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 5
Knowledge and understanding (Geography sub-strand)
Content descriptions with elaborations:
The influence of people on the environmental characteristics of places in Europe and North America and the location of their major countries in relation to Australia (ACHASSK111)
- using geographical tools, for example, a globe, wall map or digital application like Google Earth, to identify the relative location of the major countries of Europe and North America and their environmental characteristics
- researching the changes made by people to a particular environment in a country in Europe and a country North America
The influence of people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, on the environmental characteristics of Australian places (ACHASSK112)
- identifying how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities altered the environment and sustained ways of living through their methods of land and resource management
The environmental and human influences on the location and characteristics of a place and the management of spaces within them (ACHASSK113)
- examining how the use of the space within their local place is organised through zoning
- comparing how people have responded to climatic conditions in similar and different places and explaining why most Australians live close to the coast compared to inland Australia
- investigating the influence of landforms (for example, river valleys such as the Murray-Darling, Yellow (Huang He), Yangtze, Amazon, Mekong or Ganges), on the development of settlements that are involved in food and fibre production
- examining the effects of landforms (for example, valleys, hills, natural harbours and rivers), on the location and characteristics of their place and other places they know
- investigating a current local planning issue (for example, redevelopment of a site, protection of a unique species), preservation of open space, exploring why people have different views on the issue, and developing a class response to it
The impact of bushfires or floods on environments and communities, and how people can respond (ACHASSK114)
- mapping and explaining the location, frequency and severity of bushfires or flooding in Australia
- explaining the impacts of fire on Australian vegetation and the significance of fire damage on communities
- researching how the application of principles of prevention, mitigation and preparedness, minimises the harmful effects of bushfires or flooding
Knowledge and understanding (History sub-strand)
Content descriptions with elaborations:
The nature of convict or colonial presence, including the factors that influenced patterns of development, aspects of the daily life of the inhabitants (including Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples), and how the environment changed (ACHASSK107)
- investigating colonial life to discover what life was like at that time for different inhabitants (for example, a European family and an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Language group, a convict and a free settler, a sugar cane farmer and an indentured labourer) in terms of clothing, diet, leisure, paid and unpaid work, shopping or trade, language, housing and children’s lives
- mapping local, regional and state/territory rural and urban settlement patterns in the 1800s, and noting factors such as geographical features, climate, water resources, the discovery of gold, transport and access to port facilities that shared these patterns
- investigating the impact of settlement on the environment and its ecosystems (for example, comparing the present and past landscape and the flora and fauna of the local community)
The impact of a significant development or event on a colony (ACHASSK108)
- investigating an event or development and explaining its economic, social and political impact on a colony (for example, the consequences of frontier conflict events such as the Myall Creek Massacre, the Pinjarra Massacre: the impact of South Sea Islanders on sugar farming and the timber industry; the impact of the Eureka Stockade on the development of democracy; the impact of internal exploration and the advent of rail on the expansion of farming)
The role that a significant individual or group played in shaping a colony (ACHASSK110)
- investigating the contribution or significance of an individual or group to the shaping of a colony in the 1800s (for example, explorers, farmers, pastoralists, miners, inventors, writers, artists, humanitarians, religious and spiritual leaders, political activists, including women, children, and people of diverse cultures)
- exploring the motivations and actions of an individual or group that shaped a colony
Year 6
Knowledge and understanding (Geography sub-strand)
Content descriptions with elaborations:
The geographic diversity of the Asia region and the location of its major countries in relation to Australia (ACHASSK138)
- exploring the diversity of environments and types of settlements in the Asia region, or in part of the region, or in a country in either North-East or South-East or South Asia and discussing any patterns
Australia’s connections with other countries and how these change people and places (ACHASSK141)
- researching connections between Australia and countries in the Asia region (for example, in terms of migration, trade, tourism, aid, education, defence or cultural influences) and explaining the effects of at least one of these connections on their own place and another place in Australia
- exploring the provision of Australian government or non-government aid to a country in the Asia and Pacific region or elsewhere in the world and analysing its effects on places in that country
Knowledge and understanding (Economics and business sub-strand)
Content descriptions with elaborations:
How the concept of opportunity cost involves choices about the alternative use of resources and the need to consider trade-offs (ACHASSK149)
- explaining why choices have to be made when faced with unlimited wants and limited resources, for example by compiling a list of personal needs and wants, determining priorities (including sustainability of natural environments), and identifying the needs and wants that can be satisfied with the resources available)
The effect that consumer and financial decisions can have on the individual, the broader community and the environment (ACHASSK150)
- investigating questions (for example ‘Does what my family buys in the supermarket affect what businesses might sell or produce?’)
The reasons businesses exist and the different ways they provide goods and services (ACHASSK151)
- identifying why businesses exist (for example to produce goods and services, to make a profit, to provide employment) and investigating the different ways that goods and services are provided to people, such as through shopping centres, local markets, online, small independent stores, remote community stores
- distinguishing between businesses in the primary, secondary and tertiary industry sectors and discussing what they produce or provide (such as agriculture and mining; textiles and food; and information, tourism and telecommunication)