Questions for discussion
Crash Mystery
1. Why do you think the disappearance of flight MH370 is such a big news story?
2. What country did plane take off from?
3. Where was it headed?
4. How many people were on board?
5. What technology do air traffic controllers use to track planes
a) GPS
b) Radar
c) ACARS
6. In your own words, describe what the Black Box flight recorder does.
7. Why is it orange, not black?
8. Why hasn’t the Black Box told investigators what happened to flight MH370?
9. What changes could be made to planes to make them easier to find after a crash?
10. Air travel is known as one of the safest types of transport. Why?
Write a message about the story and post it in the comments section on the story page.
Research the history of the Black Box flight recorder and describe the impact the technology has had on the aviation industry.
Federation
1. Discuss the BtN Federation story with another student and record the main points of your discussion.
2. Before Federation, Australia was divided into six separate ______.
3. Which other country might have been part of Australia?
4. Who was Henry Parkes?
5. What was his famous speech about?
6. Why were initial attempts to become a Federation rejected?
7. What role did Alfred Deakin play in Australia becoming a Federation?
8. In what year did Australia become a nation?
9. Who was Australia’s first Prime Minister?
10. How did Federation impact on Indigenous people and Chinese migrants?
Check out BtN’s Federation teacher resource on the BtN Teachers page http://www.abc.net.au/btn/teachers.htm
Close the Gap
1. What are some things you learned as a result of watching this story?
2. In your own words describe what ‘Closing the Gap’ means.
3. Do some research and find out what the difference in life expectancy is between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Is the gap the same for men and women?
4. Name two diseases that are negatively affecting these Indigenous communities.
5. Australia is a rich country. Why do you think the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is more like some of the poorest countries in the world?
6. What are some of the ways Declan and Ruby think they can make things better for their community?
7. Ruby says going to school is important. Discuss.
8. A couple of the ways to close the gap include a good diet and...
a) Watching TV
b) Keeping fit
c) Sleeping
9. What are some ways you can think of that might help close the gap?
10. At the end of the story Ruby says “if everyone knows about it we all reckon things will get better soon”. Why is it important that Australians know about the ‘gap’?
Check out BtN’s Rookie Reporter teacher resource on the BtN Teachers page http://www.abc.net.au/btn/teachers.htm
Dinosaurs
1. Describe, in your own words, the exhibition that James went to see.
2. Name some of the Australian dinosaurs.
3. Who was the Leaellynasaura named after?
4. What part of the Leaellynasaura’s body is bigger than most dinosaurs?
5. Why did it need them to be big?
6. What is a person who studies prehistoric life called?
7. How do we know about the size and shape of dinosaurs?
8. Can palaeontologists tell what colour they were?
9. Why don’t we know what sounds dinosaurs really made?
10. Draw a picture of your favourite dinosaur. What colour do you think it was?
Do Dinos Down Under quiz on the BtN website http://www.abc.net.au/btn/quiz.htm
Golf Croquet
1. Retell the story in your own words.
2. What do you know about croquet?
3. Which Alice in Wonderland character is crazy about croquet?
4. The kids are playing ______croquet
5. How long is a game of golf croquet?
6. In your own words, describe the rules of golf croquet.
7. How old is the current golf croquet champion?
8. Why do you think golf croquet isn’t a sport we see on TV much?
9. Would you like to play golf croquet? Why/Why not?
10. Draw a diagram showing how the game of golf croquet works?
Write a message about the story and post it in the comments section on the story page.
Activity
Federation
Key Learning
Students will examine key dates and people that led to Australia’s Federation. They will also investigate reasons for and against Federation and the choice of Canberra as the nation’s capital.
The Australian Curriculum
History / Historical Knowledge and Understanding / Australia as a NationKey figures and events that led to Australia’s Federation, including British and American influences on Australia’s system of law and government.(ACHHK113) Year 6
History / Historical Skills / Historical questions and research
Identify questions to inform anhistorical inquiry(ACHHS119) Year 6
Identify and locate a range of relevant sources(ACHHS120) Year 6
/ History / Historical Skills / Explanation and communication
Use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written) and digital technologies(ACHHS125) Year 6
History / Historical Skills / Chronology, terms and concepts
Use historicaltermsandconcepts(ACHHS118) Year 6
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the BtN Federation story with another student and record the main points of your discussion.
2. Before Federation, Australia was divided into six separate ______.
3. Which other country might have been part of Australia?
4. Who was Henry Parkes?
5. What was his famous speech about?
6. Why were initial attempts to become a Federation rejected?
7. What role did Alfred Deakin play in Australia becoming a Federation?
8. In what year did Australia become a nation?
9. Who was Australia’s first Prime Minister?
10. How did Federation impact on Indigenous people and Chinese migrants?
Activities
Discuss the BtN Federation story with students and clarify any questions they have.
Students can choose one or more of the following activities.
Use key Federation words to create a game of bingo using Bingo Baker https://bingobaker.com/
Words to include:
Students can then research what each word means in the context of Federation.
Key dates in FederationStudents make a timeline of key events leading to Australia’s Federation. They need to include the date, event, a brief description of what happened and an image (if available). Students can create their timeline in any way they choose. An interactive timeline creator is available at the Read Write Think website http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/timeline-30007.html
Federation Timeline
Reasons for and against FederationStudents will investigate the reasons for and against Federation using a T-chart.
Reasons for Federation / Reasons against Federation· Better transport between the colonies / · New South Wales and Victoria were more powerful than the other colonies
To investigate the topic further, students consider the following question:
What would Australia be like if Federation had never happened?
