Title of Unit / Big Environmental Year Year 8

Idea Change: Urbanisation

Curriculum Area HASS: Geography Time Frame 5 Weeks
Developed By Nikki Cook
Identify Desired Results (Stage 1)
Content Descriptions
This unit is part of the ‘Changing Nations’ section of the F-10 curriculum for Year 8’s. This
content will look at the effects of urbanisation on population centres, the environment,
economic change and the social impacts of urbanisation. It will cover the process of
urbanisation, including why it happens, and how this effect is changing countries.
Students will use a program to run a simulated city, keeping a log of the changes that
happen as the population grows within their city. This will be supported by prompting
questions that will encourage their ability to reflect on why the changes are occurring, as
well as the impact of these changes. The unit will finish with a summative assessment
looking at a megacity within the Asia region, looking at its population growth trends,
environmental impact, social impact and future development. As part of this assignments
students will also have to look at and issue the city faces, then propose a way the city
could improve this (use of solar power, better public transport systems etc.)

Achievement Standards
By the end of this unit students will have a better understanding of the geographical
processes that impact the characteristics of places. They will gain a better
understanding of the impact of people on the environment and the ways in which
humans alter natural landscapes by the process of urbanization.
Further, students will understand the push and pull impact on developing cities and the
impact it has on country towns; as well as looking at and understanding how
increased urbanisation impacts the environment.
Students identify geographically significant questions from observations to frame an
inquiry. They evaluate a range of primary and secondary sources to locate useful
and reliable information and data.
Students will select, record and represent data and the location and distribution of
geographical phenomena in a range of appropriate digital and non-digital forms,
including maps at different scales that conform to cartographic conventions.
Students will analyse geographical maps, data and other information to propose
explanations for spatial distributions, patterns, trends and relationships, and draw
reasoned conclusions.

General Capabilities Cross-curriculum Priorities

Literacy Sustainability
- Students develop literacy - Students respond to the challenges of
capability as they learn how sustainability requiring an understanding of
to build geographical the key historical, geographical, political,
knowledge and economic and societal factors involved, and
understanding and how to how these different factors interrelate
explore, discuss, analyse - Students study the biophysical processes with
and communicate investigations of the attitudinal,
 geographical information, demographic, social, economic and political
concepts and ideas. influences on human use and management
- Students develop oral and of the environments
written skills, making - Students explore contemporary issues of
increasingly sophisticated sustainability and develop action plans and
language and text choices. possible solutions to local, national and
- Students understand that global issues which have social, economic
language varies according and environmental perspectives.
to context and they Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia
develop their ability to use - Students investigate the diversity of cultures,
language flexibly. They use values, beliefs, histories and environments
language to ask that exists between and within the countries
distinctively geographical of the Asia region, and how this diversity
questions. influences the way people interact with each
- Students plan a geographical other, the places where they live and the
inquiry, collect and social, economic, political and cultural
evaluate information, systems of the region as a whole
communicate their
findings, reflect on the
conduct of their inquiry and
respond to what they have
learnt.
Numeracy
- Students develop numeracy
capability as they
investigate concepts
fundamental to geography,
for example, the effects of
location and distance,
spatial distributions and the
organisation and
management of space
within places.
- Students apply numeracy
skills in geographical
analysis by counting and
measuring, constructing
and interpreting tables and
graphs, calculating and
interpreting statistics and
using statistical analysis to
test relationships between
variables. In constructing
and interpreting maps,
students work with
numerical concepts of
grids, scale, distance, area
and projections.
ICT
- Students use ICT to define
and plan information
searches of a range of
 primary and secondary
sources.
- They locate, access,
generate, organise and/or
analyse data and
information and apply
criteria to verify the
integrity and value of the
digital data, information
and sources using ICT.
- Students use ICT to generate
ideas, plans and processes
that clarify a task or steps,
and generate and manage
digital solutions to
challenges arising from
learning activities or
responding to a need or
creative intention.
- Students use ICT to share
ideas and information to
collaboratively construct
knowledge and digital
solutions. They develop an
understanding of the
context when
communicating using ICT,
including a sense of the
audience, the form of
communication, the
techniques used and the
characteristics of the users
and the technologies

