ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)



Questions for discussion

Flood evacuation

1. Explain the BtN story to another student.

2. What does evacuation mean?

3. Give some reasons why people might need to evacuate buildings or homes.

4. Why is it difficult to evacuate whole towns or cities?

5. Who decides whether people need to be evacuated from an area?

6. How do they let people know to evacuate?

7. Why is transport a big issue?

8. Describe the importance of shelter when people are evacuated.

9. What are some other needs of people who have been evacuated from their homes?

10. Name three facts you learnt in the Flood evacuation story.

` Should people be forced to leave their homes during a serious flood?’ Vote in the BtN online poll

Media police

1. What did the BtN story mainly explain?

2. Describe the `News of the World’ phone hacking scandal.

3. What did the media inquiry investigate?

4. What improvements did the inquiry say could be made?

5. Which organisation does a person complain to about an inaccurate TV news report?

a. APC

b. ACER

c. ACMA

6. Who would complaints about a newspaper article be made to?

7. Describe the idea of setting up a `super watchdog’ to police the media.

8. What did the inquiry say about the media making corrections and apologies?

9. How have some people reacted to the recommendations of the inquiry?

10. What do you understand more clearly since watching the BtN story?

Post a message on the Behind the News Guestbook

Cotton cows

1. Before you watch the BtN story, make some predictions about what you think the story is about.

2. According to a recent survey, where did three quarters of year 6 kids think cotton came from?

3. Why are some people worried about kids not knowing where things come from?

4. Why are farmers concerned about the survey results?

5. Why are some people blaming supermarkets for kids not knowing about food production?

6. Why might kids’ knowledge about this topic have changed over the years?

7. What are some schools doing to teach kids about how things are made?

8. Do you think it’s important for kids to understand where and how things are produced? Explain your answer.

9. Illustrate an aspect of this story.

10. What was surprising about this story?

Create a true or false quiz using facts from the BtN story. Give it to another student to try.

Class clowns

1. Discuss the BtN story with another student.

2. What is the comedy competition the kids are taking part in?

3. How did Sammy J get into performing comedy?

4. At the workshop before the competition, the kids get the opportunity to…

5. What is observational comedy?

6. What are some other types of comedy?

7. What advice do they give about a career in comedy?

8. Why do the kids involved in the competition like performing comedy?

9. What do you think would be some of the challenges of performing comedy?

10. Which type of comedy do you like? Why?

Who are some famous comedy duos? What are the benefits of comedians working with another person?

Pushing boundaries

1. Retell the story in your own words.

2. Which are the most popular sports in Indonesia?

3. Who has sent Jane to Indonesia to teach kids to play cricket?

4. How many Indonesian kids have taken part in the cricket program?

5. What is one of the main aims of the program?

6. What techniques are the kids taught?

7. Jane doesn’t speak Indonesian. True or false?

8. What life skills do the girls learn?

9. How have the kids involved in the program reacted to it?

10. What did you like about the Pushing boundaries story?

Find out when Australian women started playing cricket and how long they have been competing internationally.

Cotton cows?

Focus Questions

1. Before you watch the BtN story, make some predictions about what you think the story is about.

2. According to a recent survey, where did three quarters of year 6 kids think cotton came from?

3. Why are some people worried about kids not knowing where things come from?

4. Why are farmers concerned about the survey results?

5. Why are some people blaming supermarkets for kids not knowing about food production?

6. Why might kids’ knowledge about this topic have changed over the years?

7. What are some schools doing to teach kids about how things are made?

8. Do you think it’s important for kids to understand where and how things are produced? Explain your answer.

9. Illustrate an aspect of this story.

10. What was surprising about this story?

Cotton cows?

Negotiate with students how many activities they will need to complete from each section.

Remember and understand

• Are the following products either plant or animal based?

Pasta, boiled eggs, leather, woollen jumper, coffee, rice, cotton socks, sugar, yoghurt.

Check your answers with other students then test student’s knowledge in other classes.

