Geomorphic system
By Marjorie Henry, Contributor

DHL Women Basketball Finals, played at the Stadium Courts, Independence Park Complex on September 17. - Winston Sill Photo

FOR SEVERAL weeks now, I have been focusing on the school-based assessment. I do trust that you are working earnestly at doing yours for presentation soon. Again I encourage you to do it well.

Today, I will change my focus to another section of the syllabus, namely, the geomorphic system.

From the outset, I have encouraged you to purchase for yourselves, copies of the geography syllabus. If you did, I do hope that you have spent some time going through it and that you are quite familiar with its content. I must, however, cater for those of you who may not find it possible to own a copy of the syllabus. For this reason then, I will share with you, very briefly, on the structure of the syllabus.

The geography syllabus is organised under two main sections, namely, skills and systems. There are two systems. These are natural and man-made. The former is made up of biotic, climatic and geomorphic systems, while the latter has agricultural, industrial and settlement systems. Naturally, you are tested on all aspects of the syllabus but you are required to do a total of only four questions in the examination.

The question paper is divided into three sections. There is the compulsory map reading question in section A. Questions based on the natural system are in section B. You must do at least one question but no more than two questions from this section. This is also applicable to section C, that section that deals with the man-made system.

MIX OF TOPICS

As stated before, I will be focusing on the geomorphic system. I will do this primarily by discussing questions from past papers.

Incidentally, the question paper usually has two questions based on this system. A word of caution, however: it is hardly likely that there is an entire question on a single topic in this system. In short, there is quite a mix of topics in any one question. You therefore cannot be selective in studying the topics that come under geomorphic system. All topics must be adequately covered in order to ensure a good response should you choose to answer those questions.

The syllabus informs us of the content to be done under geomorphic system:

Plate tectonics, earthquakes, vulcanicity, folding, faulting, weathering, mass wasting, surface water and underground water, wave action, coral reefs.

I have chosen to begin with coral reefs. The specific objectives for this topic are:-

• Name location and describe the types of coral reefs found within the Caribbean.
• Describe the conditions necessary for successful coral reef formation.

In the next lesson, I will share information to satisfy these objectives. In the meanwhile, do some reading on the topic from any available source. Here is a list of recommended textbooks for the topic:

• General Geography in Diagrams by R.B. Bunnett
• The New Caribbean Geography by Vohn A.M. Rahil
• The Caribbean Environment by Mark Wilson

* Marjorie Henry is Geography teacher at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon.