Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

35 minutes

Part A: Climate change

40 minutes

Part B: What is the relationship between climate change and bushfires?

35 minutes

Part C: Creating presentations

5 minutes

Reflection

Step 1

Part A: Climate change

Download the Powerpoint presentation: A Fire Inside: How did climate change contribute to the Bushfires to present the lesson or follow the steps below.

Step 2

Present the image below and ask students if they know what climate change is and conduct a brief “think, pair, share” on:
What is climate change?

As you go around the room, record student responses in preparation for the class definition (Step 2).

A Fire Inside2021Science lesson_climate change

Quote: “Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years. Climate change.”

Step 3

Invite your class to create a definition for climate change in their table groups. Circle the room and gather some points from various tables and create a clear definition on the board/interactive board.

Step 4

Then, present and discuss the definition from NASA:

“Global climate change refers to the average long-term changes over the entire Earth. These include warming temperatures and changes in precipitation, as well as the effects of Earth’s warming, such as:

Rising sea levels
Shrinking mountain glaciers
Ice melting at a faster rate than usual in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic
Changes in flower and plant blooming times.”

Link: climatekids.nasa.gov/climate-change-meaning

Ask students if there is any additional information they would like to change or include?

Step 5

Present the groups with a factsheet: This is not normal: explaining bushfires and climate change (climatecouncil.org.au). Spend 10 minutes going over some of the facts about climate change and the link between climate change and bushfires. Ensure students understand how climate change exacerbates the rates of bushfires and why the rise in temperature is dangerous for our planet.

Step 6

Split students into groups and ask your class to free write on the topic for 3 minutes:

What is the relationship between climate change and the recent bushfires?

OR,

Ask students to draw a response to the above question that shows their understanding of how climate change is linked to mega-fires.

Step 7

Once the writing time is up, invite your students to spend 3 minutes sharing their thoughts with the class. Ensure you give each group time to go back and add to their notes and clarify any misconceptions.

Part B: What is the relationship between climate change and bushfires?

Step 1

Present a quote from the article Australian bushfires and climate change: A media analysis by Professor Nerilie Abram (climate-diplomacy.org) as a prompt and an image of the Black Summer bushfires:

A Fire Inside2021Climate change and bushfires imagescience lesson

Prompting quote: “Wildfires need four ingredients...available fuel, dryness of that fuel, weather conditions that aid the rapid spread of fire and an ignition.”

Step 2

Split students up into groups of 3 - 4 students per group and give students 3 minutes to think about and write what the four main ingredients might be that Professor Abram Nerilie refers to.

As students are thinking and writing you may like to direct students thinking, circle the room and share some guiding thoughts such as:
Think about how bushfires start and what makes them more likely to spread?

Step 3

Once students have had a few minutes to write down their thinking and questions, facilitate a brief discussion about how bushfires spread.

Step 4

Ask students to remain in their groups and ask your class to spend 10 minutes reading the article Australian bushfires and climate change: A media analysis by Daisy Dunne, Josh Gabbatiss and Robert McSweeney in order to complete the box below

Step 5

Present the “four ingredients for a wildfire” table to each group and assign a student in each group with a title (available fuel, dryness of fuel, weather conditions or ignition). Encourage students to add the relevant information (dot points) from the news article Australian bushfires and climate change: A media analysis

Four ingredients for a wildfire:

Available fuel	Dryness of fuel	Weather conditions	Ignition

Suggestions: Other suggested articles and information about bushfires and how bushfires occur can be retrieved from The Australian Academy of Science, Bushfires 1: Understanding bushfires (science.org.au/curious/bushfires).

Step 6

As a class, discuss the four ingredients and ask your students to contribute some of their knowledge and new information they have learned from reading the article. Ensure you give students enough time to ask questions and clarify any misconceptions.

Step 7

Present a clip from A Fire Inside and ask students to individually respond to the following questions:

Fire Inside Clip (https://vimeo.com/651803632)

What was the main message in the clip?
What do the scenes from the feature documentary A Fire Inside illustrate about bushfires and climate change?
How serious is it and what can we do to make a difference?

Step 8

Invite your students to discuss some of the main learnings and if they have any questions about the information they have recorded before you move on.

Part C: Creating presentations

Step 1

Ask students to stay in their groups and pick ONE of the below topics to present to their local government.

The four ingredients for bushfire
The degree of concern
Climate change’s impact on bushfires.

Step 2

Tell students that they will be working in their groups to create a short 2-minute pitch to illustrate and convince the audience that their topic is of concern and requires immediate attention.

As a class, discuss some of the potential ways that students could disseminate their pitch. Suggestions might include billboard, poster, magazine cover, newspaper article, pop-up advertisement, fact sheet, artwork, campaign, advertisement etc.

Step 3

As a class, discuss some of the main points that students should include:

A written or visual explanation of the topic (visual representation could be a poster, banner, billboard etc)
An explanation of why this topic is important (slogan, news article pitch, advertisement)
An explanation of why it requires immediate action or a plan
Examples of how and why this contributes to bushfires or other environmental concerns
1-2 key messages for Australian citizens about their topic.

Step 4

Once students have completed the presentation, ask them to go over the checklist and identify whether they have ticked all things off the checklist:

Information in the presentation is clear and easy to understand Y/N
Information relates to the chosen topic Y/N
The content is engaging and will urge the audience to take action Y/N
Information in the presentation includes at least two different sources Y/N
The sources are reliable Y/N

If you have students that are visual learners or enjoy creating presentations, it is encouraged that you allow them to discuss and articulate their knowledge using visual conventions.

Reflection

Ask students to read over their presentation or the presentation of a peer and write down:

One thing they did well
One thing that could be improved
One question they still have.

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Students could be encouraged to seek out more academic sources of information for their presentations. Students may wish to write a news report, make a video or do other digital presentations such as podcasts about bushfires and climate change.

Provisions for Learning Support - Guide students to choose the topic ‘four ingredients for bushfire’ as this is the simplest topic and the main points of discussion were covered in Part A of the learning.

There is an opportunity throughout all the tasks to create opportunities for students to work in groups and present information visually as opposed to written.

Teacher reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

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

A Fire Inside - How Did Climate Change Contribute to the Australian Bushfires?

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