Herald Article on Geog (1 Viewer)

[gigi_ruff]

a teacher in the Herald refered to this exams as the easiet set so far, whats the deal with that? like ok maybe this exam may not be the uber hard test i thought it was cause i was, but a simple look at previous years will show much easier exams, last years for instance, Human impacts, economic character and impacts of tourism, soooo much easier. I know there is a thread about this exam but i thought i would air my views on the Heralds kiss arse approach to the hsc, which seems to happen every year.

 

[The_highwayman]

Which herald? Sydney morning or Newcastle?

 

[gigi_ruff]

Sydney Mornin Herald sorry

 

[demosthenes]

bahahahaha GIGZ
stop yo whinging, woman!

 

[gigi_ruff]

thats enough from you robbie mr lets colour in our location map
i HATE YOU

 

[Lil Clutch]

haha. im with u gigz...shut up mr colour in your map. and i also agree it was hard!and that the herald is silly. and thats it. lol.

 

[The_highwayman]

hey, dont knock the colouring!

 

[Rafy]

Todays herald:

Task one: find a way to make geography popular
By Jordan Baker and Justin Norrie
October 19, 2005

A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but the question facing geography teachers is whether a dying subject by another name might make it more appealing to HSC students.

Geography, which began day two of the HSC exams yesterday, is suffering a steep decline in popularity.

In 2000, when the HSC was overhauled, 6420 sat geography. By 2003 the figure had fallen to 5623, and last year it was 4466. There was a slight jump this year but, as geographers know, one figure is not evidence of a new trend.

The Geography Teachers Association blames the fall on fatigue after compulsory study in years 7 to 10, a perception the subject is irrelevant and a growing number of HSC subject options. "The next thing is that the content in year 10 is Australian-based, and I think they get a bit sick of Australian content. They also do it in history," said the association's vice-president, Martin Pluss.

Kylie Leontaris, a geography teacher from St John Bosco College, argues that a name change may create new interest.

"Science changes to biology. We might need to change the title a bit, camouflage it a little bit. Something like 'environmental studies'," she said.

Ms Leontaris also believes recent exams have scared students off with "trick questions" and essays on obscure parts of the syllabus. She was nervous yesterday's exam would be more of the same, but was pleasantly surprised. "It was really straightforward and covered the main inquiry questions that are in the syllabus," she said.

Students and teachers described the paper - involving maths questions about gradients and vertical exaggeration and essays on ecosystems and urbanisation - as tough but fair.

Lauren Ross, 18, of Caringbah High School, said: "I thought it was surprising because, personally, I didn't expect those essay questions, but I still thought they were fair." Lauren said she was glad she studied geography. "It was my favourite subject. It gives you a good basic knowledge to approach everyday life with."

�* Schools should be able to recruit qualified professionals and train them as teachers on the job if education departments are serious about tackling teacher shortages, says Jennifer Buckingham of the Centre for Independent Studies. She suggests that offering a system like a paid internship would ensure professionals do not have to sacrifice a year's salary while studying teaching at university.
TODAY'S EXAMS

Industrial Technology

Tourism

French

Japanese

Aboriginal Studies

Spanish

Community Languages

 

[The_highwayman]

environmental studies sounds crap. I reckon just change the 7-10 course to be heaps more fun/interactive.

I agree with that opinion on the exam,

 

[gigi_ruff]

you agree that "It was really straightforward and covered the main inquiry questions that are in the syllabus,"

because dominance and dependance and and an obscure rewording of the local enterprise case study are main points from the syllabus

 

[ryanl11]

I think that the test was hard. The essay questions were not expected, and the multiple choice was harder than section II. The only part of the test I found a breeze was section II, so I disagree with the teacher who quotes in the Sydney Morning Herald's article.

 

[The_highwayman]

yes, i didnt think they'd ask that P&EA question, because part of it has been asked before, but the other two i prepared fo because our teacher said that it'd be a good chance that they were in there. We did Dominance/dependence for our trial.

 

[Sarah 05]

well i agree it was the hardest geography paper i have ever seen. it might b a subject in which u do make a lot up but i swear i have never had to make up entire essays before. the questions may have been predictable, they had never asked those dot points before, but there was a reason 4 that they are really hard and there is very little to write about them.

 

[benno69]

in our trial exam, we got the world cities question and it seems from the general consensus that people found that the hardest one, i think we were very lucky to have seen it before

 

[demosthenes]

haha. im with u gigz...shut up mr colour in your map. and i also agree it was hard!and that the herald is silly. and thats it. lol.

ooh wait negs do u have a thing for gigz now? i will let you 'play' with him now.....maybe you can whinge together.....and then eat pudding and jelly and smear it on each other.

i like the idea of the paid partnership thingo tho

 

[jesster88]

in our trial exam, we got the world cities question and it seems from the general consensus that people found that the hardest one, i think we were very lucky to have seen it before

Its strange though that we havnt seen a mega cities question in a while.

But i dont think changing the name to environmental studies is a good idea its not all about the environment. It makes us geo students sound like tree hugging hippies.

I really like geo btw so much that i taught it to myself via correspondance

 

[The_highwayman]

i think they havent asked megacities in a while because there's only 3 dot-points, 2 of which were combined in one essay. the other is just "nature, character etc. they got greedy, asked too much and then realised, they didnt have much left.

 

[ViRtUaL]

i think they havent asked megacities in a while because there's only 3 dot-points, 2 of which were combined in one essay. the other is just "nature, character etc. they got greedy, asked too much and then realised, they didnt have much left.

haha thats a nice way of putting it
our teacher listed possible questions she thought might crop up and one of them she said noone here has said they predicted - compare the nature, character and spatial distribution of world cities and mega cities.
in that case they could have asked mega cities, buts thats like a totally random question.

 

[borkis04]

environmental studies sounds crap. I reckon just change the 7-10 course to be heaps more fun/interactive.

I agree with that opinion on the exam,

i most certainly agree mate. i mean i was bored shitless and picked geo as a subkect making up the 12Units..but now i really..well did enjoy it til the difficulty HSC exam, which sucked..but yeh..Australia is boring..should do natural distasters like the hurricanes in the US..or tornadoes!..same with Civics History..boring as batshit..should bring in like Nzi Germany perhaps..oph no..thats in the HSC course..but sumfin like..intereesting!

we need to make geo more popular..
at my school..
2000 - 02 - no class..
2003 - most dropped out by yr 12..like 5 students or sumfin
2004 - one class..same as above
2005 - 18 of us..
i dont think there is a class next year..
however i dont know if girls are naturall more interested than guys in geo..coz mine is an all boys' school..
what are your thoughts on this?

 

[borkis04]

Man i sware..from all the criticism ive heard from teachers and students..there is probably gonna be heaps of urban dynamics next year..most probably an essay to make up for it!..wat do u guys reckon aye?