Significant people in Federation
Students choose a key person in Federation history and research the answers to the questions.
A point that couldn’t be agreed on by the six colonies was the location of the nation’s capital. Both Melbourne and Sydney claimed the right to be the capital. A compromise was reached where a separate capital city would be created.
Further Investigation
The Commonwealth of Australia was declared on 1 January 1901. A week of celebrations took place around the nation. Create a collage of images that show Federation celebrations.
Investigate what life was like around the time of Federation for Indigenous people and Chinese migrants. How did the key people involved in Federation view immigration?
8 Related Research Links
Behind the News – Constitution
http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s3939299.htm
Australia.gov – Australia’s Federation
http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-government/australias-federation
Parliamentary Education Office -Federation
http://www.peo.gov.au/learning/fact-sheets/federation.html
ABC Centenary of Federation – Federation Story
http://www.abc.net.au/federation/fedstory/home.htm
Australian Dictionary of Biography – Henry Parkes
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/parkes-sir-henry-4366
Civics and Citizenship Education – Alfred Deakin
http://www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/deakin,9127.html
Civics and Citizenship Education – Henry Parkes
http://www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/parkes,9158.html
Civics and Citizenship Education – Edmund Barton
http://www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/barton,9076.html
An Ideal City – A nation needs a capital
http://www.idealcity.org.au/a_nation_needs-1.html
Activity
Rookie Reporter
Key Learning
Students will learn more about how news stories and programs are made and create their own news report for children.
The Australian Curriculum
English/Literacy/Texts in ContextCompare texts including media texts that represent ideas and events in different ways, explaining the effects of the different approaches Year 6 (ACELY1708) / English/Language/Language for interaction
Understand the uses of objective and subjective language and bias Year 6 (ACELA1517)
Activities
Your favourite storyStudents choose their favourite story from this week’s show then ask them to reflect on the following questions:
Working in pairs, students discuss their responses to the questions.
Students can then choose one of the following options to take the investigation further:
· Write a follow up news report/update that gives new information about the issue/story. It needs to explain how the issue has been resolved or has changed.
· Create another version of the BtN story that includes the changes you would make. Storyboard the new version including graphics and music details. The following website has a storyboarding tool http://kidsvid.4teachers.org/scripting.shtml
Encourage students to present their work to the class in an interesting way.
Create your own rundownStudents will be creating their own rundown for a kids’ news program like Behind the News does each week. Discuss with students who they think make the decisions about what stories will be included on the program (Producer, Executive Producer, Journalist) and what things might influence their decisions about what should be included. Ask students to watch Behind the Scenes on the BtN website http://www.abc.net.au/btn/page/page-behindbtn.html to find out more about how the show is made.
Ask students to analyse the different aspects of the program that are put together to make Behind the News.
· How many stories in the show each week?
· Quiz questions
· The Wire and the Score
· Online poll question (linked to a story)
The task for students is to create a rundown for the show. The transcripts in the teachers section of the website http://www.abc.net.au/btn/teachers.htm and viewing previous episodes of BtN, will give students a sense of how the show is structured. Discuss with students the different types of stories covered in each show. Working in small groups, students choose five news stories to include in their run down. The first two or three stories should be `harder stories’ and the others are usually softer, human interest stories.
Story / Why you chose itLead story
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Story 5
Other information that students will need to include in their run down includes:
· A brief summary of each story (2 or 3 sentences)
· 2 quiz questions and answers
· Information that will be covered in The Wire and The Score
· An online poll question that is linked to a story
Each group presents their run down for their kids’ news program to the rest of the class, giving reasons for their selection.
Encourage students to give constructive feedback about their choices.
Become a Rookie ReporterFurther Investigation
Research and compare two different news programs/services for kids (print, online or television). How are they similar and different?
8 Related Research Links
Behind the News – Stories
http://www.abc.net.au/btn/stories.htm
Behind the News – Rookie Reporters
http://www.abc.net.au/btn/rookie.htm
CBBC Newsround - News
http://www.bbc.com/newsround/news/
BtN: Episode 7 Transcript 18/3/14
Coming up
· Travel back in time to see how Australia became a nation.
· Travel back further to watch dinosaurs roam again.
· And here in 2014, a class of rookie reporters tell us what closing the gap means to them.
Hey, it's Sarah Larsen. Welcome to BtN.
Plane Crash
Reporter: Matthew Holbrook
INTRO: First to a story that's being watched closely by people all over the world. It was more than a week ago that a plane and its 239 passengers went missing. Authorities are now saying it might have been deliberately flown off course and 25 countries have been asked to help in the search. But at the moment there are more questions than answers, like how can something as big as a plane just disappear? Here's Matt.
This is the air traffic over just one part of the world in a single day. As you can see, planes help to connect millions of us. They are fast, efficient, and safe.
It's rare for something to go wrong. So when it does, the whole world takes notice. Recently, a passenger jet carrying two hundred and thirty nine people disappeared.
Malaysia Airlines flight, MH370, was less than two hours into its trip to Beijing, China, when radio controllers on the ground lost contact. Authorities are still trying to find answers, but people are upset. They want to know what happened, and why. And in an age where smart-phones can be tracked anywhere on earth, it seems impossible to lose something as big as an aeroplane!
We do know that the plane, a Boeing 777, is one of the world's safest jets. There are nearly a thousand in use around the world today, and each one is fitted with special technology designed to track what it does and communicate with people on the ground.
For a long time planes have relied on radar. That's where radio signals are sent from the ground to the air. But it's not perfect. There can be issues if planes get too far away from towers on the ground.