Teaching and learning

Activity 1

Social Labels

• Students participate in the Project Rockit – Social labels workshop. This workshop builds students capacity to identify their own personal values and those of others; students identify that confidence and resilience are required to take risks in learning; and they identify the individual actions they can take to make the world a better place.
• Students watch the film, Remember the Titans . Students participate in class discussion evaluating examples from the film of social awareness, empathy and interpersonal skills. Students begin to identify team skills such as communication and problem solving. Students complete the table below:

  EXAMPLES OF TEAMWORK	EXAMPLES OF COMMUNICATION
  EXAMPLES OF INITIATIVE/PROBLEM SOLVING	EXAMPLES OF EMPATHY/UNDERSTANDING

• Students begin to reflect on the social awareness and interpersonal skills required to contribute to an effective team and create an ideal ‘team member’.
• Students watch two videos: the 60- minutes report and a TED Talk on Turia Pitt (other motivational people could be selected in addition or as alternatives).
• Students continue to engage in class discussions, identifying characteristics of social awareness such as resilience and empathy.
• Students create a personal action plan which identify the interpersonal skills they intend to focus on for improvement, with suggested strategies.

Activity 2

Team protocols

Students learn how to develop team protocols. Teams share personal strengths and areas for improvement based on their action plans. Students develop a list of team protocols for each activity. These skills can be used whenever students are asked to work in a team.

• Team building activities: these activities could be completed as starter activities as you work through the major project or as whole lessons or excursions. At the end of each activity students would reflect on the team and leadership skills observed and make suggestion to improve team effectiveness.
  • Canoeing excursion
  • Escape room excursion or incursion
  • Stranded on a desert island activity
  • Mystery holiday activity
  • Team trivia
  • Bank robbery problem-s olving task
  • The Life boat – Who will you save activity

Activity 3

What is a leader?

• Students brainstorm on post-it notes all the qualities of a leader. They share this information as a class.
• Paired research task: Students are given a photo of a famous leader. Students are to find the following information about their leader:
  • Full name
  • Profession/job
  • Background
  • Positive Impact on Society
  • The personality traits which make them a great role model/leader 

Students identify which qualities they will improve on in the next 12 months. 

Styles of leadership

• Students are introduced to the following traditional leadership styles: autocratic, charismatic, laisse faire, transformational and distributed.
• Students are put into five groups. A team leader is selected from each group. The team leader is given one the styles of leadership discussed. Each team is instructed to build a spaghetti bridge, which must hold a certain weight and be the tallest. The team leader must use the mystery leadership style while working with the team.
• At the end of the challenge, the team members reflect:
  • What was the style of leadership allocated?
  • What were the strengths and weaknesses of this style of leadership?
  • Was you team successful? Why or why not?
  • How did this style of leadership motivate you personally?
  • How did this style of leadership frustrate you personally?
  • Share any strategies you used to have your own influence within the team?
• For the leader:
  • Was this a natural style of leadership for you?
  • Do you think this style of leadership was able to motivate your team successfully?

Leadership in your workplace

• Discuss as a class – what styles of leadership have you encountered in your own workplaces? How have these styles of leadership motivated or frustrated you personally?
• Create a PROS and CONS table for each style of leadership

Activity 4

People who have changed the world

• In groups of two to three students research two people who have ‘changed the world’. This might include individuals who have made changes in some of the following areas:
  • Women’s equality
  • Promoting diversity for cultural groups or LGBTQI groups
  • Indigenous issues
  • Environmental issues
  • Economic improvements
  • Other
• In teams students develop a plan to tackle how to find and present the information. There are some starter questions below, but as a team students should also develop five to ten additional inquiry questions. Students can choose how to present this information. It may be a PowerPoint, electronic poster, brochure, video or other format.
  • How has each individual made the world a better place?
  • What are the qualities they exhibited to lead the change?
  • How could you incorporate some of these qualities into the future you?
• After conducting the presentation, students reflect on the following:
  • What was your role in the team?
  • How would rate your team and leadership skills on a scale of 1 to 5?
  • How do you think your team members would rate you?
  • Did your team encounter any problems? If so what was your role in finding a solutions?
  • What skills do you think you would like to set as improvement goals for the next team task?

