Thursday, 3 Feb 2022
We’ve gathered resources for teaching students about events of national and international significance to help enliven your 2022 lesson plans.
By now you’ve had your curriculum day and mapped out a solid plan for the term ahead. We’ve identified some highlights from international and Australian calendars, with accompanying teaching resources, to help you put the finishing touches on lesson plans in Terms 1 and 2.
Find more calendar highlights in Teacher.
Term 1 2022:
Tuesday 8 February: Safer Internet Day
Help students understand how to ‘play it safe and fair online’ with a range of material from the Australian Government’s eSafety Commissioner, including downloadable resources like a school’s toolkit, webinars for parents and teachers, and ‘tech agreements’ for students.
(c) ACER: A visitor to the Australian STEM Video Game Challenge stand at PAX Australia in 2019
Thursday 11 February: International Day of Women and Girls in Science
This day aims to highlight the contributions of women to science and to encourage girls to study STEM subjects – a cause that is close to our hearts at ACER. Engaging girls with STEM is also a key goal of the ACER Foundation’s Australian STEM Video Game Challenge. This year we’re encouraging students in Years 5–12 to design and build a video game on the theme of ‘networks’; check out the theme sheet for ideas about what this might look like in game form.
Find out more about what’s required of you as a teacher/team mentor in this short video series with Challenge participant, teacher Ben Wynne, on Teacher.
Continuing our STEM theme, we’re also proud to host the Australian component of the International Mathematical Modeling Challenge (IM2C), which invites teams of up to four secondary students in the same school to find a mathematical solution to the real-world problem set each year. Registrations opened on 3 February so get your team together!
Thursday 3 March: World Wildlife Day
More than a million species of flora and fauna are under threat from extinction, and this year’s theme ‘Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration’ aims to draw attention to some of the most critically endangered. The World Wildlife Fund’s educational resources page has a lesson library, wildlife arts and crafts, and links to a calendar of virtual ‘ask the experts’ events, all designed to teach primary and secondary students about the wonders of the natural world. For something more Australia-oriented, the ABC has education resources for students in Foundation to Year 8.
Monday 21 March: World Poetry Day
UNESCO’s World Poetry Day aims to promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, and this video by the Sydney Story Factory and the ABC – the first in a series – is a great introduction to poetry for students in Years 3–8.
Does ‘I love a sunburnt country’ sound familiar? It’s a line by one of Australia’s most famous poets, Dorothea Mackellar, and entries to the awards that honour her open in March. The annual Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards encourage primary and secondary students to express their thoughts and emotions in poetry, so get your students writing. The site plays host to a range of teaching and learning resources to help you get them started.
Tuesday 22 March: World Water Day
This year’s theme is ‘Groundwater – making the invisible visible’, highlighting the value of the ‘hidden treasure that enriches our lives’, as this UN factsheet explains. Looking ahead, National Water Week takes place in Australia in October, offering a good opportunity to revisit the subject. The Australian Water Association has an extensive library of teaching resources for primary students that are updated each year.
(c) NASA: NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold on a spacewalk in 2018.
Tuesday 12 April: International Day of Human Space Flight
NASA’s website has a range of teaching resources but, as a US-based site, they’re linked to American curricula. However, these pages for primary and secondary students contain hundreds of links to resources of more general interest, such as A Day in the Life Aboard the International Space Station, a history of lunar missions and a searchable video library. You can also stream live footage from the International Space Station or tune into NASA TV on YouTube.
Term 2:
Wednesday 27 April: Stop Food Waste Day
Oxfam’s Food 4 Thought modules are aimed at Years 7–10 and ask students to think about where food comes from, how our access to food is location dependent, and how the way we think about food shapes the people we become. The ABC has a great selection of resources in its War on Waste series, including this video on the value of food waste. This segment of BTN [3:40] is a great basic primer and includes links to further sources of information.
Sunday 29 May: International Day of UN Peacekeepers
The Australian War Memorial’s schools page contains an extensive list of resources to help students learn about Australia’s contribution to peacekeeping campaigns around the globe. Take one of two virtual tours of the museum designed for primary or secondary students. [Around 30 mins each.]
20-26 June: Refugee Week
The Refugee Council of Australia has gathered together interactive games and activities from Amnesty International, the UNHCR, the Australian Human Rights Commission and more to create a handy single source of exciting classroom resources, while SBS has produced teaching guides for Years 9–12 to accompany its groundbreaking series Go Back to Where You Came From.
A scene from Little J & Big Cuz (c) Ned Lander Media, 2016
3-10 July: NAIDOC Week
NAIDOC Week falls during school holidays for many states, and in the last week of term in South Australia and Tasmania, but it’s always a good time to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with your students. The site has NAIDOC Week-specific teaching resources that are updated to reflect each year’s theme, or you’ll find a wide range of curriculum-linked activities and videos on Indigenous histories and cultures on SBS and the ABC.
And don’t forget our very own Little J & Big Cuz, a Logie Award-winning TV series for preschool and early primary students accompanied by an extensive suite of curriculum-mapped teaching resources. Series 3 is screening on SBS and plans for a fourth season have been announced.
Even more teaching resources
Want more? Why not try the PAT Teaching Resources Centre free for 30 days? With thousands of curriculum-aligned resources linked directly with PAT assessment data, it’s never been easier to find the perfect teaching activity for every student, and help every student grow in their learning.
This short video shows you how to get started.
Find out more about the PAT Teaching Resources Centre.