Geography / Year 8 / Geographical Inquiry and Skills / Observing, questioning and planning

Curriculum content descriptions

Develop geographically significant questions and plan an inquiry using appropriate geographical methodologies and concepts (ACHGS055)

Elaborations
  • developing questions on an area of focus in the geographical knowledge and understanding strand (for example, about types of landforms or reasons for urban settlements)
  • developing questions about the significance of a spatial distribution (for example, the positive and negative effects of the spatial concentration of population in Australia)
  • planning an investigation of the processes responsible for the geographical phenomenon being studied, at a range of scales (for example, the causes and consequences of urbanisation)
  • using a range of methods including digital technologies to plan and conduct an information search about reasons for and effects of internal migration in Australia
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
ScOT terms

Experiments,  Research questions,  Data collection,  Human settlements,  Geographic location

Interactive

Waste and materials – sustainability action process (Years 7–10)

This resource guides students through an extended school-based or local investigation focussed on waste and materials using the five-step sustainability action process. The resource supports the investigation of a real-world issue or problem. Students develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate ...

Interactive

Water use and efficiency – sustainability action process (Years 7–10)

This resource guides students through an extended school-based or local investigation focussed on water use and efficiency using the five step sustainability action process. The resource supports the investigation of a real-world issue or problem. Students develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate ...

Interactive

Biodiversity – sustainability action process (Years 7–10)

This biodiversity learning resource guides students through an extended school based investigation. Students develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate and reflect on their success and their learning.

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Teaching controversial issues

This guide explores the nature of controversial issues, reasons for teaching controversial issues and the value of a global citizenship education approach. It provides guidance and classroom strategies for handling and exploring controversial issues, and also engaging with the topic of “fake news”.

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SDG Lesson Plans for New Zealand Teachers

This book aims to provide teachers with practical activities to fuel classroom engagement and discussion about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each lesson plan focusses on an important theme inherent in the SDGs (“Sustainable food”, “Cities”, “Women and equality” etc.) and provides multiple activities ...

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Sustainable Foundations: A guide to teaching the Sustainable Development Goals

This extensive guide drills down into each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and includes useful links and examples of action for each Goal.

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The World’s Largest Lesson!

This resource promotes use of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in learning. Find lesson ideas, videos and posters that explore each of the SDGs in detail.

Downloadable

How Urban Places Take Shape - Year 8

This resource introduces students to the built environment and how human decisions shape place, population change and urban systems. It explores how Australia’s urban places are planned and designed, how they function as interconnected systems, and why decisions about land use, movement and public space matter. Students ...

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Investigating Australian approaches to producing fish, seafood and meat

This is a unit of work about the Australian fish, seafood and meat industries. It has a particular focus on farming practices, processing methods and how food is brought to customers. The resource explores: where meat, seafood and fish come from; past, present and future farming and production systems; and a range of related ...

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Investigating key Australian fibre production practices in the cotton, timber and wool sectors

This is a unit of work about how cotton, timber and wool are produced, processed and brought to customers in Australia. It explores: where cotton, timber and wool comes from; past, present and future production systems; and a range of other related topics including land management, water management, waste management, revegetation, ...

Video

Catalyst: How will fire change the climate?

Considering the impact of a changing climate on the severity and frequency of fires is one thing, but how about the impact of fires on climate? Why does Professor David Bowman describe this scenario as a 'fire spiral'? What are the consequences of a world with fewer forests? As Professor Craig Allen explains, drought and ...

Video

The Traditional Owners of Perth: Whadjuk country

Ever wondered what life was like for the traditional owners of Perth before the British arrived in 1829? Whadjuk [pronounced wod-JUK] Noongar Elder and ambassador Dr Noel Nannup talks about traditional Whadjuk ways of life and key cultural places in Perth, and he teaches us the Noongar words for some Perth suburbs (such ...

Interactive

Laptop wrap – improving liveability

A page with a focus on using geographical data to plan for future community needs, with supporting activities and links to resources.

Video

Foreign Correspondent: The Mekong: A damming example

The government of Laos has plans for many revenue-raising dams along the Mekong River. Find out about a dam, the Nam Theun 2, which was completed in 2010 and lies across the Nam Theun river in the Nakai Plateau. This clip from the same year asks if the dam could be the flagship for others to be built along the Mekong. Discover ...

Video

Foreign Correspondent: Sustainable tourism

The Yucatán Peninsula in south-eastern Mexico is a popular tourist destination. This clip focuses on examples of sustainable tourism - tourism that aims to have a low environmental impact. View Tulum, a town under threat of being developed similarly to Cancún, a major tourist resort destination.

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Foreign Correspondent: Damming the free and mighty Mekong

The Mekong has been a rare thing: a largely untouched and free-flowing river. Stretching for nearly 5,000 km from the mountains of Tibet to Vietnam's Mekong Delta, it has provided a way of life for millions of people and been an important trading route between south-western China and south-eastern Asia. In this clip from ...

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BTN: China's internal migration

For decades China has experienced a mass migration of people from rural to urban areas. This large-scale movement of people is putting pressure on the resources and facilities of cities such as Shanghai. Watch this clip, first broadcast in 1993, to find out the reasons for China's internal migration and the challenges it ...

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Foreign Correspondent: Spawning dams, not fish, on the Mekong?

The Mekong is the largest freshwater fishery in the world; however, this may be about to change. Discover in this 2010 clip how migration of fish species along the lower Mekong may be impeded by the proposed construction of dams along this mighty river. Do the economic benefits of the dam outweigh the potential loss of ...

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The Conversation: agriculture

This resource consists of a multitude of news articles and analytical pieces under the topic of agriculture. Eight articles address the many challenges of world food security, five explore the impact of predicted water and phosphorus shortages on crop yields and one article analyses the broader impact of organic farming ...

Video

ABC News: Getting your facts straight about water use

We hear a lot about water use in Australia. What are the real statistics about water use? What is the breakdown of water use for different groups across Australia? Watch this clip to find out who uses water and how much, and consider the value of water and the 'return' on this use for the Australian economy. The figures ...