Questions for discussion

Internet privacy

  1. What was the main point of the Internet privacy story?
  2. What point was the creator of `Katie’s party’ trying to make?
  3. What sort of information can be shared on websites like Facebook and MySpace?
  4. Explain the concerns with privacy on websites like Facebook.
  5. What do the Australian Federal Police suggest people using social networking websites do?
  6. The privacy settings on Facebook have been criticised. Why?
  7. How has the head of Facebook responded to the criticism?
  8. How can you better protect your privacy on websites like Facebook or MySpace?
  9. What do you think is the best way to educate young people about privacy problems on the internet?
  10. What do you understand more clearly since watching the BtN story?

Create a poster, fact sheet, or video/audio recording that makes young people aware of internet privacy issues.

Spying game

  1. Before you watch the BtN Spying game story, predict what you think it’s about.
  2. What are intelligence agencies?
  3. What sort of information do they collect?
  4. `Today, a big job of intelligence agencies is to stop ______.’
  5. Most intelligence agents collect `open source’ information. Give some examples of these.
  6. What technology do they use?
  7. Sometimes spies work in other countries. Why can it be dangerous and controversial?
  8. In pairs, brainstorm what you now know about spies and intelligence agencies.
  9. What was surprising about this story?
  10. How has your thinking changed since watching the BtN story?

Send us a message on the BtN guestbook http://abc.net.au/btn/guestbook.html


Risk takers

  1. Discuss the issues raised in the Risk takers story with another student.
  2. How old were Jessica and Jordan when they set out on their challenges?
  3. Why are some people worried about teenagers attempting adventurous challenges?
  4. How did Jessica respond to the criticism?
  5. What are three adjectives to describe people who take on adventurous challenges?
  6. What other factors, apart from age, should be considered?
  7. Summarise the psychologist’s view on adolescents taking risks.
  8. Do you agree or disagree with her comments? Explain your answer.
  9. Do you think there should be age restrictions about young teenagers attempting risky challenges? If so, what age should they be?
  10. Create a plus, minus and interesting chart about risky challenges.

`Do you think young teenagers should be allowed to go on risky adventures?’ Vote in the BtN online poll.

Spinal safety

  1. Briefly summarise the BtN story.
  2. About how many Australians suffer a spinal cord injury every year?
  3. Describe what happened to Yvie.
  4. Complete the following sentence: The spinal cord is...
  5. The spinal cord and the brain make up the ______.
  6. What can happen if the spinal cord is damaged?
  7. What do statistics show about how most spinal cord injuries occur?
  8. What is the campaign educating kids about?
  9. What should you do if someone has a fall and may have a spinal injury?
  10. How did this story make you feel?

Test your knowledge in the online quiz.

Sea creatures

  1. Discuss the Sea creatures story with another student.
  2. Benthic habitats are in the ______parts of the ocean.
  3. What special equipment do the researchers use?
  4. Describe a problem the researchers have.
  5. What are pycnogonids also know as?
  6. Why are researchers exploring in the deepest parts of the Southern Ocean?
  7. What impact could illegal fishing have on marine life?
  8. What evidence of illegal fishing did the researchers find?
  9. Illustrate an aspect of the story.
  10. What do you now know about deep ocean sea creatures that you didn’t know before watching the BtN story?

Choose a deep ocean sea creature to research and create a facts chart about it. Publish the information in an interesting way.

Risk takers

Focus Questions

  1. Discuss the issues raised in the Risk takers story with another student.
  2. How old were Jessica and Jordan when they set out on their challenges?
  3. Why are some people worried about teenagers attempting adventurous challenges?
  4. How did Jessica respond to the criticism?
  5. What are three adjectives to describe people who take on adventurous challenges?
  6. What other factors, apart from age, should be considered?
  7. Summarise the psychologist’s view on adolescents taking risks.
  8. Do you agree or disagree with her comments? Explain your answer.
  9. Do you think there should be age restrictions about young teenagers attempting risky challenges? If so, what age should they be?
  10. Create a plus, minus and interesting chart about risky challenges.

