Why people and animals move
Migration is rarely a single decision. Geographers separate the reasons that push people away from a place from the reasons that pull them towards another.
Part of your national curriculum
- Human and physical geography: Understand population and urbanisation, including international development and the causes and effects of migration
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Explain push and pull factors for migration
Key learning points
- • Push and pull
- • Animal migration compared
This lesson at a glance
- 20 minutes
- 10 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 10
Watch first
Why people and animals move
An English teaching video on this topic from CrashCourse. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Explain push and pull factors for migration
Explore the idea
Part 2 of 10
Learn
Push and pull
Push factors include conflict, drought and lack of work. Pull factors include safety, jobs, family already settled and better services.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 10
Learn
Animal migration compared
Wildebeest follow rainfall and grazing; Arctic terns follow daylight. Like people, animals move towards resources and away from scarcity — but instinct and inherited routes do the deciding.
Quick check
Part 4 of 10
Quick check
Drought forcing a family to leave is a…
Quick check
Part 5 of 10
Quick check
Wildebeest migration mainly follows…
Quick check
Part 6 of 10
Quick check
A pull factor could be…
Challenge round
Part 7 of 10
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
Challenge round
Part 8 of 10
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Push ____ include conflict, drought and lack of work.
Mastery quiz
Part 9 of 10
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Why people and animals move
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. Drought forcing a family to leave is a…
2. Wildebeest migration mainly follows…
3. A pull factor could be…
Lesson round-up
Part 10 of 10
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
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Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo 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.
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
- List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
- Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
- Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.
Case study notes
WritingWrite the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.
Half a page
Explain answer
WritingAnswer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.
8–10 sentences
Map or sketch
DiagramDraw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.
1 map with a key
Data work
Working outPlot 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 10 · Watch & discover
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Understand population and urbanisation, including international development and the causes and effects of migration