For Teachers

Discovering the Arctic for educators.

Introduction

Welcome to Discovering the Arctic, an education resource for schools, developed by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), in partnership with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, British Antarctic Survey, NERC Arctic Office and the Scottish Association for Marine Science.

This is not a ‘scheme of work’ but a resource to dip into depending on your curriculum needs and priorities. It is aimed at GCSE and A Level in England and Wales (14 – 18 year olds) but is suitable for other age groups with some adaptation.

Curriculum Links

Information about the curriculum can be found below:

GCSE

A Level

The learning activities are devised for individual, pair or group work. Many are in interactive multimedia format for use either on an Interactive Whiteboard or for students to complete individually.

Accessibility

Wherever possible there are text-based alternatives, usually in Microsoft Word. You can download these to use away from the computer and/or to adapt them to meet your pupils’ needs.

For more detailed notes on Accessibility see https://discoveringthearctic.org.uk/accessibility.

Teaching and Learning Activities

This site is designed to use as a source of information so that educators, pupils and students can access the relevant sections to support their learning.

Throughout each section there are a number of tasks designed to engage learning with the content.

Overview

  • Introducing the Arctic – looks where the Arctic is including the human and physical landscape which has created and changed it.
  • Ecosystems – explores the diverse inhabitants of this landscape.
  • Climate change – identifies the ways in which climate is affecting wildlife and the people of the Arctic.
  • Science and research – the efforts that scientists from the UK and beyond are using their research to help understand the Arctic and the role it plays in the global ecosystem.
  • Living in the Arctic – looks at the resources needed and within the Arctic as well as what it is like to live there.
  • Tourism – with increased accessibility, the Arctic is becoming a new destination for tourists.
  • Development – assess the opportunities and challenges there are to development of the Arctic.
  • Governance – explore the geopolitics of the region as well as how the Arctic is governed.