Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyTravel: journeys and tourism35 min★★ difficulty

Planning a journey across Europe

Plan a real trip from London to Rome by train and you learn Europe's countries, mountains and rivers along the way. Atlas out.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Extend locational knowledge and deepen spatial awareness of the world's countries, focusing on Europe and North and South America

Key learning points

  • • Under the sea
  • • Over the Alps
  • • Down Italy
  • • Train or plane?

This lesson at a glance

  • 35 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

extendlocationalknowledgedeepenspatial

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Planning a journey across Europe

An English teaching video on this topic from iNewittAll. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Extend locational knowledge and deepen spatial awareness of the world's countries, focusing on Europe and North and South America

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You can find London on a map of Europe and read a map key.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

route
The path taken from one place to another.
physical barrier
A natural feature, such as mountains or sea, that transport must cross or go round.
hub
A place where many transport routes meet.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 — The route

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Under the sea

The Eurostar leaves London St Pancras and crosses the English Channel through a 50 km tunnel — the Channel is the first physical barrier. You arrive in Paris, France, a rail hub where lines fan out across Europe.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Over the Alps

From Paris a train runs south-east through France to the Alps, Europe's highest mountains (Mont Blanc, 4,808 m). Railways use long tunnels and valleys to cross them, arriving in Turin or Milan in northern Italy.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

The Eurostar crosses the Channel...

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Europe's highest mountain range here is...

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 — Choosing how to travel

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Down Italy

Italy is a long peninsula with the Apennine mountains down its spine. Fast trains follow the flatter land to Florence and Rome, on the River Tiber. Seven countries' worth of geography, about 13 hours in total.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Train or plane?

A flight to Rome takes about 2.5 hours, plus airport time, but produces several times more carbon per passenger than the train. Travellers weigh time, cost, comfort and carbon — a geographer's judgement, backed by figures.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Rome stands on the River...

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

A fair comparison of train and plane considers...

15

Investigate evidence

Part 15 of 19

Evidence 1 of 1

primary

A rail timetable for a European journey

European rail operators' published timetables, Present day

London St Pancras 09:31 → Paris Nord 12:47 (Eurostar). Paris Est 14:05 → Zurich 18:05 (TGV). Zurich 19:33 → Milan 22:50 through the Alps. Total: about 13 hours, two changes, roughly 1,100 km.

Planning a real journey means reading timetables, allowing for changes, and comparing time, cost and carbon against flying the same route.

Think like a historian

Work out the longest single leg of the journey and the total waiting time between trains. Then give one reason a traveller might choose this over a 2-hour flight.

Source: Published public timetables.

View the archive record ↗
16

Common mix-ups

Part 16 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Placing the Alps in Spain.
  • Thinking the Channel Tunnel goes to Belgium directly — it reaches France.
  • Comparing transport on speed alone.
17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Planning a journey across Europe

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Italy's shape is best described as a...

  2. 2. A transport hub is...

  3. 3. The Eurostar crosses the Channel...

  4. 4. Europe's highest mountain range here is...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

Source for this lesson

Use this for the source work task below.

A rail timetable for a European journey

primary

European rail operators' published timetables, Present day

London St Pancras 09:31 → Paris Nord 12:47 (Eurostar). Paris Est 14:05 → Zurich 18:05 (TGV). Zurich 19:33 → Milan 22:50 through the Alps. Total: about 13 hours, two changes, roughly 1,100 km.

Planning a real journey means reading timetables, allowing for changes, and comparing time, cost and carbon against flying the same route.

Source: Published public timetables.

View the original record ↗

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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