Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Gathering perspectives

20 minutes

Find Out: Windy wonderings

25 minutes

Take Action: Highlighting concerns

5 minutes

Reflection: Concentric sharing

Learning intentions

Students will:

explore how communities decide on renewable energy
assess the importance of accurate information.

Success criteria

Students can:

identify the challenges and solutions for using renewable energy case study
evaluate concerns as scientific, misinformation or disinformation.

Tune In: Gathering perspectives

Step 1

Explain to the students that the letters to the mayor they analysed in the previous lesson were not very informative. However, they were good at representing the differing perspectives in the community. The mayor has requested a visual document summarising these community perspectives to make a more informed decision.

Arrange students into 4 groups and provide each group with blank paper, markers, and copies of the activity sheet. Challenge students to create a simple graphic organiser that allows the mayor to gain a quick overview of the varying community perspectives on energy sources.

Step 2

Display the graphic organisers so students can discuss the different formatting possibilities for recording information.

Find Out: Windy wonderings

Step 1

As a class, watch the video which tells the story of a community that is choosing its source of electricity.

Season 4 Ep2 GOOD NEIGHBOURS Gippsland: “Offshore Wind. Onshore Opportunities” (youtube.com/watch?v=xfs7xeHQ8bs)

Step 2

Use the thinking routine See, Think, Wonder to assist students in engaging deeply with the content, making their learning and thinking visible.

See: Students list everything they observe in the video about the Gippsland offshore wind project.

Think: Students consider what they think is happening based on their observations. During this step, direct the students' focus towards the problems the community is facing and how the community feels about them.

Wonder: Students generate questions about what they've seen and thought. During this step, ask students to focus on questions related to solutions, responses, and how scientific knowledge is used in decision-making.

Take Action: Highlighting concerns

Step 1

Explain to the students that there were several opportunities for people to have their say during the Gippsland Off-shore Wind Farm consultation process. These concerns were reported in the Offshore Renewable Energy Declaration Gippsland, Victoria, Public Consultation Summary Report.

Provide students with the student-friendly factsheet summarising this report and reading through it as a class. A Teacher Answer Guide is included at the end of the factsheet to assist teachers with navigating this task.

Step 2

Your students' task is to identify which concerns are scientifically based and need to be fact-checked, and which results may have arisen from misinformation and disinformation concerns.

Ask students to highlight these 3 areas using different colours.

Learning support: Use a ‘traffic light’ system where students colour-code concerns on sticky notes (green for scientifically based, yellow for possible misinformation, red for potential disinformation) and place them on a large chart. This makes it easier to visualise and discuss as a class.

Learning extension: Challenge students to create a visual mind map connecting different concerns, showing how they relate to each other and identifying potential sources of misinformation or disinformation.

Learning opportunity: Host a ‘Fact-Check Challenge’ where students take turns presenting a concern from the factsheet. Their classmates must quickly decide and justify whether it's scientifically based, misinformation, or disinformation, promoting critical thinking and discussion.

Reflection: Concentric sharing

Step 1

Arrange for students to be in 2 concentric circles facing each other. Students in the inner circle share their findings with their partners in the outer circle. After 2-3 minutes, rotate the outer circle to face a new partner. Repeat the process until all students have shared their classification of ‘facts’ into scientific facts, misinformation and disinformation.

Exploring Offshore Wind

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Summary

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