Year 8 Geography Assessment – Crackin’ Coasts
This assessment focuses on physical geography – landforms and processes
Imagine you work for the Dorset County Council Tourist Department. You have been asked to
produce an informative tourist guide for by people walking the South West Coastal Path. Your
guide must explain how some of the landforms along this coastline were created and might also
predict how they will change in the future.
Your guide needs to be professionally presented and be appropriate for walkers/tourists using this stretch
of the coastline. Your guide could be produced as a printed booklet/leaflet, as a series of posters which
would be displayed on boards along the route of your walk, as an audio tour (for walkers to listen to on
their i-pods) accompanied by photographs/sketches, or perhaps even by recording your guide in sections
which you attach (along with photos) to a Google Map). If you have another idea about how to present
your guide, please check it with your teacher before you start working on it so that they can help you make
sure that you meet the assessment criteria.
You can choose any of the landforms
along the South West Path coastline
between South Haven Point (at Poole
Harbour, to the east) and West Bay,
Bridport (to the west). You will need to
choose carefully – the most successful
guides will explain the formation of a
variety of different landforms (eg.
headlands, bays, caves, arches, stacks,
stumps, coves, spits, tombolos).
How will your work be marked?
Make sure that you read through the assessment criteria very carefully before you start work. You
cannot reach the higher levels unless you explain how your chosen landforms were created. Your work
needs to be presented as a professional guide.
Level 4
You will describe some of the landforms that can be found along this section of the coastline. You will do
this for at least two different landforms and will give their 4 figure grid references, giving their 4 figure grid
references. You might include labelled photographs or sketches to show tourists what these features look
like. You will use some geographical vocabulary to describe these landforms.
Level 5
You will begin to explain how some of the landforms that can be found along this section of the coastline
were formed. You will do this for at least three different landforms and will give their 6 figure grid
references. You will include labelled photographs or sketches to help you with your explanations. Your
explanations will include some specialist geographical vocabulary (eg. erosion, deposition).
Level 6
You will give full explanations of how some of the landforms that can be found along this section of the
coastline were formed. You will also begin to give information about how these landforms will change in
the future as a result of natural processes of weathering , erosion, transportation and deposition. You will
do this for at least four different landforms and will give their 6 figure grid references . You will include
labelled photographs or sketches to help you with your explanations. Your explanations will include a
variety of specialist geographical terms (eg. hydraulic action, attrition, abrasion, solution, longshore drift).
Level 7
You will give full explanations of how some of the landforms that can be found along this section of the
coastline were formed. You will also begin to give information about how these landforms will change in
the future as a result of both natural and human processes. This might include animations or a sequence of
diagrams to show changes over time. You will do this for at least four different landforms and will give their
6 figure grid references. You will include labelled photographs or sketches to help you with your
explanations. Your explanations will include a wide variety of specialist geographical vocabulary.
Landforms that you could include:
Coves, bays and beaches – Lulworth Cove, Worbarrow Bay, Studland dunes and beach, Swanage Bay
Headlands, caves, arches, stacks, stumps – Old Harry and the Foreland, Durdle Door, Peveril Point
Spits, tombolos – Chesil Beach, Isle of Portland
Useful websites:
www.geograph.org has lots of photographs taken along the South West Coast Path. They are all
located on an OS map so that you can see exactly where they were taken.
http://www.southwestcoastpath.com/ is the official guide to the South West Coast Path
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/uk/the-complete-guide-to-the-dorset-coast-452294.html
Independent Newspaper’s guide to the Dorset Coast
is
the
http://www.jurassiccoast.com/downloads/jurassic_coast_miniguide.pdf is the Jurassic Coast mini-guide –
this might give your some ideas about which landforms to choose
www.google.com.maps – log in with a Google account to make your own map