Socio- Scientific Issues: Unit and Lesson Planner

Years 5/6 x4 Lessons

St Dominic’s Primary School, Broadmeadows

 Overall aims/goal of the unit
At the end of this unit students will be able/capable of:
 Students must be able to identify characteristics of a range of socio-
scientific issues, the problems they create and the causes and effects.
 Students must be able to critically analyse problems and apply content
knowledge to address solutions.
School priorities/frameworks and how this unit addresses them?
St Dominic’s Primary School aims to create a welcoming, inclusive, challenging
and supportive environment. They encourage their students to develop as
leaders through their social, emotional and physical growth.
By taking part in this unit, students will be involved in a challenging, inclusive
environment as they will need to be able to address a range of socio-scientific
issues as well as understanding what measures to take to solve these issues.
Teaching approach chosen and how will it inform the goals and priorities of
the unit and school community?
The teaching approach chosen is ‘Socio-Scientific Issues’ (SSI). This teaching
approach will address the priorities and goals of the unit as each lesson will
focus on an aspect of various socio-scientific issues that will be woven into a
different topic of ‘natural disasters.’ When natural disasters occur, many socio-
scientific issues occur. Students will need to identify, analyze, understand and
attempt to take effective steps in solving these issues.
How is this unit informed with the Encyclical Laudato Si?
The focus for our unit is on educating students regarding Socio-Scientific
Issues by implementing plans and programs that focus on the effects of
people’s mental and physical health in an alternative environment.
These effects link to real life experiences, which students can reflect on
through research and resources to benefit their connection with the real
world. By discussing and annotating natural disasters, students are able to
gain a sense of positive awareness while participating in collaboration.
The purpose of our unit is to engage and challenge students through the
curriculum to promote the development of mutual advancements for the
benefit of the learning environment
Pope Francis addresses in III. Dialogue and Transparency in Decision-Making
(183-184) that students need to be aware of the positive impacts the
community and individuals place on Socio-Scientific Issues.
Students will be encouraged to consider environmental damage; it’s causes
and effects, the possible risks involved and how we can make a difference to
help the community after a natural disaster through the implementation of
plans and programs. In paragraph 184 of the Encyclical Laudato Si, the focus
is on the potential risks on the environment and the effects it can have on
the common good. This relates to our unit as we highlight to the students
the significance of helping others during critical times.
Victorian curriculum learning area contents AND Key Science Concepts
Capabilities informing the entire unit of work:
The key science concepts focused on throughout this unit are ‘systems,’ ‘stability and
Sudden geological changes or extreme weather conditions can
change’ and ‘scientific investigations.’
affect Earth’s surface VCSSU079
 Investigating major geological events, for example,
Systems refers to the ability to think, model and analyse in order to make sense, explain and
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis
make predictions of events and phenomena. Students will explore and analyse a range of
 Recognizing that earthquakes can cause tsunamis
different complex systems of natural disasters and develop an understanding of how these
 Considering the effect of drought on living and non- events can impact on the broader communities as well as understand how these events can
living aspects of the environment be addressed.

Stability and change will be focused on as students will be investigating the before and after
states of communities when impacted by a natural disaster. This particular area involves
recognising, describing and predicting how communities personally, locally, nationally and
globally will experience dramatic change in the event of a natural disaster.

Scientific investigations refer to an activity that is conducted in response to a problem or

question. These activities include predicting, hypothesising or testing in order to draw
conclusions to the problem or question. Investigations may involve using modelling and
simulations, experiments and using a range of information resources.
These concepts will be achieved through the volcano experiment, as well as investigating
case studies.

Capabilities
The capabilities that will be achieved through this unit are critical and creative thinking,
ethical capabilities and intercultural. These capabilities will be met by the students analysing
problems that occur from natural disasters, creating feasible solutions for those problems,
finding a way to help those who are affected by natural disasters and investigating how
natural disasters can have an impact on communities outside the local community.
 Assessment in brief:

Assessment tool(s) (brief description in dot point as it will need to be fully developed for the first draft of assessment 2 in week 8).
The assessment needs to reflect the key learning, capabilities and skills identified, the teaching approach and the school priorities.
 Be aware of any specific learning needs, EAL students.
 Observation of students through whole class discussions and lesson activities.
 Assess students through Formative assessments (presentations, posters) conducted in activities.
 Work samples
 Rubrics
 Observations
 Teacher notes
 Lesson plan- Session: 1

Name of the school Year Level:

St. Dominic’s Parish Primary School Year 5/6

Learning outcomes: Assessment to be collected:

