Denise McKay

222105489

EPO701 Primary Humanities

Assessment Task 2

Critical Analysis of a Primary Geography Resource

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which I study - the

Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay my respects to
their Elders past, present and emerging. I would also like to acknowledge
that sovereignty has never been ceded.

Word Count: 2668

Resource Description

Mt Resilience is an interactive app based on a fictional town in Australia. Its

setting is summarised on the homepage:

‘Mt Resilience is a town of the future, dealing with the climate challenges of
today.’ (Australian Broadcasting Corporation [ABC] 2022; see Appendix 1).

The purpose of the app is to educate users about the possibilities currently
available to live with climate change and reduce the impact of humans on
the climate in the real world. Available on desktop, laptop, tablet and phone,
the app was designed by ABC in collaboration with Phoria, CSIRO and the
Bureau of Meterology. The vibrant and animated town will be familiar to
students, depicting typical features such as houses, roads, parks, community
facilities, shops, waterways and vegetation. As students interact with the
app, they discover by listening to the voiceover that the people in this town
‘are making bold choices to the way they live and making room for extreme
weather. They know they can’t control nature and respect it’s power as it
moves through the land.’ (ABC 2022). This app is like an information text,
where participants choose different parts of the text to interact with
depending on their interest. They can interact as much or as little as they
like, as there is no conclusion.

To begin, participants are welcomed to Mt Resilience, introduced to the town

and provided with clear instructions of how to interact with the app (see
Appendix 2). They can then choose which sequences and information to
explore by clicking various icons around parts of town (see Appendix 3),
moving the scene around to see all views, zooming in and out. Exploration
includes a history sequence (see Appendix 4), with short voice overs of
interviews with survivors of natural disasters, bushfire and severe storm
sequences (see Appendix 5), and residential and community scenes based
around design (see Appendix 6). The app is available in 2D and augmented
reality (3D), however it operates similarly with whichever version is used.

Relationship with the Victorian Curriculum

Geography

The Victorian Curriculum learning area of Geography ‘identifies the concepts

of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and
change, as integral to the development of geographical understanding.’
(Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority [VCAA] n.d.b). The focus of
the Level 5 and 6 Geography curriculum is ‘the concepts of place and
interconnection.’ (VCAA n.d.a). The topics of this resource are climate and
human interaction with it, and themes of sustainability and resilience in a
changing world. I believe Mt Resilience is suitable for Level 5 and 6 students.

The following Level 5 and 6 content descriptors connect well to the content
of this resource and the opportunities it provides to students:

Geographical Concepts and Skills – Place, space and interconnection

Interaction with Mt Resilience provides a basis for inquiry into climate

change and its effects on societies, developing students Geographical
Concepts and Skills through demonstrating how they can interact and
respond to a changing environment (VCAA n.d.a).

This aligns with some of the elaborations within the content descriptor
(VCGGC087) - ‘Describe and explain interconnections within places and
between places, and the effects of these interconnections’ (VCAA n.d.a).
With bushfire as one of the severe weather events, this makes it highly
relevant to the elaboration ‘explaining the impacts of fire on Australian
vegetation and the significance of fire damage to human communities’
(VCAA n.d.a). By demonstrating how the people of Mt Resilience have
adapted to a changing climate, and based on social factors relevant to
Australia, this addresses the elaboration ‘comparing how people have
responded to climatic conditions … and factors that may have influenced this
such as culture and technology’ (VCAA n.d.a).

Geographical Knowledge – Factors that shape places and influence

interconnections

Mt Resilience is shaped by its climate and the people who live there, and
those interconnections are central to how this resource delivers Geographical
Knowledge.

The interaction of Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge of vegetation

and a focus on renewable energy addresses content descriptor (VCGGK094)
- ‘Influence of people, including the influence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples, on the environmental characteristics of Australian places’
(VCAA n.d.a). A sequence describing cultural burning in consultation with
Indigenous residents (see Appendix 7) aligns strongly with the elaboration
‘identifying how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities altered
the environment through their methods of land and resource management’
(VCAA n.d.a). The different types of places depicted in and around Mt
Resilience and how they have been influenced by humans aligns with the
elaboration ‘exploring the extent of change in the local environment over
time, through, for example, vegetation clearance, fencing, urban
development, drainage, irrigation, farming, forest plantations or mining’
(VCAA n.d.a).

