Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
20 minutes – Part B: How Do We Need The Ocean?
30 minutes – Part C: Developing The Questions To Guide An Inquiry
OPTIONAL – 60+ minutes – Part D: Actions For Addressing Your 'Need To Knows'
5 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Differentiation:

For students who have completed the previous lesson, Take3 - How Are We Connected To The Ocean? - Geography - Years 9 & 10:

Remind students of the driving question posed in the previous lesson: How are we connected to the ocean?
Now invite students to suggest responses to the question: What do we already know about how we are connected to the ocean? Students can refer to their Gallery Reflections and Clip Reflections from the previous lesson. Record student suggestions on the board.

For students who have not completed the previous lesson:

Explain to students that in this lesson they will be looking at how we can answer the driving question: How are we connected to the ocean? They will also be thinking about what they need to find out in order to answer this question fully.
Begin by inviting students to suggest responses to the question: What do we already know about how we are connected to the ocean? You can use these materials to prompt students. Record your ideas on the board.

Step 2.

Now suggest to students that when investigating the driving question (How are we connected to the ocean?) it can be useful to break down the question into parts. In this case, we can consider our connection to contain two parts:

How we need the ocean
How we impact the ocean

Work with students to allocate the ideas you recorded on the board into these two categories. For example, topics like clean air, food, medicine, relaxation and recreation are all ways that we need the ocean. Overfishing and marine waste are examples of how we impact the ocean.

Explain to students that in the rest of this lesson they will be looking at these two categories in more detail, and thinking about what they need to know about these categories in order to fully answer the driving question: How are we connected to the ocean?

Part B: How Do We Need The Ocean?

Step 1.

Students will begin by exploring the question:

How do we need the ocean?

Share the following clip with students and invite them to record anything they observe in this clip that relates to how we need the ocean:

https://vimeo.com/451387531/8d92ac9a34

Once complete, ask students for their thoughts and reflections on this clip. What does this clip tell them about how we need the ocean? Record responses on the board.

Step 2.

Students will now think about how we need the ocean by participating in a brainstorming activity. Give each student five or six sticky notes (or small pieces of paper - printed on one side is fine) and ensure all students have a pen. Invite students to stand around a board or table and on the board/a larger piece of paper write the following: What are our ‘need to knows’ about how we need the ocean? Place this paper in the centre of the space.

You can explain to students that a ‘need to know’ is something you need to find out about a topic in order to understand this topic deeply. In this activity you are aiming to understand answers to the question: How do we need the ocean? To answer this question you need to identify where your gaps in knowledge are; these are your ‘need to knows’.

Students have five minutes to think up things they would like to know about how we need the ocean. They should write these on the sticky notes/pieces of paper and add these to the board/table. Encourage students to be inspired by what other students are writing, but leave any discussion until the end of the brainstorming session.

Because this activity encourages students to demonstrate what they don’t know rather than what they do it is important to set some ground rules. These could include:

No idea is off-limits - Even those ideas that seem a bit weird or uninformed at first glance can be extremely useful for inspiring other ideas. Also, there’s a good chance that if you don’t know something, other people won’t know it either.
No idea should be criticised - You will have the chance to explain and discuss ideas later. At this stage, it is important that everyone is free to come up with as many different ideas as they want, without fear of judgement or criticism.

Note: You could direct students towards particular lines of inquiry according to their year level curriculum connections, for example:

Year level	Curriculum connections	Examples of need to knows
7	The ways that water connects places The economic, cultural, spiritual and aesthetic value of the ocean Oceans and liveability	All the different types of waterways and how they are defined The economic value of ocean tourism to Australia The relationship between oceans and liveability, both in coastal and inland areas
8	The spiritual, aesthetic and cultural value of oceans	Australian songs and stories about the ocean
9	Food production and fishing Perceptions people have of place and how these inform their connections to places	The security of Australian fisheries (predicted current and future fish stocks for human consumption) The different types of foods we harvest from the oceans and the places where these food sources are found Ways that people think and feel about the ocean
10	Sustainable management of the ways we need and take from the oceans All of the above	Sustainable fisheries Sustainable development along coastlines

Step 3.

Once complete, invite students to spend some time clarifying their ideas and grouping their ideas into themes, discarding duplicated ideas and clarifying and refining those that remain.

Step 4.

Then give students a blank piece of paper (or ask them to use their workbooks) to create a table with two columns. Label the left-hand column with the title ‘Need to knows’. Each student can add the final list of 'need to knows' in the left-hand column. They will return to the right-hand column later in this lesson.

Part C: Developing The Questions To Guide An Inquiry

Step 1.

Students will now begin converting their 'need to knows' into questions that can guide an inquiry. This inquiry will help them develop a deeper understanding about the ways we are connected to the ocean while focusing on the topics or issues that are important to students.

