Teaching Sequence

10 minutes	Part A. Activating Prior Knowledge
10 minutes	Part B. Introducing Key Terms
40 minutes	Part C: Investigating Issues
20 minutes	Part D: What Role Is Your Local Zoo Playing?
30 minutes	Part E: Bring It All Together In A Class Debate
10 minutes	Reflection

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A. Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by inviting students to complete a '5 Whys' thinking routine around the following question (to be completed on the Student Worksheet):

How do you feel about zoos?

Once complete, invite students to team up with a classmate to share their ideas, reflecting on the similarities and differences between their responses.

Step 2.

You could then engage students in a class discussion about their thoughts. Through your discussion, explain to students that the topic of zoos is very divisive; many people have different and often opposing opinions about zoos. Therefore, it would be useful to work as a class to develop some guidelines for discussing these issues, particularly in the context of this lesson in which students will discuss some contentious ethical issues. Setting classroom ground rules is an important step in creating a safe space for all students to share their thoughts and ideas.

You should work with your students to create your own ground rules. However, they might include:

Own your ideas by using 'I think' rather than 'you should'
Respect each other and value diversity by remembering that each person has their own beliefs and values and their own world views, experiences and opinions
Each person has a right to contribute their ideas so listen politely
Be brave in sharing your ideas, experiences and opinions
Appreciate that everyone has the right to uphold their privacy; this might mean they don’t want to share their ideas or experiences on an issue
Share feedback in a way that is considerate and positive by remembering to be positive, kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback

Make a record of your ground rules and keep them in a place where all students can access them. Alternatively, provide each student with a copy of the ground rules.

Part B. Introducing Key Terms

Explain to students that there are many issues that people are concerned about when they think about zoos. In the rest of this lesson, students will be exploring some of these issues through four texts and will then be participating in a class debate as a way of working through these issues and hopefully reaching consensus.

Before beginning however, it might be useful to work with students to clarify some of the key terms used in these texts.

Break the class into eight groups and assign each group with one of the following terms:

Zoo/aquarium
Morals
Ethics
Unethical
Animal welfare
Conservation
Captivity
Enclosure

Each group needs to conduct research online to develop a definition for this term in their own words. They should then write their definition on the board or via a shared online document. Discuss the definitions with students and ensure all students understand these terms. You can use the suggestions provided below to clarify student definitions:

Zoo/aquarium -
A facility that has both indoor and outdoor settings where living, usually wild animals are kept mainly for public exhibition. Includes aquariums.
Morals -
Morals are standards of behaviour, concerned with the principles of right and wrong. Morals refer to an individual's own principles regarding right and wrong.
Ethics -
Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between what is morally good and evil. Ethics refer to rules provided by an external source, such as a workplace code of conduct or religious principles. When we talk about ‘zoo ethics’ we are talking about how zoos should behave.
Unethical -
When something is not morally correct.
Animal welfare -
Animal welfare is about understanding the experience of each and every individual and making sure that experience is as amazing as it could be so they thrive and experience a life worth living.
Conservation -
The act of preserving and conserving wildlife and other natural resources to prevent exploitation, neglect or extinction.
Captivity -
A situation where a person or animal is kept somewhere and is not allowed to leave.
Enclosure -
An area surrounded by a barrier.

You could also invite students to add these definitions to their workbooks or class glossary.

Part C: Investigating Issues

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now work in groups to conduct some research into some of the different issues and positions associated with zoos.

Break the class into four or eight groups. Label each group as either 1, 2, 3 or 4, ensuring that all numbers are assigned to a group at least once.

Assign each group with one of the following, based on their group number:

You could also invite students to conduct their own research to find an article they would like to analyse.

Students should then work to answer the following questions independently to determine what their own thoughts and feelings about the text are before analysing is as a group (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was this text about?
What key points were raised in this text?
What did you find interesting or important in this text? What points in this text would you most like to share with someone else?
What does this text make you think about?
How does this text make you feel and why?
What questions does this text leave you with?

Step 2.

Students can then work in their groups to compare and discuss their answers.

Once complete, distribute one copy of the Question Sheets to each student (Year 9 Question Sheet, Year 10 Question Sheet). Students should work in their groups to answer these questions, recording their answers in the space provided on the Question Sheets.

Step 3.

Once complete, ask students to form new groups, so that each new group contains at least one group member from group 1 , at least one from group 2 , at least one from group 3, and at least one from group 4. Each student should take their completed Question Sheet to their new group.

