Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

30 minutes

Part A: Impact of the bushfires

35 minutes

Part B: Responses to bushfires

40 minutes

Part C: Our response

5 minutes

Reflection

Part A: Impact of bushfires

Step 1

Ask students to free-write for 5 minutes in response to the question: What do you already know about the impact of bushfires?

Step 2

Ask students to read over their answers (and a peer’s if they feel comfortable sharing) then brainstorm which categories these impacts could be placed into. They should share these categories with the class (Suggested answers: Emotional, community impact, impact on buildings, impact on ecosystems, impact on air etc).

Step 3

Present the clip from the feature documentary A Fire Inside about the impacts of the Australian bushfires:

A Fire Inside: The Impact of Australian Bushfires (https://vimeo.com/651801861)

Step 4

Ask students to find a partner or work with the person next to them and facilitate a brief Think, Pair and Share in response to the following question:

What did you hear and see about the impacts of bushfires?

Suggested answers:

Extensive smoke (air quality)
200 consecutive days of bushfire emergencies
26 lives lost
2500 homes destroyed
5 and a half million hectares of country burnt out - 1 hectare is a football field

Step 5

Ask students to pick two to three of the impacts mentioned and brainstorm what follow-on consequences it may have.

Step 6

Ask students to read through or refer to the article: Ten impacts of the Australian bushfires as a class to discuss the various impacts of the recent fires.

Each group will be assigned an impact and asked to investigate the various effects of the recent mega-fires in Australia. Below is an example of two impacts and a brief description of how and why it was impacted.

Other impacts include Environmental, Pollution, Agricultural, Physical, Economical, Mental Health, Public Health, Biodiversity etc.

Impact	Potential Consequences
Pollution: Extensive smoke affects air quality	Respiratory problems such as asthma flare-ups, irritation of the eyes, sinus problems, runny nose, sore or itchy throat cough. Caused by finer particles, called particulate matter 2.5 [PM2.5], 2.5 micrometres in diameter, are inhaled and can enter deeper into the lungs and be absorbed into the bloodstream, affecting other organs of the body.) Lack of visibility for planes, people needing to stay inside - affects their mental health.
Biodiversity: Ecological and biodiversity impacts	An estimated billion animals and insects perished and face extinction due to the fires, air quality, loss of habitats and food sources. After a bushfire of this magnitude, biodiversity is in steep decline. The world’s terrestrial biodiversity is concentrated in forests: they are home to more than 80 per cent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects. So, when forests burn, the biodiversity on which humans depend for their long-term survival also disappears. With over 1 million species currently facing extinction, if we continue to treat our planet this way, extreme weather events will become an increasing matter of concern for species survival.
Agriculture	The bushfires have scorched pasture, destroyed livestock, with regrowth and recovery likely to stretch water resources already challenged by drought. Smoke from wildfires can travel great distances. It is often pushed into the stratosphere by the heat from fires. Smoke from bushfires in Australia has drifted across the Pacific and may have reached the Antarctic. This has led to hazardous air quality in major cities throughout Australia.

Step 7

Extension Question (specific to Years 9 and 10):

What challenges does the above pose to sustainability?

Part B: Response to bushfires

Step 1

Ask students to take a minute and write some dot points in response to the following questions:

What can you and I do to be prepared and protect Australia?
Are some things out of our control and whose responsibility is it to prepare and protect Australia from mega-fires?

Step 2

Remind students of the concepts of hazard response and emergency management: prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. To help students consolidate the meaning and refresh their memory you may wish to prepare student definitions.

Step 3

Ask students to brainstorm what they know about Fire Emergency Management in each of the four categories:

Prevention	Preparedness	Response	Activity

Here are some examples retrieved from ACOSS Resilient Communities (resilience.acoss.org.au):

Prevention: Actions undertaken in advance. Sometimes this can be referred to as mitigation. Some examples might include back-burning or constructing sea walls to protect from tidal waves, having alternative sources of electricity or communication in place.

Preparedness: Making arrangements, creating and testing plans, training, educating and sharing information to prepare communities should an emergency eventuate. These are also ACTIONS and they are occurring all the time.

Response: The assistance and intervention during or immediately after an emergency. The main focus here is to save lives and protect community assets such as buildings, roads, animals, crops, infrastructure.

Recovery: This is the coordinated process of supporting communities to reconstruct infrastructure and restore emotional, social, economic and physical wellbeing. This can be measured and continue for months and even years.

Step 4

Introduce students to (or review) the concept of the RFS. Show students this clip from the feature documentary A Fire Inside:

A Fire Inside: RFS Clip (https://vimeo.com/651806702)

Step 5

Once students have watched the clip invite your class to answer the following questions:

What did you learn about the RFS from this clip?
What is the RFS’ role?
What questions do you still have about the RFS?

Step 6

Ask students to work in pairs to research one of the following questions:

How does the RFS help with fire prevention?
How does the RFS help with fire preparedness?
How does the RFS help with fire response?
How does the RFS help with the fire recovery process?
How are RFS affected by the fires?

Part C: Our response

Step 1

Split students into groups of 3-4 and ask each group to brainstorm or research on a device:

What are some ways we can all be part of bushfire prevention, preparedness, response and recovery?

Individual	Community	National	International

Step 2

Show and present the website: Minderoo resilience program and discuss various ways students, parents and the community can help and get involved. Discuss whether students could add some of the strategies to their design.

Step 3

Ask students to choose one strategy that they came up with and outline how this strategy could be used to help during one of the prevention phases: prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

What strategy did you suggest/know about?
What group(s) would be involved in this strategy?
How would this help with the response to bushfires?
What possible problems could this strategy face?
What possible opportunities could there be to improve this strategy?

Reflection

Ask students to share with the class:

What is one thing you can do in the next few weeks to be more prepared for bushfires?
What is one thing you can do, next time there is a bushfire, to help others?

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Ask students to consider how social, cultural or economic factors may have mitigated or exacerbated people’s experiences of these impacts. (E.g - those workers who cannot stay inside are more affected, those without insurance etc).

Provisions for Learning Support - To support students throughout the lesson you might consider creating groups and organising some strategies that could be used in advance in (Part C).

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 - The Impact of Australian Bushfires

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