CBSE 12th Class Geography Syllabus

Course Structure

Parts/Units	Topics	Marks
Part A	Fundamentals of Human Geography	35
Unit 1	Human Geography	30
Unit 2	People
Unit 3	Human Activities
Unit 4	Transport, Communication & Trade
Unit 5	Human settlements
	Map Work	5
Part B	India: People and Economy	35
Unit 6	People	30
Unit 7	Human settlements
Unit 8	Resources and Development
Unit 9	Transport, Communication and International Trade
Unit 10	Geographical Perspective on selected issues & problems
	Map Work	5
Part C	Practical Work	30
Unit 1	Processing of Data and Thematic Mapping	15
Unit 2	Field study of Spatial Information Technology	10
Unit 3	Practical Record Book and Viva Voce	5
Total (Part A + Part B + Part C)		100

Course Syllabus

Part A. Fundamentals of Human Geography

Unit 1: Human Geography

• Nature
• Scope

Unit 2: People

• Population −
  • Distribution
  • Density
  • Growth
• Population change −
  • Spatial patterns and structure
  • Determinants of population change
• Age-sex ratio −
  • Rural-urban composition
• Human development −
  • Concept
  • Selected indicators
  • International comparisons

Unit 3: Human Activities

• Primary activities −
  • Concept and changing trends
  • Gathering
  • Pastoral
  • Mining
  • Subsistence agriculture
  • Modern agriculture
  • People engaged in agricultural and allied activities – some examples from selected countries
• Secondary activities-concept −
  • Manufacturing −
    • Types – household
    • Small scale
    • Large scale
  • Agro based industries
  • Mineral based industries
  • People engaged in secondary activities – some examples from selected countries
• Tertiary activities-concept −
  • Trade
  • Transport and tourism
  • Services
  • People engaged in tertiary activities – some examples from selected countries
• Quaternary activities – concept −
  • people engaged in quaternary activities – case study from selected countries

Unit 4: Transport, Communication & Trade

• Land transport −
  • Roads
  • Railways
  • Trans-continental railways
• Water transport −
  • Inland waterways
  • Major ocean routes
• Air transport −
  • Intercontinental air routes
• Oil and gas pipelines
• Satellite communication and cyber space −
  • Importance and usage for geographical information
  • use of GPS
• International Trade-Bases and changing patterns −
  • Ports as gateways of international trade
  • Role of WTO in international trade
• Ocean −
  • National rights and international treaties

Unit 5: Human settlements

• Settlement types −
  • Rural and urban
  • Morphology of cities (case study)
  • Distribution of mega cities
  • Problems of human settlements in developing countries

Map Work

Map Work on identification of features based on 1-5 units on the outline/Physical/Political map of World

Part B. India: People and Economy

Unit 6: People

• Population −
  • Distribution
  • Density
  • Growth
• Composition of population −
  • Linguistic
  • Religious
  • Sex
  • Rural-urban
  • Occupational-regional variations in growth of population
• Migration −
  • International
  • National
  • Causes and consequences
• Human development −
  • Selected indicators and regional patterns
• Population, environment and development

Unit 7: Human Settlements

• Rural settlements −
  • Types
  • Distribution
• Urban settlements −
  • Types
  • Distribution
  • Functional classification

Unit 8: Resources and Development

• Land resources −
  • General land use
  • Agricultural land use
  • Geographical conditions and distribution of major crops −
    • Wheat
    • Rice
    • Tea
    • Coffee
    • Cotton
    • Jute
    • Sugarcane
    • Rubber
  • Agricultural development and problems
• Water resources −
  • Availability and utilization-irrigation
  • Domestic
  • Industrial and other uses
  • Scarcity of water
  • Conservation methods −
    • Rain water harvesting
    • Watershed management
• Mineral and energy resources −
  • Distribution of metallic −
    • Iron ore
    • Copper
    • Bauxite
    • Manganese
  • Distribution of non-metallic −
    • Mica
    • Salt
  • Conventional resources −
    • Coal
    • Petroleum
    • Natural gas
    • Hydroelectricity
  • Non-conventional energy sources −
    • Solar
    • Wind
    • Biogas
• Conservation Industries −
  • Types
  • Factors of industrial location
  • Distribution and changing pattern of selected industries −
    • Iron and steel
    • Cotton textiles
    • Sugar
    • Petrochemicals
    • Knowledge based industries
  • Impact of liberalization, privatisation and globalisation on industrial location
  • Industrial clusters
• Planning in India −
  • Target group area planning (case study)
  • Idea of sustainable development (case study)

Unit 9: Transport, Communication and International Trade

• Transport and communication −
  • Roads
  • Railways
  • Waterways
  • Airways
  • oil and gas pipelines
  • Geographical information and communication networks
• International trade −
  • Changing pattern of India’s foreign trade
  • Sea ports and their hinterland and airports

Unit 10: Geographical Perspective on selected issues and problems

• Environmental pollution
  • Urban – waste disposal
• Urbanisation −
  • Rural-urban migration
  • Problems of slums
• Land degradation

Map Work

• Map work on locating and labelling of features based on above units on outline map of India.

Part-C Practical Work

Unit 1: Processing of Data and Thematic Mapping

• Type and Sources of data −
  • Primary
  • Secondary and other sources
• Tabulating and processing of data −
  • Calculation of averages
  • Measures of central tendency
  • Deviation
  • Rank correlation
• Representation of data – construction of diagrams −
  • Bars
  • Circles
  • Flowchart
  • Thematic maps
  • Construction of dot
  • Choropleth maps
  • Isopleth maps
• Data analysis and generation of diagrams −
  • Graphs and other visual diagrams using computers

Unit 2: Field Study or Spatial Information Technology

• Field visit and study −
• Map orientation
• Observation and preparation of sketch
• Survey on any one of the local concerns −
  • Pollution
  • Ground water changes
  • Land use and land-use changes
  • Poverty
  • Energy issues
  • Soil degradation
  • Impact of floods and drought
  • Catchment area of school

Market survey and Household survey (any one topic of local concern may be taken up for the study; observation and questionnaire survey may be adopted for the data collection; collected data may be tabulated and analysed with diagrams and maps). Students can be given different topics to get more insight into various problems of society.

OR

Unit 3: Spatial Information Technology

• Introduction to GIS −
  • Hardware requirements and software modules
  • Data formats
  • Raster and vector data, data input, editing and topology building
  • Data analysis
  • Overlay and buffer