Answering Geography Sac and Exam Questions

ANSWERING

GEOGRAPHY

SAC AND EXAM

QUESTIONS

Use in conjunction with your geography manual.
PART 1: MAPS OR ANNOTATING PICTURES.

HOW TO ANNOTATE PICTURES:

E.g. Annotate one of your sketches or photos of Toolangi state forest to show how the four spheres are working together to create this changing landscape. You may use colour coding to make your annotations clearer.

1. Select one of your sketches or photographs that shows what is asked for or draw a new one to match.

2. To ANNOTATE a picture means you CHANGE it by drawing ON the top of it, adding labels, adding comments, arrows, symbols or colour. It should not look the same after this!

3.WRITTEN ANNOTATIONS or comments around the EDGES of the picture joined to it by ARROWS show you know what processes are working in the picture, what things are called using their proper names and if they are related to each other or impacting/changing each other.

4. Make sure you show what is asked for!! Tick off parts of the question as you go.

5. Add a LEGEND to your picture to explain the changes you made.

EG:

Steam rises out of the vent Height of mountain before

eruption

Sometimes

eruptions alter

the shape of rivers

Poisonous gases and pyroclastic

Flows kill plants and animals

The mouth of the volcano

is called the caldera.

The main type of rock is basalt

The volcanic soil is full of nutrients

and minerals

ANNOTATING PICTURES OR MAPS TO SHOW SPATIAL CHANGE OVER TIME:

e.g. Annotate one of your sketches or photos of a logging coupe or area after fire to show spatial change over time (e.g. ash bed, colonizer species, change species, senescent) and indicate what the land might have looked like in the past. Use the words, succession, senescent etc.

1. SPATIAL just means what space things are located in, how much space they take up and if there is a pattern to it all.

2. Showing SPATIAL CHANGE over time on a picture of map means to show BEFORE and AFTER pictures showing location, size or pattern of things either on the original picture/map or on top of a one you drew to answer the question.

HOW TO ANSWER LOCATION MAP QUESTIONS:

1. All maps must be at least half a page in size no smaller!!

2. Using a combination of information from the background booklet or from memory of what you saw draw a NEW map of the region do NOT copy one already done!

3. Make sure you have included ALL the features mentioned or asked for.

4. Always include B.O.L.T.S.S:

Border- around your map – to show where it ends

Orientation –a compass showing which way is north

Legend- a key showing what each symbol or colour on your map stands for

Title- gives the map its name so we know what you are showing us! Try to use a spatial concept in the title, e.g. distribution of cool temperate rainforests on a global scale

Scale- most important let us know what one centimetre on your map equals in the real world. e.g.: 1cm=5km

Source – where the map is from

HOW TO ANSWER CREATE A TABLE QUESTIONS:

1.  Create a table means make up a totally brand new table from the information given to you, collected on fieldtrips or from memory. Rule up the table, if you don’t have a ruler use a book edge or draw freehand.

2.  You will know what columns to use by looking at the key words mentioned as things to show, demonstrate, things to include or even rank. Use a highlighter to note these key words. They become the headings for each column.

3.  If you are given two sets of words to show, demonstrate or include that means they want you to present it as a grid with headings across the top and down one side.

E.g. Create a table to show the range of human activities at Toolangi state forest, their impact on landforms, plants and animals. Rank these activities from best to worst. Include recreational activities, conservation, tourism, agriculture and land uses on the edge of the National Park.

PART 2: WRITTEN ANSWERS.

SOME KEY WORDS – see the geography text book/manual

EVALUATE: Make a judgement about something but back it up with proof or evidence.

EFFICENCY: Efficient or efficiency is how something works. Make a judgement that you have to back up with proof or evidence from research and or field work.

IMPACT: Impact is the results of change whether they are positive (good) or negative (bad)

ANSWERING DISTRIBUTION QUESTIONS:

P- Pattern: Describe the pattern type using words like, cluster, linear, random, parallel etc.

Q-Quantity: Use keys and scales to estimate quantities, size or number.

E- Exception: there will always be a feature or thing outside the pattern or unusual in its quantity compared to the others. This is the exception.

HINTS ON HOW TO ANSWER DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN QUESTIONS:

1. If you have been asked to DESCRIBE something you need to describe its appearance, or size, or features, or locations and patterns. Tell as much as you know about it using the correct terms and names for things.

2. To EXPLAIN means you understand WHY the thing is the way it is. You use the words due to, caused by, because of, a result of, therefore.

HINTS ON HOW TO ANSWER DOMINANT QUESTIONS:

EG: The Organ Pipes are an example of a Volcanic Environment. Are any of the spheres more dominant? Support your answer using evidence.

1. Questions that ask you if something is DOMINANT they are asking you to make a JUDGEMENT about what is the majority, biggest number, more important, or most of the type of thing asked for is.

2. Making this judgement means you have to IDENTIFY the dominant thing, identify what order the other things come in and explain WHY it was the dominant thing and NOT the other things.

3. Support your answer using evidence means you can prove this by telling us about an example you saw on a field trip that backs up your answer.

