Welcome to IGCSE

Geography
Not that good
an impression,
but close-ish
kinda!

I am Lindy

IGCSE geography is a good course

But in order to do well you will need to do much

more than the hour a week we are given in class.

To help you with this I have started 2 wikis
specially for you guys
One is the textbook substitute so far there
isnt one, so I am s..l..o..w..l..y putting one
together I have actually done more than I have
uploaded, but there are still some gaps!
The other is similar to last year PowerPoints,
class notes and homeworks + useful links and vids
and stuff

The wiki is called

Ysgol Rhyngrwyd IGCSE Geography

[the reason for that you can find on the site!]

The textbook one is

http://ih-igcse-geography.wikispaces.com/
The Lesson notes one is
http://newigcsenotes.wikispaces.com/
I still operate the blog where I put news items

that might be of interest and/or help you with

your lessons called Coach House geography and
is found at
http://lindym.wordpress.com/

Every week
I will email you ( and store on the site) a

worksheet for class time.

You will use it to scribble on so print it off
before class I never need see it, but you
will find it useful when it comes to
homework/revision to have some notes
made. Start a file for these to be kept in.
If you really cannot get it printed off for
whatever reason, I suggest you keep it
open on your desktop during class and type
into it.

The Course

Section A The natural environment and people

You will need to study 2 of these
Topic 1 River environments
Topic 2 Coastal environments ?
Topic 3 Hazardous environments ?
Section B People and their environments
You will need to study 2 of these
Topic 4 Economic activity and energy
Topic 5 Ecosystems and rural environments
Topic 6 Urban environments
Section C Global issues
You will need to study 1 of these
Topic 7 Fragile environments
Topic 8 Globalisation and migration
Topic 9 Development and human welfare

Geography IGCSE

Lesson 1
Introduction

Quote from the first page of the

textbook wiki!

Different way of grouping countries:

The modern exam syllabus no longer uses

LEDC, NIC and MEDC - sorry guys as you

have just got to grips with that!

This how they do it now

Classifying Countries by level of development

The latest World Bank economic classification of countries has been

used. These are

HIC High income country,
MIC Medium income country,
LIC Low income country.
These are based on the GNI - Gross National Income per capita.
Gross national income (GNI) comprises the total value produced
within a country (Gross Domestic Product (GDP)), together with its
income received from other countries (mainly interest and share
dividends), less similar payments made to other countries and is
thought to be a better measure of how well off a country is than the
GDP on its own.
The 3 levels for 2008 - these do change over time - but are
currently as follows:
Countries with a GNI per capita of $11,456 or more are described as
high income countries,
between $975 and $11,455 as middle income,
and for lower income countries less than $975 per person per year.

One homework task is .

To use the list of countries and either an

atlas
or
http://bighugelabs.com/map.php
To make a map (or 3 separate ones good
if you use the link!) to show the locations
of HICs, MICs and LICs.
If you use the link either send me the
embed codes or put it on your version of
facebook or a blog and send me the link!

Unit UA1.1: The Hydrological Cycle

Textbook wiki link:
http://ih-igcsegeography.wikispaces.com/1.1+Hydrolo
gical+cycle

Diagram
3. What is happening at

What is happening here?

1. What do the yellow wiggly

lines from the sun with No 1

attached indicate?
2.What about the blue wiggly
lines from the sea show with
No 2?

No3?
4. And No 4?
5. Now No 5 is in 2
places it is a very
much simplified version
of what happens what
is it trying to show?
6. Where does all this
water eventually end
up?
Now lets try and fill in
some of the gaps this
one is far too simple!

Diagram
Now the original

simple version
implied that the sun
warmed the ocean
which caused some
of the sea water to
evaporate, rise,
condense to become
clouds.

But is the ocean the only place where water evaporates

from?
Where else?

So where have we got to?

Water evaporates mostly from the ocean, but also from

rivers, lakes, the soil and from plants.

This due to energy from the sun warming the water in all
these places, allowing it to turn into water vapour.
As it is warm, the water vapour rises into the air.
As it gets higher, it cools.
Cool air can hold less water vapour than warm air and so
some condenses to form clouds.
As more tiny drops of water from, they join, getting
heavier all the time.
Eventually they are heavy enough to be pulled back to
earth as precipitation in some form, and depending on
the conditions they fall as rain, hail, sleet or snow.

So once the rain has

fallen, the water can
stay where it is or
move. If it is going to
stay where it is, where
might this be?

This where we have got to

If it stays where it is
It could catch on the leaves and branches of the

plants we say the water has been intercepted

It could fall into lakes and rivers
Puddles could form on the surface. These are all
fresh water surface storage
Some more snow may fall on the icecap or glacier
this is glacial storage
All these are called stores
There are another couple of stores as well for
later

If the water is going

to move, how might
this happen?

This where we have got to

If it moves

It could run down a slope surface run-off

It could drop into the river and be carried

away
It could drip off the trees onto the
ground
It could soak into the soil this is called
infiltration
If it goes even further down into the
spaces between a permeable rock, this is
called percolation.
All these are called flows

There are 2 flows and

one intrusion (another
flow), and 3 storages that
we have not talked
about?
Also what is the blue
dotted line for?

This is the whole thing

Fresh water
storage
Salt water
storage
Ground water storage

Water tab
le

So summing up .
The missing terms were:
Fresh surface water storage in lakes and reservoirs
Subsurface flow (or sometimes through flow) we have

lots of that out every bank in wet weather little springs

give evidence of it
Ground water flow this is water that flows over the top
of the water table as there is no more spaces left to fill
Salt water intrusion comes in from the sea ever dug a
castle on the beach and had water filling the hole taste
it and you would find that is salt water intrusion
Ground water storage is the water stored in the water
table that can stay there for 1000s of years more
about bore holes another time!
The water table is the top layer of rock below which all
the cracks and crevices in the permeable rock is filled

Unit 1.1B
The Drainage Basin

 As you see

the
watershed is
the line that
defines the
limits of the
River
drainage
Channel
basin.
Any water
that lands
within its
limits (green
arrows) will
run off or
infiltrate
and most will
eventually
end up in the Any water falling on the other side of
the watershed (red arrows) will end up
river
in another drainage basin
channel.

More thoughts
What is the difference between a

tributary and a confluence?

A source and a mouth?
A river basin and a river channel?
Remember we said the hydrological system
was a closed system? What did that mean?
Do you think a drainage basin is an open or
closed system? Why?

More thoughts

What do you think might make the flow through

one drainage basin quicker or slower than

another one?
Why do we might we need to know whether a
river basin has a fast flow through or not?
What might help us find out which river system
is likely to cause a problem and which isnt? What
would we have to measure?
http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/demo/Watershe
d.html a great animation of a drainage basin

Homework
Part 1 mapping the different levels of

economic development (50%)

Part 2 at the beginning of each GCSE you
get a diagram or a map and are asked
questions about it this week you have 2
short starter sections about the
hydrological cycle and the drainage
basin(50%)