• Create a true or false quiz using facts from the BtN story. Give it to another student to try.

• Create a guide that tells people what fruit and vegetables are in season when. Divide the guide into summer, autumn, winter and spring.

• Find out more about how a farm operates by visiting a virtual farm

Apply and Analyse

• Research a product (food or fibre) and find out the journey from beginning to end. This is known as the production chain – the steps that need to be taken to transform raw materials into a product that can be used. Include information about how and where the product is grown.

• Who are primary producers? Give some examples of industries that primary producers work in. Choose a job in a primary industry and research it. If possible, contact someone who works in the industry to help with your research. What are some pros and cons of the job? Present your research to the class.

• What is meant by the term `food miles’? Suggest reasons why people buy food that was grown or produced a long way away. Speak to the person in your house who does most of the food shopping. Is it a consideration when they shop for food? Why or why not?

Evaluate and create

• What are the benefits of growing your own fruit and vegetables? Convince your teacher/principal that your school should have a veggie patch.

• Investigate the increasing popularity of organic and free-range food/products. Why do you think there is a demand for these products?

• How does culture affect food choices? How is your diet different to someone from another culture? Create an artwork to show your learning.

( Related Research Links

ABC Rural – Survey reveals majority of school children don't know where food and fibre comes from



Kitchen Garden Foundation – Schools program



Land Learn NSW – Official website



Class clowns

Focus Questions

1. Discuss the BtN story with another student.

2. What is the comedy competition the kids are taking part in?

3. How did Sammy J get into performing comedy?

4. At the workshop before the competition, the kids get the opportunity to…

5. Stand-up comedians often use observational comedy. Describe what it is.

6. What are some other types of comedy?

7. What advice do they give about a career in comedy?

8. Why do the kids involved in the competition like performing comedy?

9. What do you think would be some of the challenges of performing comedy?

10. Which type of comedy do you like? Why?

Class clowns

Students will be exploring what comedy is, different styles of comedy and having a go at creating their own short comedy sketch.

Ask students to discuss and respond to the following questions:

• What is comedy?

• What makes something funny?

• What are the different types/styles of comedy?

• What is your favourite type of comedy? Why?

• Who are your favourite comedians? What is their style of comedy?

• Who are some well known Australian comedians?

• Who are some famous comedy duos? What are the benefits of comedians working with another person?

Working in pairs, students can then have a go at making their own comedy sketch.

Begin with a warm up activity. The following website has a range to choose from

Alternatively, students write down a joke then read them out. What is funny about each joke? Discuss the importance of how the joke is told – the delivery.

Students brainstorm their ideas for the sketch deciding what type/style of comedy their sketch will be. Encourage students to keep the sketch short (no more than a minute) and not too complicated. Plan the characters, dialogue, setting and props (if being used). Students then rehearse and refine their sketch then perform to the class or smaller groups.

Reflection

With your partner, think about the following:

What worked well with the comedy sketch?

What changes would you make? Why?

Further Investigation

Research the history/beginnings of comedy in Ancient Greece and Italian comedy known as Commedia dell’Arte.

( Related Research Links

Melbourne International Comedy Festival – Class clowns 2012



Australian Government – Australian Comedy



BtN: Episode 05 Transcript 13/3/12

On this week's Behind the News.

• A big inquiry looks at what should happen when the media behaves badly.

• Cotton confusion. How much do we really know about where stuff comes from?

• And you think you're funny? Well stand-up and be counted.

Hi I'm Nathan Bazley, welcome to Behind the News. Also on the show today we take a look at a volunteer program that's pushing boundaries overseas. But before all that.

Flood Evacuation

Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: Imagine packing up your belongings on a truck and having to leave your house during a flood. That's been the reality for lots of people in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. But evacuating large numbers of people from a disaster zone isn't an easy job. Sarah looks into how it's done.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: It's something no-one wants to hear; an order to leave your home and your belongings to the mercy of nature.

