Mufasa’s Journey

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• critical thinking
• digital literacy
• problem solving

Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content description:

Mathematics, Geography, Year 3

• Students learn to measure and compare objects using familiar metric units of length, mass and capacity, and instruments with labelled markings (AC9M3M02)
• Students learn to locate, collect and record information and data from a range of sources, including annotated timelines and maps (AC9HS3S02)

Relevant parts of Year 3 achievement standards: Students use familiar metric units when estimating, comparing and measuring the attributes of objects and events. Students develop questions and locate, collect and record information and data from different sources. 

NSW Syllabus outcomes:

A student

• measures and estimates lengths in metres, centimetres and millimetres (MA2-GM-02)
• explains how people care for Australia’s environments and participate in Australian society, using geographical information (HS2-GEO-01)

General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Digital Literacy, Numeracy.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability 

Level of teacher scaffolding: High - lead students in the use of Google Maps, oversee guided and group discussions and support students in map-making/editing tasks.

UN SDG 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

• Target 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.

• device to share Google Maps and YouTube with the class
• drawing materials
• Map Worksheet OR Map of the local environment

Since Disney released The Lion King, in 1994 and the world fell in love with its story of adventure, friendship, and family on the savanna, Africa has lost half of its lions.

In 2019, Disney released the groundbreaking live-action adaptation of The Lion King and teamed up with the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund and its partners to help bring back lions in the wild. Through this collaboration, Disney and the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund encouraged audiences to “Protect the Pride,” urging fans and wildlife lovers around the world to participate in the conservation of lions and their habitats and help support local people who live alongside lions.

Now, five years later, with the release of Mufasa: The Lion King in theatres on December 19, Disney and the Lion Recovery Fund are teaming up again to continue efforts to Protect the Pride, celebrate successes to date, and grow hope for a future where lions and people thrive.

Find out more about how you can Protect the Pride here (disney.com.au/mufasa-the-lion-king-protect-the-pride).

Cool.org would like to extend our thanks to the Lion Recovery Fund and the Zambian Carnivore Programme (zambiacarnivores.org/programme) for their contribution of data, imagery and stories from the field to bring these resources to life. The Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP) is a Zambian-registered non-profit organisation dedicated to conserving large carnivores and the ecosystems they reside in through a combination of conservation science, conservation actions, and a comprehensive education and capacity-building effort. We would particularly like to thank PhD candidates Anna Kusler and Johnathan Reyes de Merkle and wish them the best of luck with their continued research.

Lesson feature image courtesy of Felix Studios.

Fit Sustainability Into the Primary Curriculum

Quick summary: Sustainability is part of every primary teacher's brief. Find out how to integrate it into your curriculum and use it to ignite your students' love of learning.