Loading the lesson
Loading the lesson
Search AllRounder.ai
Search the courses, subjects, tracks, games and features, or jump straight to a page.
Search the courses, subjects, tracks, games and features, or jump straight to a page.
Learn it your way
A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
Sign up free to listen. Transcripts are free to read.
In the MYP, Geography is not a stand-alone subject. Which subject group does it belong to?
Individuals and Societies, together with subjects like history and economics.
Right. And Grade 10 is which year of the MYP?
Year 5, the last year of the programme.
Good. Now, what do geographers actually study?
Physical things like volcanoes and rivers, human things like migration and cities, and how people and environments affect each other.
Exactly, and we also learn skills such as mapping and fieldwork. Geography always asks where, why there, and so what?
Each MYP unit has a key concept. What are the four key concepts for Individuals and Societies?
Change, global interactions, systems, and time, place and space.
Well remembered. Related concepts are more specific to Geography. Can you name two?
Scale and sustainability.
Good. Then a global context links the unit to the real world. If we study who gets clean water, which context fits?
Fairness and development, or globalization and sustainability.
Both could work. The choice shapes the statement of inquiry and the questions we ask.
Imagine a fieldwork project on traffic near our school. Which part would show Criterion B, Investigating?
Writing a clear research question, planning how to count traffic and then evaluating the method.
Yes. Where does Criterion C come in?
Presenting the results in a clear report with maps, graphs and a list of sources.
And Criterion D?
Analysing the data and weighing up different views, like those of drivers, shopkeepers and parents.
Exactly. Each criterion measures a different part of thinking and working like a geographer.
A discipline within the Individuals and Societies subject group, studied in Grade 10 as MYP Year 5.
Physical, human and environmental geography, supported by practical geographic skills.
Units are built on a key concept, related concepts and a global context, expressed in a statement of inquiry.
Factual, conceptual and debatable questions drive learning in each unit.
Knowing and understanding, Investigating, Communicating and Thinking critically, each marked from 0 to 8.
A unit on urban flooding uses the key concept change, the related concepts scale and processes, and the global context globalization and sustainability.
A fieldwork study of traffic near a school shows Criterion B when students plan and carry out the survey, and Criterion D when they weigh the views of drivers, shopkeepers and parents.
A debatable question such as "Should cities stop building on floodplains?" invites students to evaluate evidence and perspectives rather than recall a single answer.
Where it is and why it's there, who it helps and is it fair.
A student finds a stream near school that floods every monsoon. She learns its terms and processes (A), plans measurements (B), presents a clear report (C) and weighs what the council, farmers and residents want (D). One stream, four criteria, one complete geographer.
Key concepts C-G-S-T: Change, Global interactions, Systems, Time, place and space.
K.I.C.T. - Know, Investigate, Communicate, Think critically: criteria A to D in order.
Term
Which MYP subject group does Geography belong to?
Click to flip
Term
What are the four key concepts for MYP Individuals and Societies?
Click to flip
Term
Name four related concepts used in Geography.
Click to flip
Term
What are the three types of inquiry question?
Click to flip
Term
What are the four MYP Individuals and Societies criteria?
Click to flip
The MYP subject group that includes Geography, history, economics and related disciplines.
A broad, powerful idea used across subjects; for Individuals and Societies, change, global interactions, systems, and time, place and space.
An idea rooted in a particular discipline, such as scale or sustainability in Geography.
One of six real-world lenses, such as globalization and sustainability, that gives a unit its relevance.
A meaningful statement that combines a unit's key concept, related concepts and global context.
Skills in five categories, thinking, research, communication, social and self-management, that help students learn how to learn.
Judging work against fixed criteria and descriptors rather than against the performance of other students.
Collecting first-hand data outside the classroom, such as measuring a river or surveying land use.
In the IB Middle Years Programme, Geography is studied within the Individuals and Societies subject group. This lesson explains what MYP Geography studies, the concepts and global contexts that frame its units, and the skills that its four assessment criteria measure.
Geography studies places and spaces and the interactions between people and their environments, linking physical, human and environmental geography with practical skills such as map work and fieldwork. In the MYP, every Geography unit is framed by a key concept (for Individuals and Societies these are change, global interactions, systems, and time, place and space), related concepts such as scale, sustainability, patterns and trends, and disparity and equity, and one of six global contexts. Students inquire through factual, conceptual and debatable questions and build approaches to learning skills. The four criteria, Knowing and understanding, Investigating, Communicating and Thinking critically, each assess a different way of doing geography, which is why understanding the subject comes before understanding its assessment.
In the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP), Geography belongs to the Individuals and Societies subject group, alongside disciplines such as history and economics. Grade 10 is MYP Year 5, the final year of the programme, when students are expected to work most independently. Before looking at how Geography is assessed, it helps to be clear about what the subject is and how its units are built.
Geography asks where things are, why they are there, how they change, who is affected and what should be done. This course follows its main branches:
Every MYP unit is built around concepts and a real-world context rather than a list of facts.
For example, a unit on water could use the global context globalization and sustainability, the key concept systems and the related concepts scale and disparity and equity. Its statement of inquiry might be: "Decisions about water at one scale can create inequalities at another." Inquiry questions could be: Where does our city's water come from? (factual) How can using water upstream affect people downstream? (conceptual) Should access to water be decided by price? (debatable)
MYP approaches to learning (ATL) skills fall into five categories: thinking, research, communication, social and self-management. In Geography they appear as reading and drawing maps, planning fieldwork, collecting and presenting data, evaluating sources and working in teams on investigations.
The four MYP Individuals and Societies criteria are each marked on levels from 0 to 8, and each one assesses a different part of doing geography:
MYP assessment is criterion-related: work is judged against these fixed descriptors, not by ranking students against one another. The rest of this chapter explains how the criteria, tasks and grades work in detail.