Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyMigration, settlement and trade30 min★★★ difficulty

Development, inequality and population movement

Migration decisions are shaped by uneven opportunities, but income alone never explains the whole story.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Place knowledge: Understand geographical similarities, differences and links between places through the study of human and physical geography of a region in Africa and a region in Asia
  • Human and physical geography: Understand population and urbanisation, including international development and the causes and effects of migration
  • Geographical skills and fieldwork: Interpret and analyse a range of quantitative and qualitative data, including statistical data on trends and relationships between geographical phenomena

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand population and urbanisation, including international development and the causes and effects of migration

Key learning points

  • • Measuring development
  • • A migration decision
  • • Effects on origin and destination
  • • Avoiding simple stories

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 15 parts to scroll through
  • 3 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

populationurbanisationinternationaldevelopmentcauses

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 15 · Discover7%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 15

Watch first

Development, inequality and population movement

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

In a nutshell

Understand population and urbanisation, including international development and the causes and effects of migration

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 15

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Measuring development

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

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 15

Learn

Measuring development

Income per person is useful but incomplete. The Human Development Index combines income, education and life expectancy. National averages can also hide sharp differences between regions, genders and rural and urban communities.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 15

Learn

A migration decision

Push factors may include conflict, unemployment or environmental stress; pull factors may include safety, family networks, study and work. Intervening obstacles such as cost, borders and distance shape who can move and where they go.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 15

Quick check

What three dimensions are combined in the Human Development Index?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 15

Quick check

What is a remittance?

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 15

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
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 15

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Effects on origin and destination

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

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 15

Learn

Effects on origin and destination

Migrants may send remittances home and fill labour shortages at their destination. Origin areas can lose skilled workers, while destination areas must plan housing and services. Effects vary by age, skill, legal status and the state of the local economy.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 15

Learn

Avoiding simple stories

A correlation between low income and migration does not prove that the poorest people move furthest; international movement costs money. Evidence from interviews, flow maps and statistics should be compared before drawing a conclusion.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 15

Quick check

Why might the very poorest people be unable to migrate internationally?

12

Challenge round

Part 12 of 15

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

13

Challenge round

Part 13 of 15

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

The Human ____ Index combines income, education and life expectancy.

A correlation between low income and migration does not prove that the poorest people move furthest; ____ movement costs money.

14

Mastery quiz

Part 14 of 15

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Development, inequality and population movement

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

  1. 1. A city's population doubles in twenty years. Which pressure is most likely?

  2. 2. What three dimensions are combined in the Human Development Index?

  3. 3. What is a remittance?

  4. 4. Why might the very poorest people be unable to migrate internationally?

15

Lesson round-up

Part 15 of 15

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

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Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 3 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.

  • 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 15 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand geographical similarities, differences and links between places through the study of human and physical geography of a region in Africa and a region in Asia

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand population and urbanisation, including international development and the causes and effects of migration

  • Not looked at yet

    Interpret and analyse a range of quantitative and qualitative data, including statistical data on trends and relationships between geographical phenomena

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