The following examples show how tasks and suggested activities in the QCA/DfES schemes of work for geography can be modified to meet the needs of gifted pupils. Text in italics is taken from the schemes of work.

Year 7: The location of settlements

Unit 3: People everywhere

Where do we build settlements and why?

Use a game or simulation to allow pupils to explore the factors that may have affected the location of an original settlement.

Ask pupils to identify types of settlement sites on an Ordnance Survey map.

Possible extension work
Introducing progression through increased depth of knowledge and understanding (for example by weighing up the importance of factors), and possible change of context if a new study location is chosen:

Remind the pupils of the main factors for settlement location -- fresh water, source of food (land for growing crops, pasture for animals, fish), source of fuel (woodland close by), physical attributes of the site (defence, river crossing point).

For (about ten?) settlement sites, and using either sketch maps already drawn or new ones on different OS maps, ask the pupils to identify the likely location of the factors important for determining settlement location on their sketch maps.

Ask the pupils to weigh each factor for each particular location. Ask them how they might record and use this information (for example in a matrix format, with totals). There is an opportunity here for pupils to present the information as a spreadsheet.

Ask the pupils to evaluate which of the factors in their sample of locations are most and least significant.

Suggest that the pupils work in pairs to prepare a piece of extended writing entitled 'Important factors in settlement location in (the selected area) -- an illustrated evaluation'.

Discuss with them what sort of writing this will be (discursive) and ask them to make a list of the connectives they will need to use. Remind them to include and justify their opinions.

Year 8: Investigating ecosystems

Can the Earth cope? Ecosystems, population and resources

What are the characteristics and distribution of a major vegetation type?

Some teachers may wish to extend the study of ecosystems and how they reflect climate patterns by studying four vegetation belts north/south of the Equator.

Possible extension work
Introducing progression by extending the context from one to four ecosystems, and requiring the outcome in a more complex and interrelated format:

Help the pupils to identify the four major climatic zones north and south of the Equator, ie equatorial rain forest, savannah, hot desert and Mediterranean, and to mark and label these on a world map outline.

Discuss with the pupils the focus of the work -- to elicit the connections between the processes responsible for the climatic patterns (the annual range of temperature and rainfall distribution patterns), the resultant vegetation characteristics and how they change through the year, and one human response or way of life.

Ask the pupils to prepare an outline of work for their research and to suggest what sorts of resources they might use.

Having collected the information, ask the pupils to consider a way of representing it that will highlight the interrelationships in diagrammatic form but include detailed explanatory notes on all aspects (A3-sized paper might be helpful).

You could ask pupils who work quickly to research an additional and different human response, to account for the differences and evaluate which type of human response provides the more sustainable lifestyle.

Year 9: The impact of the tourist industry

Tourism -- good or bad?

What is the impact of the tourist industry -- good or bad?

Divide the class in two. One half (working in groups) should carry out a mini-enquiry into tourism at a UK resort, and the other half a mini-enquiry into tourism in a less economically developed country (LEDC) resort, concentrating on positive and negative effects. Ask the groups to present their findings in a table and to share them.

Having established how each resort suffers (and/or benefits), ask the pupils to suggest how such places should be managed in the future to balance advantages and disadvantages (sustainable development). Ask them to imagine they are environmentalists writing a letter to the local tourist board recommending future management strategies.

Possible extension work
Introducing progression through an enlargement of scale from local to national, and by applying knowledge and understanding to generating their own geographical questions and criteria for evaluation (ie working more independently):

Ask the pupils to extend the scale of study from a local resort in an LEDC to a national scale in the same or a different country, and to repeat the investigation to determine the impact that tourism has had since it was first introduced. This research could involve use of the internet.

In pairs or groups, ask the pupils to consider what questions they should ask and what evidence they might seek to show whether the development has been positive or negative. Discuss with them the difference between quantitative and qualitative evidence, and how they might handle and present these in their findings.

Explain to the pupils that they will need to present their findings as a formal, word-processed, non-chronological report for an organisation such as the United Nations or a major international charity, and discuss with them its main features. Ask them to select their own title for the report.

The pupils' report should include a 'recommendations for the future' section, in which they put forward a case for a sustainable development perspective.

Alternatively, the investigation could be treated as a decision-making exercise. Having gathered all the evidence, pupils have to decide either in favour of or against tourism and justify their decision. The results could be presented in the form of a debate.

Schemes of work

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