Students will learn about Africa and the diversity of geography in this continent. They will learn about the physical and human geography of this continent and consider the future for some countries in Africa.
Exam questions based around the key topics of this unit - development, access to services, conflict and tourism.
Country
Humans have divided continents into political units called countries.
Continent
One of Earth's great land masses; there are 7 continents.
Desertification
Where land is being turned into desert, often through overuse.
Drought
There is less rain that usual, so there is not enough water for our needs.
Life expectancy
How many years a new baby can expect to live for, on average.
Population
The number of people living in a place.
Savanna
An area of grassy plains with scattered trees.
Stereotype
A fixed opinion or impression of someone or somewhere that does not reflect reality.
Urban area
A built-up area - town or city
Over-grazing
When animals eat all the plants and they can’t grow back.
Over-cultivating
The excessive use of farmland which means crops can no longer grow and soil is lost through wind and water erosion.
Deforestation
When trees are chopped down to use the land for different uses.
Irrigation
To supply the land with water by artificial means e.g. by diverting streams, flooding, or spraying.
Fertile
Land that is capable of producing abundant vegetation or crops.
Corruption
Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.
Squatter settlement
Squatter settlements are any collection of buildings where the people have no legal rights to the land they are built upon. The people are living there illegally and do not own the land.
Climate
The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.
Convectional rain
When the land warms up, it heats the air above it. This causes the air to expand and rise. As the air rises it cools and condenses. If this process continues then rain will fall.
Inter tropical convergence zone
The area where the northeast and southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the thermal equator, though its specific position varies seasonally.
Atmospheric circulation
Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air, and together with ocean circulation is the means by which thermal energy is redistributed on the surface of the Earth.
Climate graph
A climate graph displays yearly temperature and precipitation statistics for a particular location.
Biome
A large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g. forest or tundra.
Poverty
The state of being extremely poor.
Wealth
The amount of money a person or country has.
Conflict
A disagreement.
Informal sector
The informal sector of the economy, informal economy, or grey economy is the part of an economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
What is climate change and does it matter? If it does, is there anything we can do? What is our own carbon footprint? How can we reduce the impact of global warming? Students are provided with the opportunity to explore the answers to these important questions and consider the Greenhouse Effect.
Exam questions based around the topic.
Energy
Power derived from the utilisation of physical or chemical resources, especially to provide light and heat or to work machines.
Fossil fuels
A natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms.
Renewable energy
Energy from a source that is not depleted when used, such as wind or solar power.
Non renewable energy
Energy that depleted when used such as gas power.
Solar power
Energy created from the sun's heat.
Wind power
Energy created from the wind.
Tidal power
Energy created from the movement of the sea.
Hydroelectric power
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water.
Geothermal
Relating to or produced by the internal heat of the earth.
Sustainable
Able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.
Global Warming
Global warming is the rise in temperature of the earth's atmosphere.
Carbon footprint
The amount of Carbon Dioxide which is emitted as a result of our own lifestyles.
Greenhouse effect
The trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere, due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Students will consider this vast country and investigate different physical, human and environmental aspects of geography.
Students will be asked to produce a response to what they have found out about Russia. We will encourage them to be creative and show all aspects of Geography.
Economic activity
Work you earn money from
Greenfield site
A site which has not been build on before.
Infrastructure
The basic services in a country. Such as roads, railways, water supply, telephone systems.
Primary industry
Industry, such as mining, agriculture, or forestry, that is concerned with obtaining or providing natural raw materials for conversion into commodities and products for the consumer.
Secondary industry
Industry that converts the raw materials provided by primary industry into commodities and products for the consumer; manufacturing industry.
Tertiary industry
The part of a country's economy concerned with the provision of services, e.g. teacher, bus driver, cleaner.
Quaternary industry
The sector of industry that involves the intellectual services: research, development, and IT.
TNC, Trans National Corporation
A company that operates in more than one country.
Supply chain
The sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity.
Develop the individual:
To develop an awareness of other countries and cultures.
Create a supportive community:
What is development and how can we measure it? How did the development gap grow? What factors make countries rich or poor? This module will also raise important questions about the nature of global citizenship and the importance of money for quality of life (and happiness).
Using development indicators and analysing what they tell you about different countries.
Development
The Level of economic growth and wealth of a country. It is about the standard of living in a country.
Poverty
The state of being extremely poor.
Hyperinflation
Monetary inflation occurring at a very high rate; hyperinflation is a situation where the price increases are so out of control that the concept of inflation is meaningless.
Deficit
Owing money.
Economic Development
Building business, trade and cash flow.
Tax
A sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc.
Famine
A lack of food; a situation where people may starve.
Medication
Medicine and drugs used to treat illness.
Global Citizenship
A global citizen is someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building this community's values and practices.
Birth rate
Birth Rate is the number of births per 1000 people in a country.
Death rate
Death Rate is the number of deaths per year per 1000 people in a country.
Infant mortality
Infant mortality is the number of deaths per infant under 1 year.
Life expectancy
The number of years the average person lives.
GNP per capita
Gross National Product - the average amount of money earned per person in a country.
Adult literacy
The percentage of adults in the country who can read and write.
LIC
Low income country.
HIC
High income country.
NEE
Newly Emerging Economy.
GDP
Gross Domestic Product - the amount of economic output of a country.
Squatter settlement
Squatter settlements are any collection of buildings where the people have no legal rights to the land they are built upon.
Debt
Money that is owed.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Have you ever wondered why it rains and where all the rain water goes? Why, when the weather here is great, is it often great for five or more days? Why does the Caribbean have a much nicer climate than ours? These are some of the questions our Year 8s will find answers to in this module. Students will carry out their own micro-climate enquiry, and analyse the data from the King’s “weather station”.