The outcomes that the students will be expected to achieve by the end The students will be assessed on two parts of the lesson. The first means of
of this lesson are; assessment will derive from the students’ ability to participate by listening and
 To become familiarised with a range of different natural disasters, asking questions during the class discussion about natural disasters and the broader
such as floods, drought, cyclone, earthquakes, and tsunamis. impacts on various levels of communities.
 To develop an understanding of the devastating effects that a The second assessment strategy will be based on the student’s ability to work in
range of natural disasters can have on a personal, local, national small groups to complete a brainstorm poster on a specific natural disaster (ie.
and global scale. cyclones) and how that natural disaster has a flow effect on personal, local, national
and global communities. Additionally, the students will also be assessed on the
Teaching approach chosen:
brief presentation of their poster at the conclusion of the lesson. The poster,
SOCIO-SCIENTIFIC ISSUES presentation and the student participation will be assessed formatively.
This lesson will explore natural disasters and the socio-scientific
issues that arise on a personal, local, national and global scale in
the wake of a natural disaster event. Sadler (2011) states the
importance of teaching SSI and highlights that the most effective
way to further questions on the SSI agenda is through exploring it
in the classroom. This lesson intends to further explore SSI by
introducing the students to the issues that communities are faced
with after it has experienced a natural disaster. In doing this,
students will become aware of the domino effect these disasters
may cause on various communities and to begin thinking of ways
to assist in prevention/assistance strategies.
Specific and detailed activities

Introductory experiment (10 minutes)

 Teacher will conduct a simple volcano experiment to demonstrate to students how a natural disaster can have an immediate drastic impact on
surrounding inhabitants. The volcano experiment will involve a small mountain of clay/sand, vinegar, baking soda and some coloured food dye.

Instructions and video for volcano experiment are below in ‘attachments’ section.

Post experiment (15 minutes)

 Students will briefly analyse pictures of natural disasters and individually participate in a brief in a ‘See, Think, Wonder’ in order to access prior
knowledge on natural disasters and to generate further thinking. Based on the ‘See, Think, Wonder,’ the teacher will lead a class discussion on an
introduction to natural disasters and the effects natural disasters may have on a broader scale. This includes the effects that these natural disasters may
have on the natural environment, infrastructure and society such as, contaminated water and food supplies, loss of power, damage to houses and other
community buildings, and the effects it can have on the economy on a personal, local, national and global scale.

Sample Questions:
“What things can we see in some of these pictures?”
“In what ways can a [natural disaster] impact on a community?”
“How might these impacts affect the entire country or neighbouring countries?”
“How could the effects of a [natural disaster] impact your life if you were involved?”
“In what ways might the effects of a [natural disaster] differ to a [different disaster].”

The class discussion is beneficial for the facilitator as it allows them to ask important questions to direct the discussion and to gauge where students’
understanding is in regards to natural disasters. It is also valuable for the students as they are able to ask important and relevant questions, learn from
other student’s answers as well as think broader than the characteristics of a natural disaster.

Body of lesson (25 minutes)

 Post discussion, students will be placed into small groups of 3-5 people to focus on a specific natural disaster and make a brainstorm poster (ie. mind
map, word cloud) on how that natural disaster has drastic impacts on the 4 levels of community; personal, local, national and global. The purpose of this
activity is for students to work in small groups and to be able to have a constructive discussion between them to think critically and on a broader scale
about the impacts natural disasters can have. By the end of this activity there should be 3-5 brainstorm posters on 3-5 different natural disasters and the
personal, local, national and global effects of each one.
 Conclusion of Lesson (5 minutes)

 Tying up the lesson, each group will briefly share their work to the class by presenting their natural disaster poster to the class and giving some
examples of the impacts it my have on the 4 levels of community. This is intended to give other students some background information on a different
natural disaster, as well as a simple assessment tool for the teacher.

Extension Activities
 For students who complete their work early, a worksheet on natural disasters will be available to undertake. The worksheet consists of a crossword and
a cloze activity that has relevance to each other as well as basic knowledge on a range of natural disasters. Link to Natural Disasters worksheet is below
in ‘attachments’ section.