Activity 5

Group project

• Students begin this project by getting to know the members of their team. The team members share their personal strengths and areas for improvement. The team then develops a list of team protocols.
• The team brainstorms the projects and creates a project planner. The project planner should clearly highlight who is responsible for each milestone.
• The team develops a range of effective planning tools: project planner, risk assessment, communication log, meeting agendas and minutes.
• Throughout the project, students would be encouraged to meet regularly to reflect on their progress and give other team members feedback
• Evidence to be collected of the team project would be:
  • Portfolio of evidence demonstrating self-awareness, team and leadership skills
  • An overall reflection on the team’s achievements
  • A self-assessment – this could be a template, a more formal written piece or it could involve regular check ins with teachers and a record of observation.

Activity 1

Climate change introduction

Students investigate and analyse an environmental issue (climate change/enhanced greenhouse effect), as well as the cultural, economic and social issues surrounding climate change/the enhanced greenhouse effect. Students first need to gain an understanding of climate change and be able to compare the enhanced and natural greenhouse effect.

To gain an understanding of the topic, the teacher uses, but is not limited to, PowerPoint presentations, short clips and movies such as 2040 and Before the Flood.

To demonstrate their level of understanding students need to complete:

• an annotated diagram of the natural vs enhanced greenhouse effect including the types of radiation, the steps/scientific process involved, greenhouse gases and natural and human sources of greenhouse gases
• a series of structured questions based on the PowerPoint, 2040 and Before the Flood
• an online questionnaire where students answer a series of questions to identity their own carbon footprint and write about individual strategies they could use to reduce their carbon footprint
• a structured essay where students use the following subheadings:
• What is climate change
• Enhanced vs natural greenhouse effect
• What are greenhouse gases and how do they contribute to the greenhouse effect
• Human and natural sources of greenhouse gases
• Impacts of the enhanced greenhouse effect on the environment
• Impacts of the enhanced greenhouse effect on humans
• Strategies to combat climate change as an Individual
• Strategies to combat climate change regionally and globally
• Consequences of climate change if we don’t act

Note: to complete this essay, students need to draw on their knowledge, from the teacher’s PowerPoint/resources and movies 2040 and Before the Flood, and from independent sources and appropriate references analysing the area of concern, including articles, reports, data, tables and/or diagrams.

Activity 2

Application of knowledge: Planning portfolio

Students plan and design a community project to create awareness and help solve the issue. A brainstorm activity/class discussion is conducted to discuss possible project ideas.
Note: possible project ideas can include, but are not limited to (multiple projects can occur based on student level/ engagement):

• Sustainability Fashion Show (students upcycle to make items of clothing which can be sold at auction to raise money for an environmental charity of choice)
• Tree planting (students research community groups and get involved with tree planting/revegetation groups)
• Spread the word about climate change (students get involved with the local primary school or retirement village and educate individuals about climate change and ways in which they can help on an individual basis. Students can also do this within their own school community, making signage and posters in which their school community can reduce their carbon footprint, e.g. signage stating to open blinds and turn off lights placed near light switches and individual choices at home that can help, e.g. turning off standby power)
• Earth Hour (students can organise the school to have their very own Earth Hour, whereby all electricity is not in use for 1 hour for the entire school. During this time the students can go around to individual classes and create awareness).

Note: based on student skill and knowledge level as well as level of engagement, multiple projects can be run. As this is a Unit 4 subject, students should already have experience with planning and implementing projects, therefore this project can be completed in an autonomous and student directed manner.

To assist the planning process, students complete a planning portfolio and apply communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, planning and metacognitive skills when working independently or collaboratively.
When planning, the portfolio needs to include the following:

• describe the objectives of the project
• identify the key resources related to the project such as time, materials and technology
• identify relevant stakeholders and community partners and propose appropriate methods to engage or consult with community stakeholders
• identify key actions and strategies to be implemented in the project
• allocate team member roles and responsibilities
• develop a budget for the community project
• develop a timeline for the community project
• develop a contingency and risk management plan
• identify evidence the team will collect during the implementation of the community project.

