Geography

Out on the Town Fieldwork

On Monday the 29th of May, around 40 VSC Year 9’s headed to the city with Mr. Calwell and Ms. Muirden for their City Fieldwork. Students have been studying the concepts of liveability and sustainability, and we travelled to the city to investigate how the sustainable and cultural sites of Melbourne’s CBD contributed to the liveability of the city.  Students collected data at Birrarung Marr, surveyed locals at Melbourne Central, and completed a walking tour around the CBD looking at examples of sustainable architecture. All in all, students had a great day out, and should be commended on their fantastic behaviour and mature approach to the fieldwork. Well done all!

Year 10

On the 2nd of June, the Year 10 Geography Big Picture class travelled to SEA LIFE Melbourne to investigate the ethics of aquariums. Over the last few weeks, students have been exploring the positives and negatives of keeping animals in captivity, with a special focus on marine animals. The class began their day observing the collection of Rays and Reef Sharks, before travelling through the depths of the ocean and taking notes on the various animals along the way. Highlights included the ‘Croc Lair’ where students came face to face with a monster 5.5 meter crocodile, and the ‘Penguin Playground’ which gave students an opportunity to see penguins all the way from Antarctica. Whilst it was an invaluable opportunity to see sea creatures up close, students’ empathic side was tested, with many left wondering if it was fair to keep such majestic animals in enclosures for human entertainment.

The studies into the conundrum of whether or not animals should be left in the wild caps off an exciting and information elective unit for the Year 10s. The unit began with looking into the rise of Megacities around the globe, which led into the next area of study of global poverty and gender inequality. Term 2 focused on wellbeing, both of humans with our case study on the Pacific Islands, and finally the wellbeing of animals. 

Ms Muirden