Cambridge Pre-U Syllabus - Cambridge International Examinations

38
5. ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Cambridge Pre-U Draft
This section deals with life on a global scale – the interactions between life and the environment. It takes a
look at the huge variety of life and why organisms live in the places they do. The section also considers the
impact of climate change and the ways in which we are able to protect and conserve biodiversity.
This section could form a key part of a 3–4 day residential field course, or for situations where this is not
possible, could be accomplished by a series of fieldwork sessions in the local environment of the Centre,
whether this be urban or rural. The same organisms could be studied in outcomes 5.1 a) and b) so that
candidates are able to form a coherent understanding of the adaptations of the organisms and the way in
which these suit the organism to the niche that it occupies.
It is important that at least one of these organisms can be studied in detail in a natural, wild or semi-wild
environment (which could include, for example, organisms encountered during a field course, or wild birds or
weeds in the school grounds).
These questions may be put to candidates to stimulate discussion and prompt and direct their own
researches while covering Section 5.
• What determines where a particular organism lives and what it does there?
• How does adaptation relate to success for organisms/species?
• Why are tropical ecosystems so different from temperate and polar ones?
• What do changes in the global climate mean for the life of plants?
• Why are large fierce animals rare and why should they be conserved?
• How many species are there? And why are there so many?
• What is the smallest part of an ecosystem that can be conserved successfully?