Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes	Part A. The problem of low engagement
30 minutes	Part B. Focusing on solutions
30 minutes	Part C. Designing your campaign
10 minutes	Reflection

Part A. The Problem Of Low Engagement

Step 1.

Share this statistic with students, clarifying that it relates to organ and tissue donation in Australia:

Among 16 to 25-year-olds, fewer than 1 in 10 are registered donors (source). Yet the majority of young people say they support organ and tissue donation.

Step 2.

Ask students to brainstorm why there might be a gap between what young people believe and what they do to take action. Write answers on the board.

Some prompts if required:

They don’t know they can register – you can register your intent when you turn 16
Young people don’t think they’ll die
Young people don’t know how to raise dying with their parents
They might think they’ll never need a transplant, that it won’t happen to them.

Step 3.

Invite students to discuss as a group:

Why should organ donation matter to teenagers?
Do you think it matters to them (or you)?
If we agree it matters, why do we need to register and why do we need to talk to our families about it?
- Possible answer – eight out of ten families will proceed with a donation if their loved one is registered (makes the decision easy on the worst day of their life) yet only four out of ten proceed if their loved one isn’t registered (they don’t know what they should do to honour their loved one’s wishes).

Step 4.

Show students this video:

"Organ Donors Save Lives" Samantha's Story - Behind the News (https://youtu.be/VXcXwLZFmkQ)

While students are watching, hand out the Student Worksheet. Ask students to write down their answers to the following questions:

Why did organ and tissue donation matter to Samantha?
What surprised you?
Does this video change how you feel about organ donation? Why/why not?

Part B. Focusing on solutions

Step 1.

Ask students:

How can we solve the problem of low registrations on the Australian Organ Donor Registry amongst 16 to 25-year-olds?
What messages about organ and tissue donation would appeal to others your age?

Either work as a class or in pairs to fill in this table:

Barrier	How to overcome
Lack of knowledge/awareness
Feeling it isn’t relevant to them
Lack of motivation to act
Other:

Step 2.

Explain to students that the series of television advertisements that they are about to view ran on WIN as part of the annual DonateLife Week promotion in 2020. Play the following short videos (more found at https://vimeo.com/user100233140):

Do you want to be an organ donor? (https://vimeo.com/347681160)

How do you register? (https://vimeo.com/344952878)

Register (https://vimeo.com/344952894)

Grace (https://vimeo.com/348524629)

Craig (https://vimeo.com/348524566)

Ask students to discuss or write answers to the following questions:

What does this series of advertisements involve?
How do these advertisements try to persuade the audience to register as organ and tissue donors?
Do you think the advertisements were effective in Australia? Why/Why not?

These advertisements caused a large spike in registrations in regional Australia throughout the DonateLife Week period.

Safety first

Brandon, in the following video, has since died. Please use discretion if Brandon is known to your community. Brandon’s family is happy for this video to continue being used, as it was his passion to raise awareness on the issue of organ and tissue donation.

Step 3.

Play this video:

DonateLife Qld education video long version (https://youtu.be/gM55I1a76ao)

This video was produced by DonateLife to be played at schools and in other educational settings to try to answer questions that students have around organ and tissue donation.

Ask them to write down or discuss:

Did this video help you understand more about organ and tissue donation?
Do you think this video would persuade young people to register as organ and tissue donors? Why/why not?
What would you add to or change about the video to make it even more effective at teaching young people about organ and tissue donation?

Step 4.

Show students these print/poster-based Campaign Examples (source) and ask them to select which they believe is most effective and why.

Part C. Designing your campaign

Step 1.

Ask students to work in pairs or small groups to select an audience and a method of raising awareness.

Audience suggestions:

Teens in general
Young adults
Teens interested in sport
Teens interested in music/arts
Other specific cultural/religious/community groups.

Ways to raise awareness:

TikTok
Instagram, etc.
Crowd-sourcing/funding, etc.
Gift of Life Walk
DonateLife Week
Jersey Day
Saffron Day
Rainbow wall
Signalling (ribbons, shoelaces, etc.)
Inspirational speeches
Parent/community events/music/art, etc.
Talk to family members of donors.

Step 2.

Now that students have selected their audience and method of raising awareness, they should plan their campaign. Students should first complete the below planner about their audience. You could suggest to students that they create a survey to gain some information about their audience if they do not already have it.

Who is your audience?
What do they care about?
What channels might they use to access media?
What sort of activities do they engage in?
What concerns might they have about organ donation? Why might they not have registered?

Step 3.

Students should plan their campaigns. These may look different for each group. Circulate and provide suggestions to students.

This planner may be helpful depending on the group’s chosen strategy:

How will our campaign grab our audience’s attention? How will we make sure they know about it?
What information will our campaign give to our audience?
How will our campaign connect with our audience on an emotional level?
How will we make it easy for our audience to take action?
What else do we need to consider?

Reflection

Students should look over the proposed campaign of a peer or peer group. They should provide feedback on the following:

What do they like or think is effective about the campaign?
What questions do they still have?
What areas do they think could be improved?

Optional

They might like to register their intention to be a donor and/or talk to their family about what they have learned about organ and tissue donation.

Differentiated Learning

Extension

Students could create their campaigns, including consistent branding and messaging. They could create a suite of resources for their campaign (e.g videos, memes, gifs, infographics, social media messaging, merchandise etc) and launch their campaign in a public forum.

Provisions for Learning Support

Students could be supported to create a poster or video. They could make this with guidance from the teacher.

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?

DonateLife - Registering Your Audience

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Summary

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