Geography Case Study
Lithium is key to green technologies.
The “Lithium Triangle” of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, holds most of the world’s lithium reserves.
Chinese businesses face allegations of the violation of the rights of local communities, damage to ecosystems and unsafe working conditions.
Argentinian lithium miners surrounded their Chinese managers’ compound and blockaded the entrance with flaming tyres.
This resource includes a variety of lesson activities to pick and choose:
Which Geography keyword is the ODD ONE OUT?
5Ws &1H about Tesla Motors and Elon Musk
5Ws &1H about a photo of lithium salt mounds
In which photo would you be most likely to … meet a worker whose health is at risk?
Critical Thinking: write THREE sentences to LINK these four images (technology: manufacturing, sales, use, waste)
Worksheet and data to construct a dot distribution map of China’s lithium mines around the World
PQE: China’s Lithium Mines - worksheet to analyse the dot distribution map using critical thinking (Patterns, Quantify, Exceptions)
Several slides for screen projection: encourages class evaluation of the positives vs negatives of dot distribution
Slide showing annotated map of Global North vs Global South - encourages analysis of correlation between lithium mining and socio-economic development
Link to video: “Argentina indigenous groups
protest against lithium mining”
Concept Map: The Lithium Triangle (35 snippets of info, to be colour-coded according to Locations, Causes, Effects, Management, Supporting Data)
The concept map info can then be used for:
Thought Chains: The Lithium Triangle - complete the scaffolding to complete six pieces of analysis…
“Chinese firms have been buying lithium mines in South America because…”
“The lithium mining industry in South America is SOCIALLY unsustainable because…”
“The lithium mining industry in South America is ECONOMICALLY unsustainable because…”
“The lithium mining industry in South America is ENVIRONMENTALLY unsustainable because…”
“Electric car makers buy Chinese lithium-ion batteries because…”
“Electric cars are not yet completely sustainable because…”
Geography Web: The Lithium Triangle
Pupils link feature and analyse the connections between the Lithium Triangle and China, Argentina’s government, indigenous people, Tesla Motors
TEACHERS’ BACKGROUND INFORMATION sheets (x3) with links to relevant articles and original BBC News story
Geography Case Study
Hoad’s Wood, near Ashford in Kent, is a site of specialscientific interest (SSSI).
Parts of the nature reserve have experienced serious damage from unconsented felling and fly-tipping of waste material, including hazardous material.
All natural features are presently lost and the ground level has been raised by several feet.
This resource includes a variety of lesson activities to pick and choose:
Which organism is the ODD ONE OUT ?
ILLUSTRATED GLOSSARY: ‘Pollution’ worksheet
PHOTOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS worksheet
QUESTION GRID: Hoad’s Wood (5Ws &1H)
TRUE FOR WHO?
Link to TV spotlight on Hoad’s Wood pressure group
Six worksheets for CLASS ROLE PLAY (local builder, mobile tyre fitter, local family with young children, local Residents’ Association, Kent Police Force, Kent Wildlife Trust)
Hoad’s Wood (stakeholders’ conclusion) worksheet
TEACHERS’ BACKGROUND INFORMATION (3+ pages)
Powerpoint and activities outlining how deforestation and mining provide energy but also damage the environment
Blooms and 9-1 differentiated questions/activities
eg Grades 1-2 (Knowledge): (a) Use the data to complete the two divided bar graphs (causes of tropical deforestation & global energy consumption). (b) Fill in the blanks on the separate sheet to analyse your completed divided bar graphs
Grades 8-9 (Evaluation): (a) Read about firewood, mining, fracking and biofuels (highlight the main environmental effects as you go). (b) Compare and evaluate the effects of those four human activities. (Write three paragraphs for 8 marks)
Completing and analysing divided graphs
Find out why humanity’s growing demand for energy supplies can lead to deforestation
Find out how human activities involved in the energy industry can cause serious environmental damage
Eight page booklet : define Geographical keywords; complete a fact file about a an Indian state; SPAG exercise about Indian food; annotate a photo to show the problems of slum life; moral dilemma comparing the lives of the super rich and the extreme poor; explain why trees are important in Geography (using a Hindu quote as a prompt); a comparison of the lives of Krishna and Jesus
A Level revision notes
Colour coded: green statistics; yellow definitions; blue dates
Systems framework and their application
Factors of production
Flows of capital, labour, products, services, information
Global marketing
Factors in globalisation
North American Free Trade Agreement
The World Trade Organization
Issues associated with interdependence
Barriers to trade and protectionism
Trends in the volume and pattern of international trade, Fair Trade, Ethical investment
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Nature and role of TNCs
Apple Inc.- a transnational corporation
International development agencies
Powerpoint and worksheet covering the Global Circulation System and the effects of latitude on climate. Starter looks at photos and how extreme weather might affect human life in those places. Lesson then goes through why the equator is hot/wet, the formation of deserts at 30 degrees and the reasons for cold deserts at the Poles. The worksheet is filled in through the lesson to explain the links between latitude, atmospheric cells and biomes. Differentiated GCSE style questions at the end of each section.
Powerpoint inspired by the RGS scheme of work "China Today". Whole lesson, includes starter (multinational companies), comparison of Shenzhen in 1970 with today, Geographical mystery about Apple's involvement ion China (WHAT were the reasons for moving iPhone production to China? HOW were the Foxconn workers treated? WHY are there nets outside Foxconn factory windows? WHO benefits from Apple products being made in China? ), differentiated questions (Explain why Apple was so interested in making its products in China; Compare the opinions of a Foxconn worker in China with an Apple customer in the UK. Then give your opinion of Foxconn/Apple; Describe the living and working conditions inside a Chinese factory like Foxconn) and plenary (the suicide of Ma Xiang Qian )
Powerpoint and worksheets beginning with a brief intro to geological timespans. Class and group activities comparing climate data over different periods of Earth history and the reasons for differing conclusions about climate change. Links to videos showing computer simulations of glaciation.
Powerpoint and worksheets explaining the Enhanced Greenhouse Effect
Starter is an odd-one-out quiz of various human activities which affect climate
Students draw a pie chart showing sources of greenhouse gases from human activities then memorise and sketch the Enhanced Greenhouse Effect
The main work involves constructing a mind map of the effects caused by major greenhouse pollutants (carbon dioxide, water vapour, nitrous oxide, methane and halocarbons)
Differentiated questions:
1-3: How does (a) industry and (b) farming make climate change worse?
4-6: How do humans add to the Greenhouse Effect and climate change?
7-9: Using named chemical compounds, explain how human actions increase the rate of climate change
Plenary: affects of contrails on the short-term weather
Enough for two lessons
Powerpoint and worksheet about the effect of the Gulf Stream on the British Isles
Starter looks at how palm trees grow in Scotland thanks to the North Atlantic Drift
Then the 'Gulf Stream Mystery' to find out how the 'Cold Blob' in the North Atlantic will change Britain's climate. Pupils annotate a map then answer a differentiated question:
1-3: Describe what the UK’s climate might be like if Greenland’s ice melts
4-6: Explain how NASA’s ‘Cold Blob’ could change the UK’s future climate
7-9: Explain how the UK’s climate is linked to the North Atlantic Ocean
Moves on to mapping changes caused by rising sea levels in the UK (to 5 metres) getting info from internet research
Plenary looks at the effects of post-glacial rebound on Scotland and southern England
Powerpoint and worksheet about the extreme temperatures, precipitation and winds around the World.
The work involves researching Case Studies from info sheets then annotating a World map with explanations for the extremes. Pupils work together, report back to other pupils then to the whole class.
Case Studies are: the Atacama Desert; Ridge A in Antarctica; Mawsynram in India; the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica; Death Valley; Barrow Island off Australia; and Vostok Station, again in Antarctica. Builds on knowledge from Hazards 1: "GLOBAL CIRCULATION SYSTEM". Enough for two lessons.
Powerpoint and worksheets explaining the Milankovitch Cycles, obliquity, precession and eccentricity. Starter covers the Greenhouse effect. Then goes onto volcanic and sunspot activity. Differentiated questions about sunspots:
1-3: How does the Sun’s energy affect the Earth’s climate?
4-6: How do sunspots affect climate change on Earth?
7-9: What is the correlation between sunspot activity and climate change?
Also, differentiated questions about the Greenhouse Effect.
Links to videos showing computer simulations of glaciation and the Greenhouse Effect.
Enough for two lessons
PLEASE NOTE: the TES preview does not display the font correctly!
Based on the classic game
Players move around the board trying to develop their country
Move up the ladders and down the snakes according to geographical events
Squares based on real countries and their 2018 HDI scores
Took the idea from geographypods.com and made my own version
(Suggest board is printed A4 and laminated)
Powerpoint and worksheets comparing El Nino with La Nina. Uses the Big Dry drought in Australia as a Case Study. Differentiated question. Carousel activity to complete effects chart. Links to videos included.
A decision making exercise (set up as a lesson) looking at future options for feeding Egypt's growing population.
Egypt’s climate is changing. Over the next few decades the country is expected to become even hotter and drier than it already is.
Presently, oil makes up 25% of Egypt’s exports but this is predicted to run out by 2070. At the same time, the population is expected to grow by tens of millions more people. The Government will need to find a SUSTAINABLE way to feed all these extra mouths very soon.
Option 1:
Turn more of the Sahara Desert into irrigated farmland by flooding the Qattara Depression
Option 2:
Build sea defences around the farmland in the Nile Delta of northern Egypt
Option 3:
Bomb the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam to allow more of the Nile’s water to flow down to Egypt
Option 4:
Support the use of agricultural fertilisers by lowering the price of farm chemicals
Powerpoint and worksheets covering Rostow's Model and the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Starter involves fitting countries onto an A3 version of the model by comparing socio-economic data. Nigeria is used as a Case Study for the MDGs. Pupils assess the success of Nigeria in working towards those Goals and suggest further improvements. Written conclusion: F: Describe how Nigeria is improving her level of development
H: Explain how well Nigeria is meeting her Millennium Development Goals
G&T: Is Nigeria ready to move up on the Rostow Model? Explain your answer
Eight page booklet : define keywords, create a factfile about an African country, a SPAG exercise about the continent, a short piece of research about the UN's work in Africa, an opinion piece about whether or not the UK still owes a moral debt to Africa for colonialism, a page to decorate an outline map of Africa with traditional patterns and finally a page to show how modern music is related to African rhythms