Australian Broadcasting Corporation



Questions for discussion

School standards

1. Discuss the issues raised in the School Standards story with another student and record the main points of your discussion.

2. Why are people concerned with Australia’s performance in subjects like science, reading and maths?

3. Who put out a report into Australia’s education system?

4. How does Gonski want to make education fairer in Australia?

5. Julia Gillard wants Australian schools to be back in the top ____ by the year _______.

6. The Prime Minister wants to make it easier to get into teaching at university. True or false?

7. About how much will the changes cost?

8. How have most people responded to the plan?

9. What aspects of the plan have been criticised?

10. What do you think about the government’s planned changes to education?

Post a message on the Behind the News Guestbook

Citizen Surveillance

1. Briefly summarise the BtN story.

2. What is an ISP?

3. How can online activity be monitored?

4. In what circumstances could the information collected be useful?

5. If the Government’s plan goes ahead, ISP’s and phone companies would keep information for ______years.

6. What are some concerns people have about the suggested changes?

7. What is hacking?

8. Complete the following sentence: Storing large amounts of information is expensive so internet prices will…

9. What do you think about the suggested changes?

10. Think about how your own internet use is monitored. Who currently monitors what you see/do online?

`Should the government be allowed to store the internet data of all Australians?’ Vote in the BtN online poll

Test your knowledge in the Citizen Surveillance quiz. Go to the BtN website and follow the links.

Anti-venom

1. What is venom?

2. Why are some animals venomous?

3. When was anti-venom first introduced in Australia?

4. Anti-venom works a bit like a _________soaking up poisonous stuff in a person’s body.

5. How is the venom from funnel-web spiders collected?

6. Complete the following sentence: To make anti-venom, small amounts of venom are injected in animals like…

7. What does the immune system produce to help make the anti-venom?

8. What unusual request did a wildlife park make recently?

9. What should children remember when it comes to venomous animals?

10. What was surprising about this story?

Write a short explanation about why some animals produce and use venom. What are the different body parts used to deliver venom?

Agriculture school

1. What was the main point of the Agriculture School story?

2. What is stopping young people from choosing a career in agriculture?

3. How might some people view a career in farming?

4. Using the images in the story, describe the sorts of things students are learning at Ag school.

5. Agriculture graduates start on very good salaries. True or false?

6. Why was agriculture tough in the 1990’s?

7. Why is the future of farming brighter these days?

8. Why is it important for people to study Agriculture?

9. How do you think people could be encouraged to study Agriculture?

10. What do you now know about studying agriculture that you didn’t know before?

Compare the reporting of the Agriculture School story with another story on BtN this week. Share your comparisons with other students.

Bushcare kids

1. What is the aim of `Bushcare Major Day Out’?

2. How do `forget-me-nots’ spread through the wildlife park?

3. What is an introduced species?

4. Why is it important to remove introduced species’?

5. The native animals like eating the weeds. True or false?

6. Name three of the worst weeds in Australia.

7. What does koala poo smell like?

8. Why is it important to get rid of the seeds as well as the plants?

9. Illustrate an aspect of the BtN story.

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

Choose an introduced (invasive) plant species and find out the impact it has on the environment.

Anti-venom

Focus Questions

1. What is venom?

2. Why are some animals venomous?

3. When was anti-venom first introduced in Australia?

4. Anti-venom works a bit like a _________soaking up poisonous stuff in a person’s body.

5. How is the venom from funnel-web spiders collected?

6. Complete the following sentence: To make anti-venom, small amounts of venom are injected in animals like…

7. What does the immune system produce to help make the anti-venom?

8. What unusual request did a wildlife park make recently?

9. What should children remember when it comes to venomous animals?

10. What was surprising about this story?

Anti venom

Watch the BtN Anti- venom story again and ask students to circle the key words as they hear them. Students then clarify their understanding of the key words by writing down what they think the word means. Swap definitions with a partner and ask them to add to or change the definition. Check them using a dictionary or other source.

|Key word |My definition |Dictionary definition |

|Venom | | |

|Venomous | | |

|Toxins | | |

|Poisonous chemicals | | |

|Anti-venom | | |

|Milking | | |

|Antibodies | | |

|Immune system | | |

Students can choose one or more of the following activities:

Write a short explanation about why some animals produce and use venom. What are the different body parts used to deliver venom?