In their new groups, invite students to share what they found out in the articles they investigated. As their peer’s share, students who are listening should record thoughts and responses on the Question Sheets.

Step 4.

Once complete you could engage students in a class discussion about the issues raised in the group discussions. Through this discussion, check for clarity of understanding and work with students to address any confusion. This is also an opportunity to introduce students to zoo accreditation in Australia and the priority placed on animal welfare. For more information see the Zoo Aquarium Association of Australasia.

In addition, invite students to suggest any questions they may still have about the issues raised in this activity. Students could record these questions in their workbooks and use them to help plan your zoo visit or to guide further inquiry.

Part D: What Role Is Your Local Zoo Playing?

Step 1.

Now explain to students that they will conduct research into their local zoo to find out what their priorities are in terms of conservation or education. Give each student a copy of the Conservation Priorities Factsheet and as a class read the information, thinking of and discussing examples for each priority as you go.

Step 2.

Next break the class into groups of 3 to 4 and invite groups to undertake the research necessary to find the answers to the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet - again, groups can conduct their research together but each student should record their answers in their own words on the Student Worksheet):

What is your local zoo?
Does your local zoo operate any conservation programs? If so, what types of programs and with which animals? Find one example to focus on.
Focusing on your one example:
- Have you heard of this animal before?
- What do you already know about this animal?
- What does the zoo program aim to do with this animal? Is the program a breeding program with plans for reintroducing the animal back into the wild or does it aim to do something else? Remind students of the Conservation Priorities Factsheet.
- How is the zoo carrying out their program?
- How successful do you think it is?
- Why was this animal chosen for a conservation program?
- Does your local zoo operate any education or community engagement programs about this animal? If so, what types of programs? Remind students of the Conservation Priorities Factsheet.
- What do you think might be the strengths and weaknesses of these programs?
- What further questions do you have about this animal and/or conservation program? What would you now like to know?

Invite students to record their responses in the spaces provided on the Student Worksheet.

Step 3.

Once complete, invite students to share what they found out about your local zoo as a class. Extend your discussion using the following questions:

What do you think about the work your local zoo does with animals?
Would you be more inclined to support a zoo that had a focus on conservation work? Why or why not?
How important do you think it is for zoos to have education programs?
What questions do you still have about the programs your zoo runs?

In addition, invite students to suggest any questions they may still have about the issues raised in this activity. Students could record these questions in their workbooks and use them to help plan your zoo visit or to guide further inquiry.

Part E: Bring It All Together In A Class Debate

Step 1.

Now explain to students that they will be using the information they read and shared to plan for a debate on one of the following issues (you could choose a topic or you could invite students to choose a topic):

Zoos provide ways for the broader population to connect to animals, opening the door to environmental action on a broad scale.
Keeping a few animals in captivity is for the greater good of all animals and our environment.
Zoos are cruel and exist solely for the benefit of human entertainment.
Conservation work is just another way that humans are interfering in the natural order of nature.
We shouldn't be keeping endangered animals in zoos - if there is no hope of releasing them back in the wild then what is the point?
Year 9 - We need zoos because their conservation work offers hope to the future survival of animals and the environments they can be reintroduced back into.
Year 10 - Every animal has a right to fulfil its evolutionary destiny by living in its natural environment.

Use these Debate Guidelines to plan and guide your debate.

Step 2.

Following your debate you could invite students to share their thoughts about the debate, including:

What worked well in the debate? How was it successful?
What would you do next time to improve the debate?
How did participating in or listening to the debate influence thoughts and opinions about the topic being debated?

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Return to question posed earlier: How do you feel about zoos?

Have your thoughts or opinions about this question changed through the course of this lesson? Explain your answer.
What has this lesson made you think about?
How has it made you feel?
What is still challenging for you about this topic?
What questions do you now have about this topic?

Take It Further

Visit Your Local Zoo

Questions and issues raised in this lesson can be used to guide your students' learning experiences at your zoo. Once you have completed this lesson, consider using the Planning Your Zoo Visit document to work with students to plan your trip to the zoo.

Taking Action

Following your trip to your local zoo, you can use the Taking Action document to guide students to design and implement a social action project around a local animal species they identify as needing conserving. Students can be inspired by the conservation work of the zoo they visit, and you can use learnings from the lesson below to support the students to take action.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Fighting Extinction - The Ethics of Zoos

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