This unit is made up of Section A of Paper 1 of the AQA GCSE Geography specification.  Students begin by looking at a range of natural hazards, before studying tectonic hazards, weather hazards and climate change in more detail.

 

 Intent

Knowledge acquired:

AQA GCSE Geography specification:

• The challenge of natural hazards
• Tectonic hazards
• Weather hazards
• Climate change

Skills developed:

• To be able to analyse a range of data relating to natural hazards and be able to use this data to compare and evaluate.
• To be able to analyse maps and diagrams to describe and explain locational patterns of where and why natural hazards take place.

Understanding

• Ability to understand geographical concepts and processes relating to plate tectonic theory, global atmospheric circulation and climate change.

Links to previous study (where applicable):

• Links to Tectonic Hazards, studied in Year 8.
• Links to Weather and Climate, studied in Year 9.

Links to future study / the wider world (where applicable):

• Links to Sections B and C of Paper 1.
• Link to A Level e.g. AQA A Level – Hazards

 

Implementation

Number of Lessons:

Sequence of lessons:  Approx. 21 lessons (some lessons take longer than one hour to complete)

Tectonic hazards	Weather hazards	Climate change
What are natural hazards? Distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes The effects of earthquakes Responses to earthquakes Living with the risk from tectonic hazards Reducing the risk from tectonic hazards	Global atmospheric circulation Formation of tropical storms Structure and features of tropical storms Case study: Typhoon Haiyan Reducing the effects of tropical storms Weather Hazards in the UK Case study: Somerset Levels Extreme weather in the UK	The evidence for climate change Natural causes of climate change Human causes of climate change Mitigating the impacts of climate change Adapting to the impacts of climate change

Main resources:

• OUP GCSE Geography Textbook for AQA: Pages 8- 48
• Teacher-prepared PowerPoint activities for each lesson.
• GCSEpod clips for each component.

Method(s) of assessment: 

• A number of exam style questions (4 – 12 marks) assessed during the topic.
• End of topic tests at the end of each of the three components of the unit.
• Assessed as part of June Mock in Year 10.
• Final assessment: assessed within Paper 1 (sat in May of Year 11) .

Use of assessment result(s):

• Used to identify areas of weakness in terms of knowledge and skills.  Addressed throughout the remainder of the course.