Create a profile of a venomous animal.

Include information about:

Name of animal

Type of animal (eg reptile)

Physical description

Habitat

How venomous is the animal?

How does it deliver the venom?

How does venom affect our bodies? Different parts of the body react to different types of venom.  For example, the venom from a funnel-web spider affects the nervous system. Find out how venom affects different body systems: Nervous, muscular, circulatory, respiratory and the skin.

How do you treat venomous bites and stings? Choose an animal and find out what the symptoms are if a person is bitten or stung, what first aid and medical treatment is needed. Students can demonstrate the information by creating a graphic, role play or power point presentation.

( Related Research Links

ABC News – Venom shortage sparks call to hunt funnel-webs



The Venom Patrol - Interactive



Australian Venom Research Unit – About venom



Australian Reptile Park – Venom production



Australian Museum – Funnel-web Spiders



Australian Museum – Spider bites and venom



Agriculture School

Focus Questions

1. What was the main point of the Agriculture School story?

2. What is stopping young people from choosing a career in agriculture?

3. How might some people view a career in farming?

4. Using the images in the story, describe the sorts of things students are learning at Ag school.

5. Agriculture graduates start of very good salaries. True or false?

6. Why was agriculture tough in the 1990’s?

7. Why is the future of farming brighter these days?

8. Why is it important for people to study Agriculture?

9. How do you think people could be encouraged to study Agriculture?

10. What do you now know about studying Agriculture that you didn’t know before?

Agriculture School

Negotiate with students how many activities they need to complete.

Summarise the story

Have students pair-up and write three or four summary statements about what they have learned watching the Agriculture School story. Then partner up two groups and share what has been written.

True or False

After watching the Agriculture School story, ask students to write three true and three false things from the story. Pass them around so others can read them and explain why they are false.

Brainstorming

In small groups, ask students to brainstorm and record three important things they have learned watching the Agriculture School story on a sheet of paper. Students can share their ideas with other class members.

Quick Quiz

Working in pairs, students write a multiple choice quiz with ten questions about the Agriculture School story or agriculture in Australia. Students can then take turns quizzing each other. Multiple choice quizzes can be submitted to Behind the News Quiz Page – Quizzes by Whizzes

Matching facts

Ask students to find a partner and collect two sheets of paper. One person in each pair writes a question about a fact from the Agriculture School story. The other person writes the answer. Place the questions in an empty hat and the answers in another one. Ask each student to pick a question or answer and then move around the room to match the questions to the corresponding answers. Once they have found the student with the corresponding answer they sit down and think of another question, which could have the same answer.

Respond to the story

Why do you think the story was chosen to be on BtN?

What do you think the producers/journalists want kids to know about the topic/issue?

Describe the main issue/message in the story.

What changes would you make to the story? Consider the words, pictures, music and graphics. Explain why you would make the changes.

Rewrite

Working in pairs or small groups, provide students with a transcript for the Agriculture School story and ask them to rewrite it for another television program or a different audience. Give them a choice about how they present their new transcript. It might be a reading or they may choose to act it out.

Compare

Ask students to compare the reporting of the Agriculture School story with another story on BtN this week. After they have made their comparisons, students can share their results.

( Related Research Links

Behind the News – Farm Uni



ABC 730 SA – Students aiming for careers in agriculture



BtN: Episode 26 Transcript 11/9/12

On this week's Behind the News

• A new plan to keep track of your internet use but is it an invasion of privacy?

• We see how anti venom is made as some warn that these life-saving stocks are running low.

• And we're off to agriculture school to meet the future of the industry.

Hi I'm Nathan Bazley, welcome to Behind the News. Also on the show today, I head into the bush to learn about how we can take better care of these areas. But first today:

School Standards

Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: We're very lucky in Australia to have access to education and our schools are really good. But over the past decade Aussie schools have fallen behind some other countries. The PM has come up with a plan, which she hopes will make our school system amongst the best in the world. So what is it? Here's Sarah.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: We're a pretty competitive lot, Australians. No matter what the event, we like to be first or as close to first as we can get. But there's one area where Australia's falling behind the competition and it could affect the whole country. It's education.

