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Geography Unit 6 - Investigating your local area

Investigating your local area.

Sample video for this unit - see relevant page for further videos...

QCA Suggestions.

This is a ‘long’ unit, in which children develop geographical ideas and skills by studying their own locality. The unit is based on a village in Surrey, but the teaching ideas can be applied to most localities in the UK. They could also be extended or adapted to encompass different themes, eg weather, microclimates, rivers, water features.

How this unit links to Agriculture.

This unit in looking at the local area including the land use obviously covers the use of land for farming as well as forests and the countryside, which have close links to land which is farmed. If your local area has specific habitats you feel should be looked at then examples of these may be available on the habitats section of this site - go to HABITATS which has links to science unit 4 Habitats.

The videos are not meant to replace the field work involved in this unit but to support it and serve as an additional resource which is available each lesson as required.

If you are a village or rural school then you are not far from land used for farming. You may even have a farm in the village or have perhaps visited a farm on a school trip. Even if this is the case the videos are still useful to show a wider selection of land use and farming operations than a single farm would be able to show in a single visit.

If you school is in a town then even though it maybe some distance to the nearest field, the video will enable you to illustrate the main land use in the UK, even if this is not the case in your immediate local area. Or again the videos could serve as a follow up to a farm visit.

Teachers Guide / Ideas.

Videos are available for the lessons dealing with the following questions as given in the QCA Primary Scheme of Work Geography Unit 6 - Investigating your local area.

What is the village like?
What are the main land uses in the village?
- These 2 lessons are combined in 'What is the village like? - go to lesson
What jobs do people do? How do they get to work? What services do nearby settlements provide? - coming soon....
What changes have taken place in the village? - coming soon...

The aim has been to extend the focus of Year 1 Geography Unit: Unit 1 Around our school – the local area. For this reason many of the same clips have been used but with some extension and comments more relevant to this unit.

National Curriculum Reference

Teachers Notes:

Any comment or special teaching points can be found here.

Knowledge, skills and understanding:

Source: QCA Statutory content

Teaching should ensure that geographical enquiry and skills are used when developing knowledge and understanding of places, patterns and processes, and environmental change and sustainable development.

Geographical enquiry and skills.

In undertaking geographical enquiry, pupils should be taught to:

Ask geographical questions [for example, ‘What is this landscape like?’, ‘What do I think about it?’]
Collect and record evidence [for example, by carrying out a survey of shop functions and showing them on a graph]
Analyse evidence and draw conclusions [for example, by comparing population data for two localities]

In developing geographical skills, pupils should be taught:

To use appropriate geographical vocabulary [for example, temperature, transport, industry]
To use appropriate fieldwork techniques [for example, labeled field sketches] and instruments [for example, a rain gauge, a camera]
To use atlases and globes, and maps and plans at a range of scales [for example, using contents, keys, grids]
To use secondary sources of information, including aerial photographs [for example, stories, information texts, the internet, satellite images, photographs, videos]
To draw plans and maps at a range of scales [for example, a sketch map of a locality]
To use ICT to help in geographical investigations [for example, creating a data file to analyse fieldwork data]

Pupils should be taught:

Knowledge and understanding of places.

To identify and describe what places are like [for example, in terms of weather, jobs]
The location of places and environments they study and other significant places and environments [for example, those listed in NC Booklet and places and environments in the news]
To describe where places are [for example, in which region/country the places are, whether they are near rivers or hills, what the nearest towns or cities are]
To explain why places are like they are [for example, in terms of weather conditions, local resources, historical development]
To identify how and why places change [for example, through the closure of shops or building of new houses, through conservation projects] and how they may change in the future [for example, through an increase in traffic
or an influx of tourists]
To describe and explain how and why places are similar to and different from other places in the same country and elsewhere in the world [for example, comparing a village with a part of a city in the same country]
To recognise how places fit within a wider geographical context [for example, as part of a bigger region or country] and are interdependent [for example, through the supply of goods, movements of people].

Knowledge and understanding of patterns and processes.

Recognise and explain patterns made by individual physical and human features in the environment [for example, where frost forms in the playground, the distribution of hotels along a seafront]

Knowledge and understanding of environmental change and sustainable development.

Recognise how people can improve the environment [for example, by reclaiming derelict land] or damage it [for example, by polluting a river], and how decisions about places and environments affect the future quality of people’s lives
Recognise how and why people may seek to manage environments sustainably, and to identify opportunities for their own involvement [for example, taking part in a local conservation project].

KS 2 Breadth of Study

Source: QCA Website

During the key stage, pupils should be taught the Knowledge, skills and understanding through the study of two localities and three themes:

Localities

A locality in the United Kingdom.

Themes.

How settlements differ and change, including why they differ in size and character [for example, commuter village, seaside town], and an issue arising from changes in land use [for example, the building of new housing or a leisure complex]
An environmental issue, caused by change in an environment [for example, increasing traffic congestion, hedgerow loss, drought], and attempts to manage the environment sustainably [for example, by improving public transport, creating a new nature reserve, reducing water use].

In their study of localities and themes, pupils should:

Study at a range of scales – local, regional and national.
Study a range of places and environments in different parts of the world, including the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Carry out fieldwork investigations outside the classroom.