Explore content
F-6/7 Humanities and Social Sciences
The Australian Curriculum: F–6/7 HASS/Geography identifies the concepts of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and change as integral to the development of geographical understanding. These are high-level ideas or ways of thinking that can be applied across the subject to identify a question, guide an investigation, organise information, suggest an explanation or assist decision-making. These concepts also relate strongly to the food and fibre connection and are integrated with geographical inquiry and skills.
Geographical inquiry is a process by which students learn about and deepen their holistic understanding of their world. It involves individual or group investigations that start with geographical questions and proceed through the collection, evaluation, analysis and interpretation of information to the development of conclusions and proposals for actions. Inquiries may vary in scale and geographical context. Geographical skills are the techniques that geographers use in their investigations, both in fieldwork and in the classroom. Key skills developed through F–6/7 HASS/Geography in the Australian Curriculum include formulating a question and research plan, recording and representing data, using a variety of spatial technologies and communicating using appropriate geographical vocabulary and texts.
From Foundation to Year 10, students build on their understanding of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability and change and apply this understanding to a wide range of places and environments at the full range of scales, from local to global, and in a range of locations.
Year 3
Knowledge and understanding (Geography sub-strand)
Content description with elaborations:
The similarities and differences between places in terms of their type of settlement, demographic characteristics and the lives of people who live there (ACHGK019)
- exploring different types of settlement, and classifying them into hierarchical categories, for example isolated dwellings, outstations, villages, towns, regional centres and large cities
- discussing the similarities and differences in the types of work people do in their own place with a different type of place in Australia and a place in another country
Historical knowledge and understanding (History sub-strand)
Content description with elaborations:
How the community has changed and remained the same over time, and the role that people of diverse backgrounds have played in the development and character of the local community (ACHASSK063)
- exploring photographs, newspapers, oral histories, diaries and letters to investigate how an aspect of life in the local community (for example, transport, entertainment, the natural and built environment, technology) has changed over time (for example, from the time of European settlement to the present day)
- comparing photographs from the past and present of a specific location to identify the change or continuity (similarities and differences over time) associated with people, events/developments, places or ecosystems
Year 4
Knowledge and understanding (Geography sub-strand)
Content descriptions with elaborations:
The main characteristics of the continents of Africa and South America and the location of their major countries in relation to Australia (ACHASSK087)
- using geographical tools (for example a globe, a wall map or digital application like Google Earth), to identify the major countries of Africa and South America and their relative location
- researching the main types of natural vegetation and native animals in a climate zone in Australia and comparing them with those found in a similar climate in Africa or South America
The importance of environments, including natural vegetation, to animals and people (ACHASSK088)
- exploring how vegetation has an important role in sustaining the environment by producing oxygen, protecting food-producing land from erosion, retaining rainfall, providing habitat for animals, sheltering crops and livestock, producing shade for people, cooling urban spaces, producing medicines, wood and fibre and making places appear more attractive
The custodial responsibility Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have for Country/Place, and how this influences views about sustainability (ACHASSK089)
- investigating how knowledge and practices shared among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples are linked to sustainable use of resources and environments (such as rotational use and harvesting of resources, mutton bird harvesting in Tasmania, the use of fire and the collection of bush food from semi-arid rangelands)
The use and management of natural resources and waste and the different views on how to do this sustainably (ACHASSK090)
- identifying some of the resources produced by the environment and where they come from (for example, water, food, and raw materials, such as fibres, timber and metals that make the things they use)