AUSTRALIA

Kyle Speer
Secondary
Geography

Purpose:

To inform and educate the students about "the land down under."

Connection to the National Geography Standards:

No. 2. Uses mental maps to give spatial perspective to the world. Students must understand where Australia is relative to the U.S.
No. 4. Knows and understands the physical and human characteristics of places. This was chosen so the students could understand what it is like and what would it take to be able to adapt to their way of life.
No. 12. Knows and understands the process, patterns, and function of human settlements. This standard was chosen so the students could tell some of the history of Australia.
No. 18. Knows and understands how to apply geography to interpret the present and the future. Students must be aware about where we are and where we are going.

Objectives:
Students will demonstrate their ability to:

Be able to identify and locate major cities in Australia.
Be able to identify different regions and their climates.
Be able to define the meanings of some of the Australian "slang"
Be able to use the Internet in the study of Australia.

Overview of Presentation:


This unit will be all about Australia. During some part of the class, students will get into six groups. They will do some research over one of the six Australian states. On day four they will present the information they find to the class as a group. They will give the major towns in that state, the average temperature, climate, major landforms, agriculture, population;etc. over each state. There will also be worksheets handed out in class to be done at home with quizzes over the worksheets the next day. The class will also be watching a film over Australia. At the end of the unit there will be a test over material from the worksheets, quizzes, lectures, and presentations.

Day 1

Lesson #1 <> Procedures:
Sponge Activity:  Plan to get the students to be able to identify and locate some of the major cities and towns in Australia: Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra, and Darwin.
Opening:  Have the students break up into their six teams.
Guided Practice:  Show the students a map of Australia and have them tell a bit about it. 
Show them some of the cities and explain a little bit about them. Show the students a web site address for some maps of Australia using the classroom computer with LCD panel and projector. Geosystem Global, http://geog.gmu.edu/gess/jwc/cartogrefs.html
Independent Practice:  Give the students a worksheet to have them do for homework. Have them locate and tell a little about the towns. (Due next day)
Evaluation/Assessment: Give them a quiz over the worksheet. (next day)
Closure:  Show a film over Australia.

Day 2 Lesson #2

Procedures:

Sponge Activity:  Plan to have the students identify the climates and regions of Australia.
Opening:  Have the students break up into their six groups.
Guided Practice:  Show the students the different regions and inform them of the climates. This part of the lesson should be a lecture.
Independent Practice:  Give them a worksheet for homework to identify the regions and climates of Australia. (due next day)
Evaluation/Assessment:  Give the students a quiz the next day over the material from the homework.
Closure:  Watch a video about Australia: "Australia" National Geographic Explorer. 1990.
Video.

Day 3

Lesson #3

Procedures :
Sponge Activity: Have the students think of and write down some of the Australian "slang" words they know.
Opening: In this lesson you should plan to learn some of the different meanings to some of the humorous Australian words such as: barbie, sheila, walkabout, etc.
Guided Practice: Use the school computer lab that is connected to the Internet and introduce the Web Site, Resources for World Regional Geography at
http://pharos.uwc.edu/courses/geo110/geo110.html
This is a good web site for a dictionary with hundred of entries of Australian slang and what they mean in our terms.
Independent Practice: Have the students look up and define about 10-15 different words. (due the next day)
Evaluation/Assessment: The next day, give the students a quiz over the vocabulary words.
Closure: Have the students get into their six research groups and work on their project the remainder of class.

Day 4

Presentations Due
Sponge Activity: None
Opening: Have the students sit with their six groups.
Guided Practice: None
Independent Practice: None
Evaluation/Assessment: Groups make presentations in turn and they may use the classroom computer to show Internet information as well a view graphs. Each group will be evaluated using a rubric chart.
Closure: None

Day 5

Review For Test
Sponge Activity: None
Opening: Recap some of the main highlights of the week.
Guided Practice: Review the students thoroughly and let them ask questions over any of the material.
Independent Practice: None
Evaluation/Assessment: Test the next day.
Closure: None

Day 6

TEST
Sponge Activity: None
Opening: Ask if there are any final questions the students might have.
Guided Practice: None
Independent Practice: None
Evaluation/Assessment: Test #1
Closure: None

MATERIALS

1. Textbook
2. Maps
3. The Internet
4. Australia video
5. Worksheets- the worksheets will be some homework questions over the assignments.
6. Some handouts over the lesson.- will be some pages given to the students, such as, graphs,
maps, etc.
7. 16 mm Projector
8. Overhead Projector
9. Classroom computer, Internet accessible, with LCD panel for overhead projector.
10. TV monitor
11. VCR
Student Materials
1. Textbook
2. Pens
3. Paper

Extensions
Science- The climate and the landforms. You could report on these things for a project in a science class.
Government- How the country is run. You could do a report on how they run their country different than we do.
History- How Australia came to be. You could do a report on how Australia was discovered and how it got to where it is today.

Bibliography


Cleek, Dick, Resources for World Regional Geography.
http://pharos.uwc.edu/courses/geo110/geo110.html (7 Jan. 1997)
Glick, Barry, Geosystem Global:
http://geog.gmu.edu/gess/jwc/cartogrefs.html (Jan. 1996)
The World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places. World Book Encyclopedia. 1992
"Australia" National Geographic Explorer. 1990 Video.
"Australia" Rand McNally Atlas. 1997.

Internet Worksheet:


Name: ___________________
Web Site URL: __________________________________
1. The Nation's capitol is in what city? _____________________
3. Where is the present capitol located:in the country? ____________
4. What is the national tree? _____________________
5. What is the national flower? _____________________
6. Why would the national tree and flower not grow well in Texas?
__________________________________________________
7. What is the national bird? ____________
Does it live there year-around? ________________
8. What is the national song? ______________________________________
What is the meaning behind the national song? ______________________________________________________________________________
9. What are some national unique foods and how were they influenced?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10. Briefly describe the national flag (Colors and Emblems):
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Created April 25, 1997.

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