DISCOVERING DEMOCRACY UNIT

QUEENSLAND AND VICTORIAN SOSE OUTCOMES

LINKS TO CURRENT TOPICS/PROGRAMS AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

1. Why do people decide that governments should federate?

Map work

The establishment of the Australian colonies

Document study – Australia and Britain

Document study – Australia and the USA

Federation

Reasons for and against federation

2. How do you make a federation work?

Comparing the Australian and American Constitutions

Why Australia does not have a Bill of Rights

The powers of the States and the Commonwealth

Powers of the Commonwealth

Research projects: states and territories

3. Why do federations break apart?

Research project

Western Australia votes to secede

4. Why should Australia become a republic?

Class convention

Students use maps, document studies and research to investigate the different ways of achieving federation. They determine purposes for and means of achieving federation. Comparisons are drawn between Australian systems and the USA once they gained independence from Britain. Students then consider future proposals such as the republic debate.

Activity 2 Using maps to understand the changing boundaries of colonies in Australia provides a different approach.

TCC6.1

Students evaluate evidence from the past to demonstrate how such accounts reflect the culture in which they were constructed.

TCC6.3

Students collaboratively identify the values underlying contributions by diverse individuals and groups in Australian or Asian

environments.

BY6.2

Students produce or perform an account that links their own histories and those of others.

PS BY6.4

Students use maps and graphs that interpret data to suggest links between geographic features of places and changes occurring within these places.

CI6.4

Students describe specific instances of cultural change resulting from government legislation or policies that have impacted on other cultural groups.

TCC5.2

Students represent situations both before and after a period of rapid change.

TCC5.3

Students collaborate to locate and systematically record information about the contributions of people in diverse past settings.

PS5.4

Students use maps, diagrams and statistics to justify placing value on environments in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Economy and society

1. Identify key features of Australia’s political system at local, state and federal levels

• Describe key political structures including the constitution, the federal system, the electoral and parliamentary systems
• Describe the role of key individuals and groups within the legislative and executive branches including the head of state, the prime minister, premiers, the ministry, backbenchers and political parties.

Laws and regulations that affect states c/f nationally eg transport, corporations, small business, restrictive trade.

• No handouts for copying
• Sections 51 and 52, Australian Constitution, can be downloaded from the Stories of Democracy CD ROM.
• One Destiny CD ROM – The Ideas and Models section provides links to reasons for and against federation.
• Stories of Democracy CD ROM Begins by comparing Australia and USA, and then introduces the British system. Comparisons include symbols, pledges, buildings. In the game, students gain pieces of a jigsaw puzzle if the can match the statement to the correct country.