Classroom ideas – Secondary Geography
Here are 4 Geography lesson plans covering different elements of the curriculum for students aged 11-14. We hope that these will stimulate ideas that you can adapt, expand and apply to other curriculum topics. The full lesson plans are available to download in both pdf and word formats. See the descriptions below for a summary of what is covered for each topic.
Climate change (Download lesson plan)
Students research information about climate change using Google Search and learn how to discriminate between results from different sources. They consider and debate the different viewpoints that they have found on the topic. They then create a presentation about three places that have been affected by climate change, using information from Google Earth, Search and Images.
In the second session, students are introduced to the concept of carbon footprint and use the Google Carbon Footprint Project tools to calculate their personal footprint, consider the actions they can take to reduce it and share their results on the map. Using these tools and activities, students gain a greater understanding of the issues surrounding climate change and can see how their own energy use compares with that of others.
www.google.co.uk/carbonfootprint/schools.html
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Fair or unfair trade (Download lesson plan)
In this lesson, students find out how cocoa is grown and processed to make chocolate and consider whether cocoa farmers’ lives can be improved by Fairtrade.
Students begin by using Google Search and Images to find out what chocolate is made from, what the crop looks like and how it is farmed. They find out where in the world it is grown and then use Google Earth or Maps to look at these countries and where they are in relation to the UK. They are introduced to the idea of food miles and use Google Earth’s ‘ruler’ tool to find out how far chocolate has to travel to reach the UK by plane and by sea. They compare how far it travels from different countries and consider which is the most environmentally friendly to import from.
The lesson goes on to look at the key people involved in the cocoa trade. Students research the lives of cocoa farmers in Ghana using Google Search and Images to find out about how they grow and harvest cocoa, how much they earn for the cocoa they produce and how this compares to the cost of a chocolate bar in the UK. They are introduced to the idea of Fairtrade and use Google News to find recent articles about Fairtrade and the issues.
Using the Fair Trade Certified Global Awareness layer in Google Earth, they can read information about many different Fairtrade cooperatives; from cocoa farmers in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, to coffee farmers in South America and tea farmers in India.
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Population (Download lesson plan)
This is an introduction to the topic of population. Students use the define feature on Google Search to research definitions for key terms such as population density, densely populated, urban and rural. Google Earth or Maps are then used to show densely and scarcely populated areas and compare the features of each. Google Images can also be used to find pictures of very crowded, busy places and a rural, isolated areas. Using London and rural Yorkshire as examples, students are asked to think about the reasons why so many people live in London and relatively few in rural Yorkshire.
Students choose a further two places with contrasting population densities (either in the UK or worldwide) to research and then use their notes, maps and pictures to create a presentation. They could also use Google News to find recent news articles from each of their two areas and use these to compare and contrast the types of issues affecting each.
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Natural disasters (Download lesson plan)
This lesson compares responses to natural disasters in MEDCs and LEDCs. Students use Google Search, News, Images, Maps and Earth to find information about natural disasters that have occurred in both MEDCs and LEDCs, such as the Boscastle flood, Pakistan earthquake, Asian tsunami and hurricane Katrina. They make notes on causes, immediate, short and long term effects and human responses and then use these notes and images to put together a presentation. Students can also create a My Map in Google Maps, plotting the information and images they've found in placemarks on a map of the world.
When discussing volcanoes and earthquakes, Google Earth can be a valuable tool for visualising how plate tectonics work and where the different plate boundaries can be found. Using the volcanoes layer in Google Earth, students can see how volcanoes are distributed along fault lines.
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