Explain to students that when developing questions to guide an inquiry it is important to think about the type of question you are posing as this will determine what type of answer you will get. There are range of different types of questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Types of questions

Factual questions – Factual questions are those that deal with facts and can be answered using facts. Factual questions often start with ‘What’.
Debatable questions – Debatable questions are questions that require an opinion. There are no right or wrong answers; instead, the answers can be debated. You could start your debatable questions with a ‘Do’, ‘Is’, ‘Could’, ‘Should’, ‘Would’ or ‘To what extent’.
Conceptual questions – Conceptual questions are questions that are open-ended and that encourage you to be thoughtful in your response. Conceptual questions often start with ‘How’ or ‘Why’.

Question structures

Closed questions – These are questions that can be answered with a ‘yes’, ‘no’ or a very short statement.
Open-ended questions – These are questions that can’t be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but instead require an explanation or justification.

Students can view the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet) and think about what types of questions these are, what their structure is and what method of inquiry they would suggest to answer each question. They can work in pairs or in their groups to discuss and record their ideas in the space provided on the Student Worksheet:

Question	Type	Structure	Would you use primary or secondary research to answer this question?
How many people visit the beach each year in Australia?	Factual	Closed	Secondary research
What percentage of people at our school like visiting the ocean?	Factual	Closed	Primary research
Why should we try and get more people to help look after the ocean?	Conceptual	Open-ended	Secondary research
Should we ban commercial fishing?	Debatable	Closed	Primary and or secondary research
Do people in our community support the banning of commercial fishing?	Debatable	Closed	Primary research
What is wrong with many current fishing practices?	Debatable	Closed	Secondary research
What reasons do students at your school give for visiting the ocean?	Factual	Open-ended	Primary research
How many different types of waterways do we have in our neighbourhood?	Factual	Closed	Primary research
How could we get more people in our community to look after our waterways?	Debatable	Open-ended	Primary research
Why do people in our community prefer the beach to their local river?	Conceptual	Open-ended	Primary research

Once complete, invite students to share their answers with the class (suggested answers included above).

Step 2.

Now explain to students that they will start turning their 'need to knows' into questions that will be used to guide an inquiry. Invite students to access the table they created in Part B. The left-hand column should be complete; they will now focus on the right-hand column. Students should label the right-hand column ‘Questions’.

Working in their groups students can then convert their 'need to knows' into questions. The aim here is to create a range of questions that can invoke different types of answers and that will require different types of investigations to answer.

Note: It may be that each 'need to know' generates multiple questions; it may be useful for students to rewrite each 'need to know' on an individual page and brainstorm and record any related questions on this page.

Step 3.

Once students have selected a range of questions they can begin refining their questions using the following points to guide them (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Does this question make sense?
Does this question relate to the topic you are addressing?
What type of question is this and what is its structure?
Will this question lead to the type of answer you want to get?

Differentiation: You can adjust the number of questions students need to create according to year level. For example, students in year 7 could create 15 questions, students in year 8 could create 20 questions, students in year 9 could create 25 questions and those in year 10 could create 30 questions.

Step 4.

Once students are happy with their list of questions, they can share their questions with another group. How are the questions generated by the two groups similar and different?

Each group should choose:

One question created by the other group that they find interesting
One question that is confusing or whose intention is unclear (for example, it doesn’t make sense, or it doesn’t address the topic, or you’re unsure what type of answer this question will lead to. Can they make helpful suggestions on how to improve it?).

Give groups time to incorporate feedback into their questions.

Part D: Actions For Addressing Your 'Need To Knows'

This activity is for students not completing the rest of this unit.

Step 1.

Invite students to return to their groups. Each group should select at least five questions created by their group that interests them (you can adjust the number of questions addressed according to age and ability).

Step 2.

Groups then need to conduct the research required to answer their questions. This may require:

Conducting research online
Surveys or interviews
Designing and completing an experiment

Step 3.

Students can then create a communication piece to share the results of their research. The title of the communication piece should be: 'How are we connected to the ocean?' All research included in the communication piece should help to answer this question.

Reflection

Students can work independently to select one or two of the following quotes from the clips watched earlier (depending on age or ability students could select one quote from all the quotes listed or one quote from each clip). Students should reflect on their chosen quote/s by considering (quotes and questions also available on the Student Worksheet):

What does this quote make you think about?
What does this quote make you feel?
What questions does this quote leave you with?

Quotes:

Clip 1. Systems -

“No blue. No green.” - Sylvia Earle
"For me, the ocean is just something so cryptic, so magical, so beautiful that we haven't even scratched the surface to understand it." - Tim Silverwood
"Every waterway is interconnected ... Every ecosystem and every ocean is connected." - Troy Gaston
"You can't understand the earth without understanding the oceans." - Adriana Verges
“The ocean is truly like our heart.” - Bruce Waia-Terare

Take Action for the Global Goals

If you'd like to explore further the United Nations Global Goals, consider exploring this infographic with your students.

You could create your own version with students to simplify the message and create key actions for the ocean going forward.

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?

Take 3 - How Do We Need The Ocean?

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