Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes	Part A: Learning about disaster resilience
25 minutes	Part B: Researching local volunteer organisations
40 minutes	Part C: Presentation
05 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Learning about disaster resilience

Step 1.

Let your students know that today you will be investigating examples and case studies of disaster resilience education across Australia.

Ask your students if they know what disaster resilience means and discuss the concept until students begin to understand that disaster resilience education is learning about natural hazards in the local environment and ways to keep communities safe from harm before, during and after an emergency or disaster.

Step 2.

Invite your students to watch the video from Sky News:

‘Mud Army 2.0’ volunteers start the flood clean-up in Brisbane - (https://youtu.be/05-CKmn1rl4)

This video is about Mud Army, one of the largest spontaneous volunteer efforts in Australia.

Some students may wish to take notes while others may like to just sit and listen. Gauge your class’ understanding of the topic and what might be best practice for your student’s engagement and learning.

Step 2.

After watching the video, present the below questions and complete a Think–Pair–Share with your class.

What do you already know about volunteer organisations like the Mud Army or similar?
How can they help communities before, during and after a disaster?
What impact has the hazard had on this community?

When you discuss impact (last dot point) students may naturally discuss the hazard’s impact on the land/environment. However, it is important for students to consider how the community have gained resilience and worked together to gain education and resources to respond and recover.

Part B: Researching local volunteer organisations

Step 1.

Explain to students that volunteer organisations have a role to play in broader disaster resilience frameworks and that today they will be conducting some research about volunteer organisations.

Step 2.

Organise your class into small groups (three to four students per group) and instruct them to choose an organisation that aims to support and educate people either before (resilience), during (response) and after (recovery) a disaster. Below is a list of some examples. Students can record information on the Student Worksheet.

Cool encourages you to add additional local organisations that have been working with hazard reduction or promoting education to the list below.

Organisation	About the organisation
DRA (disasterreliefaus.org/volunteer)	DRA, a partner of Lions Australia, is a veteran-led, non-profit organisation specialising in disaster relief. Since their foundation in 2016, volunteers have helped over 200 communities in the wake of natural disasters, both in Australia and abroad. Much like Lions, members are dedicated to serving their communities and working together to help those in need. DRA have recently launched Project Resilience, which aims to assist at least 34 vulnerable communities to become more resilient to natural hazards by 2025. DRA intends to empower these communities with projects that build resilience to natural disasters and foster a sense of community pride.
BackTrack (backtrack.org.au)	The Backtrack boys have been building their skills and future chances at employment by working on fire-affected properties, replacing some of the thousands of kilometres of fences lost in the Australian bushfire crisis. BackTrack provided local farmers with the much-needed labour they need to get their properties back up and running. After the devastation of losing lives, homes, businesses, and wildlife, farmers listed the loss of important infrastructures, such as fences, as one of the most critical needs that could be addressed in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.
BlazeAid (blazeaid.com.au).	BlazeAid is a volunteer-based organisation that works with families and individuals in rural Australia after natural disasters such as fires and floods. Working alongside the rural families, their volunteers help to rebuild fences and other structures that have been damaged or destroyed.
WWF (wwf.org.au/what-we-do/bushfires#gs.wfnnht)	At the peak of the fires, their focus was to get emergency support to the frontline organisations, rescuing and caring for injured and fire-affected wildlife. Now that the fires are out, it’s time to focus on the long road to recovery and future-proofing our country for the fire seasons ahead.
Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services Rural Fire Service (RFS) (NSW) (rfs.nsw.gov.au/) Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) (WA) (dfes.wa.gov.au/site/) Country Fire Authority (CFA) (Vic) (cfa.vic.gov.au/)	The Rural Fire Service is the lead combat agency for bushfires. For over 100 years, they have been a significant part of the history and landscape of Australia. Working closely with other agencies, they respond to a range of emergencies, including structure fires, motor vehicle accidents and storms that occur within rural fire districts. The NSW RFS is widely acknowledged as the largest volunteer fire service in the world. Members of the NSW RFS are trained to very high levels of competence to ensure they know what to do in an emergency.
The Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) (aidr.org.au/about-aidr/)	The Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) is the National Institute for disaster risk reduction and resilience. We collaborate across sectors to strengthen the resilience of Australian communities to disasters. AIDR creates, grows, and supports a range of networks; provides opportunities for learning, development, and innovation; shares knowledge and resources to enable informed decision making and action; and facilitates thought leadership through national conversations.
Foodbank (foodbank.org.au/natural-disaster-relief/?state=vic)	Foodbank is the only food relief organisation to play a role in times of emergency and natural disasters such as fires, floods and cyclones. Every State and Territory Foodbank is involved in disaster relief, providing essential supplies to support the work of first responders and emergency services as well as giving ongoing assistance to affected communities during the months and years it takes to recover.
Australian Resilience Corps (iag.com.au/newsroom/community/new-australian-resilience-corps-helps-prepare-and-protect-communities-disasters) Established by the Minderoo Foundation and founding partners including the IAG/NRMA.	The Australian Resilience Corps has been developed by Minderoo Foundation with founding partner NRMA Insurance to create a national network of volunteers uniquely trained to help prepare Australians against natural disasters and extreme weather. The Corps trains and connects volunteers with existing community-led volunteer organisations to support work that helps communities at risk of natural disasters shift their focus from recovery to resilience.

