Subject: geography
Key stage: ks3
Year: year-9
Description: This unit teaches pupils about how humans have affected our world by looking at environmental issues such as plastic pollution and the impact of fossil fuel use. The unit leads pupils to question whether we are in a new geological epoch.
Why this, why now: This unit draws on pupils' previous studies to question whether we have entered a new geological epoch. Pupils will use their knowledge of climate change, forest biomes, coasts and natural resources to consider how humans interact and change the natural environment. This unit encourages pupils to think broadly about geographical issues and makes explicit the connections between units across the curriculum.
Prior knowledge requirements: The population of the world has risen rapidly to over eight billion. Industrialisation has allowed for the mass production of goods. Goods are traded around the world. Global warming is caused by the increase in greenhouse gas emissions released by humans. Fossil fuels are a group of naturally occurring, non-renewable energy sources formed from the remains of ancient plants and animals. Global biomes are influenced by climate zones. The world has different climate zones. Ecosystems are where living and non-living things interact.
National curriculum content: Understand key processes of physical geography relating to geological timescales and plate tectonics; rocks, weathering and soils. Understand key processes of physical geography relating to weather and climate, including the change in climate from the Ice Age to the present. Understand key processes of physical geography relating to glaciation, hydrology and coasts. Understand key processes of human geography relating to population and urbanisation. Use fieldwork in contrasting locations to collect, analyse and draw conclusions from geographical data, using multiple sources of increasingly complex information. Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.
Unit lessons: