Connecting history and geography

Image above: Making connections between history and geography: "Knowing is connection".

Links to look at related to this blog
Spatialworlds blog
GeogSpace website
Spatialworlds website
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' project website
Geography Teachers' Association of South Australia website
ACARA website
ACARA Australian Curriculum portal 

Spatialworlds Scoop.it sites related to geography in schools
Geographical thinking Scoop.it
Spatial literacy Scoop.it
History and geography Scoop.it
Spatial Education and technology Scoop.it

Email contact: manning@chariot.net.au

Making the connections: a challenging task

As teachers of geography and history we are fascinated by the synergies between the two subjects (the interaction of multiple elements to produce an effect different from or greater than the sum of their individual effects). When the opportunity to run a project on the connections between history and geography came up we naturally saw it as a chance to explore in detail the touchstones between our subjects. We consider that with history and geography being written quite separately by ACARA that there is a need to identify and work with the connections between the two subjects (and other learning areas) in an attempt to design a connected curriculum. These workshops have been designed to provide the chance to work with the identified connectors to develop a connected curriculum in the Humanities and Social Science (HASS) learning area in primary schools.

We have been thinking about this natural connection for some time as evidenced by the following postings on the geography blog called Spatialworlds blog and the history blog called the Histroom.

* Spatialworlds: Entwining history and geography
* Histgeog: Making the connection 
* Spaced out over time: Historical GIS
* Histroom by Sue Jones
 
* Scooping HisGeog sites

The history-geography Scoop.it on the connection between history and geography is slowly building examples of the fact that one cannot teach geography without learning geography and one cannot teach history without learning geography.

The presentation for day 1 of the workshops can be accessed by clicking here.

We are looking forward to the success of the workshops but also wish to say that there is no ‘golden bullet’ to develop a connected curriculum. The connections will need to be developed by individual teachers and schools as they develop their program. It is more the ‘headset’ for connection, rather than a formula to do so. We can merely guide the process of designing the connected learning. More on that later.

Geography presentation for Day 2. 

History presentation