Living with volcanoes in Papua New Guinea
Teacher's Notes
| Case Study | Student Activities |
Overview
This case study addresses the Victorian VCE Geography Unit 4 area of Global Phenomenon. The focus is volcanic activity in Papua New Guinea as a consequence of tectonic movement, and the response by the Australian Government's overseas aid program to the 1994 Rabaul eruption.
Level
Upper Secondary
Objectives
Students should demonstrate knowledge of:
- The distribution of tectonic plates and volcanoes in the Papua New Guinea region
- The natural processes which generate volcanic activity in the Papua New Guinea region
- Impacts of volcanic activity in Papua New Guinea on people and places
- People's responses to the 1994 Rabaul volcanic eruption
- Government responses to volcanic activity in Papua New Guinea
- Key Geographic Ideas - location, distribution, scale, region, spatial association, spatial change over time.
Students should demonstrate the ability to:
- Communicate geographic characteristics of a place
- Identify, locate and extract spatial data about tectonic plate and volcanic activity from a range of information sources
- Establish and justify criteria to evaluate management policies
- Use Key Geographic Ideas - location, distribution, scale, region, spatial association spatial change over time
Preparation
- Introductory work on tectonic plate movement at a global scale.
Procedure
The role of the teacher is largely that of facilitator.
Resources
The most important website resource for this case study, which will be required for several of the student activities is the Volcano World website. This website provides a diversity of information on the volcanoes around the world, including where they are located, up-to-date data on recent eruptions, teacher's resources and chat rooms with volcanologists.
Several stories on the Rabaul Volcano eruption are available in Focus, the Australian Government's overseas aid agency's quarterly magazine.
- B. Jubilee, "Aftermath of the Rabaul eruption", Focus, September 2000, pages 15 - 17. This article is also available at:
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/publications
/focus/focuspdfs/0900/p15-17_Focus_Sep00.pdf - Living with volcanoes - the Gazelle Reconstruction Project,
Focus, September 2000, pages 18 - 19. This article is also available at
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/publications
/focus/focuspdfs/0900/p18-19_Focus_Sep00.pdf - Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)'s website provides information on the Government's aid program, including data on a range of projects in Papua New Guinea.
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/country/papua.cfm
- The Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a country profile on Papua New Guinea
http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/png/index.html
- The CIA World Fact Book provides information on PNG. Go to 'Country Listing' and Scroll down to Papua New Guinea
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