This library guide will help you research and present your findings about the liveability of a place in the world. In particular, you will demonstrate your ability to:

• organise and interpret geographical information

• identify and discuss reasons for the liveability of a world city

• communicate geographical information in a logical and clear presentation.

Your teacher will allocate ONE place from the list in your Assessment Task notification for you to investigate and research.

GENERAL CAPABILITIES (GC)

Critical and creative thinking

During your research, you will apply your geographical skills and knowledge to investigate the liveability of your city. You will use this knowledge to explain differences in human well being and to explain how interactions and connections between people, places and environments result in change.

Information and communication technology capability

You will use digital technologies to help you research  and communicate your findings about your city and its liveability.

Literacy

You will read, interpret and evaluate a variety of texts (including websites, videos, ebooks, and articles) as you research about your city.

Numeracy

During your research, you will apply your numeracy skills to the interpretation of maps, graphs, and data to help you understand the geography of your city and its place in the world. 

CROSS-CURRICULUM PRIORITIES (CCP)

Sustainability

During your research, you will consider aspects of your city in relation to sustainability. You will learn about how social, economic and environmental systems in your city interact to support and maintain human life.

A glossary is a list of words in alphabetical order about a particular subject, topic or text, with explanations. A glossary could be described as a brief dictionary.

You may find it helpful to refer to this glossary as you research about the liveability and environmental quality of your city.

Note: the embedded links for some words provide further information about a term or concept.

continent

One of the seven major land areas on the Earth, which are North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica.

crime rate

the number of crimes that are committed during a period of time in a particular place.

fertility rate

average number of children born to women during their reproductive years

environmental quality

The characteristics of an environment or place that affect people's physical and mental health and quality of life eg the extent of air or water pollution, noise, access to
open space, traffic volumes, the visual effects of buildings and roads.

hemisphere

A half of the earth, usually as divided into northern and southern halves by the equator, or into western and eastern halves by an imaginary line passing through the poles.

infant mortality

The death of children under the age of one year.

latitude

the angular distance of a place north or south of the earth's equator, or of the equator of a celestial object, usually expressed in degrees and minutes.

life expectancy

The average period that a person may expect to live.

literacy rate

Total number of literate persons in a given age group, expressed as a percentage of the total population in that age group.

liveability 

An assessment of what a place is like to live in, using particular criteria, for example, environmental quality, crime and safety, education and health provision, access to shops and services, recreational facilities and cultural activities.

longitude

the distance of a place east or west of an imaginary line between the North Pole and the South Pole, measured in degrees

sanitation

Conditions relating to public health, especially the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sewage disposal.

CSPD eResource Databases: Primary Explora & Secondary Explora

Online databases provide access to information which is not freely available on the internet. Databases often have extra features that make them useful to students (such as citation tools, read aloud functions, and the ability to save articles directly to Google Drive or share on Google Classroom). Through school, you have access to the EBSCOHost Research Databases which provides full-text access to articles from journals, newspapers, magazines, reference books and more. 

For your assignment, try searching the Primary Explora and Secondary Explora databases to get started with facts and information to complete your scaffold.

Tips for using the CSPD eResource databases:

1. To research your city using the databases, follow the steps shown in the Google Slide (below) for the Primary Explora database. 

2. After you have searched the Primary Explora database, use the same steps to search the Secondary Explora database.

Kidrex is a safe search engine that uses Google Custom Search. Apart from safe searching, one of the benefits of using Kidrex is search results with an educational focus. This will save you time when searching online and provide you with better quality website results to select from. Kidrex also lists many web results with an image which helps when browsing results. Watch the ClickView video to get started.

Getting started - Research tips:

For example, try searching the following keyword terms in kidrex.org:

1. Tokyo AND liveability OR livability 

2. The results at the top of the first page will include a cluster of advertisements. You can scroll past these and then start scanning your results for websites of interest.

3. Remember to go beyond the first page of results to find additional websites of interest.

Evaluation tip:

• You need to consider a number of questions to evaluate a website’s credibility and relevance. Applying a set of questions such as the WWWDOT framework can help you work out if a website is useful for your research.  

• WWWDOT is an acronym for the factors to consider when evaluating a website as a possible source of information:

Who wrote it and what credentials do they have?

Why was it written?

When was it written or updated?

Does it help meet my needs?

Organisation of site

To-do list for the future

Alternative search engines to Google

Google is the most popular search engine. However, it is not the ONLY search engine available, and it is recommended that you complement your internet research with other search engines. Try a few of the following search engines:

• DuckDuckGo (recommended when you want to exclude your location and previous search history)

• Bing

• Kiddle

• KidRex (this site draws its results from Google but tends to exclude commercial sites which is helpful for students. More education-based and organisation sites appear in page results)

• WolframAlpha

• Ecosia

ADDITIONAL WEBSITES TO EXPLORE

(Note: when researching, it's good practice to compare a few sources).

GENERAL COUNTRY INFORMATION AND STATISTICS

• Explore city life - a website with information about cities quality of life. This US website compiles and present data on key quality of life factors, including traffic conditions, pollution levels, crime statistics, healthcare access, cost of living, and more.

• Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade : country, economy and regional information: http://www.dfat.gov.au/GEO/

This Australian Government website is an excellent resource for authoritative information regarding almost 240 countries. Entries for most countries include recent data regarding history, people, government, the economy, travel advice and foreign relations.

• www.wolframalpha.com (Computational Knowledge Engine)

Wolfram/Alpha is a search engine with a difference. It provides you with access to the world's facts and data and calculates answers across a range of topics). Try searching one of your cities.