COMPETITION FOR ENTRY INTO THE INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHY OLYMPIAD (iGEO) 2016
Introduction
The Worldwise Team of the Geographical Association has launchedits competition designed especially for post 16 geography students. The top four entries in the competition will win places to participate in the International Geography Olympiad 2016 (iGeo) to be held in Beijing, China from 16 August – 22 August 2016.
The Olympiad involves teams from more than40 countries across the world who come together to take part in a range of geographical activities and excursions and to share their culture and friendship. It contains three elements: a written response test, a multimedia test and a fieldwork test.
The official language of the iGeo is English and a country's team will be made up of four secondary school/college students who are aged between 16 and 19 (inclusive) on 30 June 2016. The UK team will be accompanied by two adults who are teacher volunteers with the Geographical Association.
GA Worldwise International Competition
TheWorldwise International Competition question on transport integration can befound on page3 of this document. Completed answers must be returned to the GA gether with the completed cover sheet (Section 1).All entrants must meet the age requirements and are asked to make their geography teacher aware of their application.
Unless we can obtain sponsorship for this event, all participants will be asked to pay for transport and accommodation for the iGeo competition. We expect this to amount to around £1500-£2000 and as such participants should plan to raise funds through their own sponsored events.
Please read through the resources and instructions and complete Sections 1 and 2.
Your written answer must be no longer than 2500 words and should be completed in Arial size 12 font.
When you are ready to submit, delete the resources pages and email your section 1 and section 2 . The closing date for entries is Monday7 December 2015. The winners who will be invited to be part of Team UK in Beijing will be contacted in early January 2016.
Section 1 – Cover Sheet
Name
Home address
Email address
School name and address
Geography teacher's name and contact email address
I confirm that my geography teacher is aware of my application Y/N
I confirm I will be available to be part of Team UK and will be free to travel to Beijing on or before 16 August 2016 Y/N
GCSEs and grades (if known)
AS subjects and grades (if known)
Date of birth Age on 30June 2016
Interests & hobbies
Why would you like to be considered as part of TEAM UK for the Geography International Olympiad?
Section 2 - Transport Integration
Read the following information about transport integration and then answer the questions below:
Transport Integrationmeans that whatever modes or types of transport (rail, road, water and air) are involved they all operate as one seamlessentity - for the benefit of the fare paying customer.
Private transport usually provides door to door transport (albeit with a walk between the car park and ultimate destination) and whilst this is not always a realistic possibility for public transport the concept of transport integration is to provide a seamlessjourney that is as 'door to door' as possible.
This is achieved by planning services so that where a change of vehicle is required passengers can enjoy easy to use, pleasant and sheltered interchange facilities plus short waits for the next service. Furthermore, just as when a motorist buys fuel they do so once for the whole journey so with integrated transport the passenger should be able to benefit from through 'one purchase' ticketing for the whole journey.
Public transport can often be thought of rather like a tree, with a large trunk that feeds into smaller branches, and ultimately, twigs.
Inter City type railways represent the trunks; high capacity urban, suburban and underground rail systems represent the major branches; monorails, rural railways and urban tramways represent the smaller branches, etc, down to low capacity small minibuses and automated cabin transports for the twigs.
As with trees all these components are important to the overall health of the system; so whilst the 'chopping-off' (closure) of a few smaller branches may not appear to have an immediate negative effect ultimately it will harm the whole entity (as experience in Britain with the many railway branch-line, tramway and trolleybus closures in the 1950s and 1960s has demonstrated with the present-day severe traffic congestion experienced in many areas).
1 Identify the key benefits of transport integration for a) the public, and b) a specific industry of your choice? (500 words maximum)
2 Through your own research and study assess the extent to which the UK has a high quality system of transport integration. You should provide examples to illustrate your assessment and draw comparisons with other countries.(500 words maximum) A useful starting point is
In October 2014 the HS2 report: Rebalancing Britain: from HS2 towards a national transport strategy concluded that improving city connectivity is key to boosting our economy. Sahar Danesh from The Institution of Engineering and Technology(IET) responded to the report, stating: ‘A crucial factor to the success of HS2 will be making sure that individual transport projects are not developed in isolation. We must look at our transport network as a whole – that includes roads, rail and air travel.’
3. Discuss the extent to which you agree with the statement that HS2 will improve city connectivity and become a pivotal part of UK transport integration to boost our economy. (1500 words maximum).
Phase 2 of HS2
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Begin your written answer here:
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