If you're teaching the Stage 2 HSIE unit this term, you already know what you're in for. Unit 3 is a rich one — and a lot to prepare. Maps, satellite images, climate data, sixteen lessons to sequence, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' connection to Country to cover thoughtfully and well. It's a big unit to deliver.
This slide deck does that groundwork for you: one classroom-ready PowerPoint that walks alongside all 16 lessons, with the teaching, discussion prompts, modelled examples and student tasks already on screen. Below is a quick look at what the unit covers and how the slides are built — so you can see exactly how they'll work in your room.
What the unit covers
What are places like? moves from the local to the global. It starts with how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples map, describe and connect with Country and Place — Songlines, scar trees, sacred sites and meeting places — then explores cultural exchange networks, archaeological evidence of continuous occupation, and significant natural and cultural environments in Australia and around the world.
From there it becomes a proper Stage 2 geography unit: students interpret settlement patterns, work with real climate data, and consider how climate shapes where and how people live — coastal versus inland, dense versus sparse. They compare Australia with another country, weigh the geographical evidence, and finish by justifying (and presenting) a place they'd choose to live. It sits across both Geography and History, covering HS2-SCH-01, HS2-GEO-01 and HS2-HIS-01.
Teaching connection to Country — the part that's hardest to resource
If there's one section teachers tell me they find hardest to prepare well, it's this one — so the slides give it real care. Students look at how maps only ever show selected features for a purpose, then at how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples map Country to show connection and responsibility rather than borders. Songlines come in as trade routes, Dreaming tracks and reflections of land and sky, and from there the lessons build out to cultural exchange, middens and the archaeological evidence of tens of thousands of years of occupation. It's handled respectfully throughout, with prompts that keep the focus on relationships to land and water.
Designed the way you teach
Every lesson follows a real teaching rhythm, not a wall of text. You'll find learning intentions and success criteria, explicit teaching slides, key vocabulary, prior-knowledge checks, discussion and partner talk, mini-whiteboard checks, modelled think-alouds, built-in maps and climate data, guided and independent tasks, challenge activities, reflection questions, and optional assessment. Links to selected videos and mapping tools are included, so you're not hunting for them mid-lesson.
Prompts are written directly to students, which keeps slides clean and lessons flowing. Just display it on your whiteboard and go.
One note
These slides support the unit — they don't replace it. You'll need the Stage 2 HSIE Unit 3 lesson plans and resource sheets to get the full benefit (the numbered resources on the slides refer to those), plus internet access for the linked videos and mapping activities.
Quick facts
One widescreen PowerPoint · 309 student-facing slides · all 16 lessons · Stage 2 (Years 3–4) · History and Geography · digital download.
If you've been meaning to teach What are places like? with more confidence and less prep, this is the resource that gets you there.
A few questions teachers ask
What does the Stage 2 HSIE Unit 3 "What are places like?" unit cover?
Connection to Country (mapping, Songlines, cultural exchange and archaeological evidence), natural and cultural environments, climate zones and climate data, settlement and population patterns, and a comparison of Australia with another country.
Which syllabus outcomes does it address?
HS2-SCH-01, HS2-GEO-01 and HS2-HIS-01 — it's an integrated History and Geography unit.
Are there ready-made PowerPoint slides for this unit?
Yes — this is a 309-slide, student-facing PowerPoint covering all 16 lessons, made to display on your interactive whiteboard as a visual companion to the unit.
Do the slides replace the lesson plans?
No — they support delivery of the unit. You'll still need the Stage 2 HSIE Unit 3 lesson materials and resource sheets, which the slides refer to.