Attachments:

Natural Disaster Worksheet- retrieved from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/b4/91/8a/b4918a076b9b21a0b794f378183b9b05.jpg

Sadler, T. D., (2011). Socio-scientific Issues-based education: What we know about science education in the context of SSI, Contemporary Trends and Issues in
Science Education, p.355-369 Vol. 39

Volcano Experiment Video & Instructions: https://sciencebob.com/make-your-own-volcano/

 Lesson plan- Session: 2
Name of the school: St. Dominic’s Sunshine
Learning outcomes:
At the end of this lesson students will have the knowledge to
show how certain organisations help people who are impacted by
natural disasters. Students will brainstorm the sort of things that
organisations can do to help when a natural disaster occurs and
then use that information to create their own disaster relief
organisation.
Teaching approach chosen:
The teaching approach that has been chosen is socio-scientific
issues (SSI) which will be weaved into the topic of natural
disasters. This unit will focus on the socio-scientific issues that
arise for communities when a natural disaster occurs. Students
will be investigating the issues that come from natural disasters,
students will also be posing questions as to how they can solve
these problems, researching organisations that work in disaster
relief and investigate case studies of natural disasters that have
occurred in real life.
Year Level: 5/6
Assessment to be collected: (Students work samples/observations/rubrics, etc)
As the lesson is being conducted the teachers in the room will be able to
make observations of the students work. The teachers can make notes as to
their ability to work in a team, perform set tasks and understand key
concepts.
Once the students have complete their work the teachers will collect their
work to assess how the students have collaborated and understood the key
concepts of the lesson.
This data collected will be used to inform the subsequent lessons. The
assessment data that has been collected will allow the teaching team to
tweak the difficulty of lessons to meet the requirements of the students.
The group work observations will allow the teaching team to check on group
dynamics and allow us to change any groups if need be so that we have a
cohesive classroom dynamic.
Specific and detailed activities (600 words)

Tuning in video (5 minutes)

The teacher will show the shelter box video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyM_sk8tjEo) to the students after they have been brought to the floor and
they are quiet. Once the students are ready the teacher will play the video for the students to watch. If a video device is not available the teacher can explain
what a shelter box is and display screen shots of the video on the whiteboard. This allows the students to gain the same information as they would have
received if the video was played on an electronic whiteboard or similar device. As this is the second lesson of the unit the teacher will know if they have access
to an electronic whiteboard or projector before the lesson starts so they will be able to print out any pictures

Introduction – Brain storm (10 minutes)

After watching the video or having the teacher explain about the shelter box the teacher should introduce that different organisations do different things in
response to natural disasters. The teacher will ask students about the types of natural disasters that they can remember from lesson one. The teacher will write
up the different types of natural disasters on the board to start the brainstorm. After that the teacher will ask for the types of damage that can be caused by a
natural disaster or things that need to be fixed because of the impact of a natural disaster. The teacher should write the student responses up on the board.
Once the students have exhausted their responses the teacher will move onto the next stage of the lesson.

Development – Creating an organisation (40 minutes)

Once the brainstorm has been completed the teacher will start to explain what the students are to do for the main portion of the lesson. The students are to
create an organisation that is going to help people who have been impacted by a natural disaster. The students should be instructed that they are to create an
organisation that focuses on one specific aspect of helping people in a natural disaster. This could be one of the issues that was listed on the board in the brain
storm.
Students will need to come up with
 a name for their organisation
 a specific task for their organisation to complete
 how they will complete their task
 where they will work – personal, local, global?
The class will be divided into approximately 5 groups of equal size to complete this task. The students will firstly write down their ideas in a workbook or a piece
of paper as a rough draft and then transfer their work onto poster paper as a final copy. Teachers will be roaming around the room during this time to help
students and prompt learning opportunities.

Conclusion – 5 minutes
At the end of the allotted time students will be brought back to the floor where they can present what they have created. This will create discussion about any
potential problems and encourage students when they have had a good idea.
Organisation examples
https://www.convoyofhope.org/what-we-do/disaster-services/ - disaster clean up
https://www.ses.vic.gov.au/ - tree clearing, flood relief, animal and human rescue
https://www.avcf.org.au/projects/disaster-and-famine-relief/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwiI3HBRDv0q_qhqXZ-
N4BEiQAOTiCHkym8GRAuRRKTvegJqEZxbBvW8WMwujbLhat80HFWDkaAnY_8P8HAQ – famine relief

Attachments:
Resources – Poster paper, electronic whiteboard or screenshots of the shelterbox clip

Lesson plan- Session: 3

Name of the school
St Dominic’s Parish Primary School, Broadmeadows
Learning outcomes:
 By the end of this lesson, students will be able to use the
information they have learnt throughout the unit to discuss the
causes and effects of natural disasters on individuals, the local
community, the nation and the world.
 Students can use information that they learnt last lesson about
organisations to describe in detail how their made-up
organisation can help multiple areas after a natural disaster.
 At the end of the lesson, students should be able to understand
how different types of natural disasters are caused.
Teaching approach chosen:
The teaching approach of Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) is integrated
throughout this lesson. Students will use their knowledge of SSI as they
are creating their posters and thinking of ways that individuals, the
community, the nation and the world are affected by natural disasters.
They also use their SSI when they are coming up with ways to help the
wider community recover from their assigned natural disaster.
Specific and detailed activities
Year Level:
5/6
Assessment to be collected: (Students work samples/observations/rubrics, etc)
Throughout this lesson there will be multiple ways to assess the students. By
running a class discussion, the students will be able to demonstrate what they can
remember from previous lessons and how engaged they are with the topic.
Observing students will be another way to assess the class. While the students are
working in their groups and discussing the case study, it is important to walk around
and observe which students are staying on track and participating in deep
discussions. By observing students, it can help understand who is engaged in the
topic and who is struggling. The students’ posters that they create and present to
the class will also be used for assessment. These posters will show how much
information the students have learnt about their assigned natural disaster and what
they found important. As the students are presenting their information, they will be
assessed on their topic knowledge. This will be completed through a rubric that will
be filled out by the teacher as the groups are presenting. Rubrics are a great way to
summarise how students progressed throughout the lesson and how they could
improve their work for next time.

 At the beginning of this lesson, students will have a 10 minute class discussion on what they learnt in previous lesson. They will discuss how natural
disasters are caused and how they can affect people individually, in the community, throughout the nation and worldwide. They will also discuss the
organisations that were focussed on in the previous lesson and how they can help people after a natural disaster.
 Once the discussion is complete, students will be placed into the same small groups of 4 or 5 students from the previous lesson. Each group will be assigned
a natural disaster and will be given a case study based on a particular disaster. The disaster may have happened in Australia or in a foreign country.
 The possible natural disasters students can be given are about Black Saturday (Appendix 1), Hurricane Katrina (Appendix 2), Fukushima (Appendix 3) and the
Queensland Floods (Appendix 4).
 Once assigned a case study, students will be asked to read it carefully, analyse it and annotate the important facts. While reading, students should be
thinking of what caused the disaster and the effects it had on the local, national and global community. Students will also discuss the organisation they
created last lesson and come up with ways of how it could help the areas affected by their natural disaster (eg. build shelters, give food, clean area etc.).
 Once students have gathered their information they will create a poster. Their poster must include a clear description of the disaster and when and where it
happened. They must also include how their natural disaster is caused and the possible effects it can have on individuals, the local community, the whole
 nation and the world. Students must be able to clearly explain the effects natural disasters can have on all these areas. The poster must also contain a
detailed description of how their made-up organisation can help all areas of the community recover from their natural disaster. Students will be given 20
minutes to gather their information and create their group poster.
 When the students have gathered their information and created their poster, they will be asked to take part in a 5 minute presentation to share with the
class what they have learnt. Students must give their peers a detailed background to their allocated natural disaster in a clear way. The students must also
share their ideas on how their organisation will help all areas of the community recover from their natural disaster. It is intended that students will learn
about different major natural disasters and discover if they have different ways of solving issues.
 As students are presenting their poster, they will be assessed on their topic knowledge, their collaboration skills and their engagement in the topic through
the use of a rubric (Appendix 5).
 At the conclusion of the lesson, the class will partake in another short class discussion about what they have learnt and what they found interesting
throughout the lesson.

Attachments:
 References:

Brisbane City Council (2011) Flood Crisis Communication. Retrieved from https://www.pria.com.au/documents/item/5234

Encyclopedia Britannica Advocacy for Animals (2009) The Australian “Black Saturday” bushfires of 2009). Retrieved from
http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2009/11/the-australian-“black-saturday”-bushfires-of-2009/

Goh.G, (2015) Case Study I: Fukushima 2011 in Nuclear Power Plants- A source of pollution? Retrieved from
http://blog.nus.edu.sg/nuclearpollution/2015/03/11/fukushima-2011/

Hurricanes: Science and Society (2015) Hurricane Katrina Case Study. Retrieved from http://www.hurricanescience.org/history/studies/katrinacase/

PopeFrancis, Laudato si’, Encyclical Letter, May 24, 2015. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-
francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

Natural Disaster Worksheet- retrieved from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/b4/91/8a/b4918a076b9b21a0b794f378183b9b05.jpg

Sadler, T. D., (2011). Socio-scientific Issues-based education: What we know about science education in the context of SSI, Contemporary Trends and Issues in
Science Education, p.355-369 Vol. 39

Volcano Experiment Video & Instructions: https://sciencebob.com/make-your-own-volcano/