Curriculum guides

Through geographical inquiry, students develop deep knowledge of our mobile connections and the resulting consequences on places. The guide engages students in key learning activities and case studies that investigate place perceptions, access to technology, tourism, m-commerce, trade, transport and how people’s decisions affect the way products and services are produced and consumed. Providing solutions to complex global issues requires students to be future-focused, possessing the dispositions of a global citizen.

Mobile Connections encourages students to be informed, critical, curious and empathetic so they will have the confidence and skills to plan and conduct geographic action for a sustainable future. The final stage of inquiry in the guide addresses opportunities for action including the running of a MobileMuster. Through an understanding of the circular economy, and the need to recycle the Earth’s resources responsibly, students can advocate for change within their
school and community.

The program fosters to use of technology in the classroom as an educational resource that transcends the classroom bounds. This allow students to engage with content and concepts in a way that provides for dynamic, interactive, collaborative and relevant learning
experiences. As students build capacity in using information and communication
technologies (ICT) they enhance their ability to contribute in an increasingly knowledge-based and technologically sophisticated society.

It is recommended that students have access to mobile technology, or other types of connected devices, to build on these capabilities.

MobileMuster partnered with educational experts from the Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre to develop the Mobile Connections Curriculum Guide. The guide has been reviewed by curriculum experts and key stakeholders ensuring it delivers quality teaching and student learning outcomes.

The Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre provides environmental education and learning experiences for students and teachers. The centre has developed a range of interactive digital books to support the Australian Curriculum and provides expert professional learning workshops for teachers in the areas of environmental education and sustainability. Mobile Connections is a dynamic concept. This guide will be updated annually ensuring content, source materials and relevant issues are current. 

To support Mobile Connections in the classroom access the digital resources including animations, interactives and reference material from the MobileMuster website. A digital multimodal book in both ePub and Apple Books formats has been designed to support Section 4 and 5 of the Mobile Connections program. It contains narrated videos, stunning images, interactive activities and detailed text to help students design and implement positive actions for sustainability.

The resources contained in this guide may be used for educational purposes only. We encourage teachers to use Mobile Connections in the classroom for educational purposes. Please contact MobileMuster mobilemuster@amta.org.au if you require special permission to use or reproduce our resources.

Learning Area Year 9 Geography

Key inquiry questions

A framework for developing students’ geographical knowledge, understanding and skills is provided through the inclusion of inquiry questions and specific inquiry skills, including the use and interpretation of maps, photographs and other representations of geographical data.

The key inquiry questions for Year 9 are:

• What are the causes and consequences of change in places and environments and how can this change be managed?
• What are the future implications of changes to places and environments? Why are MobileMuster and interdependencies important for the future of places and Environments?

Unit 2: The Geography of Interconnections

Geographic Knowledge and Understanding

• The perceptions people have of place, and how these influence their connections to different places (ACHGK065 – Scootle)
• The way transportation and information and communication technologies are used to connect people to services, information and people in other places (ACHGK066 – Scootle)
• The ways that places and people are interconnected with other places through trade in goods and services, at all scales (ACHGK067 – Scootle)
• The effects of the production and consumption of goods on places and environments throughout the world and including a country from North-East Asia (ACHGK068 – Scootle)
• The effects of people’s travel, recreational, cultural or leisure choices on places, and the implications for the future of these places (ACHGK069 – Scootle)

Geographic Inquiry and Skills

Observing, questioning and planning

• Develop geographically significant questions and plan an inquiry that identifies and applies appropriate geographical methodologies and concepts (ACHGS063 – Scootle)

Collecting, recording, evaluating and representing

• Evaluate sources for their reliability, bias and usefulness and select,
• collect, record and organise relevant geographical data and information,
• using ethical protocols, from a range of appropriate primary and secondary sources (ACHGS064 – Scootle)
• Represent multi-variable data in a range of appropriate forms, for example scatter plots, tables, field sketches and annotated diagrams, with and without the use of digital and spatial technologies (ACHGS065 – Scootle)
• Represent spatial distribution of geographical phenomena by constructing special purpose maps that conform to cartographic conventions, using spatial technologies as appropriate (ACHGS066 – Scootle)

Interpreting, analysing and concluding

• Interpret and analyse multivariable data and other geographical information using qualitative and quantitative methods, and digital and spatial technologies as appropriate, to make generalisations and inferences, propose explanations for patterns, trends, relationships and anomalies, and predict outcomes (ACHGS067 – Scootle)
• Apply geographical concepts to synthesise information from various sources and draw conclusions based on the analysis of data and information, taking into account alternative points of view (ACHGS068 – Scootle)
• Identify how geographical information systems (GIS) might be used to analyse geographical data and make predictions (ACHGS069 – Scootle)

Communicating

• Present findings, arguments and explanations in a range of appropriate communication forms, selected for their effectiveness and to suit audience and purpose; using relevant geographical terminology, and digital technologies as appropriate (ACHGS070 – Scootle)

Reflecting and responding

• Reflect on and evaluate findings of an inquiry to propose individual and collective action in response to a contemporary geographical challenge, taking account of environmental, economic, political and social considerations; and explain the predicted outcomes and consequences of their proposal (ACHGS071 – Scootle)

Cross Curriculum Priorities

Sustainability

The inquiry into our mobile connections has a strong focus on education for sustainability. Through the priority of sustainability, students develop the knowledge, skills, values and world views necessary to contribute to more sustainable patterns of living.

Education for sustainability goes

beyond just imparting knowledge about sustainability. It builds on an individual’s capacity for transformational change. In line with the Australian Curriculum this approach is futures-oriented, with a focus on achieving environmental outcomes through informed action. Students can follow the sustainability action process, a scaffold for teachers and students to investigate the issues associated with the lifecycle of mobile phones.

This unit will take students on a journey which leads them to take action through participation in a MobileMuster at their school. It will provide them with the information and motivation to inform their community about recycling responsibly. It will also encourage students to take their knowledge with them as they become active users of mobile phones and have to make decisions about their use, reuse and Recycling.

General Capabilities

Literacy

Students develop literacy knowledge and skills as they view and assess information for learning and communicating. Mobile Connections encourages students to access various information sources, to process information for meaning and to communicate to express ideas, opinions and emotional connections. The unit supports students as they navigate digital information enabling confidence in a student’s digital and visual literacy.

Numeracy

Numeracy is developed as students engage with geographical skills and tools. Spatial reasoning, interpreting statistical information, recognising patterns and relationships and calculation are required as students evaluate and process geographical data to make meaning.

Information and Communication Technology

Connections to people and places and associated consequences are examined in the context of enhanced and expanding access to information and communication technology. This unit focuses on building teacher and student capacity in the use of ICT to access, process and communicate information and ideas.

Critical and Creative Thinking

Key learning activities and engagement with local, regional, national and global case studies in the unit identify and examine current social, environmental and economic issues and the associated challenges. Providing opportunities to develop capability in critical and creative thinking enhances thinking skills to propose, design, innovate and develop solutions for our future.

Intercultural understanding

Students learn to value, reflect upon and critically view cultural practices and perspectives. Global case studies, as delivered in the unit’s key learning activities, provide learners with opportunities to recognise cultural interconnections, commonalities and differences, enabling positive intercultural behaviours. Most importantly, it recognises growth in the necessary dispositions for building intercultural understanding, those of empathy, respect and responsibility.

Ethical understanding

Mobile Connections investigates our expanding connections with distant people and places through mobile and communication technology. Connectivity exposes students to the world’s complex issues and with it the need for responses that reflect ethical considerations. The unit’s process of inquiry deepens knowledge of global issues around social and environmental justice providing the pathway for socially responsible individuals and communities.

A geographical inquiry

Mobile Connections follows the geographical inquiry process. The geographical inquiry process enables students to investigate geographical questions and follow steps to collect, evaluate, interpret, analyse and process data to allow a student to make conclusions and communicate their findings. The study of geography also provides students to form proposals, plan action and if appropriate, act upon it. 

The inquiry process provides the opportunity to assess the knowledge and skills gained from inquiry as well as assessment on the geographical inquiry itself.

To communicate and reflect on the section inquiry, students complete the following tasks assessing their knowledge and inquiry skills gained:

• collate their geographical information;
• provide evidence of data processing by evaluating resources, interpreting data, analysing data and drawing conclusions; and
• communicate their results using a variety of strategies, reflecting and proposing actions.

Students can present their findings in a variety of ways such as written reports, documentaries, animations,visual or graphical representations, infographics, role play scenarios or speeches.