JASMIN: I freaked out, I panicked. I ran home mum was half way home and, yeah, I was freaking out. I was lifting stuff, just whatever I could

Many kids helped their parents to pack up what they could. But some had to leave with nothing

JULIA: We evacuated at 4 o’clock on Sunday morning. We didn't really have time to grab anything, just whatever we could find. Devastating. You just don't know what to think, you can't do anything so you just have to wait. You can't stop water.

It's a horrible prospect for anyone to face. But sometimes evacuations are the best way to keep people safe.

You may have come across an evacuation before, maybe at your school or another building where practice drills are done pretty regularly because getting everyone out can be complicated.

REPORTER: So imagine how difficult it is to evacuate a whole town, suburb or city. Here you can't exactly do a practice run.

That's why, long before a disaster hits, emergency services put a lot of working into planning how to get people out. If it looks like a natural disaster is coming, whether it's a flood or a cyclone or a bushfire, emergency services will work with the weather bureau to try and predict who it will affect and when. Then they decide whether or not to evacuate.

Then it's about letting people know. They can send out text messages, radio stations give information and in many towns there are sirens. Emergency service workers will also go from door to door letting people know they need to leave.

Transport is a big issue. If there's enough time people can leave by car, but the roads have to be clear and safe but not everyone can drive so they might need a lift. If it's too late for cars they need other ways to get people out.

Then there's finding places for people to go. While some people stay with relatives and friends others go to evacuations centres like this. They need to be big enough to sleep a lot of people and have sewerage and running water. So schools after often a good option.

People in evacuation centres need supplies; food, clean water, clothes, maybe medical supplies and you need people to run the centres; make sure everyone has what they need

It takes a lot of work, a lot of resources and a lot of people. But during times like these communities often work together to help each other out.

TJ: Me and a mate came down from school we had a free period so we came down we thought it could have been one of us so we might as well help out the people who've been affected.

And as the flood waters recede and the clean up starts many are going to need as much help as they can get.

Presenter: OK let's make that our poll this week.

Online Poll

The question is:

Should people be forced to leave their homes during a serious flood?

To vote just head to our website.

Last week we asked you should Aussie athletes be allowed to use high tech artificial limbs to gain an advantage at the Paralympics?

76 per cent said yes.

24 per cent said no.

Thanks for voting.

The Wire

On Sunday the people of Japan held memorials to honour one year since a massive earthquake and tsunami killed 16 thousand people. This fishing trawler travelled 800m inland when the east coast was inundated last year. Now the local people want to keep it there as a memorial.

Closer to Fukashima where a nuclear power plant suffered a dangerous meltdown things are a long way from getting back to normal. The Japanese government says about 100 villages, towns and cities have been contaminated by the radioactive fall-out. Some of these places are still completely abandoned.

*****

Only one Australian has made Forbes annual rich list a ranking of the top 100 richest people on the planet. It's Gina Rinehart she's in the mining industry and has around 17 billion dollars putting her at number 29 in the world. But that's nothing compared to Mexico's telecommunications big shot Carlos Slim. He's number one with a whopping 69 billion dollars!

****

And finally it's not often a teenager gets the chance to launch a space shuttle into the stratosphere. But that's exactly what this Romanian teen did even if it was just a Lego shuttle! He wanted to launch the toy to celebrate the shuttle program's amazing history. And his mission was a big success!

Media Police

Reporter: Nathan Bazley

INTRO: The media can be very good at exposing people who are behaving badly. But what happens when the people doing the wrong thing are the journalists themselves? Who reports on the reporters? Well that's one of the issues raised by a big inquiry into the media. Let's take a look at what it found.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: It's been a long walk home after a long day at school. So it's the perfect time to relax in front of the TV.

NEWS ANCHOR: Thanks for joining us. First up this evening to breaking news and Johnny Johnson has been caught picking his nose. Eye witnesses said Mr Johnson was sniffling all day in class and undertook the alleged pick on his way home. Later on in the program we'll cross to our reporter in the playground with more on this developing story.

JOHNNY: What? I did not! It was just a scratch! I was just scratching!

