Year 10 Geography
The focus in Year 10 Geography this semester has been the impact of human activities on the natural environment. Some of these impacts have been at a global scale, such as climate change, while others have been at a much smaller scale. Hampton Beach on Port Phillip is an example of a local environment that has undergone great changes due to the impacts of human activities. Some of these changes have been accidental while others have been intentional. The two Year 10 Geography classes visited the beach on 15 March for a first-hand look at these impacts. They photographed, sketched, measured, estimated and mapped the coastal environment in order to answer the research question ‘how have human activities impacted on the natural environment?’
This is the great advantage of field work in Geography: the way in which skills and concepts learnt in the classroom are then applied to a specific environment in order to better understand our world. These students have visited a variety of environments as part of their studies of Geography from the eroding limestone cliffs of Victoria’s south-west coast to the Daintree rainforest and Fitzroy Island in Far North Queensland and now closer to home, the beaches of Port Phillip Bay. These experiences help to cement understanding and to help our students become better informed citizens, aware of change occurring all around them.
Mr Mark Easton
Geography teacher