Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

60 minutes	Part C: Project Planning
30 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by inviting students to do a class brainstorm to answers the following question:

What are some of the big challenges for our future?

As students make suggestions, consider extending their answers by asking: "What makes you say that?"

'What Makes You Say That?' is a visible thinking routine that helps students build explanations and evidence for their opinions. For online professional development options on this and other visible learning routines, click here.

Step 2.

You can then engage students in a class discussion around the following question:

Why is it important to imagine the future you would like to see?

Through your discussion explain to students that the task of imagining and working towards a better future is not just for adults; young people are capable of taking charge and leading us to a happier and healthier future.

Step 3.

Now share some or all of the following examples of young people taking action. This could be done by breaking students into pairs or groups and assigning students with a young person to research, or you could work as a class to explore several of these case studies:

Winter Vincent - Waves For Water - Website, and Clip
Molly Steer - Straw No More - Website and Clip
Amelia Telford - Clip
Katie Stagliano - Story
Ryan Hreljac - Website and Clip
Cassandra Lin - Clip

Where students have worked in groups to explore one of these stories, invite them to briefly share the story of that person with the class. Then work as a class to reflect on the achievements of these young people by posing the following questions:

What did you find interesting or surprising about these stories?
What do you want to know more about?

Through your discussion you could propose the following to students:

The young people you looked at could be described as change-makers, as people who are making positive changes for the future of the world. Suggest to students that the first (and possibly most important) step to becoming a change-maker is to think about what you want to change; understanding what you want to change will help lead you to your solution. You don’t have to come up with an idea to solve all the worlds’ problems; having a small idea and doing it well should be your aim. Your idea could aim to make a change in your house, your street, your school or your neighbourhood.

Explain to students that in the rest of this lesson they will be asked to:

Think about something they want to change
Develop ideas for taking action
Select one idea that has a clear and relevant audience for taking action
Plan and execute a project around this idea
Reflect on the learnings and successes of their project
Celebrate their efforts

Before starting the project planning phase of their social action, emphasise to students that each group member should take responsibility for collecting evidence and documentation about the work that they put into the project, including drafts of everything they create as part of the project and records of any opportunities they pursue (either successfully or unsuccessfully). The most important thing for students to remember is that the PROCESS of completing the project is really important – perhaps even more than the final product. Students should aim to demonstrate the growth and learning that they experienced, both personally and as a group, as a result of facing the challenges inherent in a project of this type.

Part B: Actions For 2040

Step 1. Options:

Step 2. Activity for identifying a problem:

Share the trailer of the 2040 documentary with students:

2040 - Official Trailer Password: 2040_EDU

If you would like to show a clip that extends students' learning in this area, consider using the following; 2040 - Film Overview Password: 2040EDU

Once complete, invite students to work as a class to answer the following question: What topics or issues did you see in this clip? Write student responses on the board. The ideas or topics you identify can be broad – you will work to tighten the scope of your ideas later in this lesson. Work with students to group these issues or topics, such as energy, food or transport.
Now, invite students to think about and answer the following question: 'Which ideas or topics presented in the trailer are most interesting to you or are you most concerned about?' If you want students to work in teams to design and conduct their social action, invite them to form groups based on their interests. Alternatively, work as a class to select one idea to work on together.

Step 3. Now, introduce the concept of a design challenge question to the class. Explain that a design challenge question helps us to think, explore and create many different solutions to one problem. For this lesson, the design challenge question will be framed as a 'How might we…?' question.

For this design challenge, the question students will be exploring is:

How might we get our community more involved in the topic of (insert your topic here)?

Explain to students that this is the question they will be using to guide their project for social action. Ensure students are able to identify who their target 'community' or audience is – it may be that you choose to focus on student households or the school community.

Keeping your target audience small at this stage will mean your project has a greater chance of success and will require fewer resources to enact. If it is a roaring success, you could consider repeating the activity on a larger scale.

Step 4.

Students will now begin developing ideas for action. Invite students to arrange the classroom furniture so that they are comfortable enough to think expansively and creatively.

Groups may like to work on the floor, around butcher's paper attached to the wall, or on a whiteboard. Provide each group with three sheets of butcher's paper, markers, and sticky notes.

Sticky-notes allow students to physically move two or more ideas around, mixing and matching to shape something special.

