Geography News

GEOGRAPHY NEWS

Sustainability and Fieldwork:

Key components that underpin the study of geography are sustainability (the intersection of social conditions, environmental quality, and economic activity), as well as ethical thinking. A big part of 10 Geography Big Picture is asking these ethical questions. As always, it’s so exciting to be able to get kids to explore aspects relating to the curriculum in person, hands on. The students were settled on the views that biodiversity conservation aims mainly to conserve organisms that co-inhabit earth, more so these days than in previous. This is because each organism is important even if we cannot derive direct economic benefits from them. You should consider choosing 10 Geo Big Picture for 2025 if you have an interest in exploring ethical questions and formulating solutions for a more sustainable future. It can lead to many relevant career opportunities such as wildlife management, environmental sciences, and conservation.

Thank you to Andrew Nyhuis and Alex O’Brien for all of the organisation and assistance in making the fieldwork possible!!

Irene Thomas, 10 Geography – Big Picture

As part of their fieldwork, students visit the Melbourne Aquarium to explore these key ideas. 

SEA LIFE MELBOURNE AQUARIUM is one of the most remarkable places I've ever visited. On May 22nd, our year 10 Geography Big Picture class went there for a field trip to study more about aquariums and their pros and cons. Despite the cloudy weather, we had a great time exploring. We saw many different species of fish, sharks, penguins, and other marine creatures. This trip helped us complete our booklet about SEA LIFE AQUARIUM and allowed us to survey the staff and visitors for our report. Our primary goal was to gather information to answer the question: Should the animals at Sea Life Melbourne be in the wild or are the programs in the aquarium such as breeding, rescuing, and protecting truly helpful? We carefully observed each species and considered how SEA LIFE is helping and what we can do to assist creatures in the wild. Overall, it was an amazing experience, and I enjoyed seeing all the unique creatures in the Aquarium.

Year 9 Geography

We kept the trend of sustainability going, where Year 9s got to complete a within-school fieldwork, focused on evaluating waste management strategies and proposing solutions. It was great as it had links to world environment day, particular combating land degradation (which waste can cause).  This links to their final Geography topic ‘Geographies of Interconnection’. We hope all of you kids have been inspired, and that we get to see you again next year in Geography Big Picture or Geography in Action!! 😊

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

Competition Winners

The special day for the environment was finally celebrated at VSC. There were many activities in the works through the Geography Department. First were the two competitions, to enter a photo of a natural landscape or design a drought resilient city. It was a difficult process to choose the winners, with there being over 80 submissions. Thank you to the help of Andrew Nyhuis, Kerri-lyn Simpson and Donald Hew that helped with the selection process. We were able to narrow it down to six winners for the photos and two winners for the city design. Five of the winners made it down to the World Environment lunchtime activities to receive their prizes. We are so proud of their creative efforts!!

Hayley C 

Benjamin K 

James L 

Yau C 

Kira N 

Jitho J 

Adhithi H  

Anay C 

Lunchtime Activities

There was a booklet competition, yummy geography themed snacks, and a sustainable paper plate design station – could it be anymore geographical? We didn’t anticipate how many students would show up! It was great to see that there is concern relating to the quality of the environment and positive mindsets involved with ensuring it continues. Thank you so much to Andrew Nyhuis and Jessie Muirden for running the activities – it would not have been possible without you!!

Links with other clubs and within subject areas

The final assessment task for the semester in Geography in Action involved discussing the impacts, management strategies, and ecosystem services within different forests around the world. Comparisons were then drawn to the fieldwork forest location, Dandenong ranges. Linking with world environment day of suggesting improvements to the world, the students wanted to share their findings on different forests in a conference style, where they could ask meaningful questions through critical thinking.

And that’s all for Geography news in this issue. Until next time - bye!