Learning Activities .

Activity one Liveability brainstorm activity Unit stage: Week 1, lesson 1 Inquiry stage: Tuning in Learning Objective: To consider the factors that influence where people live. Focus questions: Students develop a knowledge of the factors that influence people’s decisions about where to live. Literacy and Numeracy skills:

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)

• Consolidate a personal handwriting style that is legible, fluent and automatic and supports writing for extended periods (ACELY1727)

Link to community: This initial activity challenges students to consider what they value in their local area/community, what their parents value and also what the community values as factors of liveability. Formative assessment: Teacher observation/ teacher feedback to students, Group/partner work, discussion in class. Summary: The aim of this activity is to engage the students in the unit and get them excited and involved in their learning by connecting the unit directly to their lives right now. This task is designed to encourage critical thinking about prior knowledge and getting the students asking questions like:

• What do I already know? • How do I know it? • What are my experiences? (parents/guardians perspective) • What do I want to know?

Part 1: Students are prompted with photographs of their local area (Point Cook) and asked to identify them. As a class discuss which of the students like or dislike the places in the photos and introduce the concept of liveability. Part 2: Using Point Cook as the point of reference brainstorm as a class what students think factors of liveability might be. Using questions like

• What do you like about Point Cook? • What don’t you like? • What would you like?

Part 3: Students then create their own mind maps based on the suggested factors from their text:

• Stability (crime and safety) • Community (Family and friends, social connectedness, culture and diversity) • Economy (Economic, transport: PT and roads, environment, housing) • Infrastructures (health, education, shops) • Recreation (sports, festivals)

• Part 4 c: Discuss as a class the different factors represented in the students ideal

places to live under the factors listed in part 3.

Activity two Perceptions of Liveability writing activity Unit stage: Week 1, lesson 4 Inquiry stage: Finding Out Inquiry skills: Learning Objective: Compare different places to recognise that perceptions of liveability differ. Focus questions: skills:

• My placement school has one hand written task requirement per week for every subject and this task fits perfectly into the unit, developing writing stamina and literacy skills as well as getting them engaged.

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)

• Consolidate a personal handwriting style that is legible, fluent and automatic and supports writing for extended periods (ACELY1727)

Link to community: The unit up until this point has tasked the students to define and consider what liveability means to them, their parents and their community. This particular tasks challenges students to consider what different members of the community (eg. Different ages, households, income or education) perceive as factors of liveability. Formative assessment: Teacher observation/ teacher feedback to students, Group/partner work, discussion in class. This work had to be submitted to seesaw, which the students use as a medium for parents to view their work. They need to

• Part 4 a: After the students have created their mind map they are tasked with

drawing their ideal place to live. This could include hospitals and schools or even video game stores and fast food. This can be a creative picture for some or written dot points for others.

• Part 4 b: Students need to be able to explain why they value each item they draw and then present to the class when called upon.

write a reflection on the task and then the teacher provides individual feedback as a comment on the website. Summary: This activity is designed to help students identify what they already know about one: liveability and two: different perspectives/perceptions and challenge those ideas. In this activity students first create a concept map as a class of different factors of liveability and then try and identify which factors different types of people would find attractive deciding where to live. With the concept maps in mind students then create a persuasive piece of writing or a real estate ad that incorporates those ideas and creates more inquiry questions for future lessons. Part 1: As a class students discuss the learning objective and explicitly the words perception and liveability. Part 1 a: Following on from the learning objective students then discuss as a class what they remember from prior knowledge of liveability factors which the teacher scribes on to the board in the form of a mind map. This stage is designed to elicit questions from the students about what they know eg.

• What do I already know? • How do I know it? • What are my experiences? (parents/guardians perspective) • What do I want to know?

Part 1 b: Students are then asked to identify which factors from the mind map would be important for different demographics including age, household type, income and education and cultural background. Students are challenged to consider their own perception of liveability and what is important to them.

Part 2: Students are given a hand out of the fictional place of Springfield from the Simpsons and asked to identify the various liveability factors that exist in the picture. This is designed to scaffold their learning to the next stage.

Part 2a: Students then choose a fictional place to live (of their choosing) from various fictional properties, Harry Potter, Pokemon, Lord of the rings etc and present a hand written persuasive paragraph about why their fictional place is a ‘liveable’ place. This task can be presented as a written paragraph, however students are encouraged to create a real estate advertisement for their fictional place.

