Group 3 - Geography

First of all, let's just spend a little time looking at the principle of synthesis. It's going to be really important for the next two years in your IB DP Geography course and more widely in your other DP subjects too. Great Geographers naturally 'do synthesis' anyway and the chances are that if you got an A or higher in your IGCSE Geography exam or have studied MYP, you'll be well used to carrying it out effectively.

• Global Perspective 1 - Place, Power Processes & Possibilities.
• Global Perspective 2 - The Sustainable Development Goals
• Global Perspective 3 - The Energy Water Food Nexus

TOK Links

Factfulness Rules of Thumb: In groups, examine each of the "rules of thumb". Try to explain what each says about how we should think before drawing conclusions and give an example to support it.

Knowledge Questions

There are a variety of ways of gaining knowledge in geography —for example, archival evidence, data collection, experimentation, observation, and inductive and deductive reasoning. Geography students also explore and think critically about the interactions between people and their environment in time and place. All of these elements can be used to help explain patterns of behaviour and contribute to an examination of how we know what we claim to know.

​During the Diploma Programme geography course, a number of opportunities will arise that can be used to highlight the relationship and common goals between TOK and geography. Some of the knowledge questions and claims that might be considered during the geography course are identified below.

• Who decides how we classify knowledge? Why might it be useful to classify knowledge?
• To what extent are the methods of the human sciences scientific?
• How is statistical data used differently in different areas of knowledge?
• How reliable are the methods available for gathering demographic data on hundreds of millions of people?
• How has ready access to vast amounts of information, and the way in which the internet has contributed to our shrinking world, changed our understanding of knowledge?
• Does language simply describe knowledge, or is it part of the knowledge itself?
• To what extent do maps reflect reality? What are the hidden messages in maps and the stories behind the way maps are presented?
• Some geographical topics, such as climate change, are controversial. How does the scientific method attempt to address them? Are such topics always within the scope of the scientific method?
• What scientific or social factors might influence the study of a complex phenomenon such as global warming?

CAS Links

An important characteristic of the geography course is that students examine spatial interactions, possibilities and change in a contextual way. Due to the interconnectedness of our contemporary world, many global challenges may present themselves in students’ local or otherwise significant communities as inspiring springboards for CAS experiences. As a result of the knowledge and understanding students develop about issues through a geographic lens, they might be able to investigate, plan, act, reflect on and demonstrate CAS experiences in a more informed and meaningful way. Similarly, CAS experiences can ignite students’ passions for addressing a particular global matter.

The challenge and enjoyment of CAS experiences can often have a profound effect on geography students, who might choose, for example, to engage with CAS in the following ways.

• Plan, participate and implement an activity to help educate selected members of a community about the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals regarding habitation and inequality, with virtual reality screenings that increase awareness of the reality of refugee migration.
• Take lessons in surfing, or another physical pursuit, while completing internal assessment fieldwork. This could be accomplished as a single experience or through a series of sessions, or by encouraging others to participate in—or perhaps extend—the experience by creating a community environmental group.
• Explore perspectives on regional access to employment, demonstrating an ongoing interest through the mediums of storytelling and craftivism that advocate awareness of a particular gender’s position.

What are the 4 Ps?

The “Geography concepts” model shows the six main concepts of the course, with the four key concepts of place, process, power, and possibility at the centre and the organizing concepts of scale and spatial interactions connecting them. ​

Place - Places can be identified at a variety of scales, from local territories or locations to the national or state level. Places can be compared according to their cultural or physical diversity, or disparities in wealth or resource endowment. The characteristics of a place may be real or perceived, and spatial interactions between places can be considered.

Processes - Processes are human or physical mechanisms of change, such as migration or weathering. They operate on varying timescales. Linear systems, circular systems, and complex systems are all outcomes of the way in which processes operate and interact.

Power - Power is the ability to influence and affect change or equilibrium at different scales. Power is vested in citizens, governments, institutions and other players, and in physical processes in the natural world. Equity and security, both environmental and economic, can be gained or lost as a result of the interaction of powerful forces.

Possibilities - Possibilities are the alternative events, futures and outcomes that geographers can model, project or predict with varying degrees of certainty. Key contemporary questions include the degree to which human and environmental systems are sustainable and resilient, and can adapt or change.