Note: here are two good examples of student slides from Tim Rewais and Callum South.  Great work, boys!

Hello!

Welcome everyone. I’d like to be with you today, but I am in Melbourne. So Mr. Freeman and I have started this activity that you can work on.

The main idea is to learn what you can about how the area you went to on excursion changed over the years. It’s a good example of what can happen in cities so that’s why we’re studying it.

There will be a few parts to this task so how about getting started?

Sorting Images

You have already seen the photos from our excursion. Now you will get to work with them.

1. Go to the online collection of photos from your trip to Pyrmont. This wil open in a new window so you can always comeback to this age.
2. As you look through the pictures, you are going to save all those that you think are good examples of:

• Urban Growth
• Urban Decline
• Adaptive Re-use
• Gentrification

3. As you look through each picture, right-click and “save image as” some for each dot point above. Try to get at least 1 and up to 4 pictures.
4. Make sure you save them to your space on the Oxley Server (not the local hard drive)

Pasting into PowerPoint

To help you learn those four terms above really well, you’ll paste the photos you found on the topics into a set of PowerPoint slides.

1. Download the template for the slides here. Save the empty file to your Server space, saving it with your name in part of the filename (like “jphillips_slides” “larmstrong_slides” etc.).
2. Focus on the four pages titled: Growth, Decline, Adaptive Reuse and Gentrification. Don’t worry about the others yet.
3. Paste as many examples as you have (up to 4) into each of these slides.
4. Great Job!!!

Defining the Concepts

1. Open your Powerpoint slides from the earlier lesson.
2. Look through the examples you have for each main concept.
3. Choose the example that best represents each concept (for example, the photo that best shows “gentrification”).
4. On the next slide, insert that image into the “picture area” on that slide for each concept.
5. In the dot points, explain or define what each concept is.

Looking into the Past

You’ve seen the Pyrmont area for yourself as it is today. You probably have some idea of what it used to be like in the past. In the last activity you picked photos of great examples of growth, decline, adaptive reuse and gentrification. Now is the time to explain how these things happen. Refer to these instructions for this

We’ve scanned some images from the “old days” so you can compare the old and the new as a way to come up with good explanations for how the 4 main concepts happen. Let’s get started.

1. In your PowerPoint slides, add a new card after each of your “Definition Slides.” Later you can decide which layout or format to choose. It will be one with a picture and probably text like one of these:

2. Look through the online archives for Pyrmont.
3. Find a scan that shows an image related to your four “Definition slides.” For example, if you chose a photo of the Pyrmont bridge to represent “Growth”, look for a scan that shows the bridge in the old days.
4. Do a right-mouse click to copy the old image and save it to your server space. Give it a name that makes sense to you (”growth,” “decline” “reuse” gentrification”).
5. Go to your slides and insert the scanned image into the new slide that matches the concept.
6. Do this for each of the four concepts.
7. Now comes the hard part. To move up a level in your learning, you should be able to describe the “significant difference” between what life was like in the old days compared to now and what changes happened. Look back and forth between your slides on each concept looking for clues.

Those people who can do it on their own, obviously move up the achievement scale. Those others who work with a teacher to look closely are still doing a good job. Even a few might find that the best they will do is to learn what the concepts mean, but not how they came about or changed. You can choose your own level of success by referring to this learning map. Click the image or link to download the unit document.

The Location

View Larger Map

Other Resources

• Student’s sample essay - from Bored of Studies (downloaded Word Doc)
• Decade of Renewal - pamphlet (download pdf)
• Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority
• Visitor Snapshot Statistics - Australia Day 2008 (download pdf)

Links

• Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority
• Pyrmont Bridge Historical Site - the world’s oldest surviving electrically operated swingspan bridge. The Web site was launched to celebrate the centenary of the bridge in 2002.
• CSR Cooperage Building (former), Bowman St, Pyrmont, NSW
• Video - A Nation is Built - from Australian Screen

Create a Timeline

Find cool software or at least fashion powerpoint.