Understandings Essential Questions

Overarching Understanding Overarching Topical

- Students will gain an overarching

understanding of what - How do - What does
urbanisation is urbanisation
environmental and
- Students will understand the have to do with
human processes
impact that humans, and me?
development of Cities has on the affect the
environment characteristics of
- Students will gain skills that allow places and - Why is it
them to critically think on the environments? important to
impact that their use of goods learn about
and consumption may have on humanities imp
the environment act on the
- Students will be able to analyse environment?
and understand data in relation - How do the
to populations, growth and interconnections
expansion between places, - How is
- Students will gain an people and Urbanisation
understanding of mapping and impacting
 graphing in relation to Australia?
geographical processes environments
- Students will gain an expanded affect the lives of
vocabulary of geographical terms
people?

Related Misconceptions
- Australia has heaps of space! So,
this urbanisation stuff doesn’t
impact us that much
- We recycle, so we don’t pollute
- What are the
that much
consequences of
changes to places
and environments
and how can these
changes be
managed?

Knowledge Skills
Students will know… Students will be able to…
Students will know what urbanisation is Students will be able to critically analyse data sources based on
cities, including graphs and pie charts
Students will gain an understanding of the
Students will be able to research a set task
environmental impact cites have
Students will be able to analyse sources
on the environment
Students will be able to compare a simulation to real world
Students will be able to identify push and locations
pull factors of cities
Students will be able to discuss the
impacts of future population
growth
Assessment Evidence (Stage 2)
Performance Task Description
Cities: Skylines Students will have a work book filled with answers to questions based around their city
weekly analysis simulation
(formative)
City analysis: Students will present a multi-modal presentation about one of Australia’s major cities,
Australia looking at social and environmental features of the city.
Other Evidence
Students will have a weekly set of questions to answer about their simulated city, relating it back to
that week’s content based around urbanisation and population growth.

Learning Plan (Stage 3)

This week will begin by looking at the concept of urbanisation. This will
Week 1: begin with a mind map drawn on the board which originates from a group
discussion. Using this information as a class we will begin to analyse what
Essential Questions: is urbanisation and why it occurs. This will include:
What is urbanisation? - What are push and pull factors
What causes urbanisation? - Why are more people moving to cities?
- Why Urbanisation happens
- What cities have the largest populations
Building knowledge:
At the end of the first double, students will have time to look at the
Population density interactive map
(http://luminocity3d.org/WorldCity/#3/26.90/84.90) and will be asked to
think about “what has caused the cities with the largest populations to
develop to the size they have?”
 The second lesson of this double will begin to look at what constitutes a
city. In groups of four students will have 10 minutes to research what key
infrastructure a city may need. They will then be given 20 minutes sketch
out a city plan on a large piece of paper and label what they think key
features are (public transport, water, power etc). After this time the
groups will share what they have come up with, with a list created on the
white board. Students will also be asked to begin to think about the
environmental impact of urbanisation; this will happen in the last 20
minutes as students will be asked to find a picture of a current day city,
and a picture or drawing of what it was like when the city was
smaller/before it existed. Adelaide city is a good example of this.

The final lesson of the week will introduce a unit long task. This task will
be based around the game Cities: Skyline which is an interactive city
building and development game. Students will be given a series of
questions to answer every 5,000 population (once the population hits
20,000 this will become every 10,000). These include key questions listed
below. This will be an ongoing weekly task, so students can see a
simulated city and how it’s growth impacts and alters the natural
environment. The students will be asked to reflect on the questions below
and answer the questions, using supporting images. They will also be
asked to take a screenshot of their starting, un modified natural
environment.

- What has changed environmentally within your city?

- How heavily polluted is your city? (include a picture of your city’s
pollution)
- How much land has become developed since the last entry?
(include a comparison picture)
- How has demand for a zone type
(Residential/Industrial/Commercial) forced your city to grow?
- What links can you see between pollution and population
growth?
- What links can you see between population growth and the size
of the city’s footprint?
- What type of energy source do you use?
- How has population growth and demand for resources impacted
the environment
- What natural resources are you farming/extracting?
- What environmental impact does this include?

The second lesson of this week will begin to look at the social impact of
Week 2: urbanisation. We will discuss what a megacity is, population growth and
the megacities of Asia. We will watch the following video Overpopulation
Essential Questions: – The Human Explosion Explained (https://www.youtube.com/watch?
What is the social impact of v=QsBT5EQt348 ) We will return to the LuminoCity populations website
urbanisation? used in week 1, and the students will all pick a Megacity in the Asia
How does urbanisation change region. This will be used as a research-based objective for the rest of the
the way cities work? unit.

Students will be given 30 minutes to look up their megacity and find some
Building knowledge: basic details about it
This will build upon the - Current population
foundation built in week - Population 40-50 years ago
1 and will begin to have a - Estimated population in 2050
more in depth look at the - Major exports
- Major imports
impact of urbanisation.
- Cities size
- Cities “wealth”

The rest of the lesson will continue with a class group discussion, based
around the idea of “Why has the city’s population increased?” which will
 lead into a discussion about push and pull factors and the impact they
have on city growth.

The second lesson of the week will continue with looking at consequences
of Urbanisation. Students will have time to research more into why the
city they selected population boomed, and what impact it has had on the
city. There will be some guiding questions from the last lessons discussion
about why they think it happened, as well as the below guidelines to help
them.

- Poverty levels
- Wealth levels
- Agriculture
- ‘Country’ towns and farmers
- Crime rates
- Social issues
- Education rates

The final single lesson of the week will continue with the students being
allowed time to continue Cities: Skylines, answering the questions as they
progress through the game. They will be asked to pay attention to what
their citizens demands (Schools, Police, Fire etc).

This week will be focused on the environmental impact of urbanisation.

Week 3 We will begin by brainstorming on the board environmental impacts of
population growth. Then we will look at some major environmental issues
Essential Questions: the world currently faces in the way of global warming, pollution and
What is the environmental resource depletion. We will watch the 20 Signs China's Pollution Has
impact of urbanisation? Reached Apocalyptic Levels | China Uncensored
How does urbanisation shape (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwOBRH56Ic0 ). This will help give
the landscape? insight into pollution and megacities.

After this we will discuss whether they think Urbanisation can have
Building knowledge: positive impacts on the environment. Students will then have time to look
Students will understand at the environmental impact of their chosen city, looking at both the
how cities grow, and the negative and positive environmental impact of their city. They will be
increase in resources and prompted to look at extended damage areas, such as rainforests for
other features that they agriculture land or mining industry.
need. This will be built on The final single lesson of the week will continue with the students being
by looking at the impact allowed time to continue Cities: Skylines, answering the questions as they
this has on environments. progress through the game. They will be asked to pay attention to the
environmental changes that has happened to their city due to growth, as
well as comparisons between the un-settled land compared to their
current growth rate. This will also look at natural resource depletion.

In the last five minutes of lessons students will be told they will have their
major assignment introduced next week and will be given the week to
work on it.

Week 4 This week students will be given their assignment. They will need to make
a multi-modal presentation about one of Australia’s major cities. They will
Essential Questions: need to discuss the following:
How does urbanisation affect - 2-3 Environmental impact of the city
Australian cities? - 2-3 Social impacts of the city
- Look at Population from 1950, 2000, and 2050.
- Students will need to look at the impact of the 2050 population
Building knowledge:
growth impact on city size and environmental impact
This week will be the - Propose a way to decrease environmental impact of the city
culmination of their
learning, using the
foundation and
knowledge gained from
week 1 – 3 and applying
them in their major
assignment.

Students will have the first double lesson to finalise their presentations
Week 5 then will present in the double and single of this week.