Year 8 Nexus Humanities Curriculum Outline 2012-2013

Topics at a Glance

Term Theme Key Skills

1
Fragile World Global Awareness Who Wants To Live Forever?

2a
Dangerous World Recognising patterns Water, Water Everywhere

2b
Diverse World Sustainability Can The Earth Cope?

3a
My World Empathy Empire Building

3b
Shrinking World Causality & Opinion Slaves to Fashion

Key Topic

The aim of the Year 8 program of study is to consolidate and develop learners knowledge and understanding from Year 7. The course is focussed around learners exploring changes in the world and the impacts these can have. Learners will work individually, in pairs and groups to integrate and apply a range of thinking skills. Each topic will last approximately one half term and is linked to a key theme, which learners will follow throughout years 7, 8 & 9. The themes are designed to give learners continuity and focus for their learning. Each topic is linked back to the three key learning outcomes, humanities knowledge, enquiry & investigation & skills. The topics are continually assessed through formative assessment, supplemented by a more formal assessment at some point during each topic. This assessment will take on a variety of forms, the outline of which can be found below. Homework will be set in the form of Extended Learning Projects (ELPs) individual and group based extension tasks that overarch the curriculum, providing a richer, deeper learning experience. These ELPs will take many forms and include research, preparatory work, specific tasks/questions or an enquiry-based project.

Key Topic

Significant Concepts How and why has population changed over time? What are the affects of a changing population? Where does everybody live? Why? What will the future hold for our ever-growing population?

Key Learning Outcomes (correspond to the Nexus Humanities objectives) Humanities Knowledge: Investigate the change in places, explored through population distribution and change. To recognise and describe population patterns and processes, comparing MEDCs and LEDCs Enquiry & Investigation: Ask questions, and use decision-making skills appreciate values and attitudes. Skills: Using a range of primary and secondary sources and graphs. Understand the concept of chronology.

Assessment Opportunities Policy Control: Learners will investigate a population control policy of their choice. They will consider the need for the policy, the advantages, disadvantages and how successful it is/was. This assessment will be re-written

Who Wants to Live Forever?

Water, Water Everywhere

Learners will explore how and why population has changed over time, including the impacts of the industrial revolution. They will consider the affects of both growing and ageing populations in more and less economically developed countries and the measures taken to deal with these issues. Learners will consider what the future for our growing population may hold. Who wants to live forever? Learners will apply their investigative research skills to produce a newspaper article for Time magazine considering the ELP causes and consequences of over and under population on society today. They may think about the effects on a personal, national or global level. Where does our water come from? Where is all the water? Humanities Knowledge: To understand the Blue Gold Debate the issue of blue Who relies on water? What problems are associated with processes associated with how water moves on the gold the current distribution, water? Will there be enough water for a crowded world? land. To consider the impacts of water on people and consumption and what the future how we manage the impacts. To empathise with Learners will use their knowledge and understanding of the may hold for this vital resource. others. water cycle to explore how water moves on the land (field visit) Too little? Too Much? Self & peer and investigate the impact this has on various locations Enquiry & Investigation: Ask & identify questions, teaching. Learners will choose the throughout the world. Learners will then consider solutions to issues and problems. Experience decision-making. area they would like to study and some of the problems such as drought, flooding and water produce resources for other learners. Skills: Researching using a variety of media. scarcity & contamination. They will then learn about the Communication with ICT. This is linked to the residential field trip alternative from their peers. Board Games RUS Learners will work as a group to research, design and produce a board game based on their learning in this topic. They will need to be imaginative and consider their audience and key topic areas. They will then play and assess each others games Does it matter what city or what part of a city you live in? Humanities Knowledge: To explore the concept of Slumdog Millionaire Considering How can we measure the quality of life in a city? Why are change and global awareness. Develop empathy. how quality of life and location can there such divides? What could cities be like in the future? Appreciate values and attitudes through the affect the different types of cities How can we sustainably manage the planet for the future exploration of interdependence and global and the subsequent. Producing their generations? citizenship. Locating places and environments. own urban transect. Learners will investigate how the quality of life can be measured. Enquiry & Investigation: Research and analyse To explore why and how the world is rapidly urbanising and the information about a variety of locations. Using Stepping into the Future; new challenges inhabitations will face. Learners will then evidence to support ideas and opinions. sustainable solutions Producing consider the resulting environmental issues and consequences. Skills: Analytical skills; identifying questions, issues timelines comparing probable and The aim will be for learners to use their humanities knowledge to and problems. Using a range of sources. Handling preferable futures. consider how we can manage our earth for future generations to and analysing data to draw conclusions. enjoy. Communicating ideas. Can the earth cope with our demands? Designing an eco-friendly? Learners will be developing their enquiry, information processing, reasoning ELP and creativity skills to plan, design and make a sustainable micro-neighbourhood for the future. They will be able to work individually or in small groups to produce a design and supporting report explaining and justifying their design. ELP

Can The Earth Cope?

Key Topic

Significant Concepts How did colonialism change communities around the world? How did it all begin? To what extent was the effect of colonialism positive or negative? How do communities feel the impacts of colonialism today? Learners will investigate the concepts colonialism and imperialism. The key focus is what role do people play in shaping the lives of others, today and historically? We will explore indigenous peoples who had well-established civilisations before they were discovered and the differing views of colonialism as negative and positive. We will use our knowledge to discover if imperialism is still happening today! ELP

Key Learning Outcomes (correspond to the Nexus Humanities objectives) Humanities Knowledge: To know, and understand the reasons for, and the events of, exploration in a number of historical and more recent time periods. To empathise with people from different situations and time periods. Enquiry & Investigation: Asking questions to gain clarification and further understanding. Compare and contrast aspects of historical exploration with today. Skills: locate, analyse and use a range of sources to reconstruct aspects of the life of explorers, settlers and indigenous peoples;

Assessment Opportunities Colonialism; the good, the bad and the ugly? Learners will research and produce a poster outlining the reasons for negative and positive impacts of colonialism in a particular part of the world. Debate: How do the relics of colonialism affect communities today? What might the impacts be in the future?

Empire Building

Slave Diary The purpose of this task is to give learners the opportunity to use their research skills to produce an empathetic, creative imaginative piece that demonstrates their understanding of the experience of slaves, from their life in Africa to their arrival in the Americas. Humanities Knowledge: Describe and explain a range of human processes, recognise that these interact to produce distinctive characteristics of economic activity. Appreciate the links and relationships that make countries dependent on each other; explore interdependence and global citizenship. Enquiry & Investigation: Suggest relevant questions and an appropriate sequence if investigation leading to substantiated conclusions. Skills: Enquiry & geographical skills; Using sources such as atlases and Google Earth. Collecting and displaying information. Communication and ICT. The realities of the global fashion industry extended writing which: explains what globalisation is and what its effects are; considers the extent to which effects are good or bad; makes predictions for the future; and considers the issue of sustainable development.

How does world trade work? How have trade patterns changed? How does globalisation affect the fashion industry? Who are the winners and losers in the globalisation process? Is it fair? Slaves to Fashion

In this topic learners will develop their understanding of the global nature of economic activity and development through a study of the fashion industry. They will investigate the interdependence between people, places and environments in this industry and through this study begin to understand the concept of globalization. Appreciate that different values and attitudes, including their own, may have different effects on peoples lives, especially in less economically developed countries (LEDCs); Slavery Today Surely the world has learned from their mistakes of the past? Slavery does not happen todayLearners will work collaboratively to investigate ELP this statement. They will focus on the issue of the underage work force and produce their findings as a presentation, painting, song or radio broadcast.