At National level pupils’ study three SQA units for their qualification.
The National 5 Exam Paper features 3 sections: section
- Physical environments ( 30 marks), section
- Human environments (30 Marks) and global issues (20 marks)
- Pupils must also complete an assignment marked externally by SQA.
National 4 has no formal exam. The Assignment at National 4/5 involves the pupil choosing a topic for study and researching the topic using 2 sources and then coming to conclusions about their topic and analysing their sources.
At national 5 it is worth 20% of the overall mark.
In Kilsyth Academy we study the following:
Physical Geography: Pupils will further develop their knowledge and skill from S1 by learning more about map skills within the geography setting including consolidating their 6-figure grid referencing skills and using scale and compass directions to locate key features. Within the physical unit they will also learn about weather. The weather topic includes looking at air pressure systems and weather station symbols to determine the weather of a selected area.
The Rivers topic looks at the formation of various physical features such as a meander, waterfall and ox-bow lake and what different land uses arise at each part of the river.
The Limestone unit will again focus on the physical formations of limestone landscape such as a limestone pavement. Pupils will discover the different land uses in this type of area and how conflicts arise and how they are often dealt with.
The Population topic touches on many of the different components learned from S1. Pupils look at population structures and account for the changes using evaluations skills.
The Human Geography Unit, comprises of urban, rural, natural hazards and the impact of human activity on the natural environment.
The Urban unit looks at the comparison between a developed and a developing world city and the problems which arise in each. From this, pupils will then learn about the strategies or developments which have been put in place to resolve these problems.
The Rural unit again, looks at farming techniques within a developed and developing country and gives a comparison between the two.
Natural hazards is a succession from the topic learned in S2. This will look more closely at some of the case studies from around the world and how developed and developing countries manage the impact of natural disasters differently.
The impact of human activity looks at the developments within extreme environments and how the exploitation of these areas will have consequences for the world as a whole.
