AGTA News 2018
News, resources and support from member associations
GTANSW
Primary Geography Alive
The GTA NSW’s Primary Geography Alive website has been developed to support the implementation of the NSW Geography Syllabus for the Australian Curriculum in Primary years of schooling.
The Geography Teachers’ Association of NSW Inc. (GTA NSW) commissioned a team of experienced Primary school teachers to deveop these exemplar units of work aligned to the K-6 requireemnts of the syllabus. Each unit consists of six to eight lessons complete with the resources required for their successful implementation in the classroom.
Primary Geography Alive website
GTAQ
GTAQ+DNRME Spatial Technology Workshops
When: 9:00AM–1:00PM 20 October 2018
Location: Cairns State High School
When: 9:00AM–3:00PM 10 December 2018
Location: Gladstone State High School
GTAV
GTAV eCourses
GTAV eCourses provide online professional learning for trained and out-of-field Geography teachers. The length of courses vary from a few hours up to a number of weeks. Some courses include self-assessment items; others include formal assessment items.
Each GTAV eCourse is linked to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Participants receive a certificate acknowledging professional development hours linked to the accreditation standards upon successful completion of each course.
GTASA
Sampson Flat Bushfire Kit
The Sampson Flat Bushfire Kit has been developed for SACE Stage 1 Natural Hazards unit. The kit focuses on mapping skill development, along with other geographical and inquiry skills through the exploration of a case study of the 2015 Sampson Flat bushfires.
The kit includes:
- 20 copies of a coloured broadsheet
- Prewritten activities
TGTA
TGTA celebrates its 50th anniversary
The TGTA was formed in 1968 in Hobart to further the promotion of geography teaching in Tasmanian schools and colleges. In 1993 the TGTA joined with the Geography Teachers Association of Victoria before being reformed in Tasmania in 2002. The 50th anniversary of the formation of the Tasmanian Geography Teachers Association is in 2018.
GAWA
The Digital Future of Geography
This professional learning opportunity will guide you through simple data collection methods using free Geographic Information System (GIS) technology available to all schools through Esri Australia’s GIS for Schools Program.
We will guide you through everything you need to know to integrate GIS into your next fieldwork. This includes an exploration of the new user-friendly ArcGIS Online platform that can create maps using your own primary data or readily available secondary data.
Latest issue of AGTA’s Geographia
The November 2018 issue of AGTA’s newsletter Geographia is now available. Contents include
- AGTA Conference 2019
- 2018 Geography Big Week Out
- TGTA Milestone
- New York City Teacher Orientation Study Tour
- GeogSpace
- Geography Literacy Unlocked Textbook
- Around the affiliates
Australian Geography Competition: Australian Team win two bronze medals at the 2018 International Geography Olympiad in Quebec City
Congratulations to the four young Australian geography students who represented Australia at the XV International Geography Olympiad (iGeo) held in Quebec City, Canada, from July 31 to August 6. The Olympiad was organised under the auspices of the International Geographical Union (IGU) with the support of Université Laval, North America’s second oldest university.
The four-member Australian team were selected through their outstanding performance in last year’s Australian Geography Competition (AGC) and Geography’s Big Week Out (from left to right): Phoebe Blaxill from St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School, WA – bronze medal; Harry Hall from Trinity College (Gawler), SA; Hannah Wright from Walford Anglican School for Girls, SA – bronze medal, and Sophie Ohlin from Sydney Girls High School, NSW. The Australian team was accompanied by two team leaders: Kath Berg, Australian Geography Competition Committee and Liam Sloan, Geography Teachers Association of South Australia. Forty-three countries took part in this highly prestigious one-week international competition with the Romanian team declared the overall winners at this year’s event.
To test the best young geographers in the world, the iGeo programme involves three academic challenges over the course of a week: a written response test, a multimedia test and a fieldwork exercise requiring observation, cartographic representation and geographical analysis. The programme also included poster presentations by teams, a cultural session showcasing Canadian cultures, and visits to Old Quebec (a UNESCO World Heritage site) and Forêt Montmorency.
