Join EVA ('Earth's Virtual Assistant') to investigate different types of settlement - villages, towns, cities and holiday resorts - and also the factors which govern change of land use.
The videos
Settlements: Villages and Towns. video
Join the mission to investigate two different types of settlement: villages and towns.
Settlements: Cities and Holiday resorts. video
Join the mission to investigate two different types of settlement: cities and holiday resorts.
Settlements: Changing land use. video
Join the mission to investigate the factors governing changing land use, including increasing urbanisation.
Settlements
Pupils join EVA ('Earth's Virtual Assistant') to discover the defining characteristics of different types of settlement - villages, towns, cities and holiday resorts - and to investigate the factors that determine land use in the UK.
In Villages and Towns pupils will discover that:
- villages are a smaller settlement than towns
- that villages only offer a limited range of services
- that villages are connected by transport networks to towns, where a greater range of services is offered
- that towns have a greater range of buildings, including high-rise apartment blocks
- that towns offer a greater range of services, including supermarkets, schools and healthcare.
In Cities and Holiday resorts they will discover that:
- cities are larger than both villages and towns
- that there is no single definition of what a city is (for example, any settlement that includes a cathedral may be called a city)
- that the largest cities are classified as megacities
- that cities offer the greatest range of services: healthcare, education, shops, leisure facilities, places of worship, etc
- that the population of holiday resorts can fluctuate greatly depending on the time of year
- that holiday resorts prosper when they provide the services required by visitors
- that tourism can lead to issues such as pollution.
In Changing land use they will discover that:
- there are different types of land use: residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial, recreational and transport
- in the UK urban use of land is slowly increasing and agricultural use of land is slowly decreasing
- any change of land use must be carefully considered to ensure that it is sustainable
- any change of land use may have negative impacts - for example, the danger posed to birds by wind farms
- some changes of land use can help to counteract climate change - for example, using land to plant trees or 'rewilding'.
Curriculum notes
These videos are suitable for teaching KS2 in England and Northern Ireland, 2nd Level in Scotland and Progression Step 3 in Wales. Specific curriculum links are detailed in the Teacher Notes which can be found on each episode page.
See also... Biomes. collection
Join EVA on another mission: to discover the climate, plants and animals that characterise six of Earth's major biomes including rainforests, deserts and savannahs.
