Course map
The SL and HL core
- LessonPractice
Unit 1: changing population
SL and HL: Paper 2- Explain population and economic development patterns: distribution, megacities and core-periphery patterns
- Explain changing populations and places: demographic transition, dependency, migration and policies
- Assess the challenges and opportunities of population change: ageing, youthful populations and gender equality
- LessonPractice
Unit 2: global climate, vulnerability and resilience
SL and HL: Paper 2- Explain the causes of global climate change: the energy balance, the greenhouse effect and feedback loops
- Explain the consequences for people and places, and why vulnerability differs
- Evaluate responses: mitigation, adaptation, carbon offsetting and trading, geo-engineering and global agreements
- LessonPractice
Unit 3: global resource consumption and security
SL and HL: Paper 2- Explain global trends in consumption: ecological footprints and the water, food and energy nexus
- Explain the impacts of changing consumption on water, food and energy security
- Evaluate resource stewardship: the circular economy, the Sustainable Development Goals and population views
The options
- LessonPractice
Option A: freshwater, drainage basins
SL and HL: Paper 1- Explain drainage basin hydrology and river landforms; read hydrographs
- Explain flooding and flood mitigation; water scarcity and water quality
- Evaluate water management futures: dams, integrated management and wetlands
- LessonPractice
Option B: oceans and coastal margins
SL and HL: Paper 1- Explain ocean and atmosphere interactions: currents, El Nino and La Nina, the ocean as a store and source of carbon dioxide
- Explain interactions between oceans and coastal places: coastal processes, landforms and change
- Evaluate coastal and ocean management: hard and soft engineering, ownership and futures
- LessonPractice
Option F: food and health
SL and HL: Paper 1- Measure food and health: food security indicators, health indicators and the epidemiological transition
- Explain food systems and the spread of diseases: diffusion, farming systems and food supply
- Evaluate stakeholders and futures for food and health security
- LessonPractice
Option G: urban environments
SL and HL: Paper 1- Explain the variety of urban environments, urban growth and urbanization
- Explain changing urban systems: suburbanization, counter-urbanization, deindustrialization and urban renewal
- Evaluate urban stresses and sustainable urban systems for the future
The HL core extension
- LessonPractice
Unit 4: power, places and networks
HL only: Paper 3- Explain global interactions and global power: superpowers, global groups and measures of globalization
- Explain global networks and flows: trade, aid, remittances, migration and transnational corporations
- Explain the human and physical influences on global interactions
- LessonPractice
Unit 5: human development and diversity
HL only: Paper 3- Explain development opportunities and how they are measured
- Explain changing identities and cultures under global interactions
- Evaluate local responses to global interactions: resistance, adaptation and civil society
- LessonPractice
Unit 6: global risks and resilience
HL only: Paper 3- Explain geopolitical and economic risks of global interactions
- Explain environmental risks of global interactions, including pollution and the spread of disease
- Evaluate local and global resilience: risk mitigation and the role of global governance
Skills, essays and fieldwork
- LessonPractice
How Geography is assessed: data, essays and fieldwork
SL and HL: Paper 1; Paper 2- Read and calculate from maps, graphs and data: percentages, rates, ratios and change over time
- Plan 10-mark answers that use case studies, evaluate perspectives and reach a supported conclusion
- Plan a fieldwork report: the question, method, data, analysis, conclusion and evaluation
IB Diploma Programme Geography, SL and HL. The internal assessment, a research proposal, is not practised here.