While there are plenty of smart Aussie kids, when tests from around the world are compared Australia doesn't score as high as some other places. In reading and in science, Australia is sitting at seventh place. In maths there are twelve places where kids perform better. While that might not sound too bad the big worry is that Australia seems to be slipping behind.

KID: Considering that we were high, high up and we've got lower as the years have gone by it's kind of bad for Australia.

KID: It's sort of appalling because we're a really rich country and we should learn to do better.

KID: Because there's a lot of things a country needs maths for and to be able to trade with other countries and things you need skills in maths.

KID: I guess we can't be the best at everything but countries that are ranked high up they might not have enough jobs in their country and they might come here and they might have first choice because they've done a bit better.

While these guys reckon they've got it pretty good there are lots of schools that are struggling and most people agree that something needs to be done.

Earlier this year we told you about a report put out by this guy; David Gonski. He said education in Australia isn't as good as it should be. One big problem kids who go to schools in wealthy areas tend to do better than kids at disadvantaged schools. Gonski wanted to make this fairer by giving more money to the schools that need it the most.

Well, now the Prime Minister has responded to the report. While she's not doing everything Gonski suggested, she's announced some big changes to the way schools are funded. And she says there'll be more money for kids that need extra help.

JULIA GILLARD: By 2025 I want Australian schools to be back in the top five nations in the world that give us 13 years the time it usually takes a child to complete their primary school education.

The PM says she'll also make it harder to get into teaching at uni so only the best end up in the classroom.

JULIA GILLARD: I want all of you to join me in a crusade to change the future of our children.

It won't come cheap. The PM's changes will cost about six and a half billion dollars and she's not saying exactly where that money's going to come from. And some say 13 years is too long to wait for a better education system. Still, many say it’s a huge step in the right direction.

KID: I think it's a little bit disappointing that we haven't got that chance and the government hasn't stepped up to that sooner but it's good to think that the future will be good as well.

KID: In the long term our country is going to go very high because of this improvement but as long as the money is spent on proper education.

KID: Everyone should have a good education.

Many people are hoping that by the time you guys graduate, you'll be leaving an education system that's ahead of the race.

Presenter: Let's see what else is making the news. Here's Matt with the Wire.

The Wire

The Prime Minister got some sad news on the weekend. Her father John died while she was away in Russia for the APEC forum. World leaders gave their sympathy as she flew home to be with her family.

John Gillard moved to Australia with his family when Julia was 4 years old. She says her dad was a big inspiration to her. Mr Gillard was 83 years old.

*****

There's been debate going on about the future of Australia's biggest irrigated farm. Cubbie Station covers 96,000 hectares in Southern Queensland and grows a lot of cotton using a lot of water. But it got into financial trouble three years ago.

Now a Chinese and Japanese company wants to buy the station, and the governments said it's OK. It would be part owned and managed by an Aussie company and Australians would work on the farm. And the government says foreign investment is good for the country. But some reckon it shouldn't be letting such a big chunk of land and water be sold overseas.

Internet Privacy

Reporter: Sarah Larsen

INTRO: The stuff you look at on the internet could be monitored and stored for up to 2 years. It's an idea that's been put forward by some politicians but it's been criticised by some who say this kind of surveillance would invade on people's privacy. Others say the change would help to fight crime. So what do you think? Sarah takes a look at the debate.

Imagine if there were a record of all the things you did online. All the websites you visited; the people you contacted. Not just for a day or a week but for the past two years. That's what some are saying should happen in order to root out criminals on the web.

SARAH LARSEN, REPORTER: Most of us tend to think of the things we do online as private; so no-one but me will know what I'm looking at what emails I'm getting but in fact it's already possible for authorities to find out what I've been up to.

Every time you access the net you go through an internet service provider or ISP.

Because they connect you they know what you're doing online whether it's looking at Facebook or downloading a movie. If someone's suspected of a crime police can get a warrant and make the ISP give up that information. They can also make phone companies say who the suspect's have been calling and when.

