Every major case gets the same ten-part record. The structure is fixed so that your effort goes into the analysis rather than into deciding how to organise it.
| Element | What you write |
|---|---|
| Location | Locate the case precisely and name the scale it operates at. |
| Geographic context | The physical and human conditions a reader needs before the issue makes sense. |
| Processes | What is changing, and the mechanism driving it. |
| Evidence | Specific, dated, credible figures. Write the year next to the number. |
| Stakeholders | Who is affected, and separately, who holds the decision-making power. |
| Perspectives | Genuinely contrasting interpretations, interests or experiences — not two versions of the same view. |
| Concepts | Which of the six apply here, and what each one reveals. |
| Evaluation | Significance, effectiveness, limitations, and alternative explanations. |
| Current connection | One dated development that updates or complicates the case. |
| Exam use | The questions this case could answer, and the evidence you would deploy. |
Built in sessions 4 to 6, before the population core, so that you have seen a finished case study before you are asked to construct one. The common text is Tim Marshall’s Iran chapter in The Power of Geography — used as an argument to test, not a source to copy.
Predict Iran’s advantages and constraints from a physical map alone. Then read the chapter marking physical geography, human geography, regional connections and one claim worth verifying.
Evidence teams take terrain, population, energy, the Strait of Hormuz, regional position, or water and climate. The class then builds one shared concept map connecting them.
The class’s first exam-ready case study record, plus a written response examining how far geography shapes Iran’s power and possibilities. Then a revision after feedback.
Every case in the bank has its own pre-filled template: the six stable sections completed, the four that carry the marks left for you. Open any case from the map to get it.
| Phase | Time | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Current context hook | 10 min | Map the Strait of Hormuz. How can one narrow waterway affect places thousands of miles away? |
| Evidence teams | 25 min | Investigate one assigned strand and prepare to teach it. |
| Shared concept map | 20 min | Connect physical geography, resources, security, trade, population and political power. |
| Challenge the argument | 15 min | Test one claim. Consider what decisions, history, institutions and technology explain that geography does not. |
| Exit response | 10 min | Explain one way Iran’s physical geography increases its regional or global power. |
It is a living case study, not a finished one. Brief updates on Monday ask whether a new development strengthens, weakens or complicates the original argument.
A statistic without a year is not evidence. Anything older than the argument it supports needs a reason.
Check a figure against a second source before it goes in your exam-ready notes. Once it is in, you will trust it.
A book is an interpretation. Evaluating it is the skill; accepting it is not.
