Topic title: Population
Year group: 9
When taught: January to April
What are we learning?
- The Global Population explosion
- Factors affecting population change
- Population Pyramids
- Demographic Transition Model
- Population policies including China’s One Child Policy
- Ageing Populations
- The impact of HIV and AIDs
- Migration
- Conditions, challenges and opportunities in Dharavi
Why is this important to know?
- Population is linked to every Geography unit. The growth of the world’s population and its associated activities are fundamental concepts underpinning the study of Geography.
- It is important that students recognise the synopticity between population and the physical world.
- It helps students to recognise their own place and role within the world but also identify how their experiences may be very different to other peoples in the world.
- The unit challenges misconceptions about HIV and AIDS. In addition, misconceptions about migration are discussed.
- It develops an awareness of how politics vary around the world and why. Ethical considerations and human rights are also discussed as well as different perspectives.
Where does this link into our past and future learning?
- This links closely to the development unit studied in year 8, with levels of development often influencing population size and consequent opportunities and challenges.
- Population underpins all future topics with the interaction of the physical world and human activity being core concepts in all units at KS4.
- This topic deepens skills such as reading and interpreting population pyramids and using the demographic transition model to help explain trends in population and development.
How will we be assessed on this topic?
- The Year 9 exam is a decision-making paper requiring connections between tectonics and population to be made with Indonesia as a focus.
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic? What are teachers hoping to see?
- Accurate use of key terms (e.g. Natural increase, emigration, immigration, refugee)
- Good use of GASMan (General trend, Anomaly, Specific evidence, Manipulation) to describe trends on graphs and maps.
- Effective use of extended writing techniques; PEEL (Point, explain, evidence and link).
- Giving balanced answers that look at different viewpoints
- Evidence of evaluation
What key words are there in this topic?
What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?
- Research population policies in other countries in the world. What are countries trying to do to try and manage an ageing population?
- Find out more about Dharavi redevelopment project.
What wider reading can be done on this topic?
