Teacher Preparation

Learning Intentions:

Students will...

investigate what makes a community resilient.

Success Criteria:

Students can...

describe the importance of having resilient communities in order to be better prepared for disasters
know the difference between a hazard-reduction burn and a cool burn
identify local cultures that make up their community and understand their values
devise a plan to maintain their community better prepared in the event of a disaster.

Make the learning intentions and success criteria visible for students throughout this lesson.

Handling Sensitive Topics:

While presenting the lesson, you may notice that students could develop heightened emotions as you uncover the physical and psychological effects of hazards and disasters. Resilience, rebuilding and hope are essential learnings from the lessons. Therefore, it is vital to create a psychologically safe place for students to discuss and debrief, shall they need to. The tasks can be activating for some students and could trigger old memories that some students may find challenging to revisit or process. You should direct students to a school counsellor if they require additional support and read through the Handling Sensitive Topics and Issues for more information.

Delivery of Lessons:

The Years 7 to 8 Design and Technology lessons will encourage students to explore the essence of sustainable and resilient design and how to improve the resilience of communities that have or may be affected by natural disasters. Students will analyse current technologies and designs and will have opportunities to create concepts, build prototypes and use their critical and creative thinking skills to explore how society can mitigate hazards and reduce the harmful impact of natural disasters, to create a resilient Australia. The following designs and technology lessons and future resources comprise of two mutually reinforcing components - the principles and the environments in which resilient communities strive - which are designed to holistically guide teachers, community leaders and organisations in their work within communities. These lessons are best delivered as a sequential set of lessons to build students' confidence to discuss the devastating impacts of disasters through the lens of hope and optimism.

Teacher Content Information

The IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was created to:

provide policymakers (governments) with regular scientific updates about climate change;
highlight the impact climate change will have on the planet in the future; and,
offer some ideas about how to tackle the challenges of climate change's potential effects on the planet.

In 2021-22, the IPCC released their sixth assessment report. This is the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change.

The report makes a number of important points:

It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.
Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades (B1). The report describes five possible climate futures, where #1 is not great and #5 is extremely bad. If we want to keep global warming at less than two degrees, which the IPCC says is the best-case scenario, we need to reduce our CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions significantly and start right away.

'Net zero' or 'carbon neutral' are terms that refer to achieving an overall balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions taken out of the atmosphere. Getting to net zero means we can still produce some emissions, so long as we're doing something else to reduce the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere at the same time, kind of like balancing a set of scales (more info).

Teacher content information:

This lesson falls under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
This goal addresses the rapid urbanisation that will occur by 2030. Rapid urbanisation is set to increase the development of slums and make our communities vulnerable to natural disasters if not managed appropriately. Creating safer cities encompasses various areas including urban planning, transport and management of our natural land and resources, as well as creating safe and affordable housing all whilst consulting the community as part of the process.

Engaging with the community is an essential element of building community resilience. In order to engage effectively with communities, practitioners and organisations must recognise each community's specific identity, location, connection to place, and history. Communities are made up of knowledge, history and different perspectives. This knowledge helps us understand the country and people around us, and how we can contribute. Creating resilient communities requires the capabilities of its members to help protect, manage and recover from disaster when it occurs. This is why it is important to consult with communities and support them to lead and reflect on their own culture, history and identity, in their disaster preparation processes.

Cultural burning is an example of this knowledge that helps rejuvenate the land and avoid intense bushfires. This has been adopted in the wake of intensifying bushfires as a better way to manage landscapes and minimise damage to the landscape and the community. Cultural burning includes knowledge of the land that is passed on from generation to generation of Indigenous people so they can maintain the land and keep it thriving. It involves burning at lower temperatures to attract native flora and fauna and avoids high-temperature burns that attract the growth of evasive natives such as bracken fern. Cool burns avoid canopies of trees, which are often charred in hazard reduction burns and keep animals safe. For more information on cool burning and land management, Cool Australia suggests reading through and familiarising yourself and the classroom with the cool burning teaching resources.

Four Categories to consider for a Resilient Community factsheet:

Built: This category encompasses housing, public buildings and safe and fair access to them. The built environment needs to consider how buildings function when facing natural hazards such as extreme heat, cyclones, fires and floods. Another example is that if too much energy is required for every home during extreme heat, power outages can occur. The built environment can also include the cost of running and maintaining a building, which can impact people's livelihoods if it is too expensive. This is where efficient design for appropriate house sizes and passive energy use should be considered as part of planning for our built environment. Other examples of disaster proof homes can be found here.

Environmental: The environmental category includes land management for social enjoyment, cultural fulfilment, economic prosperity and, more importantly, the maintenance of local flora and fauna. This needs to encompass Indigenous people’s knowledge of the land, maintaining it for thousands of years. This is explored in the video and initial worksheet. UN SDG 11 also includes performance indicators such as the development of green spaces and parks for community use. More information on environmental resilience can be found here.

Social: This category includes cultural practices. These include spending 40 days at home after birth. This is practised by many cultures and religions worldwide to ensure adequate care for mother and baby. Other practices include respect for elders and the inclusion of extended family. It is important to point out how they can contribute to other aspects of the community such as the economy and environment. Cool burning will be explored during this lesson. More information about social, cultural and community resilience can be found here and here.

Economic: Economic resilience is the ability of a community and/or company to recover, manage and adapt in a disaster. This can include making plans to switch to remote working, having an adaptive workforce that has a variety of skills and switch between industries, and planning for sites to be in areas that are protected from natural hazards. Economic resilience differs depending on the context. For example, some may have a resource-based economy while others work in information sectors. More information on economic resilience can be found here.

Resilient Australia - Building Resilient Communities

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Summary

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