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I'm also very willing to help you in your work as long as you're able to give me a few days in which to reply. If you have any suggestions about the type of topics you would like to see covered in these pages let me know and I'll do my best to provide them.
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One of geography's strengths is the diversity, but it can certainly be confusing when you're trying to locate information for those all important essays or data response exercises. Don't worry, it's very likely that your library will use the Dewey classification system, if so the following categories may all come in useful at some stage (depending on what exactly you're researching!).
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300 SOCIAL SCIENCES 500 PURE SCIENCES |
600 TECHNOLOGY 700 THE ARTS 900 GEOGRAPHY & HISTORY |
If you are considering your choice of GCSE, A level
or IB subjects there are a number of questions you need to ask yourself and
your teachers/parents/guardians etc.
Ask your teacher what topics the course will cover,
there is such a wide range of potential topics that no two courses will be
the same. If you are not interested in most of the topics that will be covered
you'll soon lose interest in your work. In this situation your motivation
will be low and you will certainly not perform to your full potential.
Make sure you know exactly how you will be assessed.
How many exams are there? When do they take place, at the end of the entire
course or at the end of each topic (module)? How many pieces of coursework
(if any) must you submit and when? What type of coursework is it, is it one
major project which you do by yourself or are there a small series of class
based exercises in which you can work together before doing the final write
up on your own?
Basing your choice of subject on who will teach you
is a real minefield. To start with let's put aside the differences in the
way schools operate their timetables and subject choices. In some courses
teachers may 'team teach', often dealing with particular topics (this is more
common in A level and IB courses although it does take place in some GCSE
courses). In this case you may get your favourite teacher only part of the
time, (it does also mean that you get your least favourite teacher only part
of the time as well though!). Try and ask yourself why a teacher is your favourite,
if they make the subject interesting for you and help to motivate you that's
great and you'll certainly gain a lot from their lessons. On the other hand
if you like them because you can always hand your work in late or because
they don't seem to bother about the quality of your work then think again.
Teachers like that are only making life easy for themselves and aren't really
interested in you at all, they certainly won't be pushing you to reach your
full potential. At the end of the day because of the way in which subjects
are timetabled, and because of the other classes a teacher will have to teach
your school/college probably wouldn't be able to tell you who your teacher
will be until late in the school year by which time you'll have make your
choices already.
If you've studied geography before you will probably have some idea of what will be involved in the course you're now considering. Spatial awareness will certainly be one of the core skills you will acquire. This will develop your 'sense of place and location' - for instance, why do certain landforms or economic activities take place where they do? You're probably most aware of this skill from the use of the most fundamental tool of geography - the map. There's more to geography than just knowing where things are though! You'll learn how to collect and interpret statistics (often through the coursework you might have to complete). You'll develop your ability to argue a point of view both verbally and in written form. In geography there is often a choice to be considered - should a piece of land be used for housing or left as farmland? Both are very important but you'll need to judge which one (in your opinion) should be given preference. (This type of work where you consider the pros and cons of a topic is sometimes known as 'values' work.) Overall you'll develop a greater understanding of the human and natural environments and the links between them. Given the importance most people now place on taking care of the environment you couldn't really pick a better subject to study in order to prepare you for the future.
