies with ‘stretch’! Also avail-
able with e-learning credits.
You may wish to dip your toe
into THEORY INTO PRAC-
TICE – our professional devel-
opment series. This takes a
challenging aspect of peda-
gogy, or geography, or both,
and provides practical exam-
ples on how to develop materi-
als and approaches in the
classroom. For example,
• Moral Dilemmas
• Dramatically Good Ge-
ography
• Extending writing skills
• Mysteries Make you
Think
• Place, ‘Race’ and Teach-
ing Geography
But there is more to come.
Hopefully you have seen cov-
erage of two products that are
on their way, in the recent GA
MAGAZINE. These are de-
signed to support subject lead-
ership in school
Egeography, written by Fred
Martin, and
Secondary Handbook, edited
by David Balderstone
From the GA
Even the most assiduous
member of the GA can eas-
ily lose track of what else is
on offer from the Associa-
tion to support the pilot
GCSE. Here’s a little list!
The HIGH ARCTIC pack
was designed specifically
to support the Extreme En-
vironments module. It is the
result of an amazing expe-
dition which combined art,
literature and science – the
Cape Farewell expedition.
This pack is a fantastic basis
to learn about Arctic envi-
ronments and specifically
about Global Warming. It
has a student resource,
DVD, CD and printed
teachers’ pack and can be
bought with e-learning
credits.
Have you come across the
CHANGING GEOGRA-
PHY series, which take a
theme and refresh it with
contemporary knowledge
and examples? Each can be
‘quarried’ for some really
good geography. For ex-
ample,
• Citizen, State and Na-
tion
• Countryside Conflicts
• Disability, Space and
Society
• Sustainable Tourism
• Regenerating City
Centres
• Sportscapes
Both of these will make a sig-
nificant contribution to helping
create exciting geographies
for GCSE, and will be available
in time for the Annual Confer-
ence in April. Visit the geogra-
phy shop now!
www.geographyshop.org.uk
Resources at the Geographical Association