Environment, Climate Change and Water

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Index:

6. Taking action

HSIE Stage 2 Outcomes

The activities associated with this topic meet the following syllabus outcomes:
Relationships with Places ENS 2.6

The activities also have links to
Patterns of Place and Location ENS 2.5

Geography Stage 5 Outcomes

The activities associated with this topic meet the following syllabus outcomes in focus areas 5A2 and 5A3:

5.2 Analyses, synthesises and organises geographical information
5.3 Selects and uses written, oral and graphic forms to communicate geographical information
5.9 Applies geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to demonstrate active and informed citizenship

Science and Technology K-6 Outcomes

The activities associated with this topic contribute to achievement of the following Stage 2 outcomes:

BE S2.1 creates, models and evaluates built environments reflecting consideration of functional and aesthetic factors.

DM S2.8 develops, implements and evaluates ideas using drawing, models and prototypes at appropriate stages of the design process.

The activities also have links to the following Stage 3 outcomes:

BE S3.1 creates and evaluates built environments demonstrating consideration of sustainability and aesthetic, cultural, safety and functional issues.

DM S3.8 develops and resolves a design task by planning, implementing managing and evaluating design processes.

Background information

Background information compiled from:

New Thinking for the New Millennium, Edward de Bono, Penguin, 1999.

By Life's Grace - Musings on the Essence of Social Change, Fran Peavey, pp. 86-111, New Society Publishers, 1994.

Water is Life, Organising a student environmental congress, Oz GREEN, 1994.

Many new school curricula and policies emphasise the importance of building student competence to identify and address environmental issues. The action planning process set out in this section relies on the following concepts and processes.

Operacy

Edward de Bono expounds the value of developing '`operacy'' (skills of doing) as an important aim for education. The practical skills gained in the process of developing a new idea (a strategy for action), developing a plan of how to implement the idea and then implementing that as an action, are important life skills. Operacy is the learning involved as students move through the process of creative thinking, developing action plans, implementing these plans and reviewing the effects of their actions.

Creative Thinking

Investigating and analysing the situation builds a basis for developing a strategic response. However analysis alone will not produce new ideas, since the brain can only perceive what it is prepared to see. The existing brain patterns will ensure that the data are seen in terms of existing ideas. In order to see new ideas there is a need to create it first in the brain as a possibility, a speculation, an hypothesis or a construct. This needs creativity, design and imagination - or '`a vision for the future''.

The action planning process set out in this section uses a questioning process known as '`Strategic Questioning''. It also involves students in developing a "vision" for the future It also involves them in developing plans to address the environmental issues that they have identified from the previous sections.

Strategic Questioning

Strategic questioning is a technique developed by Fran Peavey. Strategic questions are designed to create movement and foster creativity. They are open-ended questions that promote new thinking and lead to strategies for action. Strategic questioning can be an empowering process that guides students through a logical sequence for turning concerns into action.

1. Focus Questions - identify the situation and the key facts necessary for an understanding of the situation.

What are you concerned about?
What are the environmental impacts that your school/home is having?
What do you see?
How do you feel about this situation?

2. Visioning Questions - identify dreams, ideals and values. The focus is on how things could be - how they can develop.

How would you like this situation to be?
What would you like to see happen?

3. Change Questions - are concerned with how to get from the present situation towards a more ideal situation.

How do you think this can happen?
How can these changes come about?
In a classroom situation it is useful to brainstorm different ideas.

4. Action Questions - These question get down to the specifics of what to do, and how and when to do it - an actual plan starts to develop.

How do you think this can happen?
What are you prepared to do?

The future is not a place we are going to, but a place we are creating.
The paths to it are not found but made.
The making of these paths changes both the maker and the destination.
(Motto of the Australian Commission for the Future)