Sustainable cities

Within a series of lessons that incorporate a key fieldwork trip, the teacher selects and uses teaching strategies that develop students’ knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking. Students make field observations described and recorded in text, numerical and audio-visual format; organise, interpret, present and analyse the data; and evaluate current situations to develop proposals for sustainable futures. The teacher develops strategies that enable students to empathise with others and to relate understanding of local areas to regional and global scales.

Bacchus Marsh Grammar School is an independent pre-Prep to year 12 school in outer western Melbourne. The teacher has developed an activity consisting of a series of sequenced lessons with a core geography fieldwork case study used to relate conceptual development to a real world context. Within each lesson, concept development occurs through an inquiry sequence. Student research data collected during a field trip enables students to reflect on past development, record current patterns and propose changes that support a sustainable future for urban areas.