GCSE GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK MAY – JUNE 2007

The title for this work is:

MY NEIGHBOURHOOD: HERE TODAY – BETTER TOMORROW?

You can find advice about presentation, setting out work and so on, in the
document called ‘Advice’. The things you need to do to write up this work are
as follows:

1. At the front of your work you will eventually need:

• A title page
• A contents page
Do your title page and contents page last of all when everything else is
finished!!!

2. Write the title: The Aims of the Investigation – then write down the main
aims of this coursework, for example:

• To describe and explain the features of my neighbourhood.

Now write a brief paragraph about what your neighbourhood is like and how
you will investigate it (such as, by collecting and analysing primary and
secondary data).

• To investigate 3 hypotheses about your neighbourhood and then write them

down in a list (have a look at the sheet that has some examples of
hypotheses.)

• To investigate a local environmental issue (or problem) in my local area and

suggest how this issue (or problem) can be solved or improved - now briefly
say where the local issue is and what the local issue (or problem) is.

3. Title: Background – here you need to write a paragraph that puts your work ‘in
context’ (this means explaining why it is useful to study towns and cities and
how people live in them). You could explain that most people in the UK live in
urban areas, so there must be some good reasons why! Say what you think
these reasons are. You could then explain that your study will aim show what
the quality of your neighbourhood is like, and to what extent it provides people
with ‘what is good’ about living in urban areas.
4. Title: An introduction to Long Eaton

In this section write about the town of Long Eaton to tell the person reading
your work what the town is like. Include things like:

• A map to show the location of Long Eaton in the UK and the Midlands.
• A description of Long Eaton’s location
• Size of population
• A little bit of history about Long Eaton
• Services and recreation facilities in Long Eaton
• Types of businesses and work places in Long Eaton – can you name any
companies?
• Local communications and transport (roads, air port, public transport)
• One or two photographs of something well known in Long Eaton?(not too
large though)
(You could use the file called ‘Setting the Scene’ to help you write a rough
draft)

5. Title: Defining where ‘My Neighbourhood’ is:

Choose an area of about 6 – 10 streets around where you live. Describe

whereabouts in Long Eaton your neighbourhood is and include a map of Long
Eaton showing where your neighbourhood is. You need a street map to show its
location and the size of your neighbourhood - look at the example. (find an
Ordnance Survey map of your neighbourhood from the ‘Maps’ folder on the
network).

• You could include an aerial photograph from Local Live

• Include some photographs of your neighbourhood

Next briefly describe your neighbourhood:

• What types of houses and buildings are in your neighbourhood? – there

might be businesses and factories
• How old are the buildings?
• What services are there (schools, shops, health centre, etc)?
• Any bus service?
• Any parks or play areas?
• What else could you mention?
6. Title: Methods of Enquiry (also called methodology) - this section is about
how you will collect data! Look at the document called ‘Collecting Data’ for
ideas.

In this section describe and explain the types of primary data you are going to
collect (surveys and questionnaires) to be able to describe your neighbourhood
and to investigate your hypotheses. You will need to explain how you will collect
the data too, including the use of sampling techniques. Pages 212 – 213 in a
book called ‘People, Places and Themes’ are good for explaining about ‘sampling
techniques’.

IMPORTANT! Everyone will complete environmental quality surveys of

the streets in their neighbourhood and produce graphs of the results
using Excel. Look at the Excel spreadsheet to find the survey sheet
and how to put the results into a table. From the table produce a
graph of the results. Obviously these surveys need to link with a
hypothesis about environmental quality in your neighbourhood.

You also need to describe and explain the types of secondary information you
will use.

7. Title: Describing my Neighbourhood (What is my neighbourhood like?)

This section will be very detailed, describing and explaining the features of
your neighbourhood much more than in the section where you simply ‘defined
your neighbourhood’. It will show the results and analysis of the primary and
secondary data you have collected about your neighbourhood, such as
environmental quality surveys, types of houses, questionnaires, traffic counts,
litter surveys, vandalism surveys, numbers of services, housing condition,
houses for sale and so on!

The amount of work you have in this section obviously depends on how much
research you have done!

Think carefully about how you can present the data you have collected.
This section will contain maps, graphs, tables, photographs and writing that
bring together and analyse all of your data collection (to show the reader what
you have found out and what your neighbourhood is like in detail).
8. Title: Improving my Neighbourhood
This section is about improving your neighbourhood, somewhere that could be
redeveloped or changed for the better. It could be some run down or empty
buildings, a park or play area that is neglected. It may be some waste land or
open space that could be put to better use. You decide where and explain what
you would do to improve the area where you live. You could include photos of
what it is like now and drawings or designs to show the changes.

9. Title: ‘The bigger picture: Why is my neighbourhood like it is?

Here you need to explain why your neighbourhood is like it is. Compare your
neighbourhood with other neighbourhoods. You could also consider how your
neighbourhood compares with models of land use such as ‘Burgess’ or ‘Mann’.

10. Title: Evaluation

This section is about summarising the parts of your work that went well and
the parts that did not go too well. This leads into a discussion about how you
could improve your project if you did it again, such as your methods of data
collection, hypotheses or analysis.
Think about how you could extend your study and who could benefit from using
the information you have collected and why eg house buyers,the local council

11. Title: Conclusion

Here you need to summarise what you have discovered about your
neighbourhood, but especially to give the results of your hypotheses – state if
they are true or false with a clear explanation of why – what evidence do you
have that supports your results?

12. Title: Bibliography

A bibliography lists all of the books, resources and other secondary

information that you used to do your coursework e.g.

Books:
i) Waugh D. & Bushell A. ‘New Key Geography for GCSE’ pgs 286-289. Nelson
Thornes. 2000. I used this to find theories of house ages and patterns of land
use
ii)

Websites:
i) www.local.live.com I used this to find maps and aerial pictures of my
streets
ii)