Step 3.

Explain to students that they will undertake research in their small groups and contribute to a matrix of local volunteer organisations, adding information about how they help communities before (resilience), during (response) and after (recovery) a disaster. Guide students to think about different forms of volunteering and support, not just hard labour. Students can add their responses to the table on the worksheet. You may wish to generate the table in the worksheet into a collaborative document so students can view all group responses.

Step 4.

Ask students to read the questions in their groups to consider the information in the completed matrix, as well as their own knowledge and experience of local volunteer organisations, and answer the questions on the worksheet:

How do local volunteer organisations help to build community resilience before, during and after disasters?
Why is it important for a community to work as a collective as they prepare for and respond to a disaster?
What is the role of local volunteers or organisations at the state and national levels?

Step 5.

Before students commence their research ask the group to have a conversation about what roles and responsibilities each group member will have. Assign a specific time and role to each member of the group and ask them to check in with one another and collaborate.

Group member:	Role:	Time allocated:
Name: Shari	Researching the recovery phase and how the organisation carries out their program to support people after a hazard.	10 minutes
Name:
Name:

Step 6.

While students are working, walk around and ask them questions about their research, what they have discovered thus far and whether they’re stuck or really interested in a specific area.

Step 7.

Invite groups to share their responses with the class and encourage students to listen and ask questions.

Step 8.

While students are presenting, each member of the classroom is expected to write down 1 aspect of each organisation that they thought was most valuable.

Step 9.

After students have finished presenting formulate a tally to investigate the most valuable features of an organisation and discuss why these aspects are important.

Part C: Presentation

Step 1.

Invite students to brainstorm an interesting way to present their knowledge about their organisation to their school, friend, parents or community.

Step 2.

Ask students to consider options such as podcast, script, poster, blog, poster, song, advertisement etc.

Step 3.

As a class, create success criteria for the presentation and ensure students understand and cover the main points such as:

Success Criteria for the presentation

An explanation describing who the organisation is and its values
An explanation outlining how the organisations help to build community resilience before, during OR after disasters
Clearly states why is it important for a community to work as a collective as they prepare for and respond to a disaster
The benefits of organisations and volunteer programs in building a stronger and more resilient country.

Reflection

Ask students to write a ‘one-minute paper’ on the prompt: “Do you think there is a gap in the organisation and how could it be addressed or improved?”

Differentiated learning

Extension

Ask your students to go think back to the most valuable aspects of an organisation aiming to build resilience and ask them to create a rough draft or plan for a new organisation where students could be involved.

Provisions for learning support

For small group work, mix students based on knowledge, skills and capabilities to ensure you have varying skill sets in the groups.

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?

Resilient Australia - Working With Our Communities To Mitigate The Impact Of Natural Disasters

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