VCE
Join our Education officers on Puffing Billy to investigate the characteristics of tourism in the Dandenong ranges. Students will examine the location of the railway, its interconnectedness, and the impact the railway has on people, places, and environments throughout its history. Issues and challenges to tourism in the the local area, and to the railway, will be discussed, alongside the impact of Puffing Billy on the local, regional, and national environments, economies, and cultures.
Through the lens of ethical tourism, students evaluate the effectiveness of measures taken at Puffing Billy Railway to enhance the positive and/or minimise the negative impact of the Railway on the surrounding environment. They investigate the growth of tourism at Puffing Billy and examine management and techniques being used to ensure Puffing Billy is environmentally, socially, culturally, and economically sustainable.
Students will use fieldwork techniques to gain statistical data from multiple information sources including Puffing Billy Railway staff, volunteers, digital images, streamed videos, and presentations. Students can use this information to inform a fieldwork report back at school analysing the impacts of tourism at Puffing Billy.
During their virtual visit!
Students will have an opportunity to converse with, survey and hear from Puffing Billy Railway staff and volunteers to discuss the impact of tourism at Puffing Billy Railway and the Dandenong Ranges. Students will research challenges to the railway over time and the importance and historical and financial significance of people and volunteers to the railway. By understanding the characteristics of tourism at the railway students will be able to inform a fieldwork report back at school and use what they have learnt at the railway to brainstorm ways the railway can be sustainable in the future. Immersed in nature throughout their journey, students will think sustainably about the impacts of the railway and future solutions to reduce the environmental impacts of people and technology to biodiversity at the Railway, locally, regionally, and globally.
Students will also be presented statistical data which they will use to investigate the interconnectedness between Puffing Billy Railway, local, domestic, and international tourism.
Curriculum links
Geographical skills
| SKILL | DESCRIPTION | |
|---|---|---|
| Cartography-map creation | Use border, orientation, legend, title, scale, source (BOLTSS) conventions when creating or completing a map | |
| Use of both primary data collected in the field and secondary data from online databases to create maps and map layers using geospatial technologies. These maps should be at an appropriate scale and follow geographic conventions | ||
| Cross-sections | Analyse and annotate cross-sections with natural features and human activities, | |
| as appropriate | ||
| Analysing geospacial information | Create simple layers/overlays of data on a map or diagram | |
| Use a GIS platform to interpret and analyse geospatial information by adding and removing layers of data and viewing at different scales | ||
| Images | Use satellite images and oblique and vertical aerial photographs to interpret and draw conclusions from observed features and to describe relative locations of features and general spatial patterns | |
| Use a provided or an estimated scale on a vertical aerial photograph and on a satellite image to establish distances and areas | ||
| Create generalised maps using satellite images as a source | ||
| Map use, interpretation and analysis | Compare and interpret different map types (including more specialised complex maps), and scales and maps from different time periods, for the same area to draw accurate conclusions | |
| Use combinations of remote sensing images and topographic maps to explain change over time | ||
| Mathematics | Number operations | Calculate and interpret percentages, ratios, mean and median |
| Graphs | Select, construct and interpret line graphs, bar graphs (simple, comparative, compound and divergent) and pie charts | |
| Tables of data | Interpret specialised graph types (e.g. climate graph, population pyramid) | |
| Observe and describe trends in graphed time series data in accurate language | ||
| Source and data assessment | Reflect on the validity and reliability of data and information and their sources | |
| Social surveys and interviews | Consider sample size, location/s of surveying and times and durations of surveying | |
| in design of survey and analysis of results | ||
| Design and construct survey questionnaires or interview questions for a given purpose | ||
| Undertake surveys and/or interviews with potential for open responses and qualitative recording |
fieldwork report
| Report section | Guidelines |
|---|---|
| Definition of topic | A definition of topic contains: |
| A clear statement of the research question | |
| An outline of the geographic context of the question | |
| A brief hypothesis (expected answer to the research question) and justification of hypothesis | |
| Primary sources and techniques used to collect data | An outline of Primary sources used and techniques used to collect data indicates: |
| A brief description of the sources and techniques used to collect primary data. Fieldwork techniques must include the use of geospatial technologies, through the use of GNSS, to indicate what primary data was collected at specific locations | |
| A justification of how the combination of primary sources and techniques were used to help answer the research question | |
| Secondary sources and techniques used to collect data | An outline of the Secondary sources and techniques used to collect data indicates: |
| A brief description of the sources used, including secondary data from online databases | |
| (e.g. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Atlas of Living Australia) | |
| A justification of how the combination of secondary sources and techniques were used to help answer the research question | |
| Presentation of processed data and information | The Presentation of processed data and information uses: |
| Appropriate conventions | |
| Techniques most appropriate to the meaning conveyed by the data and information | |
| Geospatial technologies, through the use of GIS mapping, to create maps from primary data collected in the field and/or secondary data from online databases to answer the research question | |
| Correct sourcing of the data and information | |
| Analysis of processed data and information | An Analysis of processed data and information should: |
| Identify key features | |
| Describe patterns identified in the processed data and information | |
| Draw relationships between key features and patterns in the processed data and information | |
| Relate back to the research question and discuss whether or not the data and information has supported the hypothesis | |
| Conclusion | A Conclusion should: |
| Identify the extent to which the analysis has answered the research question | |
| Note any specific points to be learnt from the investigation | |
| Report section | Guidelines |
| Evaluation | An Evaluation considers: |
| The relative effectiveness (limitations and weaknesses) of the techniques implemented and sources used | |
| Future possibilities for any subsequent investigation | |
| Referencing | Referencing includes: |
| Bibliography with correct and consistent referencing | |
| Acknowledgement of sources of information and people |
Curriculum Resources
Puffing Billy Railway offers a range of pre- and post-excursion curriculum-linked resources to support teaching and learning in the classroom and at home. All resources are based around the topics of Energy/Force/Motion, Past and Present, Design and Technology and Biodiversity.
Changing Places
Maps in Motion
Train of Thoughts
Interpretation of Data at the Railway
Destination Design
Sus-train-ability
Socio-cultural signals
Fieldwork Investigations
Teachers are welcome to download this workbook for the students to use while they are onsite at Puffing Billy Railway.
- Sustainable Tourism at the Railway Workbook | Download
Enquiries
Enquire about our guided excursions via our online form.
Please contact the Education team for any further questions by emailing [email protected]Â or calling 03 9757 0700.
