Year X [7–10] plan — Australian Curriculum: Geography

How to use this template: Replace highlighted instructions (like this text) using either of two methods.

Method 1 — retains instructions until you have finished working

Place your cursor at the end of a highlighted instruction. Press Enter to get a new line without highlighting. Type your text. When you have finished, delete the highlighted instructions.

Method 2 — removes instructions at the start

Read a highlighted instruction. Select the text. Press Enter to delete it. Press Backspace to delete the shading. Type your text.

Implementation year:	School name:

Identify curriculum	Phase curriculum focus	Insert the curriculum focus for the phase of learning that is identified in the organisation section of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

Geographical scale and spatial context	Insert the spatial contexts and scale of study through which students will develop an understanding of place. These are identified in the Year level description.

Fieldwork	The curriculum should provide opportunities for fieldwork at all stages, as this is an essential component of geographical learning. Fieldwork is any activity involving the observation and recording of information outside of the classroom. It could be within the school grounds, around neighbouring areas or in more distant locations. Insert the data collection techniques and geographic contexts for fieldwork at this Year level.

Year level description	Insert the Year level description from the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

Key inquiry questions	Insert the Year level key inquiry questions that provide a framework for developing students’ Geographical Knowledge and Understanding, and Geographical Inquiry and Skills. These questions can be further developed through the teaching, learning and assessing of Geographical Inquiry.

Geographical concepts	Geographical concepts are the key ideas involved in teaching students to think geographically. They represent the big ideas of Geography that will be developed through the curriculum. Insert the geographical concepts that are the focus in the Year level descriptions, content descriptions and achievement standard.

Achievement standard	Insert the achievement standard for the Year level from the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

Source: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), Australian Curriculum v5.0: Geography for Foundation–10, www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Geography/Curriculum/F-10
Teaching and learning	Unit overview

In Year X [7–8] Geography:

46–50 hours per year

23–25 hours per unit

In Year X [9–10] Geography (optional):

43–48 hours per year

22–24 hours per unit	Unit 1	Unit 2
Outline the curriculum focus for the unit. Refer to the content descriptions across the two strands of Geographical Knowledge and Understanding and Geographical Inquiry and Skills to identify the learning experiences that students may undertake in this unit.

Outline the curriculum focus for the unit. Refer to content descriptions across the two strands of Geographical Knowledge and Understanding and Geographical Inquiry and Skills to identify the learning experiences that students may undertake in this unit.

Links to other learning areas	Geography is a subject in the Humanities and Social Sciences learning area and has connections to History, Civics and Citizenship, and Economics and Business. There are opportunities to connect learning experiences in Geography to other learning areas. Insert content descriptions from other learning areas that connect to the geographical understanding and skills for this Year level.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives	Geography provides opportunities for students to strengthen their appreciation and understanding of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their living cultures. Specific content and skills within relevant sections of the curriculum can be drawn upon to encourage engagement with:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander frameworks of knowing and ways of learning

Indigenous contexts in which Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples live

Aboriginal peoples’ and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ contributions to Australian society and cultures.

The Australian Curriculum: Geography emphasises the relationships people have with place and their interconnections with the environments in which they live. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures cross-curriculum priority provides the opportunity for students to develop a deeper understanding of these concepts by investigating the thousands of years of Aboriginal peoples’ and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ connection to land, water and sky and the knowledge and practices that developed as a result of these experiences. Students will examine the effects of European colonisation on people and environments. The study of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures cross-curriculum priority also contributes to an understanding of spatial inequalities in human welfare, sustainable development and human rights.
General capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities	Copy and paste symbols, from the general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities key (below), relevant to the unit.

Copy and paste symbols, from the general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities key (below), relevant to the unit.

Key to general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities	Literacy Numeracy ICT capability Critical and creative thinking Personal and social capability Ethical understanding Intercultural understanding

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia Sustainability
Develop assessment	Assessment

For advice and guidelines on assessment, making judgments and using feedback see: www.qsa.qld.edu.au/26025.html > choose the Year level > select the Assessment tab.	The following assessment will provide a targeted selection of evidence of student learning across different assessment techniques and instruments. This evidence will be collected in a folio to make an overall on-balance judgment about student achievement and progress at appropriate points, and to inform the reporting process.
Unit 1	Unit 2
Assessment	Assessment
Provide information about the assessment techniques, formats and categories for each assessment.	Valued features	Provide information about the assessment techniques, formats and categories for each assessment.	Valued features
Make judgments
and use feedback	Consistency of teacher judgments	Identify how opportunities to moderate samples of student work at a school or cluster level to reach consensus and consistency.

