People and places: connections access transport
Content Summary
People’s connections to places
Students:
- investigate people’s connections and access to places, for example: (ACHGK013)
- identification of factors influencing people’s accessibility to places (i.e distance)
- examination of how technology has improved people’s access to places
Background notes for teachers
Advances in technology have greatly increased our ability to access places on all scales, local and global, be it through physical access with faster and more affordable airline travel to advances in telecommunications. This unit explores our connections to places by examining physical access, modes of transport and the infrastructure that is required for its proper functioning.
Accessibility to places is examined by comparing transport in Australia. To add further value to the unit, comparisons can be made with other countries. Students born outside of Australia could share their stories of accessing different places, from travelling to Australia to travelling within local areas. Comparisons could also be made by inviting an elderly guest speaker who was born in another country.
Student Activities
Activity 1
Accessing places - past and present
Activity 2
How did people travel in the past?
Activity 3
Accessing places in the past
Activity 4
Accessing places today
Activity 5
Past and present access to places
Activity 6
Access in an imaginary land
Activity notes for teachers
Activity 2
a. Formulate questions for inquiry
- How did people from the past access different places?
- How do we access different places today? (modes of transport and transport infrastructure)
- How has technology changed our ability to connect with places?
b. Collectively observe Sources 3 to 10 and discuss how people accessed places in the past.
c. Students interview their grandparents of people from two generations ago on how they were able to access different places. Alternatively, ask an elderly member of the community to visit the class and speak about how they accessed different places.
Ask questions about their experiences travelling to visit family and friends, where they went on holiday and what transport they used. How did they keep in touch with friends and family who lives a long way away?
d. Examine each source carefully and answer the below questions:
- What mode of transport is being used?
- What infrastructure (built feature_ is needed for this mode of transport to operate?
- What challenges would you encounter using this type of transport?
- Would you travel short or long distances in this type of transport?
- Is this type of transport used today? How is it the same or different?
Activity 3
Teachers print out copies of the photograph by Sam Hood. Students draw and label past transport mode and built features (infrastructure) onto the photograph.
Resources
Picture books
Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
Round Trip by Ann Jonas
Have You Seen My Dragon by Steve Light
The Journey Home by Alison Lester
Journey by Aaron Becker
NSW Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum Geography K–6
Outcomes
A student:
- GE1-1 describes features of places and the connections people have with places
- GE1-3 communicates geographical information and uses geographical tools for inquiry
Geographical Inquiry Skills
Acquiring geographical information
- pose geographical questions (ACHGS007, ACHGS013)
- collect and record geographical data and information, for example, by observing, by interviewing, or using visual representations (ACHGS008, ACHGS014)
Processing geographical information
- represent data by constructing tables, graphs or maps (ACHGS009, ACHGS015)
- draw conclusions based on the interpretation of geographical information sorted into categories (ACHGS010, ACHGS016)
Communicating geographical information
- present findings in a range of communication forms (ACHGS011, ACHGS017)
- reflect on their learning and suggest responses to their findings (ACHGS012, ACHGS018)
Geographical Concepts
- Place: the significance of places and what they are like (ie. location and features of local places and other places in the world).
- Space: the significance of location and spatial distribution, and ways people organise and manage the spaces that we live in I(ie. where activities are located and how spaces can be organised).
- Environment: the significance of the environment in human life, and the important interrelationships between humans and the environment (ie. natural and human features of a place; daily and seasonal weather patterns of places).
- Interconnection: no object of geographical study can be viewed in isolation (ie. local and global links people have with places and the special connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples maintain with Country/Place).
- Scale: the way that geographical phenomena and problems can be examined at different spatial levels (ie. various scales by which places can be defined such as local suburbs, towns and large cities).
LAC
Learning across the curriculum
- Information and communication technology capability
- Critical and creative thinking
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Difference and diversity
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