Teaching Heritage - Teaching this Unit

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	See an OVERVIEW of this Teaching unit: History Geography

Use the resources and activities in Forming a nation – starting a new century to examine the inquiry questions in Stage 5 History Australian Social and Political Life from 1901 to 1914 and Stage 5 Geography Australia in its Regional and Global Context.

Investigate six heritage places – drawn from the New South Wales State Heritage Inventory (SHI) – for evidence of the major influences on Australian life at the beginning of the 20^th century. Discuss contemporary ideas of heritage – for example, values underlying the development of technology and industrial parks – and the connections between places that these ideas generate.

Explore the ways that site studies can contribute to an understanding of the past. Activities in this unit incorporate ideas for using site studies to examine the physical landscape for historical associations. Connections are drawn between buildings, environments, communities and the social, political and economic activities of community members. Consider an approach to investigating sites and places presented by the Australian Heritage Commission and the Curriculum Corporation.

Combining history and geography skills can intensify explorations of the past, as Carol Liston explains:

Location, location, location – words we associate with the real estate industry but probably rarely think of as a way to look at the influences at work in local history too. Local historians talk about place constantly– but often leave it to geographers and planners to articulate the specific influences that place has had on the area. Historians, who can see the physical elements of their locality and understand their relationship to natural and man-made actions, have a whole new world of material evidence open to them to unravel the stories of that place.

Often concern to document the details of people and their lives in our special places to the past obscures the need to understand the big picture, the total setting of their lives. This is not only the broader political, economic and social forces at work but also the immediate physical context – geography and landforms, the environment, the weather, the positions of transport routes, the survival of particular trees.

Liston, C., Locality Centre for Community History UNSW, Vol 10 No 2, 1999)

Starting points for Forming a nation – starting a new century include:


	Heritage places as a springboard for investigating the influences on life in Australia at the beginning of the 20^th century Examine the heritage places for evidence of influences on life at the beginning of the 20^th century

	Choosing a syllabus inquiry question or content area and using heritage places as a source of information and evidence Choose a topic for investigation and access heritage places to gather information and evidence

	Taking a retrospective view of the 20^th century through an investigation stemming from heritage places Use the information and evidence provided by heritage places to investigate key influences, events and developments in one of the following focus issues of Australian history:


	Teachers In building units of work for classroom use with these questions and resources, you may like to consult the NSW History and Geography Stages 4-5 syllabus outcomes: History Outcomes - Stage 4 History Outcomes - Stage 5 History Values and Attitudes Geography Outcomes - Stage 4 Geography Outcomes - Stage 5 Geography Values and Attitudes For help with designing classroom assessment activities to help gauge whether these outcomes are being achieved, you may like to consult the History Planning Assessment Guidelines History Course Performance Descriptors Geography Planning Assessment Guidelines Geography Draft Course Performance Descriptors