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Dates for consultation on the new draft syllabus for Senior Geography have recently been announced. To find about about the dates click to see the Geography and Geography Life Skills Stage 6 Draft Syllabus Consultation page.
There are several documents worth reviewing prior to consultation sessions: - The Geography and Geography Life Skills Stage 6 syllabus review (released 2018) - Geography and Geography Life Skills Stage 6 Draft Directions for Syllabus Development (released for the consultation period July-September 2018) - Feedback from GTANSW and ACT Draft Directions At this stage four different options for course structure have been provided by NESA for review and consultation. The new syllabus draft that will be released just prior to the consultation meetings (22 July) is likely to be based on one of these models. Preliminary course All Preliminary options provided included a topic on The Nature of Geography, a Geographical Investigation and a Global Transformations topic. This last topic may be drawn from the Australian Curriculum and can be found at the Australian Curriculum (Global Transformations) page. Two of the proposed course structure options included Natural and Ecological Hazards, likely drawn from the Australian Curriculum (Natural and Ecological Hazards) topic. One option included Biophysical Interactions, likely drawn from the existing Stage 6 syllabus. One option includes a topic Physical Environments and Natural Hazards, possibly a melding of the existing Biophysical Interactions topic and the Australian Curriculum Natural and Ecological Hazards. HSC course Sustainable Places looks certain to be included in the HSC course, being in each of the 4 proposed options. This is one of the Australian Curriculum topics and the national version of the topic can be found on the Australian Curriculum (Sustainable Places) site. The Ecosystems at Risk topic has been retained in all four options, but in Option 4 to a lesser extent. Until the draft syllabus is released we won't know how much of the actual topic is likely to be changed or retained. Population Change is a topic in two of the proposed course structure options. The topics Human and Ecological Change, People and Economic Integration and Landcover transformation are each found in one option. It is possible that these will draw on the Australian curriculum topic Australian Curriculum (Landcover Transformation), or the existing People and Economy Activity topic. Overview - What we know so far... Preliminary course 3 topics and an investigation: - Nature of Geography - Global Transformations - One topic still to be announced - possibly some combination of Biophysical Interactions and Ecological Hazards or one or the other. - Geographical Investigation HSC course 3 (possibly 4) topics: - Sustainable Places - Ecosystems at Risk (but may be a shorter version of the current topic) - One topic (or possibly two) still to be announced. There are a few different options as to what this topic will be. This is the first time there has been change in the Senior Geography syllabus in NSW for many years. It is important that as many people get involved in the consultation sessions as possible. Make sure you attend and have your say.
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Great White Bear Tours uses custom built all terrain vehicles called Tundra Buggies. These allow unique access to the tundra environment around Churchill providing opportunities for viewing of a range of wildlife such as polar bears, arctic foxes, caribou and migratory birds. They operate tours in Spring, Summer and Autumn, and tours vary according to the seasons. In Spring they offer tours to see the Northern Lights (Aurora borealis), in Summer they operate bird watching and wildlife viewing tours and in Autumn/Fall they run Polar bear viewing tours. The company offer both one-day tours and multi-day tours. Visitors can choose to stay at the White Bear Tundra Lodge for multi-day trips. This is a custom-designed rolling hotel to enhance wildlife viewing opportunities. The lodge consists of five large units linked together - two sleeping units with shared sleeping quarters, bathroom and showers, and separate lounge, dining and kitchen facilities. The map below indicates the location of the White Bear Tundra Lodge in relation to Churchill. Examine the case study in more detail on the 12 Geography People and Economic Activity site: Nature of the economic enterprise Locational factors Ecological dimensions Internal and external linkages Effects of global changes  Is Great White Bear Tours a local case study? The NSW Stage 6 Geography syllabus requires students to examine a local case study for the People and Economic Activity topic. Depending on the economic activity studied, common case studies are local vineyards, hotels, chocolatiers. The syllabus states, "a geographical study of an economic enterprise operating at a local scale." It does not specify that it has to be in Australia, or local to you/your school. While Great White Bear Tours is not "local" to anyone studying the NSW syllabus, it can be viewed as "local" in the sense that it operates within its local area (the tours run in a relatively small geographical area, in the immediate vicinity of the business site). Let's have a look at the references to the local case study in the syllabus... There are two uses of the the word local when referring to the case study in the content section of the syllabus. In the first example it refers to the case study operating at a local level. It does not specify that it needs to be local to you or your school. Below: Screen shot from the NSW Stage 6 syllabus (Content)  It is referred to again later in the content section where it refers to an enterprise operating at a local scale. Again there is no reference to it being local to you or your school. Below: Screen shot from the NSW Stage 6 syllabus (Content)  What about fieldwork? Fieldwork is an integral part of geographical inquiry and learning. It is a common practice for classes to do their fieldwork on their economic enterprise, particularly if they have chosen a case study close to the school. However, while it is common practice, it is not mandated. If we look what is mandated, the syllabus states that students need to identify methods such as "collecting and analysing field data about economic activity. Note that it doesn't state that the fieldwork has to be based on the economic enterprise (the local case study). In this way a class could conduct fieldwork on Tourism in general, but not their economic enterprise and still meet requirements. There are also many opportunities to conduct virtual fieldwork.   Explore some fieldwork options on the Year 12 Geography, People and Economic Activity site:
