Category Archives: Course logistics

General info about the course structure and admin issues.

Moving on – Hazards

Grade 12 is moving on to Hazards and Disasters on Day 1 next week, which is Tuesday 3rd. SLs please come back and join us.

  • Focus is on the full range of human adjustments and responses to hazards and disasters at a variety of scales.
  • The term “natural disaster” is deliberately avoided.
  • Students are expected to examine the following four hazards:
    • Either earthquakes or volcanoes
    • Hurricanes
    • Droughts
    • Any one recent human-induced (technological) hazard resulting in an explosion or escape of hazardous material
  • Recommended that the overall approach should be concept by concept (such as vulnerability, risk and risk assessment), rather than entirely thematic (hazard by hazard).
  • At least one case study of a hazard event (or disaster) is required for each of the four hazard types.
  • Assessed in Paper 2.
  • Structured question based on stimulus material.
  • There is a choice of two questions per optional theme.
  • 20 marks per question.

Freshwater – one more lesson

We’ll finish up the Freshwater course on Day 5 (Wed) and then have a unit review on Day 6 block 3 – s0 please prepare. There will be a selection of exam-style questions and definitions to get your teeth into…. On Day 7 (Friday) we shall begin our next unit, for HL and SL, Hazards and Disasters.

Options

The Core Section of the course is done by SL and HL students alike. Then we have a number of choices we can make for the Options section. SL students take two options, and HL three.

We’ll be doing ‘Urban Environments’ and ‘Hazards and disasters – risk assessment and response’ for SL plus ‘Freshwater – Issues and Conflicts’ for HL.

HL then go on to do an extensive unit on Globalisation.

See individual pages for estimated course hours.

Here is the The DP Geography Guide from the IB (2011)