Geography department update

By Kate Hope | Posted: Friday May 12, 2023

It has been a busy start to the year for our Geography department, with numerous outings outside of the classroom.

Our philosophy in Geography is to get students to connect with both tangata and taiao if and where possible as this is where we see the real connections take place with our akonga.

Year 13 Geography tour Queenstown

As part of the Year 13 Geography course, the students took to Queenstown for 3 days at the end of Term one. It was an action packed trip filled with tourism activities, surveying and Geography!

Day one saw us arrive in Arrowtown, where we heard from Amanda Viana from the Arrowtown museum about the spatial and temporal changes of tourism from 1900’s-today. Following this students had their first attempt at surveying tourists as part of their research internal on how different tourists use different spaces in the Wakatipu region. For some students it was a case of brushing off rejection and trying to survey again, with the aim of surveying at least 10 tourists per group. From here we went to the shotover jet to try out the first of the tourist activities on our list. Back to our accommodation for the evening, ready for another action packed day tomorrow.

Day two we woke for an early start at the bungee jump on a cold, wet Queenstown day. Some last minute changes and excitement saw more students opt into having a jump, so we were off to an exciting start to the day. A quick lunch of dominoes and it was off into Queenstown for more surveying. It was a difficult day to approach people, but the school value of perseverance shone through and students were successful in achieving their aim of having 40 surveys completed. Back quickly to our accommodation for some kai and to begin to analyse the data collected and then back into Queenstown to try out the fear factory (check out the photos!). The purpose of this activity was to show how tourism has changed over time and to compare these differences across activities when we are back in the classroom.

Day three was an even earlier start to get tidied up and meet Alana Standish from the QLDC on the Rhythm and Alps festival. This was an opportunity for students to discuss all the different parts of running an event and what the social, economic and environmental implications are for Queenstown and the region. From here, there were more surveys to be completed, last minute lunch purchases and back to school.

The question we are asking is - how do tourists use different spaces in Queenstown and how does this compare to pre covid data?

Thanks to the Geography crew, Mr Foster and Mr Campbell for accompanying us.

Year 11 Geography Wananga Days - Street Art Tour

For our Year 11 Geography Wananga Day, students toured Dunedin City to look at the amazing street art on display.

We spent time in two main locations, Vogel Street and Princes Street where the students were given a tour and surveyed the public. The students are collecting field data for their research internal assessment. The aims of this research are to investigate if street art encourages people to interact with an urban environment and investigate if street art influences people's opinions on a location.

Mr Foster's Year 11 class combined with Ms. Hope’s Year 12 class to find out who was the best Geographer. With a significant canteen voucher on the line, competition was fierce. Congratulations to the following teams:

1st place with bragging rights is Group 1 - Max B, Levi, Zakariya, Tomas T, Ruie

2nd place: Group 5 - Jack T, Thomas M, Roland, Andre, Dylan

Special thanks to Athol Parks for a highly engaging and educational tour. We are looking forward to reporting on our results.

Back in the classroom, students will collate, share and analyse their data and answer the aims of their research. What do you think they will find out?

Year 12 Geography- Aoraki/Mt Cook field trip

Week 2 saw both Year 12 Geography classes awake early mid week to spend some time in the stunning scenery of Aoraki/Mt Cook. A long bus ride and some wet weather on our arrival meant that everything we had planned to do, needed to be quickly changed. Our research and boat rides were postponed, but we were able to hear from DOC about the human impacts and land use changes over time in the SIHC. This session will be invaluable to connect with our learning in the classroom.

Thursday saw us awake early (again!) ready for a big day of flying to the Tasman glacier and boating on the Tasman lake. Unfortunately, despite the clear day, all of our flights were cancelled which now meant we were on round 3 of plan changes. Not to worry, half the group went on their boat ride, the rest took to the red tarns and conducted their research up there. The aim of the research was to see if vegetation changes as altitude increases. Measurements were taken of wind speed and direction, humidity, temperature and altitude. Evaluating our research will become important with some students recording 30 degree temperatures!! With the quick thinking action of Brian our bus driver, we had quickly arranged flights out of Tekapo to make up for the cancelled flights. Although this wasn’t going to give the students the ‘wow’ factor of the glacial landing, we were really grateful to Tim and his team from Air Safaris for taking our group at short notice. Even better, was the bonus Geography lesson they got in the air, accompanied by some daredevil flying to keep the boys on their toes.

Friday was once again an early start (5.57am to be exact!) as we needed to pack, clean and finish the day's activities. 3 groups were going 3 different ways; 1 group to Tekapo for their flight, 1 group up the red tarns and the 3rd group finally getting their Tasman lake boat ride in. Once we were all back together in Mt Cook Village we had a quick bite to eat and we were on the road back to OBHS again.

A big thank you to all the students for being such great role models for our school, particularly showing the flexibility needed with all the changes. Thanks also to our great Geography teaching crew of Mr Foster, Mr Harvey and the newly found Geographer Ms. Anderton-White. A special thank you to Brian our superhero bus driver, saver, quick thinker and general awesomeness and lastly to Tim and his team at Air Safaris for contributing to our students having a memorable trip. 

Image Gallery