GEOGRAPHY
AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHY COMPETITION RESULTS 2018
Geography is an increasingly important subject in today’s world. Most of the world’s pressing issues relate to geography - understanding how the world’s population is changing, providing food, water and resources to the world’s people, knowing how the world has been before and being able to predict how future changes might affect us, understanding different ecosystems and how to manage and protect them. These are all geography!
McKinnon’s brightest and most capable students tested their geographical knowledge and skills against students from all around Australia. Our school had 69 participants with 48% of students demonstrating results of credit or above, highlighting the strong tradition of geography at McKinnon!!
Of our students:
26% received a Credit
11% received a Distinction
10% received a High Distinction
Distinction
Year 8: Arjun Jivanjee
Year 10: Emma Langley, Emily Mardjetko, Eleanor Harvey-Jones, Samantha Toler & Vivian Wu
Year 11: Larry Gao & Hannah St John
High Distinctions
Year 9: Karleen Han
Year 10: Callan Newell & John Baldwin
Year 11: Yonghan Wang & Ben Howells
Top 1% of the state:
Year 12: Joshua Lam
Top 1% of the state and Year 11 state winner
Year 11: Stefan Simic
Stefan can be seen in the photos with his award which he received at the Geography Teachers Annual Conference on the Sunday 26 August.
To some of you, geography may not seem important, but one day you’ll realise it really is! We only have one planet after all!
Margaret Bourke
Head of Geography
YEAR 8D & L FIELDWORK: URBAN REDEVELOPMENT
Year 8 Geography students braved the cold winter chill to explore two of Melbourne’s more luxurious residential redevelopments. The purpose of the trip was to introduce the students to two modern yet very different redevelopments so they can use what they saw to redevelop their own site east of the Bolte Bridge, South Bank of the Yarra.
Beacon Cove Port Melbourne was the first location where students felt they were in Miami with stylish modern townhouses and hi rise apartments overlooking Hobsons Bay. From here they went to the Mirvac redevelopment known as Yarra’s Edge. Students were quick to pick up on the theme behind the architecture of the townhouses and the names of the streets: shipping containers and the docks. Modern design was everywhere with students being very excited by the grassed roofed building and the rope adventure playground.
All in all it was an excellent day with students eager to put what they saw into their own redevelopment site back in the classroom.
Margaret Bourke
Head of Geography
YEAR 7 FIELDWORK AT THE POO FARM!
Year 7B Geography students spent a day at the Werribee Treatment Plant learning about where our sewage goes, how it is treated in a natural 10 pond system and how we can make our cities water smart.
Students completed a bus tour of the treatment site learning that the bacteria that breaks down the sewage actually comes from our own gut! The process is totally natural with all power generated by the capture of methane in the treatment process. The end product, Class C water, eventually makes its way into Port Phillip Bay and also the many wetland ponds that are present at the plant.
A giant jigsaw of the Yarra river catchment was the students’ next activity working in small groups to put it together. Here students learnt about how important it is to look after our rivers and waterways and avoid polluting them.
Finally, the students used a large model of a river valley and noted what happened to the amount of runoff going into the ‘sea’ under different scenarios. Firstly a natural landscape, then they built a lego city covering the natural landscape and finally a water smart city which had a range of strategies to reduce runoff such as rain gardens and porous pavement.
The day was a great success made even more pleasant as the stink of sewage that they were all expecting was fortunately not present!
Margaret Bourke
Head of Geography