Evidence: "Desert Diggin" Unit of Work
| 3.2 | Plan, structure and sequence learning programs
For my science method course I needed to design a unit of work for a particular group of students with a particular context. I have a strong interest in rural education and wanted to use my experiences in outback Broken Hill and the many issues, debates and unique history of this mining and desert town to make relevant links to the science syllabus and contextualize my unit of work.
My task was to research and develop relevant learning stimulus to enrich the unit of work and design teaching and learning strategies to make the science meaningful and relevant to students living in the town.
I researched relevant local media, looked into active environmental groups and major mining companies present in the town to expose students to multiple views on human impact on environments, specifically of mining practices on ecosystems. I designed lessons to challenge student’s pre-conceived ideas about their town and human resource use and demonstrated the economic and social sides of the key concepts. I was also able to incorporate Aboriginal land management views and devise specific case studies which students could personally connect too such as the ‘Devils Dust’ case study into Asbestos.
This unit allows students to experience lessons specifically tailored to real world problems relevant to what they know. Students create products of learning such as a ‘Behind the News’ story on sustainability of the towns lake system and an ‘Underground Life’ mining blog. Students will be able to look at big science ideas, such as sustainability, and build knowledge by using their local environment.
I have learnt from this task to always try and link new content to what students already know. This involves finding relevant stimulus that is engaging and meaningful to students and allows them to construct their own ideas and knowledge related to their world and background.
This is the feedback I was given for my unit of work: