Geography - National 4 and 5
Welcome to the National Geography Class. In the department you have 3 dedicated geographers who have a passion for their subject and who look forward to delivering geography at the senior level.
Mrs Barbour gw11barboughshonagh@glow.sch.uk
Ms Norrie gw11hamhannah@glow.sch.uk
Mr Clark gw10clarkjohn6@glow.sch.uk
We look forward to helping you explore the exciting geographical elements of the National course and supporting you in preparing for your course assignment and your final exam.
It is a rewarding course and embraces all that is good about geography - making connections with the wider world, understanding your place within it and keeping up to date with an ever changing and complex world! This page aims to give you a very brief overview of the course structure and includes some useful links to support material.
Study support classes are always available - arrange with you teacher. This is open to all Senior Geography classes.
N5 Course Structure
- Physical Environments
- Human Environments
- Global Issues
- Course Assignment (assessed by the SQA)
- Final Exam (assessed by the SQA)
Course Detail
The course is split into 3 units; Physical Environments, Human Environments and Global Issues. Pupils will learn a wide range of geographical skills which will be applied throughout all 3 units. All three areas look at up-to-date case studies making the content studied topical and relevant to today's world.
Physical Environments (includes developing OS Mapping skills for all areas):
- River Landscapes
- Limestone Landscapes
- Land use Conflict and Management (for both River and Limestone landscapes)
- UK Weather - characteristics and causes of the key weather systems affecting the UK
- Population - Distribution and characteristics of both developed and developing countries
- Urban - Developed (Glasgow) vs Developing (Mumbai))
- Rural - Developed (UK Farming or USA Great Plains) vs Developing (Kerela, India)
- Health (Distribution of world diseases, HIV/AIDS in developed and developing countries, focus on heart disease (developed countries) and malaria (developing countires).
- Climate Change (Features, Physical and Human Causes, Local and Global Effects, Management strategies to minimise impact/effects)
Assessment
- End of Unit Assessment (each of the units outlined above has one assessment)
- N5 Course Assignment 1 hour write up, under exam conditions (20 marks - 20% of final grade)
- N5 Geography Exam 2 hours, 20 minutes (80 marks - 80% of final grade)
- If pupils sitting N4, there is no exam, but 3 unit assessments and an Added Value Unit have to be completed.
Geographical Skills
The following skills are assessed in contexts drawn from across the course:
Mapping Skills related to Ordnance Survey Maps
- grid references (4 and 6 figure)
- identifying and locating physical and human features and patterns
- measuring distance using scale
- interpreting relief and contour patterns
- using maps in association with photographs, field sketches, cross sections/transects
Extracting, interpreting and presenting numerical and graphical information which may be:
- graphs
- tables
- diagrams
- maps
Assignment
Research skills including fieldwork skills in:
- gathering
- processing
- interpreting
Fieldwork
We endeavour to take our pupils out of the classroom and experience fieldwork. Given the current climate, we are unsure about the logistics. Last year, pupils spent a day collecting data on the River Devon for their course assignment.
Useful Resources
- SQA Course specification with detail on each unit area and assessment details
- SQA National 5 page
- Microsoft TEAMS - All pupils have been added to the N5 Geography TEAM
(all pupils have access to the MS suite when logging on via GLOW, word, OneDrive, PowerPoint, excel etc)
- BBC Bitesize Geography
- Time for Geography
- There are many more websites and resources. Pupils should check TEAMS on a regular basis as resources will be posted there.
Progression
- Higher Geography (then Advanced Higher Geography)
- Higher Environmental Science