Year X [7–10] Geography: review for balance and coverage of content descriptions, including emphasis on geographical understandings

Tick the specific content descriptions that will be covered in each unit.

Geographical Knowledge and Understanding
Geographical Inquiry and Skills
Geographical Knowledge	1	2	Concepts for developing geographical understandings	1	2
Geographical Inquiry and Skills	1	2
Insert the content descriptions from the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

(
Indicate the concepts for developing geographical understandings

Place

Places are parts of the Earth’s surface and can be described by location, shape, boundaries, features and environmental and human characteristics. Places are unique in their characteristics and play a fundamental role in human life. They may be perceived, experienced, understood and valued differently. They range in size from a part of a room to a major world region. For Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Country/Place is important for its significance to culture, identity and spirituality.

In Years 7–10, students extend their focus beyond their own communities to a wider exploration of the world. Students explain how geographical processes influence the characteristics of places and how places are perceived and valued differently.	(
Insert the content descriptions from the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

(
Space

Spaces are defined by the location of environmental and human features, geographical phenomena and activities across the Earth’s surface to form distributions and patterns. Spaces are perceived, structured, organised and managed and can be designed and redesigned to achieve particular purposes. Space can be explored at different levels or scales.

In Years 7–10, students investigate the spatial distributions, patterns, trends and relationships among geographical phenomena over time. For example, students can investigate population patterns over time to determine how urban planning organises the spaces within cities or regions.
Environment

The environment is the product of geological, atmospheric, hydrological, geomorphic, edaphic (soil), biotic and human processes. The concept of environment is about the significance of the environment in human life, and the important interrelationships between humans and the environment. The environment supports and enriches human and other life by providing raw materials and food, absorbing and recycling wastes, maintaining a safe habitat and being a source of enjoyment and inspiration.

In Years 7–10, students focus on the significance of the environment and how different views of places and environments influence decisions about their management.
Scale

Scale refers to the different spatial levels used to investigate phenomena or represent phenomena visually (maps, images, graphs), from the personal to local, regional, national, world regional and global levels. Scale is also involved when geographers look for explanations or outcomes at different levels. Scale may be perceived differently by groups and can be used to elevate or diminish the significance of an issue, for example, a local issue or global issue.

In Years 7–10, students explore the interaction between geographical processes at the full range of scales, from local to global, and in a range of locations.
Interconnection

Interconnection is the way that people and/or geographical phenomena are connected to each other through environmental processes and human activity. Interconnections can be simple, complex, reciprocal or interdependent and have strong influence on the characteristics of places. An understanding of the concept of interconnection leads to holistic thinking. This helps students to understand Aboriginal peoples’ and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ holistic connection to Country/Place and the knowledge and practices that developed as a result of this connection.

In Years 7–10, students investigate how people, through their choices and actions, are connected to places throughout the world, and how these connections help to make and change places and their environments.
Sustainability

Sustainability addresses the ongoing capacity of the Earth to maintain all life. It is both a goal and a way of thinking about how to progress towards that goal. Sustainable patterns of living meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs (economic, social and environmental). Sustainability depends on the maintenance or restoration of the functions that sustain all life and human wellbeing.

In Years 7–10, students begin to focus on sustainability, which is a continuing theme and is progressively developed to become the major focus in Year 10.
Change

Change involves any alteration to the natural or cultural environment and can involve both time and space. The concept of change is about explaining geographical phenomena by investigating how they developed over time. Environmental change can occur over both short and long time frames, and have interrelationships with human activities. An understanding of the current processes of change can be used to predict change in the future and to identify what would be needed to achieve more sustainable futures.

In Years 7–10, students apply human–environment systems thinking to understand the causes and consequences of environmental change and the geographical concepts and methods used to evaluate and select strategies to manage the change.

Valued features: Those aspects of the content descriptions and achievement standard that are targeted in the assessment. The valued features for Geography are: Geographical knowledge and understanding, Questioning and researching, Interpreting and analysing, and Communicating.

Geographical understandings are derived from the content descriptions and achievement standards, and are supported by Geographical Inquiry and Skills. The Year level description provides information about the development of Geographical Understanding through the concepts. The definitions of geographical understandings are based on the glossary terms published in Australian Curriculum v5.0: Geography for Foundation-10, www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Geography/Curriculum/F-10.

4 | Year X [7–10] plan — Australian Curriculum: Geography

Queensland Studies Authority July 2013 | 1

Year X plan — Australian Curriculum: Geography template (Yrs 7–10)

Australian Curriculum

Queensland Studies Authority

2013-06-26

Queensland Studies Authority