Geography – Megacities

The following could support – Place and Liveability (Year 7) or Changing Nations (Year 8) or be used as an introduction/basic outline of information for VCE/HSC Geography. The information is of varying difficulties. Can I suggest you convert this into a format that suits your use and the year level of the students. For younger years don’t forget to add in the general purpose geography sites. I am presenting it in the format that reflects the way I conduct research when starting to see what is out there for a research guide.
1. Encyclopaedias and Databases
These will depend on your school but for example if you have access to Britannica you will find information like these two examples. Useful for basic definitions – eg a megacity has more than 10 million inhabitants

If you have an online membership to your local library there will be some encyclopaedia such as World Book or other resource (e.g. GALE) you can use. They are a good starting point and often provide other references and citation/bibliography information in an easy form.
Here are some quality resources from online journals (For Year 11/12)
Molina, Mario J.and Molina, Luisa T, 2004, ‘Megacities and Atmospheric Pollution, Journal of Air & Waste Management Association, Vol 54, pp. 644-680
Borsdorf, Axel and Coy,Martin, 2009, ‘Megacities and Global Change: Case Studies from Latin America’, DIE ERDE, Vol 140, No 4.

2. Museum and Government Institution sites

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/make-cities-explode-size-these-interactive-maps-180952832/?no-ist

http://www.museumofthecity.org/project/megacities-bursting-cities/
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Highlights/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf (United Nations World Urbanisation Trends)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52299#.VqAlmPl97IU

Click to access 2015-EGM_Urbanization.pdf

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/09/18/megaciudades-america-latina

3. Government supported educational resource sites

FUSE

SCOOTLE
Note there are 164 hits for megacities at SCOOTLE

ABC Splash

4. TV and Media Sites
Nat Geo TV  – http://natgeotv.com/asia/megacities
SBS – http://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/story/lagos-rising?cid=trending
ABC (see also SPLASH above) – http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4141820.htm
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/intermediate2/geography/human_environments/world_population_distribution/revision/4/
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-can-cities-become-too-big
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011qmcl/episodes/guide (Andrew Marr’s Megacities)
The Conversation
https://theconversation.com/au/topics/megacities
https://theconversation.com/why-chinas-mega-cities-leave-their-citizens-struggling-3165
The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/bernard-salt-demographer/measuring-up-to-the-worlds-megacities/news-story/3760e271c8c19c5071f0439b5bc3968d
The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/22/un-cities-mega-regions
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/datablog/interactive/2011/oct/26/un-world-population-growth
Consider also the NY Times, The New Daily and others
5. Other film media sites

Consider Youtube (and its variants), Khan Academy amongst others and don’t forget Clickview!

https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/society-and-culture/demographics/v/urbanization
6. Social bookmarking/sharing sites

http://www.scoop.it/t/geography-education?tag=megacities
http://www.scoop.it/t/year-12-geography-mega-cities
https://www.diigo.com/tag/megacity
7. Images

Try Tag Galaxy to get students thinking about what makes up a megacity.

8. Games

http://www.purposegames.com/game/megacities-quiz
http://isbooth.com/geoquiz/en

9. Libguides and Pathfinders

http://xavier.vic.libguides.com/content.php?pid=294334&sid=2416991
http://libguides.mlmclilydale.catholic.edu.au/c.php?g=228172&p=2598377

10. Other sites
Don’t forget subject associations such as GTAV! Think about the topic – other schools in not only Australia but around the world are doing it as it is a global issue so look out for
https://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=5&secNum=6
http://www.gcsegeography.co.uk/people-and-the-planet/the-challenges-of-an-urban-world
https://ih-igcse-geography.wikispaces.com/6.2.+Urbanisation+and+mega-cities
http://www.coolgeography.co.uk/GCSE/AQA/Changing%20Urban/Urbanisation/Urbanisation.htm
https://smccyr12geography.wikispaces.com/3.2+Mega+Cities
Zunal.com has webquests such as this http://zunal.com/webquest.php?w=256749