Some big crimes have been solved that way from murders to overseas terrorist plots. But sometimes the records get deleted and that's something police want to change.

NICOLA ROXON, Attorney General: Many criminal investigations require law enforcement to build a picture of criminal activity over a period of time and without data retention that ability will be lost.

That's the Attorney General - the government's top lawyer and she's talking about a law that would make all ISPs and phone companies keep records of what their customers are doing for two years.

At the moment it's just a suggestion but it's already stirred up a lot of debate.

SCOTT LUDLAM, Greens Senator: This is an extraordinary expansion of surveillance powers. We need to be very careful before we go down this path.

The idea of keeping two year records for every single person has some worried. They say it'd give authorities too much power and invade people's privacy.

ANTHONY BENDALL, Acting Victorian Privacy Commissioner: Having a zone of privacy a zone where you have control of what people know about you, doesn't mean you have anything to hide.

Then there's the worry that the wrong people could get their hands on all that information.

Anonymous Video: G'day citizens of the world and Australia, we are Anonymous.

This video was made by the online activist group Anonymous. Earlier this year it hacked an Aussie ISP and released a bunch of personal information about ordinary people. It said it was a warning that no online information is safe and if it's stored, it can be hacked.

Then there's the cost. Storing large amounts of information takes a lot of expensive hardware and ISPs say if more data has to be stored internet prices will go up. The government says it'll listen to everyone's opinion before drawing up new laws so, what do you think?

KID: I think it's good so then you can find out what people are looking up and see if they're looking up good things and bad things.

KID: I think it might invade people's privacy and it wouldn't really stop crime because then they'll use letters or another form of communication.

KID: Someone might just be messing around and have just like a private joke with their friends and they're joking about it and it might be a bomb or something.

KID: I think it's good so then they can catch the people who are doing the wrong things.

Presenter: OK, that's our poll this week.

Online Poll

The question is:

Should the government be allowed to store the internet data of all Australians?

To vote just head to our website.

Last week we asked should smoking be banned. 89% said yes. And 11% said no. Thanks for voting.

Anti Venom

Reporter: Natasha Thiele

INTRO: If you get bitten by a deadly spider or snake you might need a shot of anti-venom to save your life.

Well, anti venom isn't that easy to make and for one spider bite in particular the stocks of anti venom are running low. So what's involved in making anti venom? Tash looks into it.

NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: You never know when or where they'll turn up and to some they can be pretty scary creatures. Being bitten by a venomous spider can make you really ill and can even kill you! Some of those deadly spiders like funnel webs produce something called venom. Venom is made up of toxins, which are poisonous chemicals. They can inject the stuff into other animals by biting or stinging them. It's a way of protecting themselves in the wild.

People can also be bitten or stung by poisonous creatures. If that happens they might need to be treated with anti-venom. Anti-venom was introduced in Australia around the 1980s. It works a bit like a sponge to soak up the yucky poisonous stuff inside a person's body. So let's take a look at how this life-saving treatment is made using spiders!

TIM FAULKNER, AUSTRALIAN REPTILE PARK: These are all big beautiful funnel- webs. Now each and every one of them will be milked for their venom to make life-saving anti-venom. Now they're kept in these small containers, which is a perfect habit for them.

Tim is a spider expert. He's going to show us the first step in making anti-venom, which involves getting the venom from the spider through a process called milking.

TIM: Now I'll grab two and go through the milking process. Since the production of anti-venom, no one has ever died from a funnel web bite. Now the process is to put a spider onto the bench, they're very aggressive so they rear up and here we have a pipette and it's like a miniature vacuum cleaner. Now what happens is, as that spider rears up I can already see two droplets of venom on his fangs and we touch that on the fang and we've now captured the venom.

The raw venom is then sent off to a lab, where it's treated. From here the venom, whether it's from spiders or snakes, is given to animals like horses, sheep or rabbits. Take these guys for example, they're helping make rattlesnake anti-venom for the US. They're injected with a small diluted amount of venom over time, which doesn't hurt them. What happens is their immune system kicks in to fight it. It does that by producing stuff called antibodies in the blood. Then the anti-bodies are taken from the sheep's blood and that's what's turned into anti-venom.

More than 100 Australians are bitten by creatures like spiders each year, so a lot of anti venom is needed to save lives. But now there's a bit of a shortage, particularly for the anti venom needed to treat bites by funnel web spiders. That's led the Australian reptile park in New South Wales to put out an unusual request. They want adults living nearby to hand in any funnel-webs they find in their gardens, but as they're deadly that could be really dangerous and they say under no circumstances should kids go anywhere near them.

So now you know how much time and effort goes into making the anti-venom that saves lives, it's important to remember to keep away from deadly creatures and stay safe so you'll never need to use it.

Quiz 1

OK, on the subject of poisonous animals let's have a quiz.

The question is:

Which of these animals is venomous?

Porcupine

Platypus

Dung Beetle

Answer: Platypus

The male duck-billed platypus has a spur on the back of each foot which secretes a painful venom.

Agricultural School

Reporter: Nathan Bazley

INTRO: Last week we brought you a story about the mining boom and the kids hoping to cash in on it. Lots of adults are following similar career paths but that's left other industries struggling to find workers. One of them is the agricultural industry. Let's take a look.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: It's a pretty different way of getting to school. But then again, when your assignment moos or baaas at you, you know you're in a very different type of classroom.

ROYCE, STUDENT: In sheep club, we get assigned a sheep each, and every lunchtime we come down and we feed them and then we like clean out their pens and we pretty much lead them around and train them ready for the show.

Yep, livestock can also be an assignment! But that's just one day in the life of an ag student.

ROYCE: After school I'm pretty keen to go, or work my way up and kind of eventually buy a farm and run sheep and grow crops.

Royce is one young guy who really sees a future for himself in agriculture. But the problem is, across the country, fewer kids are following his lead.

Farming usually means wide open spaces and more fresh air than you can poke a stick at. Most office workers would kill for that! So what's stopping them from taking up a career on the land? Maybe there aren't enough jobs?

PHIL, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: We have five jobs for every graduate. We can't get enough.

Okay, that's not it. So why are fewer kids aiming for the ag industry? Maybe the job has a bit of an image problem.

When you think of a job in mining, what comes to mind? Usually it's big money and big trucks. But what comes to mind when you think of farming? Unfortunately, many people's first thoughts are of long hours, dirty manual labour and low pay. That, and dealing with animal poo.

PHIL: We have to change those perceptions and stop stereotyping farming as a low tech, low paid, you know sort of peasant agriculture job. It isn't. Our graduates start on very good salaries, better than veterinary science for instance.

And there is more variety in the industry than you might think.

ROYCE: In agriculture there's so many different paths and ways you can take and I think everyone's got their own little interest in it so agriculture, yeah it really covers a whole wide range of things.

But that's not the only image problem that has stopped kids hitting up agriculture in the past...

PETER, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, URRBRAE HIGH SCHOOL: Back in the 90’s when agriculture was very tough, a lot of families advised their young members of the family, their children, to look at other careers.

Want proof of that one? Well here is a picture of me growing up on our family farm in the 90's.

We certainly had bad fashion sense, but we also had a lot of drought. It certainly made you think twice about taking on the family business when other jobs seemed a lot more secure!

However these days, with more rain around, the future of farming is much brighter. So the students at this Ag school hope that'll mean more kids will want to join them.

ROYCE: If you don't have people working in agriculture then like who's going to feed everyone pretty much like you can't have one person running the whole thing, you've got to have lots of people helping and yeah, there's lots of people. The world's growing and you need to be able to feed everyone otherwise you've got big problems.

Big problems only kids in agriculture can fix.

Quiz 2

OK, time for another quiz.

The question is:

Which is Australia's biggest agricultural export?

Beef

Wheat

Wool

Answer: Wheat

Wheat makes up nearly 18 per cent of Australia's agriculture exports. OK, let's move onto some sports news now. Here's Matt with the Score.

