DISCOVERING DEMOCRACY UNIT

QUEENSLAND AND VICTORIAN SOSE OUTCOMES

LINKS TO CURRENT TOPICS/PROGRAMS AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

1. Who rules?

2. Ruler for a day

   Who rules elsewhere?

3. Should one person rule?

4. Destination Ancient Egypt

   Pharaohs of Egypt

   Rights and resepnsibilities

   Power pyramid

   Time travel report number 1

   Egyptian system

5. Should the people rule?

6. Majority rules?

   Direct democracy for a day

   Direct democracy in Ancient Athens

   Using representatives to make law

   Time travel report number 2

   Compare and contrast

   Who would you be?

7. Who rules in Australia

8. Who rules here?

   Who can be an Australian citizen?

   Random selection

   Choose representatives

   Vote for representatives

   Government in Australia

   Comparison

9. How should a nation be ruled?

Design a tower simulation

Two democracies

Campaign trail

Democracy poster

The time Tube – board game

The mystery of Ancient Egypt and the study of Pharaohs are contexts students use to clearly differentiate between people with power and people without. Some teachers link this unit to maths concepts (pyramids, blocks, shapes…). The Ancient Greece context provides a contrasting extreme example – many ‘citizens’ having to vote on all important issues. Students can then understand Australia’s representative democracy falls between these two extremes.

The tower simulation page 18 seems particularly interesting. Students work in three groups: one using absolute rule (one person makes all the decisions) to draw/design a tower to celebrate the centenary of federation; one group uses direct democracy (everyone has a say); and one uses representative democracy (elect leaders).

TCC3.3

Students use knowledge of people’s contributions in Australia’s past t cooperatively develop visions of preferred futures.

TCC3.4

Students organise information about the causes and effects of specific historical events.

PS3.5

Students describe he values underlying personal and other’s actions regarding familiar places.

CI3.5

Students explain changing attitudes, at different times, towards gender race, ethnicity or socio-economic identities.

SRP3.3

Students apply the principles of democratic decision-making in cooperative projects.

SRP3.4

TCC2.1

Students explain different meanings about an event, artefact, story or symbol from different times.

TCC2.4

Students describe cause and effect relationships about events in familiar settings.

CI2.4

Students identify how their roles, rights and responsibilities change in different groups.

SRP2.4

Students analyse information about their own and others’ rights and responsibilities in various settings.

Unit 3 Decision Making

• Activity A Group Construction
• Activity B Jigsaw puzzle
• Activity 7 The Local Council

Unit 1 The Local Area Today

• Activity 7 Local Area Land Use

Unit 3 Decision makers of Australia

• Activity B Moieties
• Activity 1 Autocracy to representative government
• Activity 2 Government representatives
• Activity 3 Responsible government

• 16 handouts for copying.
• Parliament at Work CD ROM – tour through Parliament House, Canberra
• Stories of Democracy CD ROM
• The Time Tube poster provides a board game. Handouts 15 and 16 are needed for students to produce a pool of ‘Rulers’ and ‘People’ game cards. Students draw on knowledge of rulers and people to construct sentences on the back of cards. Each sentence is followed by a consequence ‘You are a Pharaoh. Collect taxes from the people. Move your token forward four spaces.’
• www.immi.gov.au - to investigate the term ‘citizen’