Civics & Citizenship · Year 6

Active learning ideas

New Challenges, New Laws: Adapting to Change

Active learning is essential here because students must move from abstract ideas to concrete problem-solving, designing laws that respond to real-world changes. By creating rules for emerging technologies or sports, students experience firsthand how laws evolve to meet new needs, making the topic tangible and memorable.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9HASS6K03

• 35–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Jigsaw
• 45 min · Small Groups

Jigsaw: Tech Challenges

Assign each small group a new invention like drones or VR gaming. They research potential risks and hypothesize needed laws, using provided articles. Groups then teach their findings to the class jigsaw-style, compiling a shared list of proposed regulations.

Hypothesize how emerging technologies or social trends might create a need for new regulations.

Facilitation Tip

During Jigsaw Research: Tech Challenges, assign each group a different technology so they become experts and teach peers, ensuring diverse perspectives are shared.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine a new type of drone that can deliver packages directly to people's balconies. What new rule might be needed to ensure safety, and why?' Facilitate a class discussion, encouraging students to justify their proposed rules.

• Understand
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Relationship Skills
• Self-Management

Activity 02

• Problem-Based Learning
• 35 min · Pairs

Rule Design Workshop: Online Safety

In pairs, students identify an online issue such as cyberbullying or data sharing. They draft a new law with clear rules, penalties, and rationale, then present posters to the class for feedback and voting.

Design a new rule to address a contemporary challenge, such as online safety.

Facilitation Tip

In Rule Design Workshop: Online Safety, provide students with real-world examples of online harm to ground their rule ideas in evidence.

What to look for

Provide students with a scenario: 'A popular new online game allows players to create and share their own virtual worlds. What is one potential problem that could arise, and what is one rule that could help prevent it?' Students write their answers on a slip of paper.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 03

• Problem-Based Learning
• 40 min · Small Groups

Critique Carousel: Law Gaps

Set up stations with case studies on existing laws versus new tech, like e-scooters under bike rules. Small groups rotate, critiquing effectiveness and suggesting improvements, recording ideas on shared charts.

Critique the effectiveness of existing rules in addressing novel situations.

Facilitation Tip

During Critique Carousel: Law Gaps, