Cutaway of Western Australian country: outback landscape and open pit above, strata, gold seams and groundwater beneath
Year 7 · Unit 01 of 05

What's Under Your Feet?

Why does the ground beneath WA — and the water within it — matter to the whole world?

The wonder-to-systems bridge. Students arrive knowing WA "has mining"; they leave able to classify resources, locate the endowment, and explain why water is the resource behind every other resource.

The five lessons

Tabletop arrangement of resources to classify: iron ore, quartz, a timber round, a model wind turbine, a vial of water, and photo cards of sun, wind farms, forests, streams and a gas plant
01
The Lucky Ground, Literally
WA's geological endowment; classifying environmental resources as renewable or non-renewable (card-sort activity).
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Aerial view of Western Australia's red-earth country meeting a turquoise coastline under clear sky
02
Mapping the Endowment
Where WA's major deposits and operations sit; map annotation skills on a WA base map.
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An explorer's map of Western Australia on a wooden desk, river and water systems glowing blue across the state, mineral deposits marked in clusters, with rock specimens, a compass and field notes
03
Water: The Resource Behind the Resources
The location, distribution and variability of Australia's water resources; why every operation is also a water story.
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A Pilbara water scarcity case study laid out on a table in red country: stakeholder cards for community, mine operations and water management, a water use data table totalling 19,500 megalitres, and a mine-and-township map
04
Scarcity Under the Sun
Water scarcity and how operations and communities manage it — Pilbara case study.
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A completed Annotated Resource Profile for Pilbara iron ore on a study desk: WA map, banded iron formation geology column, water systems diagram, key facts, economic value and community impacts
05
Why This Ground Matters to the World
Synthesis lesson; students draft and begin the Annotated Resource Profile (summative).
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Students produce

A mapped profile of one WA resource region — geology, water and community together.

Industry connection

Site imagery and operational data from partner operations.

Summative task · Annotated Resource Profile

A mapped, written profile of one WA resource region — its geology, its water systems and the community that depends on both. Built across the unit and completed in Lesson 5.

Curriculum alignment — the exact wording

This unit teaches the following mandated content, quoted verbatim from the revised Western Australian Curriculum.

Geography · Water in Australia

“The classification of environmental resources as renewable or non-renewable”

“The location, distribution and variability of Australia’s water resources”

“Water scarcity and what causes it; why it is a problem; and ways of overcoming water scarcity”

Source: SCSA, Humanities and Social Sciences — Scope and sequence of the mandated curriculum content, P–10, For implementation in 2026.

← Year 7All five units Unit 02 →From the Ground to Your Hand