The task: create a public awareness campaign about fire and why it must be managed sustainably in northern Australia.

• The goal is to ensure it meets a particular audience’s needs. Students will need to consider how this information will help inform the targeted audience to make decisions, to problem solve and/or to take actions.

• The problem/challenge is that there needs to be scientific evidence to back up the position taken in the campaign.     

The Guide is designed to facilitate and scaffold the learning process for students in order to develop their public awareness campaign.

• What is the task? What don't we know that we need to find out about?
  
• How could we work collaboratively? What tools will help us?
• What strengths do we individually bring to the team?
• What do we as a team need to be particularly mindful of?
• What will it look like if we do it well?
• What are the smaller steps involved in the task?
• What do we need in order to develop a road map for our team?
  

Teacher Facilitation (offline)

This student investigation is the process of identifying and resolving the issue of burning for land management, as there are confusion, contradictions and a range of viewpoints. Students will justify their ideas for clarifying confusions around this issue. 

Teachers would need to determine the amount of explicit teaching,  modelling and practice their students would need with the following key processes:

• Clarify their own learning goals and create a road map to get there. 

• Analyse various public awareness campaigns to determine key features and criteria for a quality public awareness campaign (examples in RHS column).

• Examine how a science topic is presented in the popular media compared to how it is presented in a scientific text.

• Examine and practice note-taking strategies – a two-column approach with one side showing the key ideas and the other side containing personal reactions, comments, questions (could be written, graphic representation or diagrams).

Students may need explicit teaching and practice to:

• Identify "what am I looking for? "what do I need to extract?"

• Sort information using common factors such as "known or agreed upon" and "confusions or contradictions"

• Use different graphic organisers to acquire, integrate, examine and analyse knowledge and information in new ways to make meaning. Suggestions can be found in each section: Camp Ground, Visitors' Centre, Outback Cinema and Savanna Lookout of the Learning Plan.

• Develop a  mind map using online tool such  as Inspiration as a way to show their understanding of the complexity of fire as a management tool after completing their notes.

• Review the 6 thinking hats: Are students familiar with using the 6 thinking hats? What reviewing/modelling/practice may be necessary?

Collaborative Approach

It is recommended that student teams explore Burning Issues. Each member could keep a journal (wiki or blog) of their thoughts, questions and ideas as they develop. A class wiki would be one way for teams to work together and keep everything in one place.

Teams will need to decide who will do what and construct an action plan. The team will need to evaluate (Plus, Minus Interesting) some of the tools in order to decide which online note-taking tools will best suit their group's needs.

A key part of the task is for students to identify an appropriate audience. The Visitors’ Centre offers some guidance for students (through the Public Surveys and the Meeting Room). Students could also survey their own community in order to inform their campaign.

Identifying your audience

The target audience is …

• Will they need this information to become informed, to make decisions, to problem solve and/or to take actions?
• What idea do I want to explain?
• What do they know already?
• What confusion is there?
• What suggestions do I have to clear the confusion? I need to convince them to …
• The most appropriate product/s would be …
• How can I justify my suggestions and product/s?

Criteria for Success

• Is there an authentic audience who can be part of the assessment?
• Your work will be judged by  
• Your product must meet the following standards (Rubric developed with students)