Activity 3

Implementation of project: Pre-project day / planning involvement

Students need to actively participate in the pre-project day implementation. This includes the following:

• Resources to create awareness for the issue (theory component). When creating awareness about climate change, students need to choose a medium and identify and describe the issue in detail, including background information, causes, impacts, data/evidence, local, regional and global strategies. This can be in the form of a flyer, brochure, factsheet, website, etc. Students also need to make resources to promote the project.
• Resources to complete the project (physical component/ items). Students need to actively participate to ensure that all resources are sourced for the day of the project. These resources may include such items such as plants, signs, gardening tools, etc. Based on the project chosen, students also need to make items needed for the project, such as items for the Fashion Show, using upcycled materials.
• Team meetings to ensure that all members of the team are aware of planned objectives/ goals/ tasks as well as to check-in with each other and discuss progress and ensure timeline/ deadlines are being met, as well as apply a contingency plan if required.
• Invitation for community group involvement in project once relevant stakeholder/s have been identified. This is a formal invitation and needs to be planned, drafted and submitted to the teacher before delivery. It also needs to include contact details for the stakeholder to respond. It is best if multiple stakeholders are identified and invited to participate as a contingency plan.
• Liaising with internal or external community/ charities once letters have been sent and request for involvement has been accepted. Students need to ensure that evidence is collected for all correspondence made with stakeholders, for example emails, date of phone conversation, including what was said and who they spoke with.
• Surveys need to be created and multiple copies made in order to collect feedback of community project. Students need to ensure that questions are relevant and appropriate to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The surveys will be distributed on the day of the project and collected by students for their reflection.

Activity 4

Implementation of project: Day of project involvement

Students apply their interpersonal skills to realise the project, for example:

• leadership
• communication
• critical thinking
• problem-solving
• decision-making
• planning
• metacognitive skills
• working both independently and collaboratively.

Students also need to ensure that surveys are distributed and collected at the end of the project.

Activity 5

Climate change project: Reflective PowerPoint of planning and implementation process

Students report on their climate change project. To do so, students make a PowerPoint presentation that demonstrates appropriate structure and conventions of a report and describes the planning, implementation and evaluation.

The teacher explains the structure of the report and its importance, and provide students with a template and criteria sheet to complete the PowerPoint. It is important that photos are taken at each stage of the planning and implementation stages of the project. These photos will be used in the PowerPoint, each one being annotated.

An example of what criteria to include in the PowerPoint
(Note: this includes all components of the project)

• Knowledge of climate change (overview, causes, greenhouse gases and sources, impacts on humans and the environment, local, regional and global strategies)
• Planning of project (including annotated photos)
• Objectives of project (overview and aim of project including purpose/ goals)
• Resources (including any companies/prices/rooms/equipment used and cost.
  Note: include individual pictures of all resources, stating how they will be used)
• Resources for theory component of project (theory-based medium chosen to create awareness, e.g. posters, flyers, etc. Include a copy of the chosen medium)
• Resources for physical component of project (physical items, e.g. plants, signs, etc. Include annotated photos)
• Stakeholders (a list of all stakeholders researched and involved in project, including all contact details, invitation letter for involvement and evidence of all communication with them)
• Key actions and strategies (a caption – description and purpose of task/phase/goal/step, including annotated photos of each)
• Team member roles and responsibilities (Stating who in your group oversaw that task, evaluating their performance, using both positive and negative factors. Note: include a pictures of group members completing the task. Also include evidence of meetings with team – photos or meeting minutes)
• Budget (an itemised price list of all resources needed including a total, stating whether budget was over, under or on budget)
• Timeline (start and completion dates of all tasks/goals)
• Contingency plan and risk management plan risk assessment (Contingency plan in case there were any issues. Assessment of all hazards and risks associated and management to avoid, prevent or resolved)
• Copy of survey (include a copy of blank survey distributed)
• Implementation of project (incl. annotated photos)
• Participation in project (including photos of what you and your team did on the day)
• Examples of surveys (include completed surveys as examples)
• Graphing of survey data collected (present the data from the surveys in a logical way, e.g. graph for quantitative data and write about your findings based on the surveys/graph)
• Evaluation of project (use the data from your surveys and your own personal experience and opinion to evaluate the project and your team, including both positive and negative aspects and suggest strategies to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the project)

Activity 6

Climate change project: Oral PowerPoint presentation

Students present their PowerPoint presentations to the class.

Students need to ensure that they are well prepared by creating cue cards and practising with peers.