SW26_Year 9 to Year 10
🦠 Biosecurity
Should We Intervene? The Conservation Dilemma 🐦⚠️
A threatened Australian bird population has been hit by an avian influenza outbreak. Scientists have limited resources and several possible interventions:
- temporarily close the habitat
- increase monitoring
- rescue sick birds
- establish temporary captive populations
- restrict human access
- do nothing and allow natural processes to occur
Students must decide what should be done and justify their decision using scientific evidence.
- Understand the problem: Students choose a threatened population at risk of an avian influenza outbreak, then investigate avian influenza, the bird population and the ecosystem involved.
- Explore the options: Groups examine the possible interventions and identify the benefits and risks of each.
- Make a decision: Each group chooses an approach and prepares a scientific justification.
- Defend the decision: Groups present their recommendation and respond to questions from other groups.
- Consider the consequences: Discuss how every intervention can have consequences for the wider ecosystem, and how scientists make decisions when there is uncertainty.
This gets students thinking about conservation biology, ethics, ecosystems, scientific uncertainty and human impacts, rather than simply learning that biosecurity means putting up barriers.
📡 Digital Divide
Analyse Global Internet Access Data 🌏📊
- Explore the data: Give students data showing internet access in different countries or regions.
- Compare: Students identify places with high and low levels of internet access.
- Look for patterns: Ask students to look for patterns and differences between regions.
- Ask why: Students investigate some of the reasons people may have limited access to digital technology.
- Discuss the impact: How might limited internet access affect education, communication, work and everyday life?
- Solutions: What solutions exist and how hard or easy are they to implement?