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Student activities

   

Activity 1

a. As a pair or small group find out about a large international airport near you.

Investigating current and relevant issues to do with large airports has been made easier in recent times through the use of the Internet. Most Internet users will be familiar with pages of links and search facilities that can be used by Web Browsers to find information. "Finding Information on the World Wide Web" is a page on this site which advises one how to hunt for information on the World Wide Web.

Finding Information on the World Wide Web

There are web sites for all of Australia's major airports mentioned in this unit. (Find them by using a good Search Engine like Google or for Australian examples try GoEureka.)

b. Use the headings and sub-headings from the figure below to draw a chart to inform people how they could respond to a large international airport located near them. The chart should suggest:
  • a suitable response to each category
  • reasons why people may or may not respond in the way set out in the headings and sub-headings

The main responses to living near a large international airport


People change what they do
  • Change location away from the airport
  • Change human usage of that place
  • Change how we treat the environment (eg avoid interfering with coastal and marine environments by building run-ways into the sea)
Reduce the losses
  • Prevent or minimize the effects of the airport
  • Modify the events associated with the airport eg change the flight patterns
Accept the losses
  • Bear the loss as individuals or communities
  • Share the loss eg relief from Governments (taxpayers)

c. As a pair or small group find out about any action groups (society or environmental associations) that are dealing with the issues associated with a large international airport near you.

Use the Internet in the same way as you did for question a. or use the community information facilities offered by your local or state government.

The following headings from the figure above will provide some guidance as to the aims of many of these action groups:

  • Change human usage of that place
  • Change how we treat the environment
  • Prevent or minimize the effects of the airport
  • Modify the events associated with the airport

Activity 2

a. Read any of the information in any of the case studies outlined above. For any airport/issue of your choice write a half page explanation of the ways that the actions of governments (or corporations working with the agreement of governments) may make better or worse any issue associated with the airport of your choice.

b. As a group collect newspaper articles on issues associated with international airports in Australia and overseas. Don't forget the Internet (all major newspapers put their major stories and articles on their web sites) and local newspapers when searching for this information. After enough articles have been collected list the issues associated with these airports.

Comment on the amount of media coverage each issue attracts.

Discuss and write a brief statement about why some had more than others. See the box below.

Some kinds of issues concerning international airports get less media attention than others


They may receive less attention because they:
  • Do not have the same dramatic impact as other news items.
  • Have been around for so long that it is thought people have become used to (or bored with) them.
  • Concern people who are remote from us in both a geographical and cultural sense.

c. Refer to the case study on the Essendon Airport in the unit above. Choose an issue or issues associated with a local airport (not necessarily an international one) near you. Look at and discuss the questions below.

 

Investigating an airport issue

When we get involved in any enquiry, decision-making and action we must investigate all aspects of the issue. The link which follows brings a page that gives a model for enquiry, decision-making and action.

Enquire, Decide, Act

We need to know:
  • Where are the airport and the people/environments associated with it?
  • What is the issue(s)?
  • Who is involved?
  • What is being done about it? (not just by governments and corporations but the people involved)
  • What should be done about it?
Look at and discuss the headings and sub-headings outlined in the box in Activity 1 b. above. Outline a plan that will help those who may be involved with the local airport issue to be ready for any other issues that may arise. Your plan should be aimed at preparing them for other issues if they occur.

 

Activity 3

a. Using an atlas, such as the Heinemann Atlas Third Edition, draw an outline map of the Asia-Pacific region of the world. (see Heinemann Atlas Third Edition pages 116 and 178) If you are not sure of the extent of the Asia-Pacific region discuss the details with your teacher.

Locate, draw and name the following information on your map.

  • Australia
  • Papua New Guinea
  • The Pacific Ocean
  • Three Pacific Ocean nations that are neighbours to Papua New Guinea and Australia
  • The nations of south-east Asia
  • The nations of east Asia
  • All of Australia's capital cities
  • The capital cities of PNG and the three Pacific Ocean nations
  • The capital cities of the nations of south-east Asia
  • The capital cities of the nations of east Asia

b. Include on your map the approximate latitude and longitude of the Changi International Airport in Singapore (for example see Heinemann Atlas Third Edition, pages 122-123)

c. Why do you think Changi International Airport in Singapore has become one of the world's major airport hubs - not only for the movement of people but also freight? (for example see Heinemann Atlas Third Edition, pages 120 and 178)

d Use your atlas to measure the straight-line distance from the capital city of the state or territory in which you live to all the airport locations in the Asia-Pacific region mentioned in the case studies above.

Add this information to your map.

 

Activity 4

a. Read the descriptions of airport issues that are outlined in the text and figures above.

Choose any five points of these descriptions that identify the same elements associated with the building and operating of these airports.

Those points that mainly describe the environment, particularly the built environment, mark with a "E" and those that mainly describe the impact on people, mark with an "P".

b. Using any of the newspaper articles that you used in Activity 2 b., find two other examples of an airport issue that can be marked with an "E" and two other examples of an airport issue that can be marked with a "P".

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