This resource fits perfectly with content descriptor (VCGGK095) - ‘Impacts of

bushfires or floods on environments and communities, and how people can
respond’ (VCAA n.d.a), as bushfires and floods are the main narrative.
Students will find an abundance of bushfire information relating to the
elaboration ‘explaining the impacts of fire on Australian vegetation and the
significance of fire damage to human communities’ (VCAA n.d.a). The way
that the people of Mt Resilience respond to weather events aligns with the
elaboration ‘researching how the application of principles of prevention,
mitigation and preparedness minimises the harmful effects of bushfires or
flooding’ (VCAA n.d.a). The notion of community working together is
ubiquitous in Mt Resilience, providing students with ideas for ways to create
change, addressing the elaboration ‘suggesting collective action in response
to impact of floods on a community and describing the likely effects of this
action on different groups of people’ (VCAA n.d.a).

The influence of humans and climate on a location is central to this resource,

aligning with content descriptor (VCGGK096) - ‘Environmental and human
influences on the location and characteristics of places and the management
of spaces within them’ (VCAA n.d.a). The development of urban gardens to
provide residents with food when supply chains might be affected and having
farms on the periphery of the town, links to the elaboration ‘investigating
the influence of landforms on the development of settlements that are
involved in food and fibre production … ’ (VCAA n.d.a). Mt Resilience is a
coastal town and therefore can grow green vegetation to assist with fire
prevention, relating to the elaboration ‘explaining why most Australians live
close to the coast rather than in inland Australia' (VCAA n.d.a).

Learning about Sustainability

Sustainable futures are central to this resource and therefore, it links

perfectly with the cross curricular priority of Learning about Sustainability
(VCAA n.d.c). The three organising ideas of Systems, Worldviews and
Futures are all drawn upon to provide a balanced and informed approach to
sustainability (VCAA n.d.c).

The Mt Resilience narrative is about individual and community action

through understanding the environment and how humans interact with it,
with the town being its own System (VCAA n.d.c), working with, rather than
against, circumstances. Actions are measured, consultative and respectful of
the environment and of people. The technology drawn upon to create a
sustainable town has reflected on past practices and through consultation,
has used balanced judgement to forecast impacts. Whilst it does not draw on
a whole Worldview (VCAA n.d.c) and is based on familiar Australian
conditions, there are many locations around the world that experience the
same weather events and are affected similarly which students will be able
to relate to Mt Resilience. This resource promotes understanding of concepts
which can contribute to a sustainable and equitable Future (VCAA n.d.c),
providing students with knowledge that can empower them to create actions
of their own and make a difference to the quality of their personal futures.

Learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and

cultures

In the Geography strand for Levels 5 and 6 of the Victorian Curriculum,

there is one content descriptor, (VCGGK094) - this has previously been
addressed. Mt Resilience is produced by reputable Government broadcaster,
ABC, and endorsed by the NSW Government owned Australian Museum (ABC
2022). Therefore, protocols for engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander histories and cultures are assumed to be consultative, inclusive and
respectful. Collaboration with Indigenous contributors is evident, including
an Indigenous narrator, an Indigenous artist, cultural burning, and the long
history of custodianship of this land being embedded into the storyline.
The Victorian Curriculum defers to the Koorie Cross-Curricular Protocols for
the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
(Department of Education and Training [DET] 2021). The principles outlined
in the Protocols are met through respect for Indigenous culture, engagement
with Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander people through consultation
and employment, cultural heritage knowledge being used in consultation and
protected, Aboriginal and / or Torres Strait Islander people benefiting from
the activities using their cultural heritage, and Government support to
protect and maintain cultural heritage and expression (DET 2021).

Strengths and limitations in promoting inquiry learning

Geographical inquiry involves understanding the influences between people

and the natural environment, and with inquiry learning in geography comes
‘deep learning’, which is necessary for the understanding of global issues
(Snider 2020). With a deep learning perspective, global competence is
developed, encouraging ‘students to become informed and active citizens
with a passion for sustainable development and real concern for the needs of
those facing inequity’ (Snider 2020). A critical inquiry empowers informed
learners to create change (Tudball 2020).