Teacher direction: Students are given the option of using colourful paper for those that engage with creating more than writing.

Part 2 a: The paragraph should address the different factors of liveability and different demographics represented in their text eg. age, income, education and cultural background. Why would they want to live there?

Example for students:

Activity three Neighborhood Liveability Survey activity Unit stage: Week 2, lesson 6 Inquiry stage: Sorting out Learning Objective: To understand how liveability is measured Focus question: Literacy and Numeracy skills:

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)

• Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (ACELY1728)

• Identify and investigate issues involving numerical data collected from primary and secondary sources(ACMSP169)

Links to the community: The liveability survey tasks students at surveying their local area in a pre prepared form and giving it a score. This task is designed to begin the student’s consideration of the links between the unit and their local area. Summary: This task is designed to link the concepts of place and liveability to the local community. Students begin to understand how liveability is measured in reference to Melbourne winning ‘the worlds most liveable city’. Students complete a

survey of their neighbourhood giving different areas of liveability a score between 1 and 5. One being the lowest possible score and five being the highest eg: Places of worship: 1 2 3 4 5 Recreational facilities 1 2 3 4 5 etc Part one: As a class discuss the survey and confirm students understand what each component refers to.

Part one a: Students complete the survey either individually or as a class.

Part two: Students discuss and compare the results with the person next to them.

Part three: As a class develop a mean score

Part four: Students get their pareants to conduct the survey for homework

Activity four

Least liveable city activity Unit stage: Week 2, lesson 8 Inquiry stage: Going Further

1 ©"2013"Education"Services"Australia"Ltd,"except"where"indicated"otherwise."You"may"copy,"distribute"and"adapt"this"material"free"of"charge"for"nonDcommercial"educational"purposes,"provided"you"retain"all"copyright"notices"and"acknowledgements."

"

""Alamanda College Year 7 Geography

Liveability survey

Criteria Liveability Score Poor/low Good/high

Environmental factors • Climate: Humidity/temperature 1 2 3 4 5

• Quality of urban design 1 2 3 4 5

• Architecture 1 2 3 4 5

• Streetscapes 1 2 3 4 5

• Parks and gardens 1 2 3 4 5

• Maintenance of public spaces 1 2 3 4 5

Social factors Law and order • Level of violent crime

1

2

3

4

5 • Level of petty crime 1 2 3 4 5

• Alcohol-related disorder 1 2 3 4 5

• Graffiti and vandalism 1 2 3 4 5

• Personal safety 1 2 3 4 5

Education • Choice of schools

1

2

3

4

5

• Quality public schools 1 2 3 4 5

• Opportunities for post-school education 1 2 3 4 5

Healthcare

• Access to local dentists and doctors 1 2 3 4 5

• Availability of private health care 1 2 3 4 5

• Quality of public health care 1 2 3 4 5

• Aged care facilities 1 2 3 4 5

©"2013"Education"Services"Australia"Ltd,"except"where"indicated"otherwise."You"may"copy,"distribute"and"adapt"this"material"free"of"charge"for"nonDcommercial"educational"purposes,"provided"you"retain"all"copyright"notices"and"acknowledgements." 2

Criteria Score

Poor/low Good/high

Cultural factors • Places of worship

1

2

3

4

5 • Community recreational facilities 1 2 3 4 5

• Entertainment venues 1 2 3 4 5

• Public libraries 1 2 3 4 5

• Restaurants 1 2 3 4 5

• Licensed clubs 1 2 3 4 5

• Ethnic diversity 1 2 3 4 5

Economic factors

• Employment opportunities 1 2 3 4 5

• Affordable housing 1 2 3 4 5

• Access to shops and department stores 1 2 3 4 5

• Service stations and mechanics 1 2 3 4 5

• Hardware outlets 1 2 3 4 5

• Personal services such as hairdressers 1 2 3 4 5

Infrastructure factors

• Quality of road access 1 2 3 4 5

• Availability of public transport 1 2 3 4 5

• Transport interchanges and commuter parking 1 2 3 4 5

• Quality of telecommunications 1 2 3 4 5

• Infrastructure 1 2 3 4 5

• Reliability of utilities – water, electricity, sewage 1 2 3 4 5

• Cycle ways 1 2 3 4 5

• Maintenance of public schools and hospitals 1 2 3 4 5

Complete the table below as your investigations progress.

