Activity: The Bays – Developing Ideas For Renewal – Geography – Years 5 & 6

Quick summary: Students develop a final draft for the development of a site at their school. They begin by thinking about some of the ways other organisations and agencies conduct community consultation, and how it is used to generate and improve ideas for urban development/urban renewal/town planning. Students refine their own ideas for the development of their site and create a poster to share proposals through a gallery walk. Finally, students incorporate feedback from the gallery walk into their final idea and reflect upon their learning.

Lesson developed in partnership with the UrbanGrowth NSW Development Corporation.

Learning intention:

• Students understand how community consultation can be used to improve ideas for urban development/urban renewal/town planning.
• Students understand how community consultation can be used at different stages throughout the planning of a project.

21st century skills:

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Content descriptions:

Year 5 HASS

• The environmental and human influences on the location and characteristics of a place and the management of spaces within them (ACHASSK113)
• Work in groups to generate responses to issues and challenges (ACHASSI102)
• Use criteria to make decisions and judgements and consider advantages and disadvantages of preferring one decision over others (ACHASSI103)
• Present ideas, findings, viewpoints and conclusions in a range of texts and modes that incorporate source materials, digital and non-digital representations and discipline-specific terms and conventions (ACHASSI105)

Year 6 HASS

• Work in groups to generate responses to issues and challenges (ACHASSI130)
• Use criteria to make decisions and judgements and consider advantages and disadvantages of preferring one decision over others (ACHASSI131)
• Present ideas, findings, viewpoints and conclusions in a range of texts and modes that incorporate source materials, digital and non-digital representations and discipline-specific terms and conventions (ACHASSI133)

Syllabus outcomes: Stage 3 – Geography

Students will:

• explain interactions and connections between people, places and environments (GE3-2)
• compare and contrast influences on the management of places and environments (GE3-3)
• acquire, process and communicate geographical information using geographical tools for inquiry (GE3-4)

General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking. 

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.8.

Relevant parts of Year 5 HASS achievement standards: Students identify and describe the interconnections between people and the human and environmental characteristics of places. They identify the effects of these interconnections on the characteristics of places and environments. Students work with others to generate alternative responses to an issue or challenge and reflect on their learning to independently propose action. They present their ideas, findings and conclusions in a range of communication forms using discipline-specific terms and appropriate conventions.

Relevant parts of Year 6 HASS achievement standards: Students collaboratively generate alternative responses to an issue, use criteria to make decisions and identify the advantages and disadvantages of preferring one decision over others. They reflect on their learning to propose action in response to an issue or challenge and present ideas, findings, viewpoints and conclusions in a range of communication forms that incorporate source materials, mapping, graphing, communication conventions and discipline-specific terms.

Topics: Sustainability, Social Issues

Unit of work: The Bays – Year 5 to 6

Time required: 60+ minutes.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – lead students in discussions, assist with refining and selecting final idea and poster creation.

Resources required: Student Worksheet – one copy per student. Device capable of presenting a website to the class. Enough copies of the School Site Factsheet for small group work. Four copies of the Feedback Sheet.

Keywords: The Bays, urban development, community consultation, poster.

All photo images in this lesson are licensed to UrbanGrowthNSW.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.