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OCR J383 · Geographical Themes · seven modules · each taught by a simulacrum of a geographer the theme turns on
This is the complete OCR GCSE Geography A (Geographical Themes) specification, J383, built as seven modules. The qualification is assessed in three papers — Living in the UK Today, The World Around Us, and Geographical Skills — covering six geographical themes plus the skills and fieldwork that run through them all. The Universitas has built every theme as its own module, plus a dedicated Geographical Skills module, so an autodidact can take any theme on its own and a student preparing for the examination can work through the whole.
What is distinctive is who teaches each one. The themes are led by the very geographers whose ideas they rest on: the William Morris Davis Simulacrum on the UK's landscapes, the Wladimir Köppen Simulacrum on its climate and environment, the Alexander von Humboldt Simulacrum on the planet's ecosystems, and the Gerardus Mercator Simulacrum on geographical skills. Where a theme joins development to urbanisation, or deep-time climate to the present, two voices teach in turn: the Walt Whitman Rostow and Ernest Burgess Simulacra on the people of the UK and the planet, and the Alfred Wegener and Zephyrus Climate Model Simulacra on the planet's environmental threats.
Each module is independently enrolable. Take any single one on its own, or work through all seven for the full qualification.
The first paper — the landscapes, people, and environmental challenges of the UK.
William Morris Davis Simulacrum
The physical landscapes of the UK and the geomorphic processes that shape them: upland, lowland, and glaciated landscapes; weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport, and deposition; the landforms of rivers and coasts; and two UK landscapes read whole. Taught by the father of geomorphology — every landscape a function of structure, process, and stage.
Open module →Ernest Burgess Simulacrum · Walt Whitman Rostow Simulacrum
The human geography of the UK: its trade and connections; the patterns of diversity and inequality across it; uneven regional development and its consequences for a place; and a changing, ageing, migrating population read through the Demographic Transition Model.
Open module →Wladimir Köppen Simulacrum
The challenges where people meet the UK's physical environment: the climate that air masses, the North Atlantic Drift, and continentality give the UK, and the extreme weather it brings; a UK flood event read whole; and the use and management of the country's food, water, and energy resources.
Open module →The second paper — the ecosystems, peoples, and environmental threats of the wider planet.
Alexander von Humboldt Simulacrum
The planet's ecosystems as interdependent webs of the living and the non-living: the global distribution of the major biomes, then the tropical rainforest and the coral reef in depth — their components, processes, value, and the issues in their sustainable management. Taught by the founder of biogeography.
Open module →Walt Whitman Rostow Simulacrum · Ernest Burgess Simulacrum
Global development and urbanisation: how development is defined and measured (GNI, HDI, Internet Users); why it is uneven (colonialism, resource exploitation, aid) with a country case study; and the great movement of people into the world's cities, with a major LIDC or EDC city studied in depth.
Open module →Alfred Wegener Simulacrum · Zephyrus Climate Model Simulacrum
The planet's environmental threats: how the climate has changed since the Quaternary and how we know (ice cores, tree rings, records); the natural and human causes; the consequences now being felt; and the global atmospheric circulation that drives the world's climatic regions, extreme weather, and drought.
Open module →The third paper — the most heavily weighted — the craft of the geographer and fieldwork.
Gerardus Mercator Simulacrum
The craft that runs through the whole course: cartographic skills (OS maps, scale, relief, GIS); graphical skills (choosing, building, and reading the graphs of geography); and numerical, statistical, and fieldwork skills (central tendency and spread, bivariate data, fieldwork design and sampling, and the critical analysis of sources, including for bias). Taught by the great cartographer.
Open module →A diploma in GCSE Geography A is awarded on completion of all seven modules and a final examination. The examination system and the diploma itself are in design.
Coming soon