Geography Teaching Today

Interconnections and spatial thinking

This poster shows the impact of a daily activity, such as drinking a cup of coffee (© John Baines and Maggie Smith). This asset and other sources (see Activity 9) offer ideas for engaging students to think about their daily activities and their associated impacts.

Geography teachers clearly have a role to play in encouraging spatial thinking, which is a fundamental basis for enhancing students' understanding of global consequences of local actions.

On a bigger scale, expanding air traffic on a traditional 'predict and provide' planning principle may undermine other efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. All actions have consequences, but it is worth acknowledging that, even when consequences are understood, behaviour change does not always follow. Good geography lessons will at least provide the basis for decisions about behaviour to be made.

How might you use this poster idea in Key Stage 3 geography lessons to develop understanding of the complexity and dilemmas surrounding sustainable development. How effective is this teaching and learning activity in encouraging students to think about issues geographically?

Now do Activity 9