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Use this website with Beverley Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling - Practical Considerations to help you develop your own educational curriculum to suit your family situation, beliefs and lifestyle. The checklists can help you identify your children's current educational skill level in each subject area, as well as find any 'gaps' in their learning, plan what they need to cover or keep track of what has been learned. As you can appreciate this website is continuously under development... It's our aim to add pages on a regular basis in all curriculum areas: check back frequently. We hope you enjoy the articles and activities and find the links and recommended resources useful. Over the next year we will be working our way through each subject area and writing fresh, new content. |
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Thinking Geographically
© Beverley Paine, August 2007
[this article forms part of a series on Geography you can buy as a Practical Homeschooling booklet from Always Learning Books]
Did you know that geography is simply the study of place? What are some of the things you can know about the place where you live? Thinkin geographically involves exploring the following five themes and building up your knowledge in each area. The more you know about the geography of a place the more you can understand why human society and different cultures, because where we live has a huge impact on how we live.
As you spend time exploring and thinking about the following themes you might like to gather and record your information. What kinds of ways can you share what you know, or keep it so that you can refer to it later? One of the reasons we collect information and record it is so that we can monitor change over time and learn why change occurs. This is how we learn to adapt our environment to our needs, and how we can adapt better to suit our particular environment.
Location: Gather together some maps that show your town. Compare these maps. You should have some maps that are local, that is, they show your town in detail relative to nearby towns. Hopefully you'll have some maps that show your town in your region, as well as your state, and where it is in relation to the rest of Australia. Spend some time discussing your town's location relative to some of the major landmarks in your state.
Place: You know your town well because you visit it regulary. Describe the town's people, animals, and some of the features of the landscape. If you can, find a topographic map and try to locate some of those features on the map. Make lists, or better still, create posters of charts that look at each category in some depth. You'll find that once you start exploring some of these ideas you'll be creating lots of different categories - sociey, like life, is incredibly diverse!
who are the people that live in town, around the town, further out? Some questions you might investigate are:
- what types of things to do they do every day?
- what kind of animals can you find in and around the town? Think about both domestic and wild animals and don't forget insects, birds, fish and reptiles!
- how do people use animals in your town?
- what parts of the naturally occuring landscape do people use?
Human and Environment Interaction: Describe some of the changes they have noticed that are caused by people, such as new buildings being constructed or the opening of a new park, and explain how these changes might affect the area's animals and plants.
Movement: How long have people lived in your town? Did people always live here, or did they come from somewhere else? Where did they come from and why? What made this place attractive for settlement? Has the population of the town changed over time and if so, what caused the changes?
Region: Every town is situated in a region and that region is usually identified by it's geography - how the land is formed and how people use it. Does your region have a name, such as the Fleurieu Peninsula or the Limestone Coast in South Australia? Explain what makes your region unique and different from other parts of Australia. It might be it's climate, it's industry, it's history... or all three! Or maybe something completely different...
Once you've explored and investigated your town in this geographically way you can pick another town, maybe one far away, in another country even. Comparing different areas and towns teaches us so much about humanity and this wonderful world on which we live!
Some questions to think about:
- Why do you think it is important to know geography?
- Why is it good to know about the things you've studied in this geography unit?
- Why is it important to know how to read maps or to be able to identify the town's common animals and plants?
Did you know that...
Geography is immersed in technology and that a sound knowledge of geogrpahy will help you in whatever field of work you pursue when you graduate homeschool. Geographic knowledge is gained through using maps, satellite images and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and learning how to use these tools imparts technical skills that are easily transferred to other areas. By studying and learning about geography, you will be learning how to:
- collect, analyse and synthesise information
- use and develop research, thinking and organizational skills
- communicate ideas and information orally and through writing
- solve problems and develep decision making skills
- be able to effectively use maps, satellite imagery and databases
What is important to remember is that you learn skills by practising them rather than reading about them!
on this website is of a general
nature only and is not intended as
personal or professional advice.
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Text & Images on this site Copyright © 1999-2008 Beverley Paine. All rights reserved. Please note that the opinions and articles included in the suite of Homeschool Australia websites are not necessarily those of Beverley and Robin Paine, nor do we endorse or necessarily recommend products (other than our own) listed in contributed articles, links, pages, or advertisements.