Okay, at this stage it's Johnny's word against the news. But let's look at the security vision to find out what really happened. Ahh yes, if we zoom in we can see it WAS just a scratch. But that won't stop the news from spreading!

NEWSPAPER HEADLINE: JOHNNY PICKS NOSE - eyewitnesses say he may have eaten it too.

Obviously this isn't fair on poor Johnny because he's innocent of going the nose dig. So he has every right to complain about the news getting it wrong. But how would he do that? And what will it achieve?

Over in England last year, a newspaper got it wrong in a very different way. We're talking about the News of the World phone hacking scandal, where journalists hacked into people's voicemail on their phones to read their messages and print it as news. They complained, not because the stories were wrong, but because it was an invasion of their privacy and also illegal.

After that, some people wondered whether the same types of things might be happening in newspapers here. So the Media Inquiry was born. It ended up looking at all the different forms of news media and how they could be held to account for the accuracy and fairness of their stories. And they came up with a couple of areas where they thought things could be improved. The first area was complaints.

When something wrong is aired or printed, like in Johnny's case, people have the right to complain. For the inaccurate TV news report, he would complain to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, known as ACMA - a government-funded group.

For the newspaper article, he would complain to the Australian Press Council, a group funded by the newspapers themselves.

But the media inquiry found that ACMA is too slow to punish those doing the wrong thing. And that the Press Council is too weak, because newspapers could always pull their funding if they didn't like the decision.

So to solve these problems, they recommended getting rid of both and setting up one 'Super Watchdog' which would be funded by the government, independent and would keep an eye on everyone!

The second area to be improved is corrections and apologies. After a complaint, newspapers now might print a correction way back in the paper in small print. But the Inquiry wants to give its Super Watchdog the power to force them to do it somewhere more noticeable - even right up the front!

NEWSPAPER HEADLINE: JOHNNY JUST SCRATCHED - nose remains unpicked!

So that's the basics of the Media Inquiry. And some people have come out saying the changes all sound pretty positive and fair. But some newspaper bosses say the system they have works fine and they fear a government funded watchdog could stop anti-government stories, and end up stopping them reporting whatever they like.

As long as 'what they like' isn't nose picking stories, otherwise we might all be in trouble.

Cotton Cows

Reporter: Natasha Thiele

INTRO: If you're lucky enough to live on a farm you probably know a bit about the raw materials that make up the food we eat and the clothes we wear. You might've grown your own vegies or seen wool shorn from a sheep's back. But many kids in the city don't get to see that stuff. And according to a new survey that's leaving them a bit confused about where some everyday products even come from. Here's Tash.

HOST: We're here with Damien and he's answered every question right so far. There's only one to go. So for a million dollars Damien, where do cotton socks come from? Is it A) Animals, B) Plants, C) Science lab or D) Outer space?

CONTESTANT: Hmmm, I'll have to ask the audience.

NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Pretty obvious question right? Cotton is a plant. It's farmed all over Australia and is a pretty important industry. But according to a recent report, three-quarters of Year 6 kids thought cotton came from animals.

HOST: Most of the audience said animals. Do you want to lock that in?

CONTESTANT: Well it must be right, lock in A) Animals.

HOST: Are you sure? For a million dollars Damien, is that your final answer?

CONTESTANT: Yes lock in A.

HOST: Oh Damien. Sorry, that's incorrect. Better luck next time!

It wasn't just cotton they got wrong, there were others too. They thought yoghurt came from plants and just under half of Year 6 students didn't know that bread, cheese and bananas came from farms. Some people say it's a worrying trend especially when it comes to food. If kids don't know where things come from, they won't be able to make good decisions about what they're eating, whether it's ethical or healthy. Farmers are also worried the next generation of Aussies won't realise how important agriculture is, if they don't understand how it's used to make the things we need every-day.