The Score

The Paralympics have drawn to a close for another 4 years with a spectacular closing ceremony. During the games more than four thousand competitors took part. And 251 world records were broken. In the end, Australia finished at fifth place on the medal tally.

China finished on top with a massive 95 gold, 71 silver and 65 bronze.

*************

Earlier the Australian men's wheelchair rugby team finished their campaign on the ultimate high downing Canada 66 - 51 to secure the gold. Aussie captain Ryley Batt proved once again why he's called the best player in the world scoring 37 goals in a dominant display. Chris Bond supported Ryley well with 15 goals of his own while Canadian star Zak Madell was the strongest resistance from opposition.

Bushcare Kids

Reporter: Nathan Bazley

INTRO: Everyone has heard of cleanup Australia day where people comb their local area looking for rubbish of every kind. But did you know that last weekend a different team was combing the bush looking for something completely different. It's all about the search for weeds. I went along to find out more.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: Sometimes you have to sacrifice to help the environment.

NATHAN: Ahh! I got one too! Wait let me squeeze blood out of it. Ahh the sacrifices! Nooo!

But what are a few little cuts, compared to helping out some native plants and animals in need.

This group of kids and I are taking part in the 'Bushcare Major Day Out', a day that hopes to give our favourite bush areas a bit of TLC.

And ours was the Warrawong Wildlife Park.

But before we started pulling plants, we got a briefing on what to hunt for.

TANIA, ZOOS SA: Now the weed that we will be working on is forget me nots. Forget me nots transfer through the park via our animals. They attach to our kangaroo, our potoroo, and all of our animals fur, and transfer through. Okay guys let's go and get our hands dirty, and let's go and get some forget me nots out of the sanctuary!

First things first, you have to be prepared! Then we're off!

STUDENT: Oh there is one there!

NATHAN: He's got the first one! Well done!

TANIA: Let's throw it straight in this bag so it can go in the bin!

TANIA: So guys, by clearing out these forget me nots, what we're actually doing is making way for native species of plants to come here and for animals to habitat the area.

NATHAN: Do animals like eating these?

TANIA: No, none of our native species of animal will actually eat forget me nots, so they are a weed!

So as you can see, forget me nots are the big problem in this area. But what should you be looking out for near you?

Well here is a hit list of 5 of the worst weeds across Australia!

Lantana

Gorse

Blackberries

Alligator Weed

Mesquite

Meanwhile back at the wildlife park, the forget-me-nots just keep coming!

Although that's not all we found.

TANIA: Okay so that is kangaroo.

NATHAN: That's kangaroo poo! Fantastic, I've got it half over my hands!

TANIA: Do you know how you can tell if it's koala poo? It smells like eucalypts.

NATHAN: Why do you think it's important to get rid of these weeds?

STUDENT: Well they're going to keep growing and spreading everywhere.

NATHAN: Yep and stop the native ones from growing, we have a few of them here like this native grass and things like that. So if we can get rid of these the native plants will have a much better chance.

But getting all the weeds out wasn't the only concern.

NATHAN: Okay so what have we got here?

STUDENT: Lot's of seeds from the forget me nots.

NATHAN: Lots of seeds. So that's how sticky they are, they stick to your clothing and that's how they travel, isn't it!

But pretty soon, the job was done!

TANIA: Okay guys, well I think we've got the creek looking pretty good, don't you?

NATHAN: Let's have a look, how many bags have we done?! That's crazy, good work guys!

All in all, it's a pretty easy way to help the environment out. Except for the cuts of course.

Closer

You might remember last week, we brought you a story about the dangers of smoking. Well, some kids at Warooka Primary School in South Australia sent us a brilliant anti-smoking video they'd made. We'll end with some of that video. And we'll see you next time.

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Episode 26

11TH SEPTEMBER 2012

LEARNING AREA

Society and Environment

Key learning

Students will develop a deeper understanding of the issues raised in the Agriculture School story.

Episode 26

11TH SEPTEMBER 2012

LEARNING AREA

Science

Key learning

Students will investigate why some animal produce venom, how venom affects our bodies and first aid treatment for venomous bites and stings.

Episode 26

11TH SEPTEMBER 2012

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