The Higher Geography course encourages candidates to develop a greater understanding of the world. Pupils have opportunities to learn more about the wider world and learn more about the developments and practices in developing countries and how this differs from the world we know.
The course emphasises the development and application of skills.
The focus on practical skills such as reading sources and making decisions develops candidates’ thinking skills, as well as skills in literacy and numeracy.
In S5/6 pupils study three SQA units for their qualification and course work meets the CFE Outcomes for National 6.
The First Unit is Human Environments unit: Population including looking at population pyramids and looking at the push and pull factors related to a specific case study , urban looking at recent changes to the CBD and redevelopment in the inner city, and rural where we look at land degradation in the rainforest in relation to both the Amazon rainforest and Australian rainforest.
The second unit is Physical Environments: Lithosphere where pupils learn about the different erosional and depositional features of both glaciation and coastal features, hydrosphere where we look at river formation and the water cycle in relation to hydrographs, biosphere where we discover soil profiles and atmosphere looking at the redistribution of energy and ocean currents.
The third unit is Global issues and Geographical skills : Development and health looks at primary health care in other countries relating to specific case studies and endemic diseases, global climate change looks at the causes and solutions to human activity and the practical skills section develops our critical thinking skills by looking at sources and providing geographical evidence for solutions from OS maps to back this up.
The Higher Exam Paper 1 features 2 sections: Physical environments and human environments both of which are worth 50 marks.
Paper 2 features global issues worth 40 marks and the application of geographical skills worth 20 marks.
Pupils also must complete a research assignment based on a topic chosen by the pupil and marked externally by SQA. The National 6 Assignment involves a field work case study of an urban area. Pupils are invited to pick an area of study that they wish to conduct their research on. Pupils must demonstrate the ability to use a number of different data gathering techniques and be able to draw
