SHARING THE PLANET

An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

Central Idea: Inequality affects opportunities for a better life.

Learner Profile: Caring, Principled, Balanced

Lines of Inquiry:

An inquiry into:

• The interpretations of equality                                 

• The distribution of wealth 

• Obligations to create an inclusive world

Concepts: Perspective, Causation, Responsibility

Provocation: Fill You Bucket 

Students were split into groups of 4-5 and asked to line up behind a bucket, some had cracks. Each group was given different sized cups, some broken, with holes. Students were to use their cup to fill their bucket with water from the big water buckets. Some students reported ‘It’s not fair!’, ‘My cup couldn’t fit as much’, ‘Can we swap cups?’

Provocation Reflections

Students reflected on the Provocation and as a whole group discussed answers to the following questions:

• How did I feel?
• What did you observe?
• What would you change?

Interpretations of Equality 

Students were presented with a variety of images depicting equality vs equity. They were to reflect upon what they saw, what they thought was going on and what it made them wonder. This was used to assess students’ prior knowledge. Students articulated - ‘this one is equal as all the people, no matter their size can see’ and ‘giving everyone the same doesn’t always work.’ 

Behind the News - Poverty Line & World Population

Students viewed news segments discussing poverty and world population. Students reflected upon the following questions:

• What are some burning questions you have?
• What action can you take?
• What is something you've learned?

Global School Partners 

Students created an action plan for the next Global Schools Partner Fundraiser to take place at school. Students needed to consider the following questions:

• What are you raising money for?
• How can people in the community get involved if they can't donate money?
• How will you show people how their donations are being used?
• Who will benefit from this drive?
• How will it make a change in their lives?
• Do you think things are equal in our world for different people? Why or why not?
• What do you think we can do to make a change?
• Do you believe we should help others? Why or why not?

Without Limitations 

Students were asked: If you had no limitations, what is something you would create to assist those in need? Students were to draw a labelled diagram and build a model of their creation. We had many innovative designs and models!

Types of Poverty 

Students discussed: How can we define poverty? Is it just the opposite of wealth? Is it just a lack of money? Why is it important to work to overcome poverty? Students completed a ‘Poverty is……’ Mind Map based on their understanding of poverty.

Global Inequalities 

Students were presented with two images. They were asked to consider: What is the artist wanting to communicate with these images? How do these images seek to impact the viewer or reader? Which image do you believe is most effective? 

Kids in Other Countries

Students learnt that life in other nations is often very different from our own. Students discovered how children around the world live.

Newspaper Report & Critical Reflection Assessment

Students created a Newspaper Report about a country of their choice. They researched information about the access to food & water, education and healthcare in this country. Students compared the living conditions between in this country and Australia. 

Student Voice:

‘I want the world to know that we should be thankful for what we have and the opportunities that we have. We take having education for granted and access to healthcare and food and water.’ Alice M

‘I would like to tell the world to just take some time to think how lucky we are to have what we have and not take things for granted.’ Edward H

‘I want the whole world to be equal, people deserve to live a good life.’ Tim L

‘The thing I want to tell the world is to be kind to each other by showing empathy.’ Sara C

‘You can change, we can change. We have to work together to get it done and right now we are not working as well as we can be.’ Raff

‘Some people say that there is nothing that we can do, but they are wrong there are lots of things we can do.’ Matthew James G

‘Do you think the world is fair? Because I don’t, in 2020 over 60 million people were in extreme poverty.’ Nick L

‘We need to think of others and not just think about ourselves because people are dying every day and get sick so we should all be grateful for what we have.’ Blake G

‘There is still a lot of inequality in the world. Some countries don’t even have proper houses. People in third world countries are living in poverty.’ Jessica W

‘Some people don’t have clean water, good food and warmth so maybe we can give them blankets, bottles of water or some food. I am sure they would appreciate that because they will have anything.’ Poppy W

‘Australia is one of the luckiest countries in the world, we should be extremely thankful for the place we live in. In some countries people starve nearly every day, here we throw out food. You can take some action today by not throwing out everything that is fresh and you should also sponsor children that are less fortunate than us.’ Emma N

‘I want to tell the world that people should be grateful and appreciate everything.’ Lucy

‘..if you are greedy and you have way more than you need, remember that you are very lucky because there are some people who don’t have anything they need..and this is inequality.’ Sofia

‘ Right now in the world we are ignoring all the poor people and the homeless people. Some have no shelter and no education for their children. We need to stop and think twice and make a difference in the whole world.’ Victoria

REMOTE LEARNING

Remote learning brought with is a new set of challenges and changed the way that we as teachers and students delivered and accessed the curriculum.

Upon their return to school students shared some thought on their remote learning duty. We know this was different for each child with some remote learning at school and some working at home.

‘I enjoyed spending more time with my family and playing with my brother.’ Emily

‘I found asking questions challenging.’ James

‘I enjoyed working at my desk at home and not having to wait at the car line every day.’ Liv

‘At home I learnt lots of new things, one of the things I learnt was organisation, being more organised helped me be more productive, this also helped me work harder and try my best.’ Sami

‘I enjoyed that my older cousin (that is training to be a teacher) was able to help me with my work.’ Mary

‘I will try to bring back my independent learning to school so I can progress so that I can fully work and learn without help.’ Edward

‘I enjoyed sitting on my bed while hugging my teddy, while doing my work.’ Adelaide

‘I enjoyed picking when I did things (I got to pick fun ones first)!’ Eva

‘Hearing my brothers and sisters screaming was challenging.’ Amelia

‘I enjoyed eating and sleeping in on weekends.’ Grace

‘I found not expressing my ideas with classmates challenging.’ Alex

‘I enjoyed having some peace and quiet. I also liked having my own big desk... I enjoyed having my dog sit next to me when I was working.’ Mathilde

During this time it allowed our students to be creative and encouraged us as teachers to find new ways of keeping our students engaged and connected. One of the highlights of remote learning was the weekly fitness challenges. During the learning, students participated in themed fitness circuits, the Shark Ab Challenge, a scavenger hunt, Mindful Yoga and some Just Dance workouts. 

Students enjoyed being able to video their workouts and some got very creative including by using equipment found around the home, or adding some music and voiceover work like you would hear in a real gym.

**videos from fitness challenges** 

Maths saw students continuing to explore the topics of Chance, Data and Probability and we loved the picture graphs of how much tinned food and toilet paper each household had. Students also spent some time tracking their movements when learning elapsed time and practising how to tell time on an analogue clock - a skill fast being replaced by fitbits and digital time stamps. Students were asked to consider the likelihood of events occuring and to use the language of probability to predict the outcomes from tossing coins and dice. 

Religion, during remote learning, took on the theme of stewardship. We looked at how we are caretakers of God’s creation and what God would want us to do. This tied in very well with our two units of inquiry which centred around showing empathy for others and how we can share the planet equally. Students focussed on some of the parables like the Good Samaritan and made connections between the stories and actions they can take in life which reflect Jesus’ way of living. We also spent some time looking at Easter and its importance as part of the Church year.