Week 4: Civics and citizenship through geography

Week 4: Civics and citizenship through geography

Year 5, Blog Post

By the end of this lesson, students will understand the meaning and effects of climate change with a focus on The Amazon rainforest, while also learning ways they can minimise their own impact on climate change.

Why is this important?

Students are our future generation, educating them about climate change is crucial for a sustainable future. Environmental education begins in schools with all citizens of the school community being responsible for the teaching of sustainability see figure 1 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2005). If education on climate change does not occur in schools, the future of farming, deforestation and burning fossil fuels will continue to have a negative effect worldwide. Resulting in negative effects on wildlife with sea levels rising and ice shrinking, as well as the impact on humans, with a continuous decrease rainfall there will be a result of food shortages (National Geographic Partners, 2020)     

                           

Figure 1, Commonwealth of Australia, 2005.

What is climate change?

The Amazon Rainforest

If the trees in the Amazon rainforest are chopped down and burnt, the carbon dioxide that the trees have pulled in will be released back into the atmosphere (BBC Learning English, 2020), as shown in figure 2.

Figure 2, The Amazon rainforest.

While there are issues with climate change here in Australia, students will be focusing on The Amazon rainforest for the purpose of this lesson. Incorporating the Amazon rainforest into the lesson allows the students to gain an understanding of current and future global issues that may affect Australia, while also developing a sense of empathy towards the impact of climate change towards natural environments (Education services Australia, 2011). Through investigation of the impact of climate change in other communities, students often develop a set of views, beliefs, and values and following on from this actively choose to act in a way that promotes these beliefs and values (Gilbert, Tudball & Brett, 2020).

    What actions can we take against climate change?

Students propose action in response to a geographical challenge and identify the possible effects of their proposed action. (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2017, Geography achievement standard)

Students will be coming up with individual action plans to minimise their own impact on climate change. Students will encourage the school community to engage in these solutions also. This will be done through verbal and written communication.

         What will the year 5 students be doing?     

·         Students will use digital technologies to further research the effects climate change will have on the amazon rainforest over the next ten years.

·         Students will represent the data they find in a table form

·         Students will then document way as to which they will be minimising their impact on climate control

·         Students will present their tables in a whole school assembly, alongside their individual solutions to climate control. You are invited to attend this assembly to offer support and to help implement these solutions.

Curriculum Links

Peer feedback

Loved reading your evidence as to why this is important for students to learn at the beginning which is a great catch at the start of a bog post to encourage parents to continue reading. I also really like your idea of utilising small headings as the topic of discussion within your paragraphs, this helps the parents to know what’s specifically is getting spoken about. You have used nice concise language in which is easily understood and explains the important information without getting side-tracked. You have used relevant information and reliable sources to provide evidence within your blog post. It was great to see you have used the blog post as a way of inviting parents to become involved within their children’s learning and attend an assembly, this is comforting and supporting for both the students and parents. I have really struggled to find anything to give you advice on as I thought this was a very well planned out lesson and provided well in a blog post in a way that parents will be interested and involved. There’s only one thing I might add is, have you thought about adding any assessment methods or a criterion that students will be assessed against to communicate to the parents? Other than that, Well done!!

 Thanks Abbey Bellchambers. 

Reference List

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. [ACARA]. (2017). Foundation to year 7 curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences. Understand how humanities and social science works. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/?year=12101&strand=Inquiry+and+skills&strand=Knowledge+and+Understanding&capability=ignore&capability=Literacy&capability=Numeracy&capability=Information+and+Communication+Technology+%28ICT%29+Capability&capability=Critical+and+Creative+Thinking&capability=Personal+and+Social+Capability&capability=Ethical+Understanding&capability=Intercultural+Understanding&priority=ignore&priority=Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+Histories+and+Cultures&priority=Asia+and+Australia%E2%80%99s+Engagement+with+Asia&priority=Sustainability&elaborations=true&elaborations=false&scotterms=false&isFirstPageLoad=false#dimension-content

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. [ACARA]. (2016). The Australian Curriculum: all subjects (Version 8.3), all years, all curriculum elements, all curriculum dimensions. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/download/

Archipelago Creative. (2011, March 2). What is Climate Change? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko6GNA58YOA

BBC Learning English. (2019, August 29). The Amazon and climate change - Lingohack [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFIqIrepQa0

Commonwealth of Australia. (2005). Educating for a Sustainable Future: A National Environmental Education Statement for Australian Schools. Carlton South, VIC: Curriculum Corporation.

Education Services Australia. (2011). Australia as global citizens introduction. Retrieved from civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/global_citizenship_n_student_investigations,21210.html

Gilbert, R., Tudball, L, and Brett, P. (Eds.) (2020). Teaching Humanities and Social Sciences (7th edn). Melbourne: Cengage. [Formerly Gilbert and Hoepper (2017)]

National Geographic Partners. (2020). What is climate change? Retrieved from https://www.natgeokids.com/au/discover/geography/general-geography/what-is-climate-change/