Section 1: Developing understandings of geographical concepts Adjustments for needs of learners Students would benefit from access to: Engage in a class discussion about the following quote: spatial technologies, such as are living as if we have an extra planet at our disposal. We are using 50 per “We Google Earth, large-scale and cent more resources that the Earth can sustainably produce and unless we small-scale outline maps, change course, that number will grow fast by 2030 even two planets will not be — models of maps that conform enough.” to cartographic conventions Quote from Jim Leape, Director General of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) including border, source, International, available on the home page of the Living Planet Report 2012 scale, legend, and north point website (see Resources). primary sources materials As a class, watch the YouTube clip Sustainability explained through animation (see collected by the students, e.g. Resources). Discuss the visual representation of the key ideas about this concept. field notes from observations, Use a concept map or infographic, such as a word cloud (see Resources), to identify measurements, or responses the big ideas about the concepts and “the environment” “sustainability”, e.g. from a survey. resources, animals, vegetation, forests, settlements, agriculture, wellbeing, future, Teaching geography management. Display this concept map for students to refer to during the unit. Catling, S, Willy, T, & Butler, J Have the students make observations about the local environment in a field trip 2012, Teaching Primary around the school grounds or to a neighbouring area. Identify the environmental Geography for Australian features of the place, the living and non-living things and the landform features. Schools, Hawker Brownlow, Ask the students: What makes this environment special? Melbourne. Section 2: Collecting, recording and representing data. Australian Geography Teachers Select learning experiences in this section for use in the collection of work. of Australia, Geogspace, Download a MapMaker kit from the National Geographic website (see Resources) Australia Geography Teachers and assemble a wall-sized outline map of the world. Alternatively, use another Association 2008, Keys to outline world map. Ask the students to represent locations in Australia, South Geography: Essential skills America and Africa on the same latitude using a political world map. As a class, and tools, Macmillan, South use Google Earth to create a map and label each location. Download images Yarra. related to each of the locations selected for study.
Section 1: Developing understandings of geographical concepts Engage in a class discussion about the following quote: “We are living as if we have an extra planet at our disposal. We are using 50 per cent more resources that the Earth can sustainably produce and unless we change course, that number will grow fast — by 2030 even two planets will not be enough.” Quote from Jim Leape, Director General of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International, available on the home page of the Living Planet Report 2012 website (see Resources). As a class, watch the YouTube clip Sustainability explained through animation (see Resources). Discuss the visual representation of the key ideas about this concept. Use a concept map or infographic, such as a word cloud (see Resources), to identify the big ideas about the concepts “the environment” and “sustainability”, e.g. resources, animals, vegetation, forests, settlements, agriculture, wellbeing, future, management. Display this concept map for students to refer to during the unit. Have the students make observations about the local environment in a field trip around the school grounds or to a neighbouring area. Identify the environmental features of the place, the living and non-living things and the landform features. Ask the students: What makes this environment special? Section 2: Collecting, recording and representing data. Select learning experiences in this section for use in the collection of work. Download a MapMaker kit from the National Geographic website (see Resources) and assemble a wall-sized outline map of the world. Alternatively, use another outline world map. Ask the students to represent locations in Australia, South America and Africa on the same latitude using a political world map. As a class, use Google Earth to create a map and label each location. Download images related to each of the locations selected for study. Adjustments for needs of learners Students would benefit from access to: spatial technologies, such as Google Earth, large-scale and small-scale outline maps, models of maps that conform to cartographic conventions including border, source, scale, legend, and north point primary sources materials collected by the students, e.g. field notes from observations, measurements, or responses from a survey. Teaching geography Catling, S, Willy, T, & Butler, J 2012, Teaching Primary Geography for Australian Schools, Hawker Brownlow, Melbourne. Australian Geography Teachers of Australia, Geogspace, Australia Geography Teachers Association 2008, Keys to Geography: Essential skills and tools, Macmillan, South Yarra.
ac_geog_yr4_unit_overview.docx