Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Part A: Playing Catch Up (optional)

15 minutes

Part B: Group Brainstorm

60 minutes

Part C: Planning For Success

15 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions:

Students will...

be able to brainstorm ideas around a specific topic
be able to apply rating strategies to help them identify quality ideas
be able to use established criteria to shape creative work.

Success criteria:

Students can...

make judgments and decisions about their own ideas
plan a film using a storyboard
consider consumer perspectives when developing work for an audience.

Part A: Playing catch up

Note: If you have completed the introductory lesson with your class, you can skip Part A and move straight to Part B.

Step 1

Show the following clips to the class as an introduction to the topic of mobile phone recycling:

MobileMuster - The Recycling Journey (https://vimeo.com/mobilemuster/mobilemusterrecycle)

MobileMuster - The Benefits Of Recycling Your Phone (https://vimeo.com/mobilemuster/mobilemusterenvironment)

Step 2

Invite students to reflect on mobile phone recycling by participating in a class discussion around the following questions:

What is mobile phone recycling?
Why is mobile phone recycling important?
What are some of the reasons that people don’t recycle their mobile phones?

Step 3

Share the following information with students (also available on the Student Worksheet):

According to the United Nations all the countries in the world combined generated a staggering 44.7 million tonnes or an equivalent of 6.1 kilogram per inhabitant of e-waste annually. Only 20% of e-waste is reported to be collected and recycled globally.
Mobile phone recycling is free and easy with over 3,500 public drop off locations across Australia.
Over 99% of the resources in mobile phones can be recovered and returned to the supply chain to go back into making new products.
Recycling 50,000 mobiles saves 99 tonnes of mineral resources and 19 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
There are approximately over 25 million unused mobile phones hidden in our drawers and cupboards across Australia. Of those 5 million are broken and no longer working.
Only one in three Australians have ever recycled a mobile phone.

Reference: www.mobilemuster.com.au

Step 4

Invite students to take a moment to read and share their thoughts about these facts:

What is surprising?
What is interesting?
What do you want to know more about?

Step 5

Now, explain to students that many people want to do the right thing but have a range of reasons for not recycling their phones. Share the following list of reasons with students, explaining that these reasons come from MobileMuster, who undertook research into why people weren’t recycling their phones (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Mobile phones aren’t recycled because people ...

are keeping old phones as spares for backup in case current phones stop working or get broken
haven't got around to recycling them yet
might have old phones that are still working or might information on them that people still need
aren’t sure what to do with them
are concerned someone might access the data

Clarify the meaning of data with students. Suggested definition: Data is information about yourself or other people that is stored on your phone. It includes things like your or other people's names, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, bank details and photos.

don't know where to recycle them
didn't think of recycling their phone or they forgot about it
didn't know you could recycle mobile phones
want to give it to their friends or family
are keeping the phone for their kids.

You might like to print out the Barriers For Not Recycling Mobile Phones and put it up it somewhere the students can refer to it.

Step 6

Invite students to work in pairs to read through and discuss these reasons, using the following questions to guide their discussion (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What do you think about these reasons?
What emotions would you attribute to these reasons? (E.g. If you’re concerned about someone accessing your data, maybe you are afraid). Select one reason to analyse.
How would you encourage someone with one of these reasons to recycle their phone? Select two or three reasons and discuss with your partner.

Allow students time to discuss their ideas.

Part B: Group brainstorm

Step 1

Explain to students that they will be making a short film aimed at improving recycling rates in their community. This film can be entered into the MobileMuster Film Competition for a change to win a JB Hi-Fi voucher valued at $5,000 to be shared amongst the school and students. Finalists will receive movie vouchers and representatives (up to two students) will also win a trip to Sydney for the screening and industry experience day workshops.

Review the details of the competition with students, especially noting:

"Your one minute film must encourage the community to recycle their mobile phones through the MobileMuster program.
It can be live action, stop-motion, picture story or a combination.
Any genre can be used – documentary, comedy, musical, horror, romance, sci-fi."

Explain to students that the theme of this competition is; 'Small actions. Big impact'.

Write this statement on the board or print and display it on a wall where all students can see it.

