Human Impacts Mind Map

Overview

In this lesson, students explore how human activity connects to geomorphological processes and how these can change distinctive landscapes. Building on earlier learning about landforms and processes, students will create a mind map showing human causes and likely environmental effects.

Learning intentions

Students will:

• Examine human activities that affect landforms and landscape quality.
• Describe interconnections between human actions and erosion, sedimentation, and river changes.
• Identify strategies that reduce negative impacts (as a follow-on thinking step).
• Use geographic language to communicate ideas clearly in a mind map.

Success criteria

Students can:

• Identify at least three human activities that affect landscapes.
• Link each activity to a geomorphological impact (e.g. more erosion, sediment build-up, wetland change).
• Use clear cause-and-effect links in a mind map with labelled categories.
• Explain one idea aloud with a partner using sentence starters.

Curriculum links

• AC9HG8K04: the interconnections between human activity and geomorphological processes, and ways of managing distinctive landscapes.
• AC9HG8K01: geomorphological processes that produce different landscapes and significant landforms (applied to how human actions alter processes).
• AC9HG8S05: identify a strategy for action in relation to environmental factors, and explain potential impacts.
• AC9HG8K03: value of landscapes and landforms for people (briefly considered through tourism/heritage/community effects).

Lesson structure (45 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook conversation. Teacher shows 3 short “impact prompts” on the board (no pictures needed): “More foot traffic on bushland tracks”, “Land clearing for farming”, “River dams/weirs”. Students do a quick think-pair-share: “What might change in the landscape?”

2. 5–12 min · Mini direct teach (cause → process → effect). Teacher models a simple example: “Track overuse → vegetation loss → more erosion → muddy runoff/sediment”. Students listen, then add one missing link to a teacher-provided sentence frame: “Because people… therefore… and this leads to…”.

Class-facing checklist teacher uses:

• Human activity (what people do)
• Geomorphological process (erosion, sedimentation, water flow change)
• Environmental effect (water clarity, habitat, landform shape)
• People implications (tourism, safety, cultural/spiritual/cultural values)

3. 12–25 min · Pair mind map creation. Students in pairs create a mind map using one shared category and three branches, plus sub-branches for effects. Teacher assigns each pair one focus from a set (rotate if needed):

• Tourism/tracks (overuse)
• Land clearing/agriculture (erosion & sedimentation)
• Mining/quarrying/urban development (land disturbance, sediment)
• River regulation (dams/locks/channel changes affecting wetlands)

Teacher action: circulate and ask probing questions: “Which process is changing?” “How would you know?” “What happens to water or land after heavy rain?” Student task: complete at least 3 human activities with cause-and-effect labels.

4. 25–35 min · Gallery share with accountable talk. Pairs stand by their mind map. Half the pairs do a “walk and talk” to compare different impacts, then return to their own. Teacher prompts accountable talk:

• “I agree because…”
• “I’d add that…”
• “Can you explain your cause-and-effect link using the process word?”

5. 35–43 min · Quick strategy connection (one sentence). Teacher asks: “If these impacts happened near a real community, what could people do to reduce harm?” Teacher provides a starter list: manage tracks, revegetate, buffer zones, sediment traps, maintain waterways, design sustainable drainage, regulate construction. Students add one box to their mind map: “Strategy for action → expected impact”.

6. 43–45 min · Exit ticket. Students complete an exit ticket on paper:

• “Name three human activities that affect landforms.”
• “Choose one and write: activity → process → effect (one sentence).”

Resources

• Mind map template (A4) with central circle: “Human influences on landforms”
• Coloured pencils or markers
• Process word bank cards: erosion, transportation, deposition, sedimentation, vegetation loss, river regulation, wetland change
• Sentence starters strip for accountable talk
• Timer projected for transitions
• Exit ticket slips
• Dyslexia-friendly audio recordings or teacher read-aloud script for prompts and sentence frames

Assessment

• Formative during pair work: teacher checks that students name at least three human activities and include at least one correct process word in cause-and-effect links.
• Gallery share observation: listens for accurate reasoning (“because people…, therefore…”).
• Exit ticket: verifies meeting success criteria with a short written cause → process → effect sentence.

Differentiation

• Pair work (required): use mixed-ability pairing; ensure both students contribute by assigning roles (Writer/Explainer).
• Provide sentence starters and a partially completed example mind map for students needing support.
• Offer dyslexia-friendly options:
• mind map template with large spacing and pre-printed branch labels
• teacher read-aloud prompts and checklists
• permission to use coloured icons for processes (e.g. erosion = falling slope symbol)
• allow oral responses to be captured by a partner
• Extension for fast finishers: add a “people impacts” branch (e.g. tourism risk, water quality, habitat change) and justify a strategy using a reason (“This helps because…”).