The study of Junior Cycle Geography enables students to become geographically literate.
It stimulates curiosity, creating opportunities for students to read, analyse, synthesise and communicate about their immediate environment and wider world. It develops knowledge, skills, values and behaviours that allow students to explore the physical world, human activities, how we interact with our world and to recognise the interconnections between systems.
The specification is informed by the concept of Geoliteracy. This refers to students’ ability to
develop far-reaching decisions through geographical thinking and reasoning. Geoliteracy provides the framework for understanding in geography and is threaded throughout learning and teaching
of geography.
The core components of Geoliteracy are the three I’s:
• interactions
• interconnections
• implications
STRAND 1: EXPLORING THE PHYSICAL WORLD
This strand focuses on facilitating students’ exploration of how the physical world is formed
and changed. Students develop knowledge and skills to understand and explain the physical
world. Students engage and interact with topics relating to physical geography and explore their interrelationships and any implications those topics might have on students’ lives. They apply their knowledge and skills to explain spatial characteristics and the formation of phenomena in the
physical world.
STRAND 2: EXPLORING HOW WE INTERACT WITH THE PHYSICAL WORLD
This strand focuses on facilitating students’ understanding of how people interact with the physical world and the implications this might have for their lives. Students explore how we depend on, adapt, and change the physical world. Students apply their knowledge and skills to explain how we interact with our physical world for economic purposes, as well as how we adapt to physical phenomena.
STRAND 3: EXPLORING PEOPLE, PLACE AND CHANGE
This strand focuses on students exploring people, place and change. Students engage with
topics related to globalisation, development, population and interdependence. Students interact
with topics while exploring interrelationships and the implications those topics might have for their lives. They apply their knowledge and skills to explain settlement patterns, urbanisation, demographics, and human development.
Assessment for the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA)
The assessment of geography for the purposes of the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA)
will comprise two Classroom-Based Assessments: Geography in the news; and My geography.
Students complete a formal written Assessment Task to be submitted to the State Examinations
Commission for marking along with the final examination for geography. It is allocated 10% of
the marks used to determine the grade awarded by the State Examinations Commission. The
Assessment Task is specified by the NCCA.
Classroom-Based Assessment (CBA)
Classroom-Based Assessment 1: Geography in the news
At the end of a three-week period students will report on their inquiry, based on a recent media source, relating to a geographical event.
Format
Reports which may be presented in a wide range of formats.
Completion of assessment
Second term of second year
Classroom-Based Assessment 2: My Geography
Students will, over a three-week period, investigate geographical aspects in a local area.
Format
Reports which may be presented in a wide range of formats.
Completion of assessment
First term of third year
"The study of geography is about more than just memorizing places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together."
Barack Obama
