How Brett Dascombe Made Geography Teaching Take Flight

Brett Dascombe, a senior geography teacher at Wavell State High School in Brisbane, could be accused of droning on a bit, but that is a good thing, by incorporating industry standard drones and geospatial technologies into geography, Dascombe has brought a modern context to the subject.

The approach has been rolled out in junior and senior years at Wavell and focuses on project-based learning with current issues and real-world data at the heart of the learning and assessment.

Students have designed an extension to the Doomben Train Line and a sustainable station for the Olympic Games Village at Northshore. This was entered in the Design Engineer Construct Awards in Great Britain being one of 11 finalists globally. The work was also awarded a highly commended in the Qld Planning Institute of Australia Awards, eight of Dascombe’s students have received this award in the past five years highlighting technology use and quality of their work.

Year 11 last year examined the future of Brissie’s Montague Road post-Olympic Games. They designed a proposal and created a visualisation using GenAi to render that visualisation for their assessment. Students also looked at food insecurity in the Sahel and this year will look at food deserts in Brisbane. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da56yzXJPYw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el0ZB951Gl4

“In the past, we were told to store our amazing senior students work in cupboards never to see the light of day again. Just over five years ago with students producing these incredible interactive assessment pieces I asked students and their parents if I could start entering them in competition and this led to industry recognition in state, national and global awards. Students’ work was globally recognised at the 2021 National Geographic/ESRI Storymap Competition, one of nine projects globally shortlisted to make the finals for high school students. This achievement led to an internship for this graduating student in 2021,” he says. https://arcg.is/0Dyqz90

Brett’s students consistently perform well above State average and are regularly invited to present at industry conferences, including EduDrone, Geography Teachers Association of Queensland and the Surveyor’s Trust Luncheon, where they showcase their work in front of educators, industry leaders and government ministers. Beyond this, many are highly sought after by universities and industry; with some entering university early or offered highly sought-after internships.

The geospatial program in Years 7 to 9 is based around the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 for Geography and Economics while Senior Geography projects are aligned to the Queensland Curriculum.

“Geography has always provided the opportunity to examine real world issues and projects but in 2019 a new Senior Queensland Syllabus was released and this coincided with ESRI providing schools with free industry standard software that allowed us to produce interactive online projects with real-world data, drone footage, embedded videos and swipe maps,” he says.

“We bring a scaled back and accessible version of technology into the class and fieldwork to skill our students in obtaining drone footage, LIDAR scans, 360 degree camera footage for their projects. Some of the projects have found high Ecoli levels on Cylinder Beach, examined pressure on koala habitat on the Northern Gold Coast and suggested urban development opportunities in Brisbane around the Olympic Games.”

Wavell SHS worked with the Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority and allowed .mp4 videos as assessment pieces in the portal. The program has developed from there with over 1300 students and teachers at Wavell SHS now with accounts to create interactive assessment should they wish.

Selling the drone program to leadership was a cinch, they like to bring innovation to teaching at Wavell and encourage staff to enhance the curriculum as Dascombe has.

“Introducing the program was really easy when our leadership team have a growth mindset in education and when students are being recognised in global, national and state awards for the interactive project work they are completing in class. The program also provides students with opportunities to attend Women’s Day Planning Breakfasts, listen to international speakers at the Keeble Lecture and attend and present at education and industry conferences. This builds capacity and confidence in our students and aligns to Wavell’s motto of ‘Empowering Learners, Empowering Futures’.”

Wavell SHS worked with schools and learners across Brisbane and on the Fraser Coast in 2024 to get abord the geospatial program, assisting schools with datasets for projects, types of technology that help with field work and resources for the classroom.

“At Wavell SHS, we have run Professional Development days for three years with over 120 teachers from the private and public education systems participating and we have current and ex-students present and help out on those days. We create lessons and projects for students and teachers on YouTube. Teachers and students from around Queensland can use these lessons and projects to upskill and use in their own projects.

“We also applied for a grant to take students up to the Fraser Coast to undertake peer to peer learning opportunities with students and teachers in schools in the region. We are always looking for ways to support teachers and learners inside our school and across the education system with 2024 being a very impactful year.”

Standout results and student outcomes have become a regular occurrence as the program clicks with the school’s pupils and incites interest and thoughts about future careers.

Jada, who graduated from the Wavell SHS program in 2022, this year represented her university (QUT) in the Netherlands at the Just Cities Program while studying Regional Planning & Landscape Architecture, she already has an internship and two planning awards. 2021 graduate Sam with University of Queensland worked in Samoa with the Climate Change Resilience Program through the Colombo Plan, highlighting how the program creates global citizens.

Dascombe’s efforts have attracted the attention of the judges for the Global Teacher Prize, it’s worth a million dollars to the winner.

“I’m quite overwhelmed and very humbled as there are a huge number of teachers out there doing amazing work across Australia and globally. There is a lot of negative press out there around teaching and education but the story that isn’t often told is that of inspiring educators, educational leaders and inspiring students. I’m also very proud of the work we do at Wavell State High School but particularly the work our students are producing through these projects. They can see that change is possible and there are interesting pathways and opportunities post school. Education is changing rapidly and I’m excited to be a part of this evolution.”