VCE Geography
Unit 1:
Natural Environments
How to prepare for next year?
WELCOME!
• Organise yourself a folder that contains loose leaf paper,
dividers and plastic pockets.
• Arrange a section in your folder for key terms
• Always bring equipment to class including : pen, highlighter,
pencils, ruler, geography manual, tracing paper, text book
and your folder.
• If you are absent, email the teacher asking what was
completed in the class missed, so you don’t fall behind!
Assessment
• To satisfy each outcome you will be required to
complete a SAC (school assessed coursework)
task.
• If you fail a SAC, you have the opportunity to resit the task on Tuesday afternoon, in Senior
school from 3:30-5:30pm
• You have three attempts at passing SACs
There are 3 SAC’s for Unit 1
• SAC 1 - Toolangi Field Report 40 %
• SAC 2 – Forest Test 20%
• SAC 3 – Volcanic Landforms Presentation 40%
Overview
• This unit investigates the geographic characteristics of natural
environments and the natural processes that shape and change the
earths surface.
• It investigates how the interactions between natural processes and
human activities can also change natural environments.
• The worlds physical environment is composed of four natural
systems: atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere.
• Human activities interact with natural processes, each affecting the
other.
• Students investigate at least two natural environments.
Area of study 1.
Characteristics of natural
environments
• This area of study focuses on natural
environment at two different scales, comparing
and contrasting their geographic characteristics,
for e.g. Location, climate, soils, drainage, natural
vegetation and topography.
• It investigates natural processes, including
extreme natural events, that create and change
landforms, landscapes and environments.
Topics will include
Forests
•
Volcanoes
Key Knowledge
• The earths four natural systems
• Biosphere, lithosphere, Hydrosphere, atmosphere
• Landforms that make up landscapes
• Natural processes and factors that create
natural environments
• Geographic characteristics of natural
environments
• Distribution of natural environments at
different scales
Key Skills
• Fieldwork
• Collect, sort, process and represent spatial
data
• Identify and describe geographic
characteristics
• Analyse and explain data
Area of study 2
Changes in natural environments
Changes In natural environments
• This area of study focuses on the dynamic
nature of natural environments and the
contribution of the various agents of change
such as weathering, erosion, transportation
and deposition as well as human activity.
• It explores the nature of change and the
dimensions of change in different
environments.
Topics may include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Deforestation
Logging
Fire
Climate change
Tourism
Urban expansion
Conservation (e.g. National parks)
Key Knowledge
• Types of changes to natural environments produced by
natural processes and human activity
• Nature, rate and scale of interactions between natural
environments and human activity
• The impact of change on natural environments and human
activity
• The importance of the interactions between natural
processes and human activity in influencing changes to
natural environments, including the management of
change.
Key Skills
• Fieldwork
• Process and represent data
• Describe and analyse data about changes to
natural environments produced by the
interaction between natural processes and
human activity