Geography
Adaptability
The Big Idea
Adaptability is demonstrated by the ability to cope, alter or change with
new circumstances or environments.
Explaining the Theme
Your students begin the subject section by considering the ways in which
they adapt to their environment, focusing on the patterns that they see in
the weather and climate around them. The focus then becomes
international, exploring how different places and cultures adapt to their
own weather, climate and topography. Throughout the subject section
your students need to consider the inspiration for human adaptations and
their sustainability.
Geography Learning Goals
Students will:
4.1
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.10
4.14
4.15
4.18
4.20
4.22
4.23
Know that the study of geography is concerned with places and
environments in the world
Know about the geography, weather and climate of particular
localities
Know about the similarities and differences between particular
localities
Know how the features of particular localities influence the
nature of human activities within them
Know how the weather and climate affect, and are
affected by, human behaviour
Be able to make plans and maps using a variety of scales,
symbols and keys
Be able to describe geographic locations using standard
measures
Be able to explain the relationships between the physical
characteristics and human behaviours that shape a region
Be able to explain how physical and human processes lead
to similarities and differences between places
Develop an understanding of how localities are affected by
natural features and processes
Develop an understanding of how and why people seek to
manage and sustain their environment
Geography
Adaptability
Geography Task 1
Learning Goals 4.1, 4.4, 4.6, 4.10, 4.18, 4.22
Research Activity
Begin by asking your students these questions about their home country
or the country where they go to school:
 What have people done to help them cope with living with rain?
 What have people done to help them cope with living with heat and
the sun?
A range of different answers to each of these questions exist, based on
where people live and what impact the sun and rain have on them. (The
umbrella, for example, is a response to both.) Using these simple
questions we can look at how humans have adapted, how animals have
adapted and how some buildings have been adapted in response to their
environment.
Encourage your students to come up with a range of objects that are
designed to help humans adapt to particular weather conditions, e.g. a
waterproof coat, suncream, a hat, sandals, an umbrella, a sheepskin hat or
an item made from wool. If possible, the objects should be a range of
artificially manufactured products and items sourced from the natural
world.
Ask your students to discuss the different objects and answer the
following questions about each object:






How does it adapt to weather changes?
How effective is it?
Where did the idea for it come from?
How sustainable is its production?
Who might wear it? Where? When?
How do people know when they are going to need it?
Then ask your students to consider how their homes are adapted to
different conditions:
 What do you have to help you in the winter?
 What do you have to help you in the summer?
 Do you invest in these adaptations in advance?
Geography
Adaptability
 How do you decide what you are going to need?
Ask them to consider other things in their lives that are adapted to
changes in the weather, e.g. cars, local buildings, sports grounds, parks
and their facilities. Is it possible to identify adaptations through the
seasons? Why might this be the case?
Recording Activity
In small groups, ask your students to record their findings from
Geography Task 1 in a visual way. Ask them to use this table to organise
their findings and then choose a visual way to present this to the class.
Weather
conditions
Objects
used to
adapt to
the
weather
Adaptations
to homes
Adaptations
to transport
Rain
Sun
Cold
Heat
Wind
Other
[Naturalist, Visual-Spatial, Interpersonal Intelligences]
Geography Task 2
Learning Goals 4.1, 4.4, 4.6, 4.10, 4.18, 4.22
Research Activity
Adaptations
to buildings,
and so on
Geography
Adaptability
Contrast the ideas in Geography Task 1 with adaptations found in other
places, particularly those with a different climate. How are their
adaptations different or the same? Why?
Recording Activity
Summarise the findings by asking your students to record a mind map of
all the things that can be adapted to changes in the weather. They should
use different categories as branches of the mind map, e.g. clothing,
buildings, transport, activities, and use different colours to represent
adaptations in different climates.
Guide your students towards recognising that people and places are
adapted to the environment in which they exist but that these adaptations
vary depending on the weather, climate and topography.
[Naturalist, Visual-Spatial, Logical-Mathematical Intelligences]
Geography Task 3
Learning Goals 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.10, 4.18, 4.20, 4.22, 4.23
Research Activity
Your students watch the Managing Our Mangroves – CARE Vietnam
video (http://vimeo.com/7977062) and make notes about the way the
Vietnamese have adapted their local environment to protect their
livelihood. In groups, your students discuss the following questions:
 Where did the local people get their inspiration from?
 Have they adapted to their environment or have they adapted their
environment for their own benefit?
Use Google Earth (www.google.com/earth/index.html) or an atlas to
find the Agadez region in Niger. The town of In-Gall, located in the
Agadez region, is the location for Gerewol (Guérewol), an annual festival
during which the tribal people of the Wodaabe meet at a desert oasis for
celebration and dance. The event can only take place during the rainy
season, in a fertile location, as during all other times of the year the
weather is too dry to support the thousands of animals and people that
arrive. Show your students photographs or images of the event. The
Geography
Adaptability
following website is a good source of images, though you may wish to
use your own images/photographs of the event.
http://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/2011/01/gerewol_wodaabe_nig
er_bbc-human-planet-deserts/
Timothy Allen, a photographer on the BBC Human Planet series, has
produced this really interesting and useful Web page on Gerewol, which
also contains a short video clip of the event.
Recording Activity
After considering the way in which the Vietnamese and the Wodaabe
people have adapted the geography of their environment to either protect
their livelihood or for entertainment, your students should create a
comparison table (along the lines of the one shown below), recording the
type of adaptation, the reason, the effect and the sustainability. This can
be used for the extension task, if needed.
Culture or Type of
Purpose (e.g.
Effect on the Sustainability
group
adaptation for
local
entertainment, environment
to protect
their
livelihood)
Vietnamese
Wodaabe
[Naturalist, Logical-Mathematical Intelligences]
Geography Task 3 – Extension Activity
Learning Goals 4.15, 4.18
Geography
Adaptability
Use pictures and diagrams of hurricane damage prevention systems in the
USA to compare with the examples already analysed. Focus on the
technology used, the money involved and the high profile news coverage.
It might be useful for your students to compare the effectiveness of these
strategies by looking at key statistics from recent extreme weather events.
The following websites are good starting points:
www.hurricaneprevention.net
This is a useful blog created by an IBM computer engineer based in the
USA, which contains up-to-date information on hurricanes and hurricane
prevention both in the USA and elsewhere in the world, as well as
information on cyclones and tsunamis.
www.dennistwp.org/emergmgt.htm
The website of the Township of Dennis, County of Cape May, New
Jersey (USA) contains a range of links to useful information about
hurricanes, several of these with associated graphics.
http://hurricanesafety.org/
This is the website of the National Hurricane Survival Initiative, a USA
organisation dedicated to saving lives and minimising the damage created
by hurricanes. The website contains substantial useful information,
including information on hurricane statistics.
www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/teens
The UK Met Office Education for Teens website is dedicated to help
students learn more about the weather and its impacts. It contains a range
of useful case studies of different types of severe weather, including one
on Hurricane Katrina.
Consider the nature of different adaptations to extreme weather. How is it
affected by:





Money
Nature
Patterns in the weather
Cultural history
Sustainability
Geography
Adaptability
Geography Task 4
Learning Goals 4.6, 4.10, 4.14, 4.18, 4.20
Research Activity
Tell your students that they are going to plan an expedition to the North
Pole. Using a range of sources – e.g. an atlas, the Internet – your students
briefly research the climate they are going to expect when they arrive.
Provide them with pictures of different adaptations used by local Inuit
people, e.g. husky dogs, sealskin kayaks, animal skin clothes, sledges,
bone knives, harpoons. Ask them to annotate the pictures with different
ideas, e.g. materials, function, weight, durability, and so on. Using their
knowledge of the climate in the North Pole, your students can make
reasonable assumptions about their function and use.
Ask your students to think of a series of questions they would like to ask
the Inuit about the objects they use. Then, ask some of your students to
‘hot seat’ as they role-play members of the Inuit tribe. All other students
question the role-play group about their society and their roles within it.
Choose one student to act as the ‘wise man/woman’ of the tribe, ready to
step in if the student in the ‘hot seat’ needs help. The student playing the
role of ‘wise man/woman’ needs to be prepared beforehand with detailed
information about each object and also be told that they must offer advice
or help as need.
Recording Activity
Ask your students to select three of the objects for their expedition and
justify them in relation to the climate and topography they think they are
going to encounter.
[Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Logical-Mathematical, Verbal-Linguistic
Intelligences]
Geography Task 5
Learning Goals 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.10, 4.14, 4.18, 4.20, 4.22, 4.23
Geography
Adaptability
Research Activity
Ask your students to use the Internet to research the adaptations of
Bedouin nomadic tribes, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, the nomadic
peoples of Africa, Mongolian nomads and Siberian groups such as the
Sakha (Yakuts).
Ask your students to think about the following questions:




