MATHEMATICS / UNIT PLANNER



UNIT PLANNER (Monica Ryan, Thomas Steele, Danielle Shaw, Christine Giandinoto)

|Science overarching idea: SYSTEMS |Year Level: 4/5 |Sessions: 3 |Date: 25/3/14 |

|Overall aims of the unit |Teaching approach: |

| |BE: Bioethics and compassionate education |

|At the end of this unit students will be able/capable of: | |

| |This teaching approach allows educators to expose students to global issues that require deep thinking by all |

|Recognising that the actions of humans towards animals can have either positive or negative effects |citizens. Students will develop their critical thinking skills by considering whether certain actions of humans are |

|Applying their knowledge of the livestock industry to consider questions about the existence of animal sentiment and|“right” or “wrong” by applying their scientific understandings to issues and questioning various aspects of them. |

|the choices made by the Australian food industry | |

|Using science to understand and make predictions about how human actions may affect animals and the livestock |Bioethics and compassionate education provides teachers with a way to make science in the primary classroom relevant |

|industry |to all students by catering to the interests of the school community and families. |

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|Key vocabulary: |Key equipment / resources: |Key Australian Science curriculum Standard: |

|Consider, livestock industry, farming, animals, feelings, happy, sad, needs, | | |

|Australian farming, justify, perfect environment, human actions, food industry,|Session 1 |“They describe relationships that assist the survival of living things ... They identify when |

|factory farming, battery hen, dimensions, persuasive, food source, sustainable,|Livestock industry/farming practices images, happy/sad |science is used to ask questions and make predictions. They describe situations where science |

|connections, reliance |faces, recycled craft materials for construction of farms |understanding can influence their own and others’ actions.” |

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| |Session 2 |Biological sciences: Living things, including plants and animals, depend on each other and |

| |Butchers paper, duct tape, ruler |the environment to survive(ACSSU073) |

| | |Use and influence of science: Science knowledge helps people to understand the effect of their|

| |Session 3 |actions (ACSHE062) |

| |Animal/food match cards, butchers paper, Bluetac, leaf and|Nature and development of science: Science involves making predictions and describing patterns|

| |tree cut out, food diary template |and relationships (ACSHE061) |

|SESSION 1 |

|Learning outcomes: |

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|Students will begin to recognise that human actions towards animals can have either positive or negative effects, linking this to the treatment of animals in the livestock industry and farming practices within Australia. |

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|Students will consider whether certain farming practices would result with happy or sad animals. |

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|Specific activities SESSION 1 |

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|Activity 1 – VTS (Whole class discussion) 10 minutes |

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|Students will respond to an image of the livestock industry (Appendix 1) using VTS – Visual Thinking Strategy. The opening question posed by the teacher will be “What do you see in this picture?” in order to gain an understanding of |

|student’s prior knowledge. Further questions (Appendix 2) will prompt students to consider and question the animals’ feelings within the poor environment and how the actions of humans have affected the animals. |

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|Activity 2 – Think, Pair, Share (Compare and contrast) 10-15 minutes |

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|Students will consider and respond to how the feelings of animals in two different images would differ, one of a free range farm (Appendix 3) and the other of a caged farm (Appendix 4). Students will first view and think |

|individually, then each pair/triad will be given Happy/Sad Faces (Appendix 5) and discuss which farm has happy/sad animals, with instructions to give a reason to justify their conclusions. Each group will then share their decision |

|and reasons with the whole class. The Happy/Sad Faces can be used to tally the responses on the whiteboard. |

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|Activity 3 – Creating the perfect environment for animals 20-25 minutes |

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|After Activity 2 – lead into discussion of what types of farms students think exist in Australia to generate recognition that the actions of their own communities can also contribute to this issue. |

|In pairs/triads, students will use recycled craft materials to create their ideal environment for farming animals. Students will be encouraged to consider what things will make happy animals, what things they need to live, why they |

|need them, etc. Students will have time after construction to view other creations and share ideas as a whole class. |

|SESSION 2 |

|Learning outcomes: |

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|Students will make comparisons between free-rage and caged chickens in terms of living conditions. |

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|Students will formulate their own opinion on the issue of factory farming. |

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|Students will apply their knowledge of factory farming practices in the form of a persuasive letter. |

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|Specific activities SESSION 2 |

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|Activity 1 - Discussion/Investigation (Whole Class) 10-15 minutes |

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|Students will make their own predictions in relation to dimensions of a battery cage for a chicken in a factory farm. |