Facilitate groups to complete a three-phase brainstorming activity:

Phase 1: Discovering actions we can take

Invite students to create a list of actions, (verbs, or 'doing' words) that could be taken to address their design challenge question: How might we get our community more involved in the topic of (insert your topic here)?

Inform groups that they should aim to come up with as many different actions as they can. There will be time to consider the best ideas after the brainstorm. Remind students that the 'best' may depend on who their target audience is and the context in which the actions are taking place.

Ask students to write the heading 'Actions' on the first piece of paper. If necessary, share a few examples of actions before students begin the first phase of the brainstorm.

Actions
Plant Start Bake Sing Swim Change Donate to Promote Fundraise Campaign Make Film

Direct students to put only one action on each sticky-note and to use only one colour sticky note for this phase. This is important for the third phase, which requires the notes to be moved around.

Then, get students started on three minutes of fast thinking (you could use this online stopwatch to track time). Let students know when three minutes is up, then congratulate them on their quick thinking. Ask them to put that sheet of paper to one side for now.

Phase 2: What are our skills and interests?

Ask groups to select a different colour sticky note and a new sheet of paper. Invite groups to write the heading: 'Skills and Interests'. Explain that the next five minutes will be used to list the skills and interests of people within the group. Help students get started by providing examples, then let them know they have another five minutes. Ensure that students write one skill or interest per sticky note.

Actions	Skills and interests
Plant Start Bake Sing Swim Change Donate to Promote Fundraise Campaign Make Film	Soccer Calligraphy High jump Coding Photography Poetry writing Writing music

Encourage thinking about 'hidden' or 'quirky' skills: e.g. costume design, public speaking, illustrations, coding, playing a musical instrument.

Phase 3: Mix and match to create our idea

Ask groups to take the last sheet of paper and write their design challenge question (How might we get our community more involved in the topic of (insert your topic here?) at the top of the page. Challenge groups to come up with five or more ideas to address the design challenge question by matching sticky notes from each column. Encourage students to come up with all the ideas they can – let groups know that they don’t yet need to think about how feasible the ideas are. For this phase, students should just aim to have fun playing around with possibilities. If necessary, scaffold this phase by providing some examples.

Actions	Skills and interests	Creative idea
Plant Start Bake Sing Swim Change Donate to Promote Fundraise Campaign Make Film	Soccer Calligraphy High jump Coding Photography Poetry writing Writing music	* Create a photographic exhibition of the things you see when traveling to school or around your community using different forms of active transport. - Use a coding app to create a story about energy and the environment to share with an audience. - Create recipe cards using locally sourced or seasonal food using calligraphy.

Some other ideas for action include:

Hold a community screening night for the 2040 documentary
Write and perform a play about your topic and why it’s important to students
Create and run an awareness-raising event about your topic
Create an information booklet with drawings and cartoons created by students to share with their community
Hold an information session with students and staff
Create a poster campaign to share with the school community
Start a Change.org campaign

Allow at least ten minutes for this phase of the brainstorm, encouraging students to think expansively and creatively and to talk through their ideas with each other. While students are working, watch for indications of a slowing down of ideas.

Step 5.

Once groups have completed the brainstorming challenge, ask each group to spend some time viewing and discussing their list of ideas. Invite each student to nominate their favourite ideas by:

Drawing a star next to the idea they think is the most creative
Drawing a smiley face next to the idea that they like best

Step 6.

Explain to students that each group will be selecting one idea to bring to life. It is important that they select an idea that is feasible and realistic to complete within the time frame. One way to do this is by using the S.M.A.R.T. project criteria. Share the following clip with students:

How to Set SMART Goals

For a downloadable version of the S.M.A.R.T. goals, view the Student Worksheet or click here: S.M.A.R.T. Goals Factsheet.

Ask each group to use the S.M.A.R.T. Goals to select one idea that they will complete (remind them that the criteria are also available on the Student Worksheet). Explain to students that S.M.A.R.T. goals can help you to focus on what you what to achieve, how you will achieve it, how long it will take and how you will measure your group’s success.

Step 7.