Fieldwork: Hudson Bay This post was originally written in January 2017, and edited in March 2018. This is part of a unit of work for Changing Places - Australia's Urban Future. Lesson 1: Australia's Projected Population Growth Lesson 2: Implications for Future Growth and Sustainability Lesson 3: Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Precinct Lesson 4: WestConnex - Sydney, Sustainability and Transport Lesson 4: Sydney Sustainability and Transport (Teacher's Notes) Lesson 5: The GreenWay Lesson 5: Deindustrialisation Lesson 6: Create an infographic Lesson 7: Contributing to a Sustainable Urban Future Lesson 7: WestConnex - Protest Movements and Impacts Lesson 7: Conflict Over Dulwich Hill OR See the complete unit on the Changing Places website. Changing Places (Year 9) The Changing Places topic requires students to explain processes and influences that form and transform places and environments (GE5-2) and to assess management strategies for places and environments for their sustainability (GE5-5). The topic requires students to examine urbanisation, the impact of migration and strategies to address change in urban places and how they enhance sustainability. As a part of examining the causes and consequences of urbanisation, students will have investigated spatial distribution patterns of urbanisation (for example the influence of transport corridors), and the social, economic and environmental consequences of urbanisation (this could include traffic congestion, costs of tolls or costs of constructing new infrastructure, average times people spend commuting to work, the impact of car exhaust on air quality). In examining urban settlement patterns students will specifically address the impact of transportation networks in Australian and another country to explain differences in urban concentrations. While there is scope to deal with a range of issues and influences related to urbanisation and urban settlement, there is certainly an opportunity to develop a unit of work that develops students’ understanding in car dependence, traffic congestion, public transport, road networks, etc. to lead them to be able to examine this issue of the WestConnex development from a range of perspectives and with detailed background knowledge. In the last part of the Changing Places topic students investigate the management and planning of Australia’s urban future, including Australia’s population projections, implications for growth and sustainability, strategies to create sustainable urban places and ways for individuals and groups to become involved. WestConnex provides a great case study to examine this. Obviously you need to address the points at the national scale, but the WestConnex project impacts on such a large are of Sydney that you might find that many of your students are already engaged with (or at least aware of) the project in some way. Urban Places/ Urban Dynamics (Year 12) If you choose to do Sydney as a large city case study for Urban Places the WestConnex project could also tie into the - growth, development, future trends and ecological sustainability dot point.  This is part of a unit of work for Changing Places - Australia's Urban Future. Lesson 1: Australia's Projected Population Growth Lesson 2: Implications for Future Growth and Sustainability Lesson 3: Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Precinct Lesson 4: WestConnex - Sydney, Sustainability and Transport Lesson 4: Sydney Sustainability and Transport (Teacher's Notes) Lesson 5: The GreenWay Lesson 5: Deindustrialisation Lesson 6: Create an infographic Lesson 7: Contributing to a Sustainable Urban Future Lesson 7: WestConnex - Protest Movements and Impacts Lesson 7: Conflict Over Dulwich Hill OR See the complete unit on the Changing Places website. Background: WestConnex overview M4-M5 Link Concept Design To bring Sydney together, WestConnex tears suburbs apart The development and construction of WestConnex has impacted and changed places. Large sections in the vicinity of Parramatta Rd in Ashfield and Concord and the western part of the suburb of Haberfield have been demolished to make way for the road development. You can read more about this here - West Connex's collision course into communities or in my previous posts. Impact at St Peters, Alexandria and Newtown Stage 2 of the WestConnex project involves the construction of a tunnel between St Peters and Kingsgrove. The King Street Gateway and the Campbell Road Green link are changing the nature of St Peters, Alexandria and Newtown. View the St Peters Overview. Links: Changes to St Peters can be seen in the link below. Sydney's WestConnex changes the face of St Peters - in pictures Information about the construction at St Peters can be found in the following article: WestConnex inflicts non-stop construction on St Peters for the next 3 weekends.  The M4-M5 link tunnels will run underneath Newtown. Many Newtown business owners have begun protesting the development, worried that congestion and bottlenecks will negatively impact retail businesses, or alternatively that clearways along King St will kill business. The Newtown WestConnex Action Group has been formed. In Alexandria a new bridge is being constructed over the canal to allow movement of traffic from the St Peters interchange.
Links: Six tunnels will be built under Andre's house in Lorde St Newtown. "Write an email": Sydney residents get no more answers as WestConnex hits Alexandria. Official: WestConnex allowed to flout environmental laws. There is a huge amount of information available about coral reef health and in particular the mass coral bleaching events that have occurred over the past two years. Two of my previous posts are linked below, but if you scroll to the bottom of the page there are a range of other articles, reports and websites regarding coral bleaching that you might find useful.
Previous posts: Mass coral bleaching events Coral bleaching - reef resilience Students should define the following key terms: - acclimatise - connectivity - recruit - adaptation - natural selection - symbiotic - zoozanthallae - parasite - photosynthesis Answer the questions below. Conduct internet research to find articles and reports which support your answers.
Resources: Coral bleaching - GBRMPA Coral bleaching and the Great Barrier Reef - ARC CoE Coral bleaching: Extreme heat pushes parts of the Great Barrier Reef beyond recovery - ABC Coral bleaching events - AIMS Great Barrier Reef: a "hopping hotspot" - Australian Geographic
The changes in temperature and associated bleaching are resulting in a different mix of species on the reef. This will impact reefs in the long term. Loss of species Fish, whales, dolphins, sharks, rays and the many other organisms found in reefs rely on the complexity of the ecosystem for survival. Some fish rely on the colour of the corals for camoflauge and the structure of the coral for hiding. Many organisms are unable to carry out normal functions and processes as a result of the increased ocean acidification associated with climate change. Shellfish are less able to create their shells due to increased pH. Slow growing corals will take 100-200 years to recover, meaning that the reef will not exist in the form that we have known it in the past. Dispersal of spawn Ocean warming impacts on the dispersal or coral spawn (eggs). Increased ocean temperatures result in a decline in the dispersal distance of coral spawn from the origin (parent coral) to the destination site. This change in dispersal patterns can impact on species' distribution, abundance or corals in particular areas and genetic diversity across reefs. Changes to dispersal patterns can also impact on the connectivity (interconnections) between different areas of the reef by limiting the areas of reef that particular coral species are located. Poleward shift of species Ocean warming can also result in a poleward shift of species from tropical zones to more temperate zones. Warmer waters are found further from the tropics and species are able to take advantage by increasing their range. In Western Australia, a species of wrasse - cheorodon rebuscens has started to shift its range with displacement of recruits south of its usual habitat. There is evidence of high recruitment at the temperate edge and no recruitment at the tropical edge. The range shift provides limited expansion opportunities, reducing resilience of the species. Irukandji are migrating further south on the Great Barrier Reef as a result of warmer waters and are also having longer seasons in other areas. There have been anecdotal reports of increases in reports of stinging and hospitalisations on islands within the Great Barrier Reef (e.g Fitzroy Island) and snorkellers are being strongly advised to wear stinger suits outside of usual peak Irukandji seasons. Irukandji and associated stingings have also been reported on western side of the southern tip of Frazer Island where they haven't previously been found. Symbiotic relationships Following bleaching events or even natural disasters, corals can become overgrown with algae, making it difficult for coral recruits to settle and grow. The mix species on a reef can impact on how resilient that particular reefs is. For example in Moorea in French Polynesia experienced high coral mortality in the 1980s. Recovery of the reef was enabled in part as a result of grazing fish such as parrot fish removing some of the algae in the process of eating corals. In this way the biodiversity of the reef contributed to high levels of resilience on the reef in comparison to some other reefs globally. The scale of the bleaching on GBR make it unlikely that these types of natural processes will have much of an impact on recovery. Below: A parrot fish on the outer reef, 2015.   I had the pleasure of hearing Professor Terry Hughes present as part of the Sydney Ideas talks being run by the University of Sydney. Professor Hughes is Centre Director at the ARC Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. I use the term "pleasure" because I am a big fan of his work, and think that some of the visual representations that he has created have been incredibly powerful in explaining coral bleaching to students, but actually the information presented was really quite depressing. Image left: Photograph of bleached corals at Fitzroy Island April 2017. Hughes described some of the main drivers of degradation of coral reefs: pollution, overfishing and climate change. He explained how overfishing had resulted in the reduction of stock sizes for different species in the past century, how pollution from inland activities resulted in coral mortalities and encroachment of different ecosystems like mudflats in areas previously thriving with corals. He went on to say that the scale and extent of these changes were being dwarfed by the immediate and irreparable changes being wrought by back to back bleaching events. Below right: Bleached coral on Fitzroy Island April 2017.
Mass bleaching events have occurred in both 2016 and 2017 as a result of increased ocean temperatures. The bleaching is as a result of corals expelling their symbiotic algae. Coral bleaching tends to occur after the summer temperature maximum, and relates to where the hottest water is. In 2016 coral bleaching severely bleached the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef, the middle section was bleached to a lesser extent, but still quite severely, while the bottom third of the reef largely escaped bleaching in 2016. This was established by the surveying of 1160 reefs through 9000km of aerial surveys, and 75 hours of flying. The 2017 bleaching event impacted the central section of the GBR, while the bottom third is again largely unbleached. Cycle Debbie, a chance weather event, lowered temperatures in the southern part of the reef, which contributed to reducing bleaching in this section. The combination of both the 2016 and 2017 bleaching events has been extremely damaging. There have been reports that the recent cyclone that affected Queensland, Cyclone Debbie may play a role in reducing the impact of coral bleaching. It was reported in the Cairns Post that the cyclone would reduce ocean temperatures, bring cooler waters to the surface and increase cloud cover, thus reducing bleaching, providing stressed corals with an opportunity to recover. The Cairns Post reported that temperatures off Lizard Island had dropped by three degrees and that this would reduce the severity of bleaching. It also provided quotes from a free diver describing the amazing colours and marine life of the outer reef. In reality, as already stated Lizard Island and the top third of the Great Barrier Reef were already severely affected by bleaching in 2016 (well before Cyclone Debbie) and were again affected in 2017. In any case, the path of the cyclone was too far south to have any real impact on areas severely affected by bleaching. Will the Great Barrier Reef recover? There is a narrow opportunity for limited recovery, but the Great Barrier Reef as we know it (complexity, extent, etc) is already dead in many areas. It will continue to exist but with reduced biodiversity. Any real opportunities to protect the reef as it remains is reliant on halting temperature increases and stabilising the climate through reducing reliance on fossil fuels. With negotiations underway between the Australian Government and Adani for for the creation of the Marmichael mines this seems highly unlikely. For more detail on coral bleaching see my article in this term's GTA NSW HSC edition of the Bulletin. http://www.gtansw.org.au Symbiotic relationships Symbiosis is a long term relationship between two organisms. There are three types of symbiotic relationship: mutualism (where both organisms benefit), commensalism (where one species benefits, but there is no benefit or harm to the other species), and parasitism (where one organism benefits tot he detriment of the other). There are many examples of symbiosis on coral reefs. Corals and zoozanthallae The relationship between the corals and the zoozanthallae is beneficial to both. Corals provide the zoozanthallae with an environment suitable for survival. It is moist and the coral's waste gives energy to the zoozanthallae. Through the process of photosynthesis the zoozanthallae produce compounds that the coral use for food. Clownfish and Sea Anemones The Sea Anemones have tentacles with stinging cells. These stinging cells kill many organisms and it is in this way the anemones get their food. Clownfish hide in amongst the tentacles of the Sea Anemone, but are not harmed by them. In this way the clownfish are protected from other predators. Occasionally the Clownfish will catch food for the Sea Anemone. Sharks and Remoras Sharks sometimes get parasites which live on the external surface of the shark. Remoras are cleaner fish, and they attach themselves to the shark and kill the parasites. When the shark feeds the Remora are able to eat the scraps from the feed. Watch the videos below, and take notes about the following symbiotic relationships: - Christmas tree worms and porites corals - Coral shrimps and corals - Goby shrimp and Hawaiian Shrimp Goby - Cleaner Wrasse and cleaning stations •Coral Reefs support a large number of plants and animals. •Coral Reefs are built by millions of tiny animals called polyps. •Some coral polyp species receive more than 60% of their food from algae. •Each coral colony begins life as a single polyp, which then reproduces itself as a single polyp, which then reproduces itself by budding or by dividing. Types of coral reefs There are eight main categories of corals: branching, corals with meandering ridges and valleys, massive or thick colonies, thin plates and crusts, solitary/isolated/free-living corals, coral with large, daytime expanded polyps, column corals and blue/fir/organ pipe/lace corals. Some examples of coral are found below:
Where are coral reefs found? Special conditions are needed for reef-building corals. Coral reefs will only grow in waters warmer than 18oC, and no deeper than 50metres. Therefore coral reefs are limited to clear, shallow tropical seas found either side of the equator. Corals may not develop properly in waters that receive freshwater runoff or sediments from rivers. |
Louise SwansonDeputy Principal at a Sydney high school. Coordinating author of the new Geoactive book series. 
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