4. Each of the above steps becomes one sentence in your written answer DONT’ DO DOT POINTS!!

HOW TO ANSWER DESCRIBE AND EXPLAIN PROCESS QUESTIONS:

1. If you have been asked to describe something NATURAL don’t mention humans!!

2. If you have been asked to DESCRIBE a natural PROCESS this means you have to say HOW something works or happened step by step over time in ORDER of how it happens using the correct names for each step.

3. To EXPLAIN a process means you understand WHY the process led to a certain RESULT. You use the words due to, caused by, because of, a result of, therefore.

4. Do a rough flow chart so you can remember the steps in the process.

E.g.

5. WRITE out the steps above in SENTENCES, each box represents a small paragraph. Just use the flow chart as a guide to help you remember, you will lose marks if this is all you do!!

6. If they want you to explain the process for more than one of the same type of feature they want you to identify WHAT exactly in the process has caused a DIFFERENT result and WHY they all look different to each other. This is like changing the last box in the flow chart.

HINTS ON USING DATA OR RESEARCH TO ANSWER QUESTION:

DATA= information that you collect in the field or from research e.g. field notes, background notes or research from books or the internet.

RESEARCH= Finding the answer to your questions by either going into the field to collect them or using the findings of others who have already done that and written about it.

1.  You must at all times say where you got the research from and who wrote it. If you don’t in year 12 expect to be failed for the subject for Plagiarism; that means trying to pass off someone else’s work as your own. If you do it in the real world you get sued or arrested for fraud!! At school it’s considered cheating.

2.  If it is not your thoughts, words or ideas you put them in quotation marks and follow with the author’s name, book/site you found it on and date published.

E.g: “The Rosette Rock is an example of basalt columns formed from radial cooling causing shrinking of the lava” (National Parks Service, “The Organ Pipes Teacher’s Guide”, 1988).

ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT CHANGES IN HUMAN ENVIRONMENTS:

Questions about change in human environments talk about WHAT those changes are WHO or WHAT gets changed and the RESULTS of the changes. Use S.H.E.E.P.T factors to answer.

E.g. describe and explain changes to Vietnam’s population and its economy after the Vietnam War.

SOCIAL- The people, their community, society’s rules, type of society

e.g. rural area, traditional villages, urban centres .

HISTORICAL-What changes happened over time, when and what was the result e.g. war, death, famine.

ECONOMICAL- wealth creation, who has the money, countries main exports

E.g. rice production or manufactured goods like clothing.

ENVIRONMENTAL-major environmental impacts like dam building, pollution or climate and local weather.eg: monsoons, malaria mosquitoes, pollution of well water

POLITICAL- Who rules, who has control of the country, what type of government. e.g. democracy or dictatorship

TECHNOLOGICAL- Is the country modern or developing; are its people educated e.g. computer information industries or fishing in the village?

SHEEPT Table

Is a way of outlining the impacts of an activity/issue; both positive and negative on a wide range of social and environmental factors. It provides an overview of the impacts.

ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT SPATIAL ASSOCIATION.

The key idea is SPATIAL, in other words where something located on a map as well as its size or the shape of the phenomenon on the map or the patterns it makes in its distribution.

In answering SPATIAL ASSOCIATION questions there is a three part response.

1.  Make a link. You are trying to discover the patterns of two different phenomena occurring in similar or exact locations, in other words “where you find one you often find the other”. For example most of the world’s civilizations formed on rivers.

This is the main answer for Spatial Association. Unless it asks you to explain / discuss the spatial association you don’t need to do step 3.

2.  Determine the strength of this link. Decide if it’s high, medium, low or just a coincidence.

3.  Suggest possible reasons for the link. If you have made a link or think they are linked you need to understand whether it’s just a coincidence or whether there are geographical conditions needed by both phenomena e.g. where you find rivers and humans you find rainfall high enough for human use and rivers to flow.

E.g. There appears to be a strong spatial association between pastoral areas and volcanic soils in Victoria’s western district.

Do not need to continue with the answer unless it asks:

Volcanic soils are very fertile and successfully grow grass full of nutrients, this means the pastures are nutritious and support flocks of sheep. Good pastures mean success for farmers so there are numerous sheep farmers in areas of volcanic soils which equal a high spatial association between volcanic soils and sheep farming. However, the quality of the pasture could also be because of the high rainfall in the area.

ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT SPATIAL INTERACTION.

In answering SPATIAL INTERACTION questions it is a 4 part response.

1.  Spatial interaction suggests a relationship between phenomena either natural or human. The first step is to identify the type of relationship e.g. consumed by one, natural processes done by one onto the other, used by one.

2.  The key idea is movement between phenomena or environments. This movement can be physical movement between locations or include ideas, trends and information.

3.  You need to identify the patterns of movement including directionality, frequency and size.

4.  What are the outcomes of the relationship between the two phenomena? Is it positive or destructive, is it sustainable? Make a judgement.

E.g. A market place in a large town attracts women from outlying villages for the sale of produce grown in their fields or trade for goods and services. The interaction involves radial movement of villagers from several villages across the catchment into the market place at its centre. They move along roads that lead to the market place. This is a positive relationship because roads to the market are well kept and looked after with taxes taken from store-holders and it provides opportunities for socializing by the women of the village.