Year 7 · Unit 03 — Is It Worth It?

The judgment unit. Students construct evaluation criteria across economic, environmental and liveability dimensions, then apply them to a proposal with no obviously right answer. This is where the program's honesty is most visible.

The five lessons

A town map surrounded by liveability factor cards — housing, transport, health, safety, parks, environment, family and community — with numbered ranking tokens

What Makes a Place Good to Live?

Liveability factors and perceptions; students assess and rank their own suburb first.

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A pristine WA creek at golden hour: clear water, granite boulders, river gums and a heron wading

Environmental Quality

How extraction can change environmental quality and what that does to the liveability of places.

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Aerial view at sunset of an open pit mine and tailings dam beside a residential town with ovals and parks — the trade-off in a single frame

Building the Criteria

Teams construct a weighted evaluation framework: economic benefit, environmental cost, liveability effects.

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A proposed mining operation rendered as a 3D terrain: open pit, glowing water systems, rail line to a coastal port, and a bulk carrier departing on its export route

The Proposal

Scenario briefing for a fictional WA project; stakeholder positions distributed and argued.

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A wooden gavel resting on a weathered table inside a corrugated-iron shed, red dirt and gum trees through the open door

The Verdict

Criteria applied; individual written recommendation drafted and submitted (summative).

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Students produce

A written recommendation for or against a fictional project, defended with criteria.

Industry connection

Live video Q&A with two partner employees — one early-career, one veteran.

Summative task · The Verdict — written recommendation

The year’s major analytical task: a written recommendation for or against a development proposal, defended against student-built criteria.

Curriculum alignment — the exact wording

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

Geography · Place and liveability

“The factors that influence the decisions people make about where to live and their perceptions of the liveability of places”

“The influence of environmental quality on the liveability of places”

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