Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes – Part A: Reading Amy's Balancing Act
25 minutes – Part B: Investigating the moral
15 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Reading Amy's Balancing Act

Step 1.

Before you begin, tell students you're about to read a fable.

Do students know how a fable differs from a regular story? A fable is a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral.

Do students know what a moral is? A moral is a lesson that we can get from a story, usually about right and wrong behaviours.

So, this fable is not just a fun story. It is going to have a message about something. Ask students to see if they can figure out what this fable is trying to teach them as you read through it.

Step 2.

Read Amy's Balancing Act. Read until the end of the story "And the mail is always on time" - we don't need to go into the 'unpacking the fable' section just yet.

You can find a physical copy of the book here.

You can also access the book for educational purposes here, using the password SchoolAccess.

Step 3.

What are students' initial impressions of the fable? What message do they think the fable was trying to share?

It might not be obvious, and that's okay. We're about to investigate.

Part B: Investigating the moral

Step 1.

Split students into groups of four.

Step 2.

Give students a copy of Cool's Everything you need to know about energy factsheet.

Explain to students that they don't need to worry about all of the pages. There are four that we want to focus on specifically, one per student:

Fossil Fuels
Solar Power
Wind Power
Hydro Power

Students should split these topics, and the corresponding pages of the factsheet, between their group members.

Step 3.

Set a timer for 15 minutes. Independently, students investigate their topic by reading through that part of the factsheet.

If students have time, they can learn more by conducting their own independent research. Cool's climate change digital library is a great place to start.

Step 4.

Students report back to their group. Set a timer for 60 seconds. Each group member has this long to explain their topic to the rest of the group (4 minutes in total).

Step 5.

As a class, return to Amy's Balancing Act.

Discuss:

Knowing what you know now, what do you think Amy's Balancing Act was about?
What source of energy production do you think Sol the goanna represented?
What was Sol's main challenge? What stopped Sol from delivering the mail (producing energy)?
What source of energy production do you think Gail the albatross represented?
What was Gail's main challenge? What stopped Gail from delivering the mail (producing energy)?
What source of energy production do you think Snowy the glider represented?
Snowy had one advantage over Sol and Gail. Can you explain it?
What source of energy production do you think Clyde the Clydesdale represented?
Juniper the farmer had an issue with the way Clyde worked, that didn't happen when Sol and Gail were working. What was it? How do you think this relates to fossil fuels? (Clyde caused a lot of dust, the same way fossil fuels cause a lot of pollution).

As you go through these questions, you can read the entries for each of the animals in the 'unpacking the fable' section at the back of the book.

Student reflection

Independently, students write a reflection on Amy's Balancing Act, explaining the moral of the fable in their own words and incorporating the extra information they have learned from the factsheet.

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?

Amy's Balancing Act - Books on Climate Change

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