DSE Geography | Changing industrial location - location factors and relocation north

DSE Geography | Changing industrial location – location factors and relocation north | Push-pull table, 3-step 8-mark answer

2026-11-06

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary Geography

Students can recite the five location factors and still score two out of eight, because they list all five instead of ranking them. Every industry has one cost that dominates; until the student names it, the other four are noise.

Objectives — Students can: (1) rank the five location factors by share of cost and explain why an aluminium smelter ranks them in the reverse order of a garment factory; (2) explain post-1980s relocation with a three-column push, pull and corridor table, at least three items each; (3) answer an 8-mark relocation question in three steps – describe (2), explain (4), impact (2).

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Industry types	Which type of industry is a garment factory?	Labour-intensive light industry
Cost ideas	Which two costs does a factory owner compare first?	Transport and labour, depending on the industry
Hong Kong industry history	When did manufacturing employment peak in Hong Kong?	In the 1970s and 1980s

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	One old factory photo	Ask why the factory moved; write answers in two columns	Give one reason aloud
6-18 min	Rank, do not list	Smelter versus garment factory, same five factors, opposite order	Rank both factories
18-30 min	Three-column table	Push in Hong Kong, pull in the Delta, corridor between	Three items per column, linked
30-42 min	Three-step 8-mark answer	Model one item: describe data, explain factors, impact split positive and negative	Write step two alone
42-56 min	Timed practice	Eight minutes per item, six minutes marking	Finish under time and self-mark
56-60 min	Exit check	Collect three items, mark at once, name the missing column	Work alone

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Five factors need a ranking, not a list

Listing the five factors earns nothing because every industry has a different dominant cost. Teach one question first: which single cost is the largest share of this industry total? An aluminium smelter burns enormous electricity, so power and ore dominate and the plant sits by the mine or the power station; a garment factory spends thirty to forty per cent on wages, so it follows cheap labour. Same factors, opposite order.
Require the sentence “the largest cost is …” before anything else, and the remaining factors are only relative.

Ask the student to rank the same five factors for both factories and state the difference out loud.

Scene 2: Relocation is three things at once

Relocation is not “wages were cheaper”. It needs push, pull and corridor at the same time: rising wages, rents and tighter environmental rules in Hong Kong (push); cheap labour, cheap land and open-door incentives across the Delta (pull); and container ports plus cross-border transport (corridor).
Use three columns on the board, never two. Students who lose the corridor column cannot explain why factories did not simply move further inland, and that is exactly the comparison question.

Ask the student to say in one sentence what the corridor column solves.

Scene 3: An 8-mark answer is allocated, not accumulated

Marks are usually 2 for description, 4 for explanation, 2 for impact. Students see the word explain and write four paragraphs of explanation, then offer no data and no balance. Fix the shape: step one quotes a figure and states the trend (from 905,000 to 77,000, a fall of 91%); step two explains using the ranked factors; step three gives one positive and one negative impact, economic and social.
Make them write 2/4/2 in the margin before starting. A marker who can see the structure awards the structure.

Ask the student to write the three numbers beside the question before writing a word.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Location factor item	Why is this industry located here?	Name the dominant cost first, then the rest as relative	Two factors, one argued as dominant
Change explanation	Explain manufacturing relocation after the 1980s	Push, pull and corridor, one column at a time	All three columns, in time order
Impact item	Impact of relocation on Hong Kong	Economic, social, environmental, each with a positive and a negative	Four points, both signs
Data description	Describe the change in manufacturing employment	Calculate the percentage fall, state trend and speed	From 905,000 to 77,000, a fall of 91%

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity check: the whole lesson does one thing – turning a list of five factors into a ranked five; no answer scores unless it names the dominant cost; relocation must use three columns because the corridor is the column students drop and the column that separates grades; demonstrate one deliberately bad list-style answer so the difference is audible.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Ranking both factories	Rank the five factors for a smelter and a garment factory	Check whether both rankings are identical
Three-column table	Fill push, pull and corridor, three items each	Check whether the corridor column is empty
8-mark item	Answer one item in eight minutes, self-mark 2/4/2	Check for data in description and both signs in impact

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Reciting the five factors	Because it has raw materials, labour, market, transport and policy	Which one is the biggest cost? If you cannot name it, the other four do not count.
Relocation equals cheap wages	Only because wages in the mainland were lower	Wages are the pull. What pushed it out of Hong Kong, and what is the corridor column doing?
Impact only negative	Only factory closures and job losses	Did logistics and management jobs grow here? One positive, one negative.
No data in description	Manufacturing kept getting smaller	From what to what? Give the percentage fall; that is where the description marks are.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Geography chapter index — All chapters in the subject
All prep guides — Same format in other subjects
Redo this chapter — Redo both rankings and one 8-mark item, marking 2/4/2

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Five factors ranked	By share of cost, not textbook order	Cannot name the dominant cost = repeat act two
Three relocation columns	Push, pull, corridor	Only two columns = repeat act two
8-mark structure	Describe 2, explain 4, impact 2	Cannot state the split = repeat act three

09 Tutor FAQ

Do students need every industry?

No. Teach the move – find the dominant cost – and any industry follows.

How many local examples?

Two is enough: one raw-material oriented, one labour oriented. The contrast does the work.

The data changes every year, does that matter?

Exam data changes, the move does not: percentage change, trend, speed.

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