Risk takers

Working in small groups, students create a mind map using Inspiration or Kidspiration software (http://www.inspiration.com/) to record their responses to the following questions:

·  What are positive and negative risks?

·  What factors influence risk taking?

·  Why do people take risks?

·  What are the possible consequences of engaging in risky behaviour?

While students are working on their mind maps, ask them to record any questions they have about taking risks.

Each group shares their mind map and questions with the rest of the class.

Students then reflect on safe and unsafe risks they have taken. Ask them to record at least one example of a safe risk and one example of an unsafe risk.

Collect the examples and place them in a container. Students will choose a risk to respond to. They can do this by either role playing the situation, illustrating it or giving a brief oral presentation discussing whether it was a safe or unsafe risk and why.

Discuss any different perceptions people have about what is considered a safe or unsafe risk.

Reflection

Students respond to the following statements:

I was surprised to hear…

This made me think differently about…

Further Investigation

Hold a mini debate or survey people (students, teachers and family) about whether young teenagers should be allowed to go on risky adventures.

8 Related Research Links
ABC News – Watson faces `big change’ on land
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/14/2899143.htm

ABC News – Boy becomes youngest to climb Mt Everest
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/22/2906630.htm

ABC Science – Teen brain wired to take risks
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/18/2902619.htm

The Age – Cotton-wool kids must burst bubble
http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/cottonwool-kids-must-burst-bubble/2005/09/30/1127804656026.html

Sea creatures

Focus Questions

  1. Discuss the Sea creatures story with another student.
  2. Benthic habitats are in the ______parts of the ocean.
  3. What special equipment do the researchers use?
  4. Describe a problem the researchers have.
  5. What are pycnogonids also know as?
  6. Why are researchers exploring in the deepest parts of the Southern Ocean?
  7. What impact could illegal fishing have on marine life?
  8. What evidence of illegal fishing did the researchers find?
  9. Illustrate an aspect of the story.
  10. What do you now know about deep ocean sea creatures that you didn’t know before watching the BtN story?

Sea creatures

Students choose one of the following investigations about Antarctic sea creatures. Before students begin the investigation, ask them to record what they know about the topic. Encourage them to generate some key questions about the investigation they choose. Support students to publish their work online. The following website will allow students to share content in a safe environment http://www.thinkquest.org/en/

Investigation 1 – Deep ocean habitats

Some possible questions to investigate include:

·  What sea creatures live in benthic (deep ocean) habitats in the Southern Ocean?

·  How have the animals adapted to survive?

·  What is unique about the deep ocean habitats of the Southern Ocean?

·  What is gigantism and why is it common in Antarctic waters?

·  What species are only found in the Southern Ocean?

Investigation 2 – Creature feature

Students research a creature from the Southern Ocean. The following framework uses a sea spider as an example.

·  What do I know about sea spiders?

·  Sea spiders are…

·  Sea spiders have…

·  Sea spiders can…

·  Sea spiders need…

·  What do I now know about sea spiders?

Encourage students to collect or create images of their chosen creature.

Investigation 3 – Protecting habitats

Some possible questions to investigate include:

·  What are deep ocean habitats?

·  What are the threats to the deep ocean habitats in the Southern Ocean?

·  Why is it important to protect deep sea habitats from human activity?

·  What is Australia doing to protect the Southern Ocean?

8 Related Research Links
ABC Catalyst – Trawl team
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2904762.htm

ABC Science – Researchers snap signs of illegal fishing
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/20/2903890.htm

ABC Science – Vampire sea spiders suck on prey
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/07/24/1675573.htm

Australian Antarctic Division – Illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean
http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=11981

BtN: Episode 14 Transcripts 01/06/10

On this week's Behind the News

·  Who's watching you? The fight over Facebook privacy.

·  Cheers for young achievers but are they too young for adventure?

·  And unlocking the secrets of the deep in Antarctica.

Hi I'm Nathan Bazley welcome to Behind the News.

Also on the show today: the campaign to protect kids from spinal injuries.

Those stories later but first let's catch up with the latest news on The Wire.

The Wire

The oil spill from the underwater well off the United States is getting worse.

They're now calling it the worst environmental disaster in American history

"We have been unable to overcome the flow from the well, so we now believe that it's time to move on to the next of our options."

When the heavy drilling mud was being pumped into the well bore the flow of oil and gas was largely blocked.

But every time BP engineers stopped, the leaking well one and a half kilometres below the surface gushed back to life.

For the communities in oil affected Louisiana it was devastating news.

BP's next plan is to try and cut off the leaking riser pipe and place a cap over it.

But officials say a relief well is the only complete answer and that won't happen for at least another month.

***************

In Australia, a large rock-art gallery is fascinating archaeologists in a remote part of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory

It's believed the ancient art works could be up to eight thousand years old.

The traditional owners of the land say they are excited the painting could be Australia's oldest dated rock art.

Internet Privacy

Reporter: Nathan Bazley

INTRO: Internet privacy has hit the headlines again this week and it's all to do with Australia's second most popular website.

Facebook has been slammed for not treating their user’s privacy seriously enough.

But how can websites breach your privacy?

And how can you keep yourself safe?

One day there was a girl called Kate who was having a party.

The party was to go down at her apartment and an invitation was sent out on Facebook except it might have been sent out a little too far.

After a prankster posted the link on twitter, random people started RSVP'ing.

By the time it was taken down by Facebook, 60,000 people had said they were coming.

Luckily the whole thing was a joke the picture of Kate was actually a girl from New Zealand, who had no idea what was going on.

In the meantime, hundreds of groups had been set up to celebrate the joke including "Which Turban should I wear to Kate's party”, "Aww I can't go, I have Kate's party," and "Hey are you going to Kate's party? No, I wasn't invited. Ahh Awkward"

So what was the point of this whole hoax?

David Thorne is the creator.

Well the creator says he did it to highlight problems with privacy on Facebook.

If Kate had really been holding a party she could have ended up with one huge nightmare.

Privacy on the internet seems pretty much a given.

You're sitting at a computer, often by yourself.

No one can see you through the screen or can they?

With the amount of information we're posting online, there is a worry we're letting strangers know more about us than they should.

Dr Julian Dooley, Edith Cowan University: The more information that you put out there the greater the potential is for people to find that information and possibly people that you don't want to.

It's become such a concern, federal police officers now hold workshops in schools to educate kids about what can go wrong.

AFP OFFICER: Don't get caught up in the popularity contest of who can have the most friends on MySpace or Facebook.

AFP OFFICER: Once you put those photos and videos and comments online there really is no taking it back.

And a lot of the blame has been written squarely on Facebook’s wall.

These guys are Facebook fans.

CAROLINE: I'm kind of embarrassed about how much I use it. I use it like every day.

But even they admit they or their friends do some pretty silly things on the site.

SOPHIE: Sometimes people just do randomly accept people who they really don't know.

But they say one of the biggest problems is that trying to keep things private can be confusing.

HOLLY: It's actually quite hard to find on the profile. Like, you have to sort of go into like a different menu like off the home page and then like set. Like it isn't like sort of right there saying "privacy settings" like on the home page.

All up, Facebook has 170 privacy options in 50 categories.

Their privacy policy alone is nearly 6000 words long!

No wonder some kids are confused about how to safely control their information.

Their worries have gone right to the top and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has now agreed to make some changes to Facebook to help people feel more in control.

But in case you're still in doubt over how bad privacy breaches on Facebook can get check this out for a real-life example.

The head of Britain's spying agency MI6 had his cover blown after his wife neglected to make her Face book profile private.

Anyone in the world could see their pictures their home address even their family members.

Now they're people who should know a thing or two about privacy!

Presenter: So that Facebook incident was rather embarrassing for Britain's top spy because spying is all about secrecy.

Spying Game

Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: Recently the issue of spying has been front-page news in Australia.

Our government expelled an Israeli diplomat after Australia accused Israeli spies of making fake Aussie passports.

It might all sound like something from a movie but as Sarah found out real-life spying is a lot more serious.