Our GCSE from 2009 in Geography B gives you the chance to make the subject more relevant for you and your students and to grow geography in your centre. Here’s why:
• The contemporary, issues-based specification uses geographical concepts to explain the key issues facing today’s world
• There are fewer case studies and more geographical coherence, building on the subject’s key concepts at Key Stage 3 and ensuring genuine progression to the contemporary geography of our GCE
• There’s scope to personalise the course to your and your students' interests and tailor it to your intake, geographical location and wider curriculum needs, to increase relevance and avoid repetition at each Key Stage
• There’s more emphasis on fieldwork, and a single controlled assessment with titles available two years in advance to help with your planning
• Climate change and sustainability - issues that matter to your students - are embedded across the course
• There’s a Pre-release Decision-Making Exercise with titles known two years in advance, allowing you to select appropriate themes for your students and their own interests. Downloadable resources are available in January, allowing maximum preparation time. The DME is designed to integrate with core content on climate change and sustainability to avoid overkill.
To help you get the best out of your students:
• You can still do the same fieldwork that your students enjoy and go to your favourite locations
• You can do your fieldwork at any time and link it to an option choice and a pre-release decision-making theme and resources
• The controlled assessment has a flexible format: a candidate can decide to do part of the work as a video and PowerPoint presentation, for example
• The modular structure comprises four equally weighted units with shorter (one-hour) exams with more accessible questions
• The clearer structure is explicit about what you need to teach, reducing the teaching burden and allowing you to teach what you like in more depth
• There’s a choice of January and June exams so students can complete modules, bank success, and resit if necessary using feedback from ResultsPlus.
To support your teaching and students’ learning, and provide motivating content:
• You have direct access to your expert Geography subject advisor and senior examiners
• You can support each other and share ideas in our online Geography forum
• There’s a growing suite of free support materials for controlled assessment
• New sample assessment materials are available from September 2009
• There’s a full portfolio of supporting resources, all published by Edexcel
• In addition to textbooks, there are interactive resources, including ‘ActiveTeach’
• Free editable electronic schemes of work are available on the website, to save you lesson-planning time
• Our free ResultsPlus service will help you improve performance.
Read the subject criteria for Geography here.