So why wouldn't kids know this stuff? Well, some people reckon supermarkets are to blame! Lots of stuff is packaged up, all ready for you. It's so easy that lots of people don't think much about where it comes from and how it's made. But it hasn't always been that way. Many years ago, it was more common for families to grow their own produce or buy stuff directly from farmers. Some would even make their own clothes, so it's no wonder they'd have a better idea about where cotton comes from.

At this school, they're going back to basics. This is one of more than 200 schools around Australia taking part in Kitchen Garden School. Students are taught how to grow, harvest and prepare their own fruit and vegies. They even have their own chickens! Each day they take turns in watering and fertilising the garden, pulling out weeds and collecting chicken eggs. And they get to make some delicious meals from the stuff they've grown themselves!

KID 1: It does make you feel better because like, you know it's like, there's nothing in it, no like chemicals and things in it. It's just home produce.

KID 2: It's like good to go outside, instead of stuck inside doing all like maths and all this, I'm not saying maths is bad, but garden is good.

Farmers hope more kids get involved in programs like this, so people can appreciate all the work that goes into making some of the simple things in life that we take for granted.

Quiz 1

OK, let's put you to the test with a quiz.

The question is:

Which of these foods is often made using animal product?

Hummus

Orange Juice

Jelly

Answer: Jelly

Jelly and even some lollies can contain gelatin, which is actually collagen from animal’s skin and bones. Sounds gross!

Class Clowns

Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: OK, have you ever been called the class clown? Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Comedy is a serious art, well, maybe not serious, but it does take a lot of skill. Sarah went along to a comedy competition that's just for kids and found out what it takes to get

SARAH LARSEN, Reporter: For some it might sound like a nightmare: Standing alone in front of a room full of people and being laughed at.

But for these guys it's a dream come true. They're taking part in Class Clowns; a national comedy competition for kids. Some of the winners will go to the final at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. That's somewhere you might see this guy.

Sammy J has made a name for himself and his puppet Randy with a distinctive brand of comedy.

SAMMY J, Comedian: I specialise in the genre of blonde skinny man musical comedy sometimes collaborating with puppets and I'm currently ranked seventh in the world in that genre.

Now he's inspiring the comics of the future.

SAMMY J: The Melbourne Comedy Festival was running this completion called Class Clowns. My teacher came and said, "Hey, you're weird, you'll like this and I said, "What is it?" and he said, "You get to write a comedy routine and perform it", and I was like "Awesome! Do I have to do maths or something afterwards?" And he said, "No, just perform".

Before the competition there's a workshop where the kids perfect their five minute routines. It's a chance to get some advice from a professional comedian.

MATT: He's really skinny, that was the first thing I noticed he's tiny.

JAKE: It was pretty awesome. When I was telling people I was going to meet Sammy J they’re either, “Who's Sammy J?” or, “Sammy J are you serious? That's awesome”.

SAMMY J: It could be any word that's funny it could be cheese or refrigerator or Marryatville

There's no secret formula for being funny and different comedians get laughs in all sorts of different ways.

Stand-up comedians often use something called observational comedy which looks at life and all the funny things that happen in it.

MATT: Instead I found this app. It's called "Is it dark outside". No, really, it is.

They can also use physical humour, which is when you use your body to get a laugh.

Or maybe satire, which can be poking fun at people in power.

TOM: I think they everyone has a different type of comedy that they like to watch and depending on the person they relate to a different type of comedy.

SAMMY J: Comedy is very real. It's about the person on stage and everyone brings a different range of experiences to the stage.

For some of these guys today may be the start of a career.

BEA: You have to be really committed. It's not an easy thing to do but if you get a rewarding experience from it there's no reason not o come back to it and just performing in front of a few people was amazing today so I'd like to give it a go on a broader scale.

But for others it's a chance to express themselves and have fun.

TOMMY: It's a good experience for when you’re older and it's got some good life skills in it.

ALEX: Good news: this is my natural hair colour, thanks for asking. Bad news: my voice is like this for the entire show so it's going to be an uncomfortable five minutes for everyone.

TOMMY: Comedy's great it’s medicine, laughter is the best medicine.

