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ESS441 - Environmental Science and Society: Curriculum Study Assignment Two: Curriculum Development Task Education and environmental issues are not to be thought of as mutually exclusive of each other, as todays students are tomorrows adults, who are, influenced daily on environmental issues at hand in their homes and their potential place of work. Thus, progress in environmental education in Australia has been made through curriculum development, sustainability projects, and the enthusiasm of teachers, parents and the community (Karena, 2010). This notion of intergrading environmental education into school curriculum can be seen in Appendix 1. Table 1 of this document includes the integration of environmental education, while applying a social-critical approach to students learning. The social-critical school regards itself as a community, within a community. Its boundaries with its local community are open and freely crossed. Its boundary of its concerns with the concerns of its society and culture are similarly open (Kemmis et al. 1983). Thus, Kemmis proposes that the socially-critical school is a learning community; its purpose is education and it conceives its educational role as both individual and social: individually it aims to liberate authentic insight and understanding in each member of its community, socially it aims to strengthen the development of common language for the orientation of common action. Using a social-critical approach to teaching, whilst intergrading a variety of media, information and communication technologies, and an out-of-school context in the form of an excursion to the locally accessible Mullum Mullum Park, Table 1 shows the curriculum with an added focus on environmental education. The altered curriculum is based around 3 weeks consisting of 10 lessons. In this activity, students are to investigate an issue within the local community. The issue we are studying is Eastlink, as it is close to where a number of students live and will affect all of the students in some way. Students

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will partake in an excursion run at local Mullum Mullum Park, which aims to increase student awareness and understanding, hoping to make sense to students because they can see it. This excursion should allow students to make the link, that everything new being developed on a local scale affects industries, workers and the surrounding environment at different levels. Key knowledge of this unit includes: - Recording the history of the development of Eastlink - Noting the infrastructure, the characteristics and the costing - Looking at the issue of tolling - Study the environmental impacts (Mullum Mullum Creek) - Understanding how Eastlink will effect the local community eg; residents, shops, industries, transport and the environment - Understanding the views of different groups within society eg; Liberal party, Labor party, councils and greens - Mapping knowledge of the local area - Make links between how Eastlink affects Mullum Mullum Park Key skills of this unit include the ability for students to: - Navigate a web site to answer questions - Understand other points of view - Analysing data - Interpreting data - Decision making - Map drawing Table 1: Altered Year 9 Geography Curriculum Unit 2 (including progression points) Week Weekly tasks Relation to Geography Progression point 5.25 Geographic knowledge and understanding:

Week 1

Background information

Taking notes and discussion on the background and

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Week 2 Mapping Task and political views -

Week 3 Excursion and assessment task -

infrastructure of Eastlink. Task on school intranet to be done on the computers using: www.seita.com.au. Look at how Eastlink affects different people eg; shop owner at Eastland who is a resident in East Ringwood, factory worker in Ferntree Gully who lives in Dandenong, and places eg; Mullum Mullum Park. Look at other local issues from the local papers. Using black and white copies of the Melways, show where Eastlink is, its interchanges, connecting suburbs and land use around it. Students create their own legends to show all this data work in groups. Articles explaining the views of labor/ liberal/ greens and councils. Read articles and answer the questions set. Excursion in double lesson to Mullum Mullum Park where students will see Mullum Mullum Creek and are expected to fill out a Mullum Mullum Park worksheet on the park. Work on additional activities on the Mullum Mullum Park worksheet.

Identification of local and global issues arising from the interaction of natural processes and human activity.

Geospatial skills: identification of information and patterns from a range of geographical data, with incorporation of spatial concepts in descriptions and explanations. Geospatial skills: collection, collation, presentation and interpretation of fieldwork data to explain a geographical situation.

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Table 2 shows how unit 2 of the altered geography curriculum relates to the appropriate Victoria Essential Learning Standards (VELS). Table 2: Relation of altered Year 9 Geography Curriculum to VELS Strand Disciplinebased Learning Domain Humanities Geography Dimension Geographical knowledge and understanding Key elements of standards Students investigate the interaction of human activities with the natural environment through a study of issues such as global warming and climate change and energy use. Students develop skills to evaluate the factors contributing to the development of these issues, identify strategies to address them and explore ways of managing them. Students investigate the characteristics of development that occur across the globe. They use an inquiry-based approach to explore how combinations of various physical and human factors interact to produce observable and sometimes predictable patterns at local, regional and global scales. Students examine global patterns of development and evaluate the relevance of such patterns at global, national, regional and local scales. They apply their knowledge and understanding to provide explanations and justify recommendations about local, national and global situations related to development, and their impact on living standards. They reflect on plans of action and past actions, considering the value

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positions underlying them, including a commitment to the principles of sustainability. Students undertake fieldwork to investigate the characteristics of a selected local region and the physical processes and human activities that form and transform it. Students are encouraged to participate in activities to contribute to the sustainable management of local places. Source: Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VELS) There is a formalized assessment task (Appendix 2) presented to the students in week two of unit two. This task requires students to annotate a black and white copy of page 49 out of the Melways. Students are to mark on the page using a legend, where interchanges, connecting suburbs and land use around Eastlink is. A rubric to assess the students work is shown below (Table 3). Table 3: Rubric for marking formalized Melways assessment task Melways assessment task Annotated interchanges around Eastlink (2) Annotated connecting suburbs around Eastlink (2) Annotated land use around Eastlink (2) Appropriate legend which matches annotated locations (5) Overall presentation and coherence of the Melways page (4) Table 4, 5 and 6 show week 1, 2 and 3 of the altered curriculum respectively. These tables are attached to the following pages. Not shown Low Medium High

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References: Karena, C 2010, Environmental Education in Australian Schools, CSIRO publishing service, retrieved 30 May 2011, <http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxyf.deakin.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=124&sid=6fd7dbe8-afff4b0c-946a-732ea3ff82f8@sessionmgr14>.

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Kemmis, S, Cole, P & Suggett, D 1983, Orientations to Curriculum and Transition: Towards the Social-Critical School, Victorian Institute of Secondary Education Publishing Service, Melbourne. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority 2009, Structure of The Humanities Geography Domain, Victorian Government Publishing Service, retrieved 30 May 2011 <http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/geography/structure.html>. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority 2009, The Humanities Geography, Victorian Government Publishing Service, retrieved 30 May 2011 < http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vels/geography.html>.