Geography - Curriculum - Victorian Curriculum

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Levels 9 and 10

Levels 9 and 10 Description

In Levels 9 and 10, students consider changes in the characteristics of places and the implications of these. They consider significant spatial distributions and patterns and evaluate their implications, and consider interconnections between and within places and changes resulting from these, over time and at different scales. This further develops their understanding of geographical concepts...

Students’ conceptual thinking is developed through four sub-strands:

Biomes and food security
Environmental change and management
Geographies of interconnections
Geographies of human well-being

Biomes and food security focuses on investigating the role of the biotic environment and its role in food and fibre production. Students examine the biomes of the world, their alteration and significance as a source of food and fibre, and the environmental challenges and constraints on expanding food production in the future.

Environmental change and management focuses on investigating environmental geography. It begins with an overview of environmental change and the factors that influence it. Students investigate a specific environmental change in Australia and one other country. They examine the causes and consequences of the change and strategies to manage the change.

Geographies of interconnections focuses on investigating how people, through their choices and actions, are connected to places throughout the world in a wide variety of ways, and how these connections help to make and change places and their environments.

Geographies of human wellbeing focuses on investigating global, national and local differences in human wellbeing between places. Students examine the different concepts and measures of human wellbeing and spatial differences in wellbeing, and evaluate the differences from a variety of perspectives. They explore programs designed to reduce the gap between differences in wellbeing.

Key questions

What are the causes and consequences of change in places and environments?
What are the future implications of changes to places and environments and what management options exist for sustaining human and natural systems into the future?
Why are interconnections and interdependencies important for the future of places and environments?
How can the spatial variation between places and changes in environments be explained?

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Levels 9 and 10 Content Descriptions

Geographical Concepts and Skills

Place, space and interconnection Elaborations

Predict changes in the characteristics of places over time and identify the possible implications of change for the future (VCGGC127)
1. researching the potential of agricultural production in northern Australia
2. discussing the effects of people's cultural and leisure choices on towns and cities or heritage areas. For example, predicting how changing choices may affect these and other places in the future
3. evaluating the effects of international demand for food products on biodiversity throughout the world, in the places of their production
4. identifying trends in human wellbeing in countries over time
Identify, analyse and explain significant spatial distributions and patterns and identify and evaluate their implications, over time and at different scales (VCGGC128)
1. identifying and describing the major aquatic and terrestrial biomes of Australia and the world, and their spatial distribution
2. examining how information and communication technologies have made it possible for places in India and the Philippines, for example, to provide a range of global business services
3. proposing geographical management strategies for the environmental change being investigated, for example, establishing reserves and corridors to preserve biodiversity (a spatial strategy), ecosystem-based management (an environmental strategy), urban planning to reduce energy consumption (a spatial strategy), and addressing the underlying as well as immediate causes of environmental change (holistic thinking)
4. examining spatial data on human wellbeing in India to identify the regions with different levels of wellbeing, identifying patterns and debating explanations of the differences
Identify, analyse and explain significant interconnections within places and between places over time and at different scales, and evaluate the resulting changes and further consequences (VCGGC129)
1. evaluating the effects of international demand for food products on biodiversity throughout the world, in the places of their production
2. using the concept of a system to examine the interconnections between biophysical processes and the human actions, and their underlying causes, that generate environmental change, together with the consequences of these changes
3. identifying the biomes in Australia and overseas that produce some of the foods and plant material people consume and ways that the production of food and fibre has altered some biomes through, for example, vegetation clearance
4. examining how a person’s wellbeing is influenced by where they live, with reference to at least two different scales in a country of the Asia region
5. exploring how transport networks operate to connect people to services, including how supply chain logistics influence these connections

Data and information Elaborations

Collect and record relevant geographical data and information, using ethical protocols, from reliable and useful primary and secondary sources (VCGGC130)
1. gathering relevant data about challenges to food production or the effects of people’s travel, recreational, cultural or leisure choices on places from a range of primary sources such as from observation and annotated field sketches, conducting surveys and interviews and experiments, or taking photographs
2. collecting geographical information from secondary sources. For example, topographic, thematic, choropleth, and weather maps, climate graphs, compound column graphs and population pyramids, scatter plots, tables, satellite images and aerial photographs, reports, census data and the media
3. collecting quantitative and qualitative data using ethical research methods, including the use of protocols for consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
4. evaluating the reliability and usefulness of data and information by considering how and when it was collected, by whom and for what purpose, and comparing this to the purpose of the research
Select, organise and represent data and information in different forms, including by constructing special purpose maps that conform to cartographic conventions, using digital and spatial technologies as appropriate (VCGGC131)
1. creating a diagram to illustrate the flows of nutrients and energy within a biome, and the alterations to these flows produced by agriculture
2. developing a table to show the types of challenges to food production in Australia compared to other areas of the world, or the ways that places and people are interconnected through trade
3. using scatter plots of data for countries or smaller areas to investigate the relationship between two variables, such as per capita income and life expectancy for countries, and to identify anomalies
4. creating a map to show the relationship between biomes and world food production, using a spatial technologies application
5. constructing and interpreting choropleth maps to show patterns of human wellbeing at a local scale
Analyse and evaluate data, maps and other geographical information using digital and spatial technologies and Geographical Information Systems as appropriate, to develop identifications, descriptions, explanations and conclusions that use geographical terminology (VCGGC132)
1. constructing a graph to show the relationship between growth in world population and world food production
2. comparing maps showing transport networks with survey responses on personal mobility
3. analysing environmental change, such as the clearance of vegetation or a plan for a vegetation corridor, using topographic maps and satellite images
4. identifying the relevant layers of a Geographical Information System and using them to investigate how they can portray and analyse demographic, economic and environmental data, and investigating the use of GIS by organisations.
5. testing conclusions by considering alternative points of view about an area of investigation and providing a response using as organisers at least two of the concepts of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and change

Levels 9 and 10 Achievement Standard

By the end of Level 10, students predict changes in the characteristics of places over time and identify implications of change for the future. They identify, analyse, and explain significant spatial distributions and patterns and significant interconnections within and between places, and identify and evaluate their implications, over time and at different scales.

They evaluate alternative views on a geographical challenge and alternative strategies to address this challenge, using environmental, social and economic criteria, explaining the predicted outcomes and further consequences and drawing a reasoned conclusion.

They ethically collect relevant geographical data and information from reliable and useful sources. They select, organise and represent data and information in different forms, using appropriate digital and spatial technologies and through special purpose maps that conform to cartographic conventions. They analyse and evaluate geographical data, maps and information using digital and spatial technologies and Geographical Information Systems as appropriate to develop identifications, descriptions, explanations and conclusions that use geographical terminology.