The Society is vitally concerned to encourage students to study geography, and to assist teachers to improve the quality of geographic education. Two major focuses are the organisation of an Australia-wide geography competition for school students, and making submissions on matters affecting geography curriculums.
National Geographic Channel Australian Geography Competition
We organise the National Geographic Channel Australian Geography Competition for secondary students. This is a joint project with the Australian Geography Teachers' Assoc (AGTA). This competition is held in schools, and includes a National Final for under 16s, Geography's Big Week Out for Year 11 students, and selection of Australia's teams to the National Geographic World Championship (for junior secondary students), and the International Geography Olympiad.
National Geography Curriculum
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has published the draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Geography. Consultation is open until 27 August. This document is an important underpinning of the forthcoming geography curriculum so it is important for us all to let ACARA know what we think about it - what's good and how other parts could be improved. A download link for the paper and a link to the survey are at the ACARA website.
If you haven't done so already, you may also want to look at the Earth and Environmental Science curriculum for Years 11 and 12 and comment on its overlap with geography. You can access it via www.australiancurriculum.edu.au (where you need to log in, or register if you haven't done so already), then via 'Explore 11-12' and 'Science'. Consultation on this is open until 30 July.
In the lead up to the national geography curriculum our Society undertook a major project in cooperation with AGTA, the Institute of Australian Geographers, and other geographical societies to prepare for the forthcoming curriculum. The geographical societies in Australia recognised the need to undertake consultation and research designed to inform the development of the curriculum, and contribute to the work of ACARA. We wrote a joint report with our views on the rationale, content, structure and organisation of a national curriculum in geography. You can download this, and the comprehensive background report, from the project's website at www.ngc.org.au.
Other Activities
Other education-related activities include: