Activity Introduction

Quick summary: This lesson enables teachers to guide students through a study of the effects of the El Nino and La Nina weather cycle on food production and future land productivity in Australia. The focus region is Queensland. Activities include working with climate statistics, interpreting meteorological data and making graphs and charts. This lesson meets selected Australian Curriculum outcomes for Years 9 and 10 in the subject of Geography.

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This lesson has been created in partnership with WWF-Australia. Earth Hour is the world’s largest community-driven climate change campaign. At the centre of Earth Hour is switching off lights to show a commitment to taking action. Thousands of teachers use Earth Hour’s education program to enrich their curriculum and provide pathways for young people to create change in their world.

For the most up to date Earth Hour dates, times, and events, check here.

Learning goals:

  • Students will gain an understanding of the implications of weather cycles on food production in Australia.
  • Students will consolidate their skills in working with meteorological data.
  • Students will develop skills in presenting temperature and rainfall data using a climograph.

General capabilities: Numeracy, Critical and creative thinking.

Cross curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.1, OI.2.

Australian Curriculum content descriptions:

Year 9 Geography:

  • The challenges to food production, including land and water degradation, shortage of fresh water, competing land uses, and climate change, for Australia and other areas of the world (ACHGK063)
  • The capacity of the world’s environments to sustainably feed the projected future population to achieve food security for Australia and the world (ACHGK064)
  • Evaluate multi-variable data and other geographical information using qualitative and quantitative methods, and digital and spatial technologies as appropriate, to make generalisations and inferences, propose explanations for patterns, trends, relationships and anomalies, and predict outcomes (ACHGS067)

Year 10 Geography:

  • The human-induced environmental changes that challenge sustainability (ACHGK070)
  • Evaluate multi-variable data and other geographical information using qualitative and quantitative methods and digital and spatial technologies as appropriate to make generalisations and inferences, propose explanations for patterns, trends, relationships and anomalies, and predict outcomes (ACHGS076)

Syllabus Outcomes: GE5-2, GE5-3, GE5-5, GE5-7.

Time needed: 65 minutes.

Resources required: Internet, Student Worksheet.

Key words: Climate change, Earth Hour, impacts, future.

 Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher preparation

What you will need: Photocopy the Student Worksheet – one per student. For students with learning support requirements, photocopy the LS Student Activity Sheet.

Teacher content information: Earth Hour is a WWF-Australia initiative, and is the world’s largest community-driven climate change campaign. At the centre of Earth Hour is switching off lights to show a commitment to taking action. Thousands of teachers use Earth Hour’s education program to enrich their curriculum and provide pathways for young people to create change in their world.

Download the Earth Hour starter kit for your school: Earth Hour for Schools

Earth Hour Australia's Egg-cellent Launch Video (https://youtu.be/IBs2dnDj8Og)

Teaching sequence:

15 minutes – Preliminary activity (reading of background resource material)
45 minutes – Student Worksheet activity

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

1. Preliminary activity – read the following introductory material to

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Student Worksheet

Thought starter: Most of Australia’s bananas grow in north Queensland in places where tropical cyclones occur. In the future, these storms may get even stronger, and cause damage to banana plantations.

Weather cycles have serious effects on food production and the productivity of agricultural land. Australian farmers are already feeling the effects of altered weather patterns in some regions of Australia, including north Queensland.

The drought is back

 

This map shows how far-reaching the effects of climate change have been across Queensland. And unfortunately, the drought situation seems to be worsening. At present, two-thirds of Queensland and much of northern NSW is officially drought-declared. For the past few months, both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the USA and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) have been predicting that an El Nino system is likely to develop in the Pacific later this year. If this El Nino develops as scientists pred

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