diversity | OpenSTEM Pty Ltd

Helping Migrants to Australia

The end of the school year is fast approaching with the third term either over or about to end and the start of the fourth term looming ahead. There never seems to be enough time in the last term with making sure students have met all their learning outcomes for the year and with final reports to be prepared. The OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® program takes the stress out of the fourth term as far as possible, ensuring that all curriculum items are covered well before the end of term and students are kept occupied with consolidation tasks so that teachers can prepare reports.

In units for Years 5 (Shaping Society, Working Together) and 6 (We Are One, But We Are Many), students have an assignment on a topic from Australian history and several of the suggested topics cover migrants to Australia, especially those from Asian countries. There is also a discussion about why people might become refugees, through factors such as war and natural disasters, or choose to migrate for a range of other reasons. Students in most year levels are examining cultural diversity and the make-up of Australian society.

In the news this week there is a story that has some relevance to these topics. Migrants and refugees from Asia make up a small but significant part of the numbers of people who come to Australia and find a home here, just as they have done since early colonial times. Many migrant and refugee women have experienced trauma and/or have come from countries where women’s place in society is very different than in our own. Some of these, just as in the rest of society, are single mothers or women at risk. However, they often face extra hurdles resulting from their history in their country of origin. For example, many women from Asian and African countries can not drive, either because they have not had the opportunity to learn, or it may even have been culturally inappropriate. The lack of a driver’s licence severely impacts their ability to get a job and transport themselves and their children to activities, including school and sports.

Access Community Services in Logan, south of Brisbane, has a Women at the Wheel program to help women prepare for a driving test. Currently there are women from Afghanistan, Burma and Somalia in the program and there is a very long waiting list for places. The program tries to match women with instructors who speak their native language to help them to understand the nuances of Australian road rules clearly. The women are delighted with the program, reporting that they find it very empowering and citing that having a driver’s licence will help them to find employment and transport themselves and their children as needed, making them independent and contributing members of the community.

In a way, these women finding a role for themselves in the community through learning to drive cars is almost reminiscent of the Afghan cameleers of the 19th century (shown above), who came to Australia to lead camel caravans, assisting explorers and taking the goods produced by farmers in isolated areas to market. Some of these people, from many places across the Asian subcontinent, chose to stay in Australia and adapted with the changing society, finding new roles for themselves and contributing to society in a range of ways, not least culturally and by enhancing the range of food and restaurant options available. The strength of Australia lies in the way that we pull together when times are tough and people need help. Aussies have always had a reputation for helping those in need and it is great to see this spirit continue today as people work together to build a better society.

This Week in HASS – term 4, week 8

Well, the end of term is in sight! End of year reporting is in full swing and the Understanding Our World® activities are designed to keep students engaged whilst minimising requirements for teachers, especially over these critical weeks. The current activities for all year levels are tailored to require minimal teaching, allowing teacher aides and other helpers to assist students while teachers can be free to concentrate on reporting and other requirements. All year levels have now passed the threshold of completing all curriculum material for the year for all HASS subjects as well as Science, so no more formal assessment is needed. The final weeks are focused on fun, whilst carrying the themes covered earlier in the term, and year, forwards, so that the fun enhances the learning, rather than detracting from it.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Our youngest students in standalone Foundation/Prep/Kindy classes (Unit F.4) or integrated with Year 1 (Unit F-1.4) are doing the final preparations for their play next week. Costumes should be finalised, whilst the students practise their lines and using props. Those classes which have chosen not to dress-up should be finalising their drawings of their characters and the equipment they could use. Students will say their lines and explain their drawings and what their character is doing. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are also preparing for their presentation or dramatisation next week. Students in Year 1 are considering the roles of each member of their role-play family group – who does the cooking or cleaning, who works outside the home? Students in Year 2 are considering the role of technology in the lives of their chosen group – what technology do they use for which purposes? Students should also be encouraged to consider where this group lives and how practical it would be to travel to where they live from where the students live – what technology would be involved? Students in Year 3 are considering the roles of their characters in the community where their chosen group lives and whether any representatives of similar groups are present in their local community.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Years 3 (Unit 3.8), 4 (Unit 4.4), 5 (Unit 5.4) and 6 (Unit 6.4) are reaping the benefits of their class election and moving on to plan a celebration for the last week of term. The theme of the celebration is “Diversity in Australia” and students will look back to the migrant group they studied earlier in the term to gain ideas to add to the celebration. Teachers can decide whether food will be included in this celebration, or not. If not, it is recommended that students prepare a menu of the sort of foods that their group might have at a celebration. Other aspects to include may be music, symbols and decorations or even national dress. Students in Year 3 will have chosen from a wide range of possible migrant groups earlier in the term or may also choose an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander group. Students in Year 4 will have concentrated on groups from South-East Asia and Australasia. Students in Year 5 will have chosen a group from Europe, Britain or Western Asia, whilst students in Year 6 will have chosen mainly groups of migrants from Asia. Some students may wish to include Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultural representations in the celebration.

