Questions for discussion
New Government
- Retell the BtN New Government story.
- What is a hung parliament?
- How long has it been since Australia has had a hung parliament?
- What is the House of Representatives?
- How are politicians chosen for the House of Representatives?
- How many seats does a party need in the House of Representatives to form a government?
- What is an Independent member of parliament?
- What role will they play in this election?
- How could decision making be affected by a hung parliament?
- What do you understand more clearly since watching the New Government story?
Write a message about the story and post it on the BtN guestbook http://abc.net.au/btn/guestbook.html
Cycling safety
1. What was the main point raised in the Cycling safety story?
2. What are the benefits of bike riding?
3. When did wearing a bike helmet become compulsory in Australia?
4. It is compulsory to wear a helmet in all countries. True or false?
5. Why are some researchers saying that people shouldn’t have to wear a helmet?
6. What do they say has been the biggest factor in reducing head injuries?
7. Give some examples of improved bike safety.
8. Many experts think that scrapping bike helmet laws is dangerous. Why?
9. What do you think? Should bike helmets be compulsory for cyclists? Explain your answer.
10. Survey students in the school about the issue. Collate and display the results.
`Should cyclists be made to wear helmets?’ Vote in the online poll.
Test your knowledge in the online quiz.
Ozone layer
- Discuss the issues raised in the Ozone layer story with another student.
- What did scientists predict would happen by 2065?
- Describe the impact it would have on people’s lives.
- What is ozone?
- What does ozone absorb?
- What are the consequences of ozone depletion?
- Name the substance that was causing the hole in the ozone layer.
- What happened as a result of the Montreal Protocol?
- Complete the following sentence: Recent measurements are showing that the ozone layer has…
- Illustrate an aspect of this story.
Create an illustration that shows how the world might look without the ozone layer to protect it.
Career building
- Before you watch the BtN story, draw a picture of a construction worker.
- What is the construction program trying to achieve?
- Why does Australia need construction workers?
- Brainstorm a list of things that you associate with construction workers. Are there any stereotypes in the list?
- What skills are the girls learning in the program?
- What are the advantages of these sorts of programs being taught in secondary schools?
- What is an apprenticeship?
- Why are girls being encouraged to consider a job in the construction industry?
- Discuss the images of construction workers drawn before watching the BtN story.
- How has your thinking changed?
Find images that show people in traditional and non-traditional jobs. Write a caption for each image.
Youth Olympics
- Briefly summarise the Youth Olympics story.
- Where are the Youth Olympics being held?
- How long has trampolining been an Olympic sport?
- Retell Natalie Skinner’s story.
- Name some other sports included in the Youth Olympics.
- What age do athletes need to be to compete in the Youth Olympics?
- What do the athletes learn about when they are not competing?
- The Aussie athletes have been most successful in the ______.
- The London Olympics will be held in
- 2011
- 2012
- 2014
- How does the Youth Olympics prepare young athletes for future Olympics?
Create a profile of an Australian athlete competing at the Youth Olympics.
Career building
Focus Questions
- Before you watch the BtN story, draw a picture of a construction worker.
- What is the construction program trying to achieve?
- Why does Australia need construction workers?
- Brainstorm a list of things that you associate with construction workers. Are there any stereotypes in the list?
- What skills are the girls learning in the program?
- What are the advantages of these sorts of programs being taught in secondary schools?
- What is an apprenticeship?
- Why are girls being encouraged to consider a job in the construction industry?
- Discuss the images of construction workers drawn before watching the BtN story.
- How has your thinking changed?
Challenging stereotypes
Dictogloss warm up
Students will work in pairs to recreate the BtN Career building story that has been read aloud to the class. Print a copy of the transcript from the Teachers section on the BtN website http://www.abc.net.au/btn/teachers.html#teachertools Ask students to write down the key words as the text is read (the text may need to be read more than once). Each pair rewrites the text then proof reads and edits their text. Students then present their texts to the class and compare them to the original.
Students will be exploring stereotypes associated with job/career choices for males and females. Ask students to discuss with a partner what a stereotype is. Come up with a class definition.
Give some examples of career stereotypes. Find images that show people in traditional and non-traditional jobs. Write a caption for each image.
Working in pairs, investigate the following questions:
· How are stereotypes made?
· Are all stereotypes bad?
· How do they affect career choices?
How can people be encouraged to try non-traditional work? Choose a non-traditional job for a male or female. Research and write a brief description of the job and create a product (poster, oral presentation, Power Point) that persuades a person to consider it as a career choice.
Students share their products with the class.
Peer feedback
On a scale of 1-10, how convincing was the persuasive product?
How could it be improved?
8 Related Research Links
Doorways 2 Construction – Official website
http://www.doorways2construction.org.au/
Adelaide Training and Employment Centre – Construction program
http://www.atec.asn.au/news.php?news_id=19
Pasadena High School – Building and Construction
http://www.pasadenahs.sa.edu.au/flexipage.aspx?PageId=310
Ozone layer
Focus Questions
- Discuss the issues raised in the Ozone layer story with another student.
- What did scientists predict would happen by 2065?
- Describe the impact it would have on people’s lives.
- What is ozone?
- What does ozone absorb?
- What are the consequences of ozone depletion?
- Name the substance that was causing the hole in the ozone layer.
- What happened as a result of the Montreal Protocol?
- Complete the following sentence: Recent measurements are showing that the ozone layer has…
- Illustrate an aspect of this story.
Ozone layer
Working in groups of 3-4, students will form expert groups to investigate a key question about the ozone layer. Discuss the BtN story and record on a concept map what students understand about ozone and the depletion of the ozone layer. Create a glossary of key words about ozone and record any questions they have. Some possible questions for groups to investigate include:
· What is ozone and why is it important?
· What are the consequences of ozone depletion? How do humans contribute to the problem?
· Where is the hole in the ozone layer? What is the current status of the hole?
· What is the Montreal Protocol and what has it achieved?
· How is ozone measured?
· How might the world look without the ozone layer to protect it?
Support students to locate information from a variety of sources, including:
§ Print (books, newspapers)
§ Electronic (Internet, television)
§ Library/Resource Centre
§ People (friends, family, teachers)
§ Community, Government and Private Organisations
Negotiate how each expert group can share their response to the key question they researched. Think about ways the information can be shared with other students through the school newsletter or whole school assembly.
Student self assessment
Students can assess their own learning by asking themselves:
§ What did I do well?
§ What could I have done better?
8 Related Research Links
ABC Catalyst – The Hole Truth
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2974750.htm
ABC Science – The hole in the ozone layer: 25 years on
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/06/2892163.htm
Bureau of Meteorology – Ozone Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/glossary/ozone.shtml
Bureau of Meteorology – How ozone is destroyed by CFC’s
http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/Students_Teachers/ozanim/ozoanim.shtml
NASA – Basics on ozone
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/ozone_hole101.html
BtN: Episode 23 Transcripts 24/08/10
On this week's Behind the News:
· Experts go head-to-head over bike helmet laws.
· The “hole” truth; why the ozone layer is on the mend.
· And building a career, as ladies become tradies.
Hi I'm Nathan Bazley. Welcome to Behind the News.
Also on the show today, we check out how the Aussies are doing at the world's first Youth Olympics.
New Government
Reporter: Sarah Larsen
INTRO: After five weeks of intense campaigning millions of dollars spent on advertising and more than seventy thousand k's in air travel between the two candidates, Australia has finally voted.
And the result was, well, really close!
Let's go to Sarah to find out what's going on.
SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: When you went to bed on Saturday night, you might have thought you'd seen the last of election 2010. After five long weeks of campaigning, soon we'd know who the next Prime Minister would be. But if you turned on the TV on Sunday morning you might have noticed something strange. The votes are in but the election was too close to call. For the first time in 70 years we ended up with something called a hung parliament. That's when there's no outright winner. To understand how that happens, you need to know a bit about how this place works.
REPORTER: Welcome to the House of Representatives. This is where the PM and the opposition leader and all the other MPs sit and make decisions that affect us all. There are 150 seats here and each one represents an area of Australia known as an electorate.
On election day, adults in each electorate get to vote for a politician to represent them. They can belong to political parties like Labor or the Liberal Coalition or the Greens or they can be Independent which means they don't belong to any party. But usually, most of the people who win seats are either Labor or Liberal.
REPORTER: And if more than half the seats go to one party they get to form a government. So the winner has to have 76 seats and usually that happens but not this time!
It was really close and neither Labor or the Coalition could get 76. So no-one could form government. But there are some other seats that don't belong to any of the main parties. One's in the Green party and the rest are Independents. Now Independents are exactly that! They have their own ideas and policies so they don't have to go along with any party. But they can give their support to either Labor or the Liberal Coalition to help make up the 76 seats they need to win. Which means these guys are suddenly very important because they could ultimately decide whether Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott gets to be Prime Minister. So you can bet that both of them will be working very hard to win the support of the Independents. In the mean-time officials will be counting and recounting and adding the votes of people who were away on election day.
When it's this close every vote counts.
GILLARD: Bill Clinton once said "the people have spoken, but it may take a while to figure out what they've said".
Even when we have figured out who's in charge, a hung parliament will change the way decisions are made in the House of Reps. These guys have to vote on every decision that's made and with an almost equal number of pollies on each side there will be a lot of close calls. And doing some of the big things that the leaders have promised might be difficult. So get set for an interesting few days and an interesting few years. Because right now anything could happen!
PRESENTER: And in our poll last week you voted that Julia Gillard had run the best campaign in what turned out to be a much clearer decision.
Now let's take a look at some of the other big stories making the news, in the Wire.
The Wire
Two Australian soldiers have died and two more have been wounded in separate explosions whilst on patrol in Afghanistan.
35 year old Private Grant Kirby and 21 year old Private Tomas Dale were killed on Friday when a roadside bomb exploded near their armoured vehicle.
Then another explosion hit the same regiment the next day, leaving two soldiers wounded but stable.
20 Australian soldiers have now been killed in Afghanistan and 149 wounded.
***********
To Pakistan now where the flood disaster is worsening.
20 million people are estimated to be affected by the floodwaters with many of those homeless and lacking food and clean water.
The military there are doing food drops to as many people as they can find but with flood waters still high they can't keep up with demand.
The UN has started a fundraising drive and so far 900 million has been raised.
But Pakistan says it will need billions more to re-build and recover.
Bike Helmets
Reporter: Natasha Thiele
INTRO: If you fall off your bike it's a good idea to be wearing a helmet.
In fact, you don't have a choice because it's against the law to ride without one.
But last week there were calls for the law to be scrapped in the hope that it would encourage more people to take up cycling.
Tash got on her bike to see why most people think that's a dangerous idea.
NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Notice something wrong about this picture?
Look a little closer. No it's not his clothes or his bike.
He's NOT wearing a helmet!
That was around the late 80s when you didn't have to wear one, but things have changed a lot since then.
In 1991, Australia was the first country to make it a law to wear a helmet while riding a bike.
The government wanted to protect us from hurting our heads if we fell off our bikes.
And back then, it was a big story on BtN.
OLD BtN STORY: Most people know that helmets are designed to protect bike and board riders from serious injury. But it seems that many people still aren't prepared to actually wear them.
They even showed us how they tested the safety of helmets.