Quiz 2

OK, time for another quiz.

The question is:

A funny comeback or a clever reply is known as what?

Freudian slip

Repartee

Irony

Answer: Repartee

The Score

OK, let's move away from the funny stuff now.

We've got all the sports news next.

Here's the Score.

The Dandenong Rangers have completed a dramatic season turnaround beating defending champions, the Bulleen Boomers 94 - 70 in the WNBL Grand final. The Rangers, who looked unlikely to even make the finals two months ago, won their ninth match in a row to secure their first WNBL title since 2005.Bulleen shot out to an early 11-4 lead, before the Rangers dragged themselves back into the match. Point guard Kath MacLeod took out MVP, with 22 points and nine assists - while Jenna O'Hea and Steph Cumming also put in great performances.

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And Aussie sprinter Sally Pearson is looking great for Olympic gold later this year after taking 1st at the World Indoor Athletics titles in Istanbul. She won the 60-metres hurdles in a time of seven-point seven-three seconds smashing her competitors. Pearson's time equalled the fourth-fastest on record.

Pushing Boundaries

Reporter: Natasha Thiele

INTRO: Staying with sport and if you love cricket you'll know that the season has just wrapped up. But while lots of Aussies are mad keen on the sport it's not the same in many other countries in the world. A volunteer group is trying to change that though as Tash reports.

NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Lots of Aussies love cricket! They love being in the crowd, the warm weather and soaking up the atmosphere! But not everyone's had a chance to experience watching a cricket game, let alone play in one!

Over here in Indonesia, cricket isn't even on the radar for most people. Soccer and badminton are the most popular sports. But this girl wants to change all that.

Jane is a volunteer, who's been sent over by the Australian Government, to teach the game to kids. So far as part of this program 30,000 Indonesian kids have been given a taste of cricket. One of the main aims is to encourage more Indonesian girls to play sport.

Today she's working with these girls, who've never played cricket before. All the equipment they're using, like the bats and balls, have been donated. And while we take grassed ovals for granted here in Australia, many schools in Indonesia need to make do with what they've got.

JANE LIVESEY, VOLUNTEER: As you can see here we're on a basketball court which is quite small. It's good for teaching the basics of cricket, but once we move on to higher skill levels, obviously it's better if we can be on an open field.

On the field and it's a little daunting to begin with, but the kids soon warm up and start to enjoy the session. They're taught a variety of techniques including how to bat, how to bowl and how to catch when fielding. Jane speaks a little bit of Indonesian, which makes it easier to get her point across.

JANE: I first started studying Indonesian in Year 7 at high school and then kind of gave it up for a while, then had three years studying Bahasa at university including a stint in Central Java a couple of years ago doing a language course, so every since then I've been keen to get back over.

The girls not only learn how to play cricket, but they also pick up some important life skills as well. It builds their confidence, they learn to work in a team and they're taught how important it is to keep fit and healthy. But most of all, it's about having fun!

JANE: I've never seen kids play cricket with the passion and enthusiasm that I've seen here. Everywhere I've been they, I mean it's partly helped by the novelty factor of having a young white female in their schools, but regardless of that they love playing cricket.

And if the students get hooked on the sport, now they can join the school cricket team. So there's no doubt these girls have learned some valuable skills, not only for on the field but for off the field too!

Closer

That's it for the show.

You can jump onto our website if you want to get more info on any of the stories.

You can send us your comments and don't forget to vote in this week's poll.

I'll see you next time.

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Episode 5

13TH MARCH 2012

EPISODE 5

13TH MARCH 2012

LEARNING AREA

Society and Environment

Key learning

Students will develop a deeper understanding of the sources of plant and animal products and a knowledge of the production chain.

Students can include photographs, pictures or diagrams in their report.

Episode 5

13TH MARCH 2012

LEARNING AREA

The Arts

Key learning

Students will explore different types of comedy and have a go at creating their own comedy sketch.

Students can include photographs, pictures or diagrams in their report.

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