VCE Geography

What is VCE Geography?

So many of the world’s current issues – at a global scale and locally – relate to geography and need geographers in the world to help understand them.

From understanding everything from how and why volcanoes are formed to the impact of overcrowding in urban areas, geographers are integral to help find solutions to some of the biggest issues in the world, such as climate change, urban over-development and natural disasters.

This study of Geography is a structured way of exploring, analysing and understanding the characteristics of people, places and things that make up our world. Geographers are interested in key questions concerning places and geographic phenomena: What is there? Where is it? Why is it there? What are the effects of it being there? How is it changing over time and how could, and should, it change in the future? How is it different from other places and phenomena? How are places and phenomena connected?

VCE Geography allows students to explore the many questions and challenges facing the next generation, which geographers must help solve.

Unit 1

Hazards and Disasters

This unit focuses on the characteristics of hazards and the impacts of hazard events at different scales. How people plan for and respond to specific types of hazards and disasters is also explored. Examples of hazards studied are:

Geological hazards: volcanic activity, earthquakes, tsunamis and avalanches
Hydro-meteorological hazards: droughts, floods, storms and bushfires
Biological hazards: infectious diseases, animal transmitted diseases and plant and animal invasion
Technological hazards: oil spills, air pollution, radiation leaks and epidemics

Areas of Study:

1. Characteristics of hazards

2. Response to hazards and disasters

Unit 2

Tourism: Issues and Challenges

This unit focuses on the characteristics of tourism, where it has developed, how it has changed and its impact on people, places and environments. Tourism within Australia as well as elsewhere in the world is studied. The content includes:

Characteristics of domestic and international tourism.
How tourism has changed over time.
The location of different types of tourist destinations.
Factors affecting tourism.
The impacts of tourism on people, places and environments.
Management strategies and planning for sustainable tourism.

Areas of Study:

1. Characteristics of tourism

2. Impacts of tourism: issues and challenges

Unit 3

Changing the land

This unit focuses on two investigations of geographical change: change in land cover and change in land use. Students investigate the following two major processes that are changing land cover in many regions of the world, including the distribution, causes and impacts of these processes:

Deforestation
Melting Glaciers and Ice Sheets

At a local scale, students investigate a land use change using appropriate fieldwork techniques and secondary sources. They investigate the scale of change, the reasons for change and the impacts of change.

Areas of Study:

1. Land cover change

2. Land use change

Unit 4

Human population – trends and issues

This unit focuses on the geography of human populations. The growth of the world’s population from 2.5 billion in 1950 to over 8 billion today has been on a scale without parallel in human history. In this unit, students investigate the patterns of population change, movement and distribution of populations and how governments, organisations and individuals have responded to changes in different parts of the world. The content includes:

Present-day world population distribution
World population characteristics
History of population growth and expected changes in the 21st century
Population growth and sustainability
Forced and voluntary population movements
Growing population and ageing population trends
Responses to growing populations and ageing populations

Areas of Study:

1. Population dynamics

2. Population issues and challenges

Who do I contact to find out more?

Mrs Angela McIntosh: amcintosh@cmc.vic.edu.au

Mr Rohan Bowles: rbowles@cmc.vic.edu.au

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