Microclimate of the school. Measuring different climate conditions around the school. Describing and explaining results.
Temperature
The degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment.
Precipitation
Rainfall
Air Pressure
The definition of air pressure is the force exerted onto a surface by the weight of the air.
Wind Speed
Wind speed is the measure motion of the air with respect to the surface of the earth covering a unit distance over a unit time.
Wind Direction
Wind direction is an indicator of the direction that the wind is coming from.
High Pressure
A condition of the atmosphere in which the pressure is above average (e.g. in an anticyclone).
Low Pressure
A condition of the atmosphere in which the pressure is below average (e.g. in a depression).
Visibility
The distance one can see as determined by light and weather conditions.
Warm Front
The boundary of an advancing mass of warm air, in particular the leading edge of the warm sector of a low-pressure system.
Cold Front
The boundary of an advancing mass of cold air, in particular the trailing edge of the warm sector of a low-pressure system.
Weather
Describes the day-to-day conditions of the atmosphere. Weather can change quickly - one day it can be dry and sunny and the next day it may rain.
Climate
Describes average weather conditions over longer periods and over large areas.
Anticyclone
A high pressure weather system.
Depression
A low pressure weather system.
Synoptic symbols
Used on weather charts to describe the weather conditions.
Oktas
The unit of measurement for cloud cover.
Microclimate
The climate of a very small area, especially when this differs from the climate of the surrounding area.
Convectional rainfall
When the land warms up, it heats the air above it. This causes the air to expand and rise. As the air rises it cools and condenses. If this process continues then rain will fall.
Relief rainfall
Relief rain is formed when air is forced to cool when it rises over relief features in the landscape such as hills or mountains. As it rises it cools, condenses and forms rain.
Frontal rain
The type of rainfall that takes place at the boundary between a mass of warm air and a mass of cold air.
Tropical storm
A localized, very intense low-pressure wind system, forming over tropical oceans and with winds of hurricane force.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Pupils learn how and why our coastline is changing, why it looks so different in different parts of the UK, and through case studies will become experts at explaining coastal erosion and learning to empathise with the different interest groups faced with a rapidly retreating coastline. The module will also allow pupils to carry out in depth fieldwork investigations.
Decision making activity based around coastal protection. What options are available for an area of coast? Justify your decision for a case-study area of a coast.
Longshore Drifts
Longshore drift consists of the transportation of sediments (clay, silt, sand and shingle) along a coast at an angle to the shoreline, which is dependent on prevailing wind direction, swash and backwash.
Tides
The alternate rising and falling of the sea, usually twice in each lunar day at a particular place, due to the attraction of the moon and sun.
Coastal Erosion
Coast erosion is the process of wearing away material from the coastal profile due to imbalance in the supply and export of material from a certain section. It takes place in the form of scouring in the foot of the cliffs or in the foot of the dunes.
Deposit
Deposition is the geological process in which sediments, soil and rocks are added to a landform or land mass. Wind, ice, and water, as well as sediment flowing via gravity, transport previously eroded sediment, which, at the loss of enough kinetic energy
Transport
The method of getting from one place to another.
Wavecut Platform
Platforms of rock created by waves cutting away at the cliffs, leaving just a rock surface at beach level.
Headland
Headlands are formed when the sea attacks a section of coast with alternating bands of hard and soft rock. The bands of soft rock, such as sand and clay, erode more quickly than those of more resistant rock, such as chalk. This leaves a section of land ju
Stack
A stack or seastack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion.
Stump
When the cave wears through the headland, an arch forms. Further erosion causes the arch to collapse, leaving the pillar of hard rock standing away from the coast—the stack. Eventually, erosion will cause the stack to collapse, leaving a stump.
Spit
A spit is an extended stretch of beach material that projects out to sea and is joined to the mainland at one end. Spits are formed where the prevailing wind blows at an angle to the coastline, resulting in longshore drift.
Chemical weathering
The breakdown of rock by chemical action. For example, weak acid attacking the rocks.
Biological weathering
This involves living things like burrowing animals and plants attacking rocks and weakening their structures.
Freeze-thaw weathering
This is the physical breakdown of rocks. Where water enters cracks, freezes (often overnight), expands and puts pressure on the crack making it weaker.
Hydraulic action
Force of the waves. As waves crash against the cliff face, the force of the breaking wave can squeeze air in cracks. This air gradually forces open the crack in the rock - as this process continues, the rock becomes increasingly weakened.
Abrasion
Bits of rock and sand in waves grind down cliff surfaces like sandpaper.
Attrition
Waves smash rocks and pebbles on the shore into each other, and they break and become smoother.
Rock armour
Large boulders piled at the bottom of a cliff or sea wall. They absorb the energy of the waves before it crashes onto the cliff.
Groynes
Structures placed at right angles to the beach which trap sand. They trap the sand and stop the sand being washed away. They need to be replaced when they are covered by sand and pebbles.
Gabions
Steel mesh cages filled with boulders to absorb wave energy.
Sea wall
Concrete wall built to protect towns and important roads.
Erosion
The wearing away of something.
Prevailing winds
A wind from the direction that is predominant or most usual.
Destructive wave
The characteristics of a destructive wave are: weak swash and strong backwash, the strong backwash removes sediment from the beach and the waves are steep and close together.
Constructive wave
The characteristics of a constructive wave are: strong swash and weak backwash, the strong swash brings sediments to build up the beach and the backwash is not strong enough to remove the sediment and the waves are low and further apart.
Bay
An inlet of the sea where the land curves inwards.
Resistant rock
Rock that is not eroded easily.
Coastal defences
Strategies put in place to protect the land from the erosion of the sea.
Fetch
The distance travelled by wind or waves across open water.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community: