Illustration 1: Landscape and landforms of Wilsons Promontory

Curriculum overview

The Australian Curriculum: Geography and (its various HASS-based iterations) content descriptions addressed in the illustration are:

  • The different types of landscapes and their distinctive landform features
  • The geomorphic processes that produce landforms, including a case study of at least one landform
  • The human causes and effects of landscape degradation

Learning goals

In the Australian Curriculum: Geography students have the opportunity to explore the diversity of the world's landscapes and landforms. As they do this, they investigate the processes responsible for the formation of these landscapes and landforms. They are also encouraged to study landscapes and landforms in different locations and at a variety of scales.

In this illustration, students are given the opportunity to study the landscape and landform features of Wilsons Promontory.
The illustration-specific learning goals include:

  • observing, identifying and categorising landscapes and landforms using photographs and other sources
  • identifying and explaining the physical processes shaping the landscapes and landforms of Wilsons Promontory
  • identifying and explaining the causes of landscape degradation on Wilsons Promontory.

Geographical understanding and context

The world has a great diversity of landscapes and landforms. Information on the nature, form, and processes involved in the creation of these landscapes is provided by geomorphologists - specialist geographers who study the landform features of landscapes.

There are many factors involved in the creation of these landscapes, both physical and human-induced. Physical factors are those related to the processes of the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere, and broadly operate in arid, coastal, glacial, humid and volcanic environments. People also put pressure on landscapes and the processes involved in their formation. Such landscapes are described as experiencing 'human-induced' change.

Teaching approaches

  • Introducing the concepts

Before undertaking the illustration-specific activities your students need to be able to answer the following questions:

  • What is a landscape?
  • What are landform features and how can they be classified?
  • What processes create distinctive geomorphic landform features?

The resource sheet Landscapes and landforms (PDF) will assist your students to consolidate their understanding of this foundation knowledge. It also provides a set of initial activities that draws on your students' knowledge of the local area.

  • Exploring Wilsons Promontory

Once your students have demonstrated an understanding of the geographical concepts on which this illustration is based, introduce them to the material featured in the PowerPoint presentation Wilsons Promontory (PPT).

The Wilsons Promontory PowerPoint resource is presented as a case study featuring several specific site studies. The purpose of this resource is to direct students' learning to a region of Australia with which they may not be familiar. It provides them with an opportunity to investigate landscapes and landforms.

The following activities will help 'scaffold' your students' knowledge and understanding of the landscape and landforms of Wilsons Promontory.

  • Using an atlas ask your students to locate Wilsons Promontory.
  • Using Google Earth, have your students undertake a preliminary 'visual exploration' of Wilsons Promontory.
  • Complete the sequence of activities based on the PowerPoint presentation Wilsons Promontory (PPT) and outlined on the Virtual fieldwork worksheet (PDF).
  • Extension activity

The resource sheet Landscapes and landforms: Indigenous perceptions of landscape (PDF) provides two extracts related to the landscape and landform perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. A series of activities provided will facilitate your students' analysis of these extracts.

What you need

Access to the Internet.
Facilities for showing the PowerPoint presentation.
Landscapes and landforms (PDF).
Wilsons Promontory (PPT).
Virtual fieldwork worksheet (PDF).
Landscapes and landforms: Indigenous perceptions of landscape (PDF).
Time allocation: A minimum of four to six lessons would be required for students to complete the activities featured in this illustration.

Curriculum connections

This illustration links with the content descriptions of the following Phase 1 Australian Curriculum.

English

  • Investigate how visual and multimodal texts allude to or draw on other texts or images to enhance and layer meaning
  • Use a range of software, including word processing programs, to create, edit and publish texts imaginatively

Science

  • Sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks contain minerals and are formed by processes that occur within Earth over a variety of timescales
  • Summarise data, from students' own investigations and secondary sources, and use scientific understanding to identify relationships and draw conclusions