Year 11 Geography

Introduction

Geography is a valuable conjoint with such subjects as law, commerce, planning, valuation, and architecture, and can broadly be defined as ‘the study of people and places’. Geography is about te taiao and the interconnections between the whenua, wai, āhuarangi, and koiora. We ask the question “What Is Where, Why There, and Why Care?” (Gritzner, 2002). 

From a geographer’s perspective, the world can be viewed as being composed of two interacting environments, the human (cultural) environment and the natural (physical) environment. Geographers set out to describe and explain the characteristics of, and the processes operating within, each of these environments as well as the interactions that take place between them. Ākonga will learn that both humans and natural processes shape te taiao. Humans shape te taiao through the decisions that are made, which are influenced by perspectives and power. 

Studies in Geography can cover a great variety of areas, such as hydrology, coastal processes, biogeography, environmental science, climatology, meteorology, geophysics, geology, botany, population studies, planning, tourism, settlement studies, economic systems, transportation, sociology, anthropology, development studies, land-use studies, and geomorphology.