Ask students to decide on their idea. If required, they could cast a vote. Once a decision has been made, invite students to record their idea to address the design challenge question on the Student Worksheet. In addition, explain to students that if any of the ideas don’t stand up to the S.M.A.R.T. goals they should be critically evaluated and perhaps revised or discarded. If they have more than one idea that stands up to the S.M.A.R.T. goals then the group should decide fairly on which one to choose. If none of the ideas stand up to the S.M.A.R.T. goals, then groups will need to adjust or adapt existing ideas to meet the criteria.

Step 8.

OPTIONAL - If you would like to work as a class to pursue just one idea for action, you could ask each group to present their idea to the class, and then work together to decide which idea you would like to pursue your social action. Alternatively, students could continue working in groups to complete their action.

Part C: Project Planning

Step 1.

Write or project the above quote on the board and explain to students that now they have developed an idea for action, it’s time to start planning a project around this action.

Using the idea developed and refined in Part B, the class/groups should complete the Project Planning Tool. If working in groups, each group should fill in one per group.

Step 2.

Hold a ten-minute conference with the class/each group to discuss their plan. Use these questions to guide the conference:

What are you planning to do, and why? What is the context for your project?
How is it addressing your 'How might we…?' question?
What help or resources do you need to get it done, and how might we acquire these?
When do you plan to have completed your project by? What step-by-step processes are necessary to see your project completed?
Have you identified any challenges or risks associated with the project, and how might you manage or mitigate these?

If working as a class, you might like to assign roles to students to ensure your project runs smoothly. You could use this guide to help you assign roles – Project Roles.

Some tips for supporting groups through the project planning phase:

Refer to the Reflection part of this lesson and ensure students have a clear understanding of the assessment criteria. If useful, direct students to the self-reflection and project reflection assessment activities.

Part D: Execute the Project

Step 1.

After students have completed the planning process, allow them time to action their projects. Distribute a Project Checklist to groups so that they can keep track of what they need to do to deliver their project. Provide students with information about the deadline for delivery of their project and any relevant logistics relating to your school, such as other staff who could support them, how to book resources such as cameras and rooms, or who to speak to for permission for their intended action.

Consider the following tips when supporting students through the action phase of their projects:

Step 2.

At appropriate intervals, conference with students to discuss their progress. Use these questions to guide the conference:

What have you done so far, and how/why? What have you learned and achieved in doing so?
What needs to be done next, and how/why?
When will it be finished, and how?
What help or resources do you need to get it done, and how might we acquire these?

Reflection

Step 1.

An important part of real-world learning, such as in this project, is the opportunity for students to present their learning in a public arena. This could mean:

Hosting an exhibition where the process and final products of students’ projects are displayed as posters; or
Creating a newsletter about students’ projects and distributing them to parents and community members; or
Producing and screening a two-minute film that documents students’ projects.

Ensure that students include the following details about their project:

What was the 'How might we…?' question your project was working to address?
What action did your group take?
What impact did your project have?
How could you extend or continue the project?

Through this process ensure that you share the skills, attitudes, and capabilities you observed in your students, and explain the importance and transferability of these qualities with the ability to succeed in life.

Step 2.

Invite students to complete the project reflection and personal reflection (available on the Student Worksheet). Each student should complete both sets of reflection questions independently.

Project reflection

Give a short overview of the action your group took.
Was our project a success? Why or why not?
What parts were the most successful and why?
What were the least successful and why? How could we improve these parts?
Overall, how could we improve, extend or continue the action?
What challenges did we face and how did we overcome them?
How could we extend or continue our project?

Self-reflection

Which of your skills and interests were involved in delivering your social action project?
How did you contribute to your group's success?
What would you do differently next time?
What was the best part of working on this project and why?
What was the most challenging part and why?
What are you most proud of?

Finally, congratulate your students on their efforts and remind them to be proud of what they achieved, even if they didn’t achieve all they hoped to in the ways they may have initially intended to. Making change is hard. Efforts towards creating change, and learnings gained along the way, should be acknowledged and celebrated.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

The 2040 team have created a range of clips specifically for use in Primary classrooms. Access the whole package of 2040 Primary clips at the following link, 2040 EDU: PRIMARY - INTEGRATED Password: 2040_INT.

What's Your 2040?

Record your students' work in their communities with the hashtag #whatsyour2040 and share their visions in the '2040: The Regeneration' Facebook Group.

The 2040 crew would love to see your class's work.

2040 - Taking Action for Your 2040

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