Physical Geography 12

Content

Sample activities:

• Undertake a field site visit to compare and contrast different plant communities.
• Use topographic maps to understand modern terrain patterns associated with historical events (e.g., glaciation).
• Use satellite imagery of cloud cover to look at atmospheric circulation patterns.
• Use GIS to map flood potential.
• Use air photos to view mountainous environments in order to examine life zones and hydrological patterns and processes.
• Use regional weather charts to explain current and near future local weather conditions.
• Develop an understanding of the concept of spatial scale by examining an issue at three scales (e.g., how is a changing climate impacting
  local water use, regional precipitation patterns, and global distribution of moisture?).

• Assess the significance of places by identifying the physical and/or human features that characterize them (sense of place):

Sample activities:

• Identify unique characteristics that help to make a place stand out, and determine how they were formed (e.g., river valleys and flood plains, volcanic activity).
• Develop boundaries on a map to delineate areas of regional differentiation (e.g., climate regions).

• Assess the interpretations of geographic evidence after investigating points of contention, reliability of sources, and adequacy
  of evidence (evidence and interpretation):

Sample topics:

• environmental issues around:
  • resource development
  • urban sprawl
  • infrastructure development in the form of dams or pipelines
• Draw conclusions about the variation and distribution of geographic phenomena over time and space (patterns and trends):

Key topics:

• Recognize patterns – geographic or environmental phenomena that repeat over time and space.
• Recognize trends – variations in the consistency of a natural phenomenon in a particular setting over a period of time.

Sample activities:

• Research the Ring of Fire, which encircles the Pacific, and how it has affected life in coastal British Columbia.
• Examine the impact of urban growth on soil erosion, the water cycle, agricultural land.
• Study the location of the world’s jungles or deserts: why are they there, how long have they been there, and how are they currently changing?

Research how mountains are formed and where they are found

• Evaluate how particular geographic actions or events affect human practices or outcomes (geographical value judgments):

Sample topic:

• climate change and rising sea levels, and how they affect the planet and people in different regions

• Evaluate features or aspects of geographic phenomena or locations to explain what makes them worthy of attention or recognition (geographical importance):

Sample topics:

• landforms and how they occurred (e.g., glaciated landscapes, volcanic features, stream drainage patterns, deserts)
• weather patterns, and possible changes to them
• extreme weather (hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, ice storms) and distribution of these events

• Identify and assess how human and environmental factors and events influence each other (interactions and associations):

Sample topics:

• human modification of the lithosphere for resource extraction, settlement, agriculture
• human modification of the atmosphere by changing the rate of exchange of gases (e.g., release of CO2 through burning of fossil fuels)
• human modification of the biosphere by hunting, domesticating, bio-altering, and geographically relocating other species
• storm protection of coastal cities by wetlands
• settlement patterns associated with access to natural resources (e.g., risk of farming on a flood plain in rich soils developed by river flooding)
• global climate change and ocean acidification
• deforestation
• coral reef bleaching
• depletion of ozone layer
• global atmospheric circulation patterns
• acid precipitation
• wild species at risk
• drainage patterns, agriculture, and coastal dead zones
• weather modification

• Make reasoned ethical judgments about controversial actions in the past and/or present, and determine whether we have a responsibility
  to respond (geographical value judgments):

Key questions:

• How much responsibility do we have for the environment?
• Should people sacrifice some of their standard of living to halt global climate change?
• Can the oceans survive human impacts?

What are the reasons for and against limiting natural resource extraction? Do you think we should limit extraction?