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|Questions to consider: |

|How many Hens do you think are put into a single cage? |

|How much space do you think the caged Hen is allocated? |

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|Using the duct tape students will construct a battery cage based on their predictions. Students will measure the dimensions of their constructed battery hen cage |

|Students will be provided the correct measurements of a standard battery hen cage. Using the duct tape, students will construct the battery hen cage adjacent to their predictions. |

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|Questions to consider: |

|How many Hens do you think could live in this particular area? |

|Do you think they would have enough room? Could a Chicken extend their wings? |

|What would their quality of life be like? |

|Were you surprised with your prediction? Why? |

|How much smaller/larger is their actual living condition? |

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|Activity 2 - T-Chart (Joint Construction) 10 minutes |

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|Students will contribute toward a class T-Chart comparing factory farmed chickens vs. free range chickens |

|The T-Chart will be comprised of students thoughts, feelings, ideas, misconceptions, new and prior knowledge |

|Students will also compare their predictions vs. reality. |

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|Questions to consider: |

|Were your predictions close to correct dimensions? |

|What surprised you most about the dimensions of the cage? |

|Which of the living conditions do you think is most fair? Why/Why not? |

|Do you think the Chickens would be comfortable, happy or in pain? Why? Why not? |

|How would you feel if you were confined for your life in a very small area? |

|How do you feel about this issue now? |

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|Activity 3 – Letter (Individual) 20-25 minutes |

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|Students will compose a letter using their knowledge about factory farming, specifically caged eggs. |

|Students may use the T-Chart as a visual aid to support the construction of their letter |

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|Possible Topics: |

|Address a letter to Woolworths thanking them for choosing to only stock home-brand free ranged eggs. |

|Write a persuasive letter to Coles to convince them to adopt a similar approach as Woolworths |

|Write a persuasive letter to Farmers asking that they do not engage in factory farm practice. |

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|SESSION 3 |

|Learning outcomes: |

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|Students will develop and understanding of where the food they eat comes from. |

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|Students will explore what they can and cannot eat if a source of food is removed from their lives. |

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|Students will discuss how they can care for animals and the environment they live in. |

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|Specific activities SESSION 3 |

|Bioethics: Where does our food come from? |

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|Activity 1 - Food and Food Source Mix and Match 20 mins |

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|In pairs/small groups, students work together to match food cards to the animals/plant they come from (Appendix 6). |

|Once all groups have matched their cards, the teacher holds up a food card and the students hold up the animal/plant they placed it under (this ensures students do not feel to put on the spot which they may do if they have to call |

|something out). |

|Discuss any differences that may arise between the groups |

|Q: “What did you and your partner talk about to make that connection?” “Did anyone else have similar/different ideas?” |

|Teacher records matching by using a set of cards and Bluetac on a large piece of butchers paper so that all students can see the connections they are making. |

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|Activity 2 – Food Diary 20 mins |

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|Students individually create a “Food Diary” and record (written or drawn) of the food they have eaten in the last 3 days (Appendix 7). |

|Students list the main ingredients of their meals and identify what animal/ plant their food has come from. |

|The teacher explains that one animal has been “wiped out” and removes that animal. |

|Students look at their food diary and identify what they now would not be able to eat if that animal did not exist. |

|Q: “Why are animals important to us?” |

|Q: “How do we rely on animals? How do animals rely on us?” |

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|Activity 3 - Leaf Pledge 10 mins |

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|Students “think, pair share” in the response to the question “How do we make sure that a certain animals or plants are not get wiped out?” |

|Q: “How can we look after animals and the environment they live in?” |

|Students individually create a statement on a leaf (Appendix 8), making a pledge of how they will care for animals and the environment they live in. These are placed together on a group tree and displayed (Appendix 9). |

Appendix 1: Session 1

VTS Image from:

[pic]

Appendix 2: Session 1

VTS prompting questions:

- What do you see in this picture?

- Where do you think this picture was taken?

- Who do you think might have taken the picture?

- What do you think it might it sound like? Why?

- What do you think it might it smell like? Why?

- What do you think the chickens doing in the picture?

- Why do you think the chickens there?

- Who do you think put them there?

- Do the chickens look happy to be there? Why?

Appendix 3: Session 1

Compare and contrast – Free-range farm image from:

[pic]

Appendix 4: Session 1

Compare and contrast - Caged farm image from:

[pic]

Appendix 5: Session 1

Happy/Sad Faces

Instructions: cut around outside box, fold along dotted line, sticky tape icy-pole stick to inside centre with half exposed for handle, glue reverse of sheet together, resulting with hand-held sign (sad face on one side, happy face on the other)

Appendix 6: Session 3

Mix and Match Cards

Appendix 7: Session 3

Food Diary

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Appendix 8: Session 3

Pledge Leaf

Appendix 9: Session 3

Template for group tree

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