What techniques do these people use to adapt to their climate?
Are these natural solutions?
To what extent are they ‘modern’ ideas?
Did they inherit this knowledge from their elders? Why is this
important?
 What impact does their adaptation have on their culture and
traditions?
 What can we learn from the respect they have for their
environment?
Recording Activity
You students use a world map to create a layered picture of climate,
adaptations and people. Ask your students to consider the links between
the people they found out about in the research activity and what their
unifying themes are, e.g. they use sustainable natural resources like
animal skins.
[Logical-Mathematical, Visual-Spatial Intelligences]
Geography Task 6
Language Learning 4.5, 4.6, 4.10, 4.18, 4.22, 4.23
Research Activity
Your students use a map or atlas to research general information about
the climate and topography of the tropical rainforest. Give your students
two locations, a small distance apart in the Amazon rainforest, e.g.
Anama and Manaquiri, and ask them to explore the different obstacles
Geography
Adaptability
and challenges that they would encounter on their journey. Google Earth
(www.google.com/earth/index.html) may help with identifying the
specific route and some of the relief and waterways encountered.
Use photographs of indigenous peoples navigating waterways, hunting,
building shelters.
Recording Activity
Ask your students to write a travel diary of their expedition, imagining
they had a local tribesperson as a guide and reflecting on all the adaptive
techniques they would see and experience as part of their journey.
[Verbal-Linguistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal Intelligences]
Geography Task 7
Learning Goals 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.10, 4.18, 4.20, 4.22, 4.23
Research Activity
Divide your class into two groups, one side representing the Himalayas
(mountain topography) and the other side representing the Mongolian
steppe (grassland plain topography).
Give each group some key facts about their environment and examples of
some of the people who live there. Ensure that your students have
sufficient time to carry out worthwhile research before the recording
activity.
Essential information:
Major
challenges
Himalayas (mountain)
Mongolian steppe
(grassland plain)
 Hazardous and
physically
demanding travel
 Lack of fertile land
 Difficult to hunt for
food
 Long-distance travel
necessary
 Extremes of temperature
between seasons
 Lack of natural
resources
Geography
Adaptability
Extremes of
temperature
Weather
Major
adaptations
Inhabitants
(past or
present)
 Regular snowfall at
high altitudes
 Summer 18–25 °C
degrees
 Winter -10–10 °C
degrees
Swift and unpredictable
changes in weather
possible
 Physiological
adjustment to altitude
 Heavily dependent
on yak
 Employment through
guiding
mountaineers
Sherpas
 Summer 30 °C
 Winter sub-zero °C
On average, 257 cloudless
days a year, meaning very
low rainfall
 Horses used for travel
 Camels bred for
extremes of temperature
 Transportable home, the
ger (yurt)
Mongolians
Recording Activity
Ask each group to present an argument, stating the case for their land
topography being the most challenging in which to live. The discussion
should be focused on the following areas:




The adaptations required in order to survive the environment
Comparative data about the topography
Case studies of the people who live in these areas
Challenges faced by travellers who have little knowledge of this
environment
 Images of the topography and successful adaptations
 Other influencing factors, e.g. the effect of topography on the
weather or climate
[Verbal-Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical Intelligences]
Geography Task 7 – Extension Activity
Learning Goal 4.18
Geography
Adaptability
Ask your students to consider the adaptations they have explored so far in
this subject section. Using the following categories, ask them to create a
mind map linking the ideas together and showing the similarities and
differences between these adaptations:







Adapting to the local environment
Using natural resources
Learning from the past
Integrating culture
The cost of adaptation
Using manufactured resources
Sustainability
Geography Journaling Questions
Why do people adapt to the geography of their environment?
Where do humans get their inspiration for adaptation from?
What can affect the ability of adaptations to survive?
How are you adapted to the geography of your environment?
Do economically wealthy countries adapt to their environment in
different ways to the developing world?
What role do the natural resources of an area have in the adaptations of
the people who live there?
To what extent do adaptations affect the geography of an area and place
pressure upon the natural balance?