Figure 1: The four domains of global competence

Source: Snider (2020:326)

Strengths of this resource

Mt Resilience provides a strength-based approach for a student-led inquiry

encompassing global competence, where students can investigate a place,
consider perspectives, generate ideas for action and communicate these,
touching on all the areas of the global competence model (Snider 2020).

In a challenging world where we are faced with increasingly severe weather

events, Mt Resilience can help students to understand the options currently
available to withstand these challenges and stimulate inquiry into how they
can act in their own lives to reduce the impact on the climate and people.
This addresses Goal 2 of the Mparntwe Declaration - ‘All young Australians
become … active and informed members of the community’ (Council of
Australian Governments Education Council 2019).

Therefore, Mt Resilience provides a solid basis for the Level 5 and 6

Geography curriculum - study of place and interconnection:

… the discipline of Geography provides the opportunity to explore the full

gamut of people-environment relationships ... a fundamental ‘futures’ view,
along with other perspectives such as social justice, quality of life and the
sustainability of both natural and human environments. (Cranby 2022:315)

The Geographic Inquiry model outlined by Preston (2022) states that

geographers ask questions such as:

Figure 2: Geographic inquiry model

Source: Preston (2022)

This resource generally addresses the questions ‘Where is it?’ (Australia),

‘What is it like?’ (a town), ‘What impacts does it have?’ (sustainable living
for people, less impact on the environment), and ‘What should happen in the
future?’ (actions to improve sustainability) (Preston 2022). ‘How does it
change?’ (Preston 2022) is addressed through the explanations of how the
climate has affected sea levels and bushfire events.
The content of this resource is highly credible, as it is created in consultation
with many different experts, including CSIRO, the Bureau of Meterology, and
35 Australian specialists in climate research (ABC 2022), ensuring that the
information is reliable, ‘accurate, complete and current’ (Cairns 2021). It
does not stereotype gender or sexuality (Cairns 2021), rather, it represents
a community. Cultural diversity is evident (Cairns 2021), with different skin
tones being represented.

Mt Resilience is easy to navigate, provides different options for interpretation

and analysis, and information to develop conclusions, leading to the powerful
potential for action, addressing the Take action domain of global competence
(Snider 2020). It is therefore suitable for a range of abilities (Cairns 2021)
and can provide differentiation with enabling and enhancing options, such as
recalling what features the fire resilient house had, to further investigating
the practice of cultural burning and why consultation with Indigenous
communities is important.

This resource is highly engaging, promoting active learning (Cairns 2021) as

students take themselves through the sequences, with many areas and
topics to discover. It provides a foundation from which to promote ‘visible
thinking’, where students investigate the resource then share their ideas
with a peer or the rest of the group, developing a ‘deeper understanding of
content … greater motivation for learning … thinking and learning abilities …
attitudes toward thinking and learning … (and) alertness to opportunities for
thinking and learning’ (Snider 2020:334). This also addresses the domains
of global competence, Communicating ideas and Recognising perspectives.
To extend their learning, students could choose an aspect of the resource to
go further, for example looking at flooding events around Australia and the
world, discovering what could be done to reduce the impact on people, and
the implications – environmentally and economically. The various sequences
and concepts can be used to inspire inquiry into designing student’s own
town or suburb, looking at ways to reduce carbon emissions and living their
own lives more sustainably.

The resource provides informed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

perspectives, with the significance of the place-based concept linking to the
Indigenous understandings of Country/Place, giving new meanings to non-
Indigenous students (Hogarth 2020). There is balance between traditional
perspectives, for example, the pre-colonial history discussed in the
‘Histories’ sequence, and contemporary perspectives, such as modern artistic
expression (Cairns 2021). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are
represented from a position of strength, with their knowledge being
respected (Cairns 2021) and positive actions taken in consultation with the
Indigenous people of Mt Resilience.

Mt Resilience is highly relevant to many of the Australian students (Cairns

2021) that are familiar with towns and coastal living. It has relatable
features for these students and is relevant to issues today and into the
future, enabling students to connect with the concepts presented to them.