The value of the iGeo experience cannot be underestimated; participating students appreciate not only the opportunity to travel abroad and challenge themselves, but also the experience of meeting and making friends with passionate geography students from all over the world. “The iGeo was a fantastic opportunity not only to learn about geography, hearing from bright minds in the field and undergoing insightful fieldwork, but also to make friends from all around the globe. Being around such a wide variety of international cultures, personalities and languages is a rare event, and because of it the experience was invaluable.” said Harry Hall, participating student.
Kath Berg, Australian Team Leader commented that “The iGeo is a prestigious international contest. It inspires active interest in geographical studies among students and contributes to greater intercultural understanding through the friendships developed between students from different countries.” The Australian team has once again scored commendable results. This highlights the strength of Australia’s Year 11 and 12 geography curricula in teaching students to think, analyse and interpret information. The role of geography in schools is continuously supported by the Australian Geography Competition. The pre-selection for the four-student team that will represent Australia at the 2019 iGeo in Hong Kong, China, is under way. Sixteen high-achieving Year 11 students from the 2018 Australian Geography Competition will soon be selected to take part in Geography’s Big Week Out, a six-day training/selection event, to be held on Kangaroo Island, South Australia in early October this year.
The participation of the Australian team at the International Geography Olympiad is made possible with the support of the Australian Government Department of Education and Training, Australian Geography Competition and with sponsorship of the AGC from Monash University (School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment and School of Social Sciences), Macquarie University (Department of Geography and Planning and Department of Environmental Sciences), and The University of Queensland (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences).
The annual Australian Geography Competition is a joint initiative of the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland (www.rgsq.org.au) and the Australian Geography Teachers’ Association.
For further information about the Australian Geography Competition and its associated events, iGeo and GBWO, visit http://www.geographycompetition.org.au/.
Australian Geography Competition: Entries open
Entries in the 2018 Australian Geography Competition, 17-31 May, are now open
About the competition
- for students from Year 7 or younger to Year 12
- only $4 per student, with no minimum number of students or other registration fee
- flexible timing from Thursday 17 to Thursday 31 May 2018 to suit school requirements
- achievement certificates for all participating students, special certificates for top 1%, major prizes for highest performing students and schools
- competition entries close on Wednesday 21 March 2018.
- aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Geography
- puts Geography in the spotlight in your school
- based on innovative use of maps and graphics
- includes questions that aim to develop students’ critical thinking
- is easy to administer
- questions address current local and global issues
- provides question booklets that become valuable class-set resources.
“The Australian Geography Competition provides a wonderful opportunity for students to challenge themselves, reinforce skills they learn in the classroom and receive acknowledgement for their participation and achievement. I think that the nation-wide participation makes it very exciting for students.” Melina Walton, Redlands College.
International team
Australian team members to the 2019 International Geography Olympiad in Hong Kong, China, will be chosen from Year 11 students, who excel in the Competition via the 2018 Geography’s Big Week Out held on Kangaroo Island, SA.
To find out more and enter your students in the 2018 round, visit the competition website.
Latest issues of Geographical Education
Geographical Education: Enacting the Curriculum
The contents of Geographical Education Volume 30, 2017 include
- Enacting the Curriculum by Nick Hutchinson
- Chair of Directors Annual Report 2017 from Trish Douglas
- Rediscovering the Teaching of Geography with the Focus on Quality by David Lambert and Michael Solem
- Australia’s City Foodbowls: Fertile Ground for Investigating ‘Biomes and Food Security’ by Rachel Carey and Jen Sheridan
- Teaching for Sustainability: The Role of (benefit) Corporations by Jason van Tol
- Book Reviews
Geographical Education Supplement: AGTA’s First Fifty Years
The contents of Geographical Education Supplement, 2017 include
- AGTA’s First Fifty Years
- Introduction
- Beginnings: Battling bureaucrats, interstate cooperation and a Sydney Harbour cruise
- AGTA Conferences
- Focus on Donald Biddle, Frances Slater, Magdelaine Wong and Rob Berry
- Geographical Education Over the Course of Fifty Years
- 1970: Concepts: the whole cornerstone of teaching the subject
- 1980: Looking Back on imaginative school-based curricula
- Geography Education – AGTA style
- 1990: Critical geographies and teaching for sustainable development
- 2000: Struggling against SoSE and learning to think geographically
- AGTA Recollections
- 2010: Australian Curriculum, standards, futures and philosophies