Name of neighbourhood:

Your liveability ranking score

Your group's liveability ranking score

The class average liveability ranking score

Parent's/caregiver's liveability ranking score

Other neighbourhoods

Neighbourhood 2:

Neighbourhood 3:

Neighbourhood 4:

Learning Objective: To understand how liveability is measured and consider how perception of liveability differs. Focus question: Students consider perceptions of liveability and why people live in those least liveable cities not affected by war or conflict Literacy and Numeracy skills:

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)

• Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (ACELY1728)

• Identify and investigate issues involving numerical data collected from primary and secondary sources(ACMSP169)

Link to the community: This task allows students to consider liveability on a global scale and develop an understanding of their place in the world along with other children in less fortunate circumstances. Formative assessment: Teacher observation/ teacher feedback to students, Group/partner work, discussion in class. Summary: This activity is designed to get students to challenge the idea of liveabilty that they have so far in the unit. Up until this point the unit has only explored what makes a place ideally liveable. The least liveable city activity allows students to ask questions about their existing knowledge and use researching skills to develop a better understanding of perceptions of liveability. This activity attempts to elicit questions from students like

• Where might I go to find more information? • What resources might I use? • What key words could I use in my searches? • Where can I find different points of view on this? • What can I do to learn more? • What are my questions? • What am I feeling at this phase?

Part one: Students begin the lesson with a discussion about what they did today or after school and are then prompted with images of other young people from the world (One image is a boy carrying buckets of water for his family and the other is a child labor cartoon). This mini task is designed to engage the students and get them thinking about their perception of liveability. Part 1: In the previous lessons students looked at the Economist Intelligence liveability survery and examined Melbourne as the most liveable city. In this lesson Students t look at the top ten least liveable cities of 2016 of the same survey. The cities are:

• Damascus, Syria • Tripoli, Libya • Lagos, Nigeria • Dhaka, Bangladesh • Port Moresby, PNG • Algier, Algeria

• Karachi, Pakistan • Harare, Zimbabwe • Douala, Cameroon • Kiev, Ukraine

Students then discuss as a class what they know about the liveability criteria and why they think some of the cities are there. This mini task requires students to be prompted about previous learning and hopefully they can remember the survey’s criteria. Part 1 a: Students are prompted to remember that stability is the main criteria which would explain why Syria, Libya, Nigeria and Pakistan might be considered least liveable because they are at war or conflict. Part 2: Students are then split into groups and given a city from the least liveable survey each: Tehran, Douala, Dhaka, Kiev or Algiers. Part 2 a: Students are tasked at researching the city on their device and answering 3 questions about their city. 1. Why do you think the city is in the least liveable top ten? 2. What are some of the good things about the city? Why do you think people live there? And 3: Create a tourism ad for the city which is a scaffolded task from week 1 and builds on from that task with a real life location. Students are encouraged to be as creative as they like and are given coloured paper to try and engage some of them.

• Which could be a big image with a blurb about why the city is good or a paragraph. Up to the student’s discretion.

Teacher example:

Part 3: If there is enough time students can discuss their findings as a class.

Activity five Letter the Editor Activity Unit stage: week 3/ class 15/16 Inquiry stage: Making Conclusions Learning Objective: To understand methods that enhance liveability in Point Cook Focus question: Students identify processes associated with enhancing the liveability of places. Students investigate strategies for increasing liveability in Australia for Point Cook.

Literacy and Numeracy skills: • Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting

aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)

• Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (ACELY1728)

• Identify and investigate issues involving numerical data collected from primary and secondary sources(ACMSP169)

Link to the community: This task explicitly asks students to consider liveability on a local community level and gets them thinking about how to improve/enhance liveability in the local area. Formative assessment: Teacher observation/ teacher feedback to students, Group/partner work, discussion in class. Summary: Students use their knowledge of liveability, their concepts of perception of liveability and their new formed ideas on enhancing liveability to create a letter to the editor of the local newspaper to suggest a new method of enhancing liveability in Point Cook. Part one: As a class students are lead in a class discussion about the previous lessons content of enhancing liveability and are asked to provide functional examples of the different methods suggested in the text eg.

• Social places – pools, libraries, sports facilities (basketball courts, skate parks were good idea starters)

• Open space – spaces that allow for interaction with the environment, parks, lakes, picnic areas.

• Support for cummunities – public transport, better roads, mixed use building design.

• Facilities and activities – theatre groups, choirs, bands. Orchestras. • Celebrating diversity – festivals, celebrations and events.

