Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Campaigns for communication

10 minutes

Find Out: How do we make change?

30 minutes

Take Action: Let’s make change

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Campaigns for communication

Preparation

Choose the type of media that you want your students to produce from the below list.

Poster
Infographic
Short film (<60sec)

If you intend for this project to be completed in this lesson, you will need to make sure you have the resources to produce this type of media ready. Students will have 30 minutes to plan and create their media. If you would like to use this project as an assessment task, you can optionally provide them with the assessment rubric and additional time to create a more polished final product.

Step 1

Ask your students:

How can we save the planet?

Choose several students to share their ideas with the class. You will likely get a diverse range of answers, from ‘putting our rubbish in the bin’ to ‘using renewable energy sources’.

All these ideas involve getting people to make a change. Today, we’re going to look at how we can help people change their behaviour to help save our planet.

Step 2

Show students the Behaviour Change Media visual explainer for your chosen format: Poster, Infographic, or Short film.

On each slide, give students the opportunity to view the media and ask them:

What do you see?
What is the message?
How have they tried to convey this message?

Literacy extension:

This last question is a great way to tie into your current studies. What literary devices have you been studying recently that show up in the media? This could be as simple as ‘all the words start with the same letter’ (alliteration) at a foundation level to ‘they use expanded noun groups to illustrate their main points’ (imagery).

Find Out: How do we make change?

Step 1

Let’s watch a video about how we can influence people to change their behaviour.

The Elephant, The Rider and the Path - A Tale of Behavio u r Change

Ask your students:

What does the rider represent? (our brain, our thinking part that knows what to do)
What does the elephant represent? (our emotions, the part that wants to do the right thing)
What does the path represent? (our action, the path shows the way (the action) we need to take to reach the end goal)

Step 2

Let’s apply this to Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic).

If you haven’t completed lesson 1 in this unit (Planning Our Fundraiser), show your students this video to introduce them to the CDS Vic.

Ask your students: Why do we want people to participate in the CDS Vic? It would be a good idea to note these ideas down where students can see them.

Learning extension:

You could phrase this question in terms of the three pillars of sustainability:

What environmental benefits does the scheme provide?
What economic benefits does the scheme provide?
What social benefits does the scheme provide?

Phrasing it this way will help students in creating their behaviour change media later on.

Take Action: Let’s make change

Step 1

Let’s make our own behaviour change media to support our CDS Vic Fundraising. The first question we need to ask is:

What do we want people to know?

Brainstorm your ideas as a class and write them on the board. This might include things like:

Who we are fundraising for
What containers you can donate
Where to donate them
What are the benefits of donating (environmental, social, economic)

From this list, students can choose what to address in their behaviour change media.

Students who are creating posters should choose one simple message. (e.g. Bring your containers to school to raise money for penguins!). As a class, see if you can come up with some catchy bylines to convey your message. Think back to the examples in the visual explainer (Wipe for wildlife, When balloons fly, seabirds die).

Students who are creating infographics should choose one message with multiple information parts (e.g. what containers you can and cannot donate, or when/where/what is the fundraiser).

Students who are creating short films should work through the worksheet to create a theme and identify how they will cover the three elements of behaviour change in their media.

Step 2

Use the student worksheet to plan your media. Students creating a poster can jump straight to the design page of the student worksheet. They can use this space to create their final poster or as a planning space before creating it digitally or on a larger piece of paper.

Students creating infographics or short films can use the planning page of the student worksheet to scaffold their thinking first. This worksheet asks them to write a theme, think about the three different elements of behaviour change, and plan the resources they need. From here, they can move to the design page to plan out their infographic or storyboard their short film. We have an infographic factsheet and a Creating Quality Content: Film factsheet that you can use to help your students plan their media.

Numeracy extension:

Statistics are a great way to reach your audience! Students could use their research from lesson 1 around how many containers they need, or they could research online statistics about resources. (e.g. According to the United Nations, 50 billion tonnes of sand are extracted from the world’s oceans every year, source)

Step 3

Let your students get started on the production phase. If you are planning on giving them additional time to work on their projects, let them know so they can plan accordingly and set their goals for this time.

If they are finishing their projects in this lesson, set out the times on the board so students stay on track with their projects. For example:

5 minutes planning
10 minutes preparing/researching
10 minutes creating
5 minutes editing and finalising

Reflection

Have your students share their work/planning with another student and provide feedback on their idea.

Tips for providing feedback

Be kind - It can be hard to share your ideas with others, so remain kind and supportive.
Be specific - Be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying, ‘I like the colours, ’ say something like ‘, I like the ways those colours help create a mood that supports your message.
Be helpful - Try not to say what is strong or weak, but also make suggestions about how things could be improved.

Make Your Containers Count

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Summary

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