To complement this celebration, some students may have plants, from their Scientific Investigation, which can now be used in the celebration, either contributing resources, such as tomatoes, or perhaps flowering or having other characteristics which represent a migrant group.

This Week in HASS – term 4, week 3

This week our youngest students are looking at special places locally and around Australia, slightly older students are considering plants and animals around the world, while our older students are studying aspects of diversity in Australia.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Students in standalone Foundation/Prep/Kindy (Unit F.4) and combined classes with Year 1 (F-1.4) are thinking about special places this week – what places are special to them and their families? What places are special in Australia? This focus gives the teacher a chance to guide the students through the process of considering natural beauty and how we and other agencies, such as the government, can look after special places and places of natural beauty. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are continuing their focus on the stories of families from around the world from week 1. This week Year 1 and 2 students are focusing on plants and animals from the places described in the stories in week 1. Students in Year 3 also consider the role of climate in the diversity of plants and animals.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Years 3 (Unit 3.8), 4 (Unit 4.4), 5 (Unit 5.4) and 6 (Unit 6.4) are studying different aspects of diversity this week. Students in year 3 are looking at Aboriginal people and the environment, in the context of climate. Students in Year 4 consider both Aboriginal people and technology with respect to the Australian environment. Students in year 5 are starting to consider how Aboriginal people’s interactions with the environment over millennia have set the stage for the recognition of Native Title in Australia; while students in year 6 examine the history of Aboriginal suffrage and Native Title in Australia. These studies of diversity in Australia provide information for the students to start planning a celebration of identity and diversity in the last week. Students in Years 3 to 6 also continue with their scientific experiment of growing a plant.

This Week in HASS – term 4, week 2

This week our youngest students are looking at transport in the past, slightly older students consider places that are special to people around the world and our oldest students are considering reasons why people might leave their homes to become migrants.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Students in standalone Foundation/Prep/Kindy classes (Unit F.4), as well as those in combined Foundation/Prep/Kindy and Year 1 classes (Unit F-1.4), are considering how people used to get around in the past. How did students get to school 100 years ago? Students also think about how these modes of transport moved. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are continuing their study of families around the world by looking at places that are special to these families. Students will also find these places on the OpenSTEM® “Our World” Blackline World Map, practising their Geography skills. Different year levels will consider different aspects of these places, for example, year 3 students will consider the distance, both geographic and cultural, between these places and Australia; year 2 students will consider which places are natural and which are built and their significance for the people who live there, while year 1 students will compare these places to places that their own families find special.

Years 3 to 6

Students in Year 3 doing Unit 3.8, Celebrating Diversity, will choose a migrant group to study and consider what it is like for people to leave their home country and move to another place. They will also examine the contributions which their group has made to Australian society and look at celebrations special to that group. Students in Year 4 (Unit 4.4) will consider what factors influence people to leave a place and choose somewhere else to live. Students will also examine contact between different groups in Australia and the influence migrants have had on Australian society. Students in year 5 (Unit 5.4) choose a group of migrants to study and consider the changing factors that have influenced migration to Australia over time. Students in year 6 (Unit 6.4) choose a migrant group to study and consider the conditions in the country of origin of the migrant group, how those conditions influenced the migration of those people and how those factors have changed through the course of Australian history. These examinations prepare students to consider the nature of diversity in Australian society in the next lesson.