On this page:
- Background
- Objectives
- Contents
- Example Activities
- User Review
- FAQ
- Borrowing the Kit
- Enquiries & Feedback
BACKGROUND
Anticipating that there could be a shortage of specifically designed integrated resource materials available when the Integrated Studies curriculum commenced in April 2002, the AJF, through consultation with Japanese educationalists, commissioned the production of the Experience AustraliaIntegrated Studies Kit.
The Kit's pedagogy encourages children to explore, challenge and question across a variety of disciplines, and to search out more themselves on various aspects of Australian life and culture. It includes teachers' guides in Japanese and English, making it easy for both Japanese and foreign teachers to use, and can be used in classes including integrated studies, English language, international education, social studies, science, music and physical education.
OBJECTIVES
- to give Japanese students access to everyday examples of Australian life and culture
- to increase students' knowledge of contemporary Australian lifestyles, culture, geography and natural resources
- to encourage students to investigate aspects of Australia
- to provide model teaching materials compiled from an integrated studies perspective that will assist Japanese teachers in the development of further curriculum in this subject area
- to provide teachers with interesting and practical items from Australia that can be used as teaching aids.
CONTENTS
Experience Australia contains items that are familiar to Australian children and in many cases would be used by them. All items aim to project images of contemporary Australia. The Kit also includes lessons plans in both English and Japanese to assist teachers to get the most out of the set and assist team teaching.
| THEME | ITEMS |
|---|---|
| School Life | School uniforms and hat, textbooks, lunchbox, school timetable, school photo |
| Australian Animals | Photo cards, readers (E&J), puppets |
| Trees and Plants in Australia | Photo panels, eucalyptus oil |
| Aboriginal culture | Aboriginal art sample, boomerang, reader on aboriginal art, flag |
| Food culture | Recipes |
| Music | CD and song book |
| Sport | Kanga Cricket Set |
| Australian history/culture | Australian currency set, maps, flag |
EXAMPLE ACTIVITIES
The Kit contains a huge range of worksheets and suggested activities that bring alive the contents. Here are just a few of them:
- How to make a boomerang and fly it
- Let's cook chocolate crackles, Aussie hamburgers and ANZACs
- Painting your own aboriginal-style picture
- Let's play Kanga cricket
- Role plays with Australian animal puppets
- School life in Australia quiz
- "Meat-pie"maths puzzles
- Australian animal bingo
USER REVIEW
As part of my job as a Coordinator for International Relations for the JET Programme, I am often asked to conduct elementary school visits.
At first, I was anxious as to how I would be able to explain with clarity and induce an interest in the students about various aspects of my country.
The "Experience Australia" Educational Kit has been an extremely valuable and indispensable resource. The kit covers a wide variety of topics beneficial in introducing aspects of Australia that can not be learnt through textbooks and teacher monologue alone. It truly provides the opportunity for the Japanese students to "experience" Australia.
At first, my students were shy to self-introduce themselves to me in English but keen and confident to introduce themselves to the Aussie animal puppets. The cricket set gave them the opportunity to "feel" the game rather than just watch it. I found the lunch box/drink bottle to be most useful in describing the difference in Australian and Japanese lunch times.
I was also able to adapt the "school lesson" to suit my adult English class participants. They loved the school uniforms so much that one of the ladies begged me to let her try it on.
The "Experience Australia" Educational Kit is an excellent teaching aide that I can highly recommend to those hoping to increase awareness and understanding of Australia in the classroom.
June 2003
Ashley Brooks
Coordinator for International Relations,
Nishinoshima Town, Shimane
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. How big is the kit?
It is delivered to you in a cricket bag (size: 40 cm wide x 90 cm long x 40 cm deep), which contains all of the kit materials.
2. Can the kit be used in schools other than primary schools?
While the kit is designed for use by primary school students, it is actually being used by many junior and senior high schools, and even kindergartens, universities, and international cultural exchange organisations. It is mostly made up of real Australian items, thus, allowing everyone from children to adults to become familiar with Australian culture. The work sheets can be used with students in the lower years of primary school through to junior high school students (and even some senior high school students).
ENQUIRIES & FEEDBACK
For further information and enquiries contact us at:
Email: [email protected]