Limitations of this resource

Whilst Mt Resilience provides a highly engaging way to study place and its
interconnection with people, it is a hypothetical place, and therefore is
unable to thoroughly answer some of the questions in the Geographical
inquiry model presented by Preston (2022). ‘Where is it?’ (Preston 2022) can
be answered as ‘Australia’, and students might compare it to similar places,
but it does not directly linked to a place that students could ever visit and
experience in real life. Furthermore, ‘Why is it there?’ (Preston 2022) is not
addressed in this resource - it is a town with little context of its history. ‘How
did it happen?’ (Preston 2022) is discussed regarding climate but not the
landforms. Geographical features are represented in a cartoon-like way, and
not accurately depicted, so it doesn’t satisfy the question ‘are geographical
features represented accurately?’ (Cairns 2021). Therefore, the global
competence domain of Investigate the world is only partly addressed, as this
is not the real world that is being investigated (Preston 2022).

The setting is an Australian coastal town, depicting people who can afford to
build and live in houses fitted out with sustainable features, driving electric
cars and enjoying privileged lives. The climate affects their everyday living,
but the disasters don’t appear to harm them drastically. Whilst many
students will be able to relate to this setting, there are also students who
don’t live in such affluent areas or have never seen the sea. In this regard,
the resource doesn’t fairly satisfy ‘how people are represented in regards to
… socio-economic status’ (Cairns 2021). The question ‘whose voices are
privileged and whose are left out?’ (Cairns 2021) leaves a gap between the
voices of coastal residents and those living, for example, in central Australia,
who are also adversely affected by climate change, but in different ways.

The resource provides highly credible content from a vast number of

experts. However, it is focused on one approach to living with climate
change and does not consider the varying opinions regarding the economic
and environmental impacts of technology and ways of living that are
depicted throughout Mt Resilience. It is important in globally focused inquiry
that students understand other perspectives from their own and develop
their critical thinking (Snider 2020).
 References

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (2022) Mt Resilience, Australian

Museum, accessed 23 September 2022.

Brett P (2020) 'Chapter 18 - Sustainability', in Gilbert R and Tudball L and

Brett P (eds) Teaching humanities and social sciences: teaching and learning
across Australia, Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited, South Melbourne,
Victoria.

Cairns R (2021) Questions and Criteria for Critically Evaluating Resources

and Texts in Humanities

Council of Australian Governments Education Council (2019) The Alice

Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration, Education Services Australia,
Australian Government, accessed 25 September 2022.
Cranby S (2020) 'Chapter 12 – Geography as a learning area', in Gilbert R
and Tudball L and Brett P (eds) Teaching humanities and social sciences:
teaching and learning across Australia, Cengage Learning Australia Pty
Limited, South Melbourne, Victoria.
DET (Department of Education and Training) (2021) Teaching Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander culture, DET, State Government of Victoria, accessed
25 September 2022.
Hogarth M (2020) 'Chapter 16 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
histories and cultures', in Gilbert R and Tudball L and Brett P (eds) Teaching
humanities and social sciences: teaching and learning across Australia,
Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited, South Melbourne, Victoria.
Preston L (2022) ‘EPO701 Module 4 Mini lecture [video]’, Deakin, accessed
25 September 2022.
Snider M (2020) 'Chapter 13 – Teaching geographical enquiry', in Gilbert R
and Tudball L and Brett P (eds) Teaching humanities and social sciences:
teaching and learning across Australia, Cengage Learning Australia Pty
Limited, South Melbourne, Victoria.
Tudball L (2020) 'Chapter 4 - Planning for critical inquiry', in Gilbert R and
Tudball L and Brett P (eds) Teaching humanities and social sciences:
teaching and learning across Australia, Cengage Learning Australia Pty
Limited, South Melbourne, Victoria.
VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority) (n.d.a) Geography
level 5-6, accessed 24th September 2022.
____(n.d.b) Learning in Geography, accessed 24th September 2022.
____(n.d.c) Overview accessed 24th September 2022.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Homepage

Source: ABC (2022)

Appendix 2: Welcome page

Source: ABC (2022)

Appendix 3: Sequence options

Source: ABC (2022)

Appendix 4: Histories sequence

Source: ABC (2022)

Appendix 5: Extreme weather sequences

Source: ABC (2022)

Appendix 6: Urban design – fire resilient house and cooling
surburbs sequences

Source: ABC (2022)

Appendix 7: Cultural burning sequence

Source: ABC (2022)