Part two: Students are tasked with writing a letter to the editor of the ‘Wyndham Leader’ the local newspaper for Point Cook residents. The persuasive letter should propose the improvement or new development in Point Cook that they perceive will enhance the liveability (that they worked on in the last class). This allows students to take control of their learning and decide what they personally care about researching in more detail. The piece of writing should be presented in the style of letter which the teacher will need to provide examples of. The style should include

• A hook – A title to hook the reader in about your topic or reason for writing. • Pitch the idea – what and where is it? • Write your reasons for wanting the development and then support that idea

directly after – One paragraph per reason and one per support/research why it enhances liveability.

• Conclusion – Summarise your reasons and opinions. Part three: Students handwrite their letter first in their writing books and then get their letter approved by the editor (teacher). The teacher is confirming that the

students have included all the part two criteria and challenges them to explicitly express why their points enhance liveability. Part four: Once approved by the editor students can begin typing up their letter and adding it to a pre prepared google document which has been set up as a newspaper. How it looked:

Differentiation Point 1: Some students will be provided with an A4 handout in the vein of a newspaper with space for them to write their letter and draw a picture. For some students this will add some engagement and give some physical motivation of what they are working toward.

ALAMANDA 7A TRIBUNE

Letter to the Editor section 8/10/2016

Mr Fewster wants

Rooster by: Mr Fewster

Dear editor, As an avid eater of fast food i am appalled that Alamanda is yet to have a Red Rooster and suggest to the council they develop one immediately on Snydes Rd. A Red Rooster would increase liveability in Alamanda because it becomes a social place where people and the community can interact. This is important to liveability because attractive public spaces bring people together in a safe environment and stability is the main criteria in the most liveable city survey. I also think Red Rooster promotes Economic wellbeing in Alamanda by promoting employment close to where I live not to mention the boost to the economy. Economic wellbeing is so integral to liveability because it creates a health economy that increases overall stability enhances employment and the kids are going to love it.

In conclusion I think If Alamanda is to grow we need to develop a Red Rooster immediately so we can increase our liveability as well as our bellies.

Why reach for my goals,

when I can bounce to

them? by: Bobby

Dear editor, We need to improve the local trampoline park in Lumen Christie! If we do it will be a great attraction for the community and you will be able to enjoy the park as a family. All im asking is to repair the seating and tables in the local wedding facility, add new nets to the basketball court, improve the skating area for the local riders who want to enjoy riding street, and replace one of the trampolines with a proper one. Parents will bring their kids to the football pitch and the playground. Which may I add, if you replace the turf in the football pitch, then

will attract even more citizens. Adding these minor perfections will improve the worthiness of the houses in the area and will support the chances of more buyers in the areas. The community is beautiful as it is so if you add these minors in it will immensely add to the community. just imagine all. Let us enjoy our community, Let us leap to our incredible potential as a community. Trampoline for Everyone

by: Jack

In Point Cook I want to upgrade the trampoline park to make it a bigger better place. We should also make the basketball court better like they did in town town centre, with the nets, they can fit about 10 people there at a time! If we did this, you would come more together as a family. The trampolines should be bigger and better. Plus, the existing ones are not very bouncy and they are quite small. More size and more bounce please! Point cook has a lot of scooter and bike riders; it would be amazing if you put a mini skate park replacing the soccer goals that nobody uses. This brings young people in Point cook together and creates a

Page 2 Continued you on next page

Activity six Community Point Cook Pamphlet activity Unit stage: Week 4, lesson 15 & 16 Inquiry stage: Taking action Learning Objective: To understand factors of liveability in a local context Focus question: How would you welcome new young people to your area? Students link the unit materials to the local area. What do they value in their local area? Literacy and Numeracy skills:

• Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)

• Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to confidently create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts (ACELY1728)

• Identify and investigate issues involving numerical data collected from primary and secondary sources(ACMSP169)

Link to the community: This task is designed to build on the unit materials that the students have learnt over the previous 4-5 weeks and draw conclusions related to their local area. What do they value in their local area? Formative assessment: Teacher observation/ teacher feedback to students. This work had to be submitted to seesaw, which the students use as a medium for parents to view their work. They need to write a reflection on the task and then the teacher provides individual feedback as a comment on the website. Summary: This task is designed to challenge students to consider what they have learnt over the unit and transfer that knowledge into creating a brochure/pamphlet/poster that welcomes new young people to the local area. Students have autonomy over the creative portion and can decide themselves what they would like to do. Part one: Begin the class with a thought starter from the unit. Either the images of young people from other parts of the world or a video on young refugees resettled in Australia. This is designed to provoke students to consider liveability in their local area compared to other young people in the world.

Part two: Students revise and brainstorm as a class the big factors of liveability they have learned over the unit under headings:

• Stability, Health Care, Culture and Environment, Education, Infrastructure Entertainment

What do they value? What does their family value? Prompt them with previous questions from the unit.

Part three: After the students have identified as a class what each factor means. They are tasked at investigating Point Cook, either from prior learning from this unit or further investigation and then identify different aspects of the area under those headings.

To scaffold learning do stability as a class

Stability Is the local area safe? Police Where is the nearest police station? Fire department (where is the closest station?) Part three: Once the class have made some links between the factors of liveability and the local area the task can be explained. Students are to create a Welcome to the Area pamphlet for young people that demonstrates what they perceive as positive factors of liveability. They can create a pamphlet/brochure/booklet/poster or however else they would like to present that information. Students have autonomy on the creative aspect of the class. One student even made a Powerpoint presentation.

The goal of each section is to promote Point Cook and explain the liveability factor in a local context. Eg. What makes Point Cook liveable? What is good about the culture?

Students are provided coloured paper and work on the physical pamphlet. Which should include six sections:

• Title page: An image welcome to the area statement

• Culture: What is good about the culture? Good restaurants? Good cafes? The community?

• Entertainment: How do you entertain yourself in Point Cook?

• Environment: What green spaces/parks are there in Point Cook?

• Infrastructure: What are the roads like? The public transport? The internet? The electricity? The buildings?

• Education: Is there good access to education? What is Alamanda like? Sell it to new people!

Student’s work

s

Summative Assessment

Geography Assessment Key Concept: Global interactions Perspective: Globalisation and Sustainability Learner Profile: Inquirer This assignment will expand on the knowledge you have built during the Place and Liveability unit and develop your research and critical thinking skills. On top of that it gives you the opportunity to not only take ownership of your learning but do what we all would like to do: rule our own village! Students are asked to develop a village of 100 people to enter into The World’s Most Liveable Village Competition that encompasses the factors of liveability that we have learnt over the unit including:

• Access to service and facilities • Environmental quality • Social connectedness • Crime and safety

Students also need to consider the basic needs of their village, its inhabitants and also the criteria that measure liveability. They are given 1 Million dollars to ensure that all of the needs of the village are met. This assignment can be presented as a word document, a poster, a Powerpoint and Prezi presentation or any other way you think of but don’t forget to include each part of the assignment.

Part 1: Finding out

Complete these questions about your village as background information for stage 2. You’ll need to remember the geography

and climate when allocating money towards your villager’s needs and considering liveability.

a) What is the name of your village? b) Identify where your village located? c) Describe the physical geography of your village. Is it urban, rural,

coastal or remote? Does it have mountains? Is it an island? Does it have forests? Etc.

Part 2: Sorting out

Investigate factors of liveability and complete this question

a) What is the allocation of the village’s 1 million dollar budget and their justifications? This can be represented in a list, a graph, a table or any other way you think of but don’t forget to explain your spending.

When answering questions 1 students should consider the basic requirements for liveability which are:

• Stability - crime and safety and free from war. • Education – access to schools and universities. • Health provision – access to hospitals and doctors. • Culture and environment – air and water, green spaces, restaurants

and entertainment/recreational facilities. • Infrastructure - Access to services and facilities, roads, public

transport, telecommunications and power sources.

Part 3: Going further

Complete the following questions to investigate and include in your report.

a) Outline one strategy you used to enhance liveability. b) Explain why you think the strategy is useful in enhancing

liveability?

Part 4: Analysing

Consider what you have learnt about liveability and built upon in this assessment to complete the following question to include in your report.

a) Write a persuasive paragraph about why your village should win

The Most Liveable Village award. The paragraph should address The Most Liveable Village criteria and also different demographics. eg. Age, income, education and cultural background. Why would they want to live there?

Part 5: Creating

Students present their village in the form of a diagram, map or other creative form. Describe, design and construct your village in a way that will inform of its liveability features. You might like to

• Create a map • Draw a picture • Record video • Create a physical model • Create it in minecraft or another program

or any other way you think of but don’t forget to explain your villages liveability features.