Step 2

You will now guide students through a group brainstorm activity. Explain to students that in the brainstorm, they will be exploring ideas for improving recycling rates in their community. These ideas should be based around the theme; 'Small actions. Big impact'.

When generating ideas, students might find it useful to remember the reasons people have for not recycling their phones.

You might like to assign each group one reason from the list you explored earlier OR create groups based around the reason that interests individual students most.

Step 3

Give each group a piece of butcher’s paper and each student a marker pen or coloured pencil. Students should stand around the tables rather than sit in their chairs as this encourages more creative thinking.

Step 4

Explain to students that they will work in their groups to come up with as many different ideas for addressing their reason as possible in five minutes. The ideas can be as abstract and off-the-wall as students like. The aim is to have as many ideas as possible, with a view to being able to choose one that can be developed, refined and turned into a short film.

Rules for Ideation

• There are no bad ideas - be open.
• Don't sensor anything, it might spark something great.
• Build on the ideas of others and take it further.
• Listen to each other and don't interrupt.
• Drawing your ideas is as good as writing them.
• Aim for a huge quantity of ideas and then out-do it.

For younger students, you could conduct this activity as a 'quick draw'. The students work quickly to draw everything that comes to mind relating the theme.

Step 5

Before starting the five-minute countdown, ask students to write the reason for not recycling that they chose/were assigned on the top of their piece of paper, if relevant.

Explain to students that they should:

Write everything down as fast as possible on the butcher's paper.
Work fast because they only have five minutes and they need 50 ideas.
Be inspired by what their peers are writing – this is a collaborative brainstorm!
Do not discuss the ideas at this stage – just get them recorded.
Do not censor or say 'no' to anything during this process.

Step 6

Start the timer, allowing for five minutes, calling out "ready, set, go"!

You could project a countdown of five minutes using this online stopwatch or similar.

Give time markers as they progress: "Three minutes left! Two minutes! One minute left!".
Call out "STOP!" once the timer reaches zero.
Make sure all students put their markers down as soon as the five minutes is finished.

Step 7

Get students to count how many responses they came up with and write each group's number on the board. Add them up to find a whole class figure and reflect on how much can get done in five minutes.

Part C: Planning for success

Step 1

Allow students a few minutes to clarify or explain any ideas further with their groups.

Then, invite each student to read and rate the ideas by:

Drawing a star next to the idea they think is the most creative.
Drawing a smiley face next to the idea that they like best.
Drawing a tick next to the idea that matches what they are trying to achieve (remind students of the theme; 'Small actions. Big impact').

Step 2

Explain to groups that they now need to choose one idea, that they can develop into a film, by considering the stars, smiley faces, and ticks.

Now would be a good time to discuss the Guidelines of the MobileMuster Film Competition. Also, ensure all students have access to the Assessment Matrix so they can ensure their videos will meet the Judging Criteria.

Step 3

Once they have selected an idea, allow the groups to spend some time working together to refine their idea, thinking about the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet under 'Film Concept Design'):

What is your idea? What will happen in this film?
What genre of film is this idea most suited to and why?
How will this idea address the theme of the film competition; 'Small actions. Big impact'?
What will be your 'call to action'? (What action will the audience be asked to take?)

For students who completed the introductory Years 3 & 4 lesson, Interviews On Recycling, remind them to incorporate some of the data or audio/video materials they collected from their interviews. For students who completed the introductory Years 5 & 6 lesson, Changing Behaviour, their film can also incorporate the three steps for behaviour change they learned about in The Elephant And The Rider video. These steps do not need to be explicit; instead they should support viewers to change their behaviour, using the identified process. You might like to provide students with The Elephant And The Rider Factsheet or stick it up on the wall for them to refer to.

Step 4

Provide each group with a copy of the Film Making Tips and the Storyboard Sheet to guide them through this process of planning their film. Explain that storyboarding means visually planning a film. Students will need to sketch out scenes from their film showing characters and events. Add ideas for visuals and audio (such as dialogue, music or sound effects).

Students might like to jot short scenes down on sticky notes or small pieces of paper first, so they can re-arrange them easily to develop a flow for their film.Step 5. Explain to students that they will be creating a rough draft of their ideas that they will share with their peers.

Step 5

Allow students plenty of time to work on their storyboards.

At this point, students don’t need to begin filming; the aim of creating a draft is to flesh out their ideas for the film. They might like to develop a brief script that can be read out along with displaying the storyboard.

Step 6

Allow each group to present their plans and provide feedback to their peers on how their film ideas could be improved. You might like to team up groups to share with each other or do a whole-class sharing, so that you can more easily review concepts and guide constructive feedback.

Some suggested points to consider when assessing the work of peers could include (available on the Student Worksheet – these can also be used to guide students in planning their films):

Will this film address the film competition criteria (e.g. rules and theme)?
Does this film inspire people to make change? Does it help to address one of the reasons that people have for not recycling mobile phones?
Does this film include some factual information or statistics (where relevant)?
Does this film make sense?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of this film and how could this film be improved?
Does this film engage the viewers' emotions? Does it incorporate the three steps for behaviour change (where relevant)?

When providing feedback, remind students to be kind, helpful and specific:

Tips for providing feedback

• Be kind. It can be difficult to share your ideas with other people, so make sure you remain kind and supportive.
• Be specific - Be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying 'I like your story', say something like 'I like the way you set the scene by describing the characters in such detail.'
• Be helpful - Try not to just say what is strong or weak, but also make suggestions about how things could be improved.

Step 7

Once planning is complete, allow students time to consider and incorporate feedback before beginning filming.

Part D: Production

Step 1

Before creating their short films, encourage students to consider the following:

What resources (props, etc.) will we need?
Who will need to be involved? What tasks are there and who will complete these tasks?
What permissions (model releases, copyright, etc.) do we need and how can we get these?
Where do we need help from our teacher?

It is recommended that students gain final approval for their idea from the teacher before they begin filming.

Step 2

Provide plenty of time, opportunity and relevant resources for students to create their films.

Some useful equipment might include:

Lights, lamps or torches
A 'green-screen' (this can be made from any green fabric - make sure it is ironed
Plasticine - useful for claymation
Tablets/iPads or other recording and editing devices
Craft equipment for designing images, puppets, signs or costume elements

Students may find it useful to write a script. You might like to give them a copy of these Script Writing Tips to help them along.

Step 3

Remind students to check their films against the MobileMuster Film Competition Judging Criteria and Assessment Matrix and make any necessary changes to their film.

Step 4

Submit your entries by midday AEST on Monday 23 September 2019 by uploading your film/s to Vimeo as a private video and completing the online entry form via the MobileMuster Film Competition website.

The entry form requires you to provide the Vimeo password for, or private link to, the film and to upload a minimum of three still images from your film.

You will also need to make sure you have all signed consent forms (required for anyone appearing in the film). You will need to keep the original copies of these forms.

Good luck!

Reflection

Step 1

A whole-school approach to understanding and taking positive action in the local community isn't just about what happens in the classroom or school, but importantly, also how it involves the wider community. Furthermore, an important part of real-world learning such as in this project, is the opportunity for students to present what they learn throughout the project in a public arena. Plan for groups to share their films with the school or a section of the school.

Step 2

Invite students to work independently to complete the following reflection questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Was our film a success? Why or why not?
How will our film help to address the theme; 'Small actions. Big impact'?
What parts of our project were the most successful and why?
What parts were the least successful and why? How would we improve these parts?
How could we extend or continue our ideas around mobile phone recycling in our community?

Student self-reflection

How did I work in the group?
What would I do differently next time?
What was the best part of working on this project and why?
What was the worst part and why?
What am I most proud of?

Differentiated Learning

Opportunities for Extension

Students might like to interview consumers about their recycling choices and what they do with their old mobile phones.
Students might like to share the video with community members or publish it through social media channels (provided all copyright requirements and model releases are completed).

Provisions for Learning Support

The value of developing group creative works is that there are number of roles required to make it a success. In film-making, students can take on a variety of useful roles within their group, and these can be carefully thought through and tailored to specific students. Consider students needs and learning styles when it comes to things like: leadership, performing or public speaking, planning and record keeping, communication and collaboration, technologies, craft and design.

MobileMuster film competition

Submit your film that encourages the community to recycle their old mobile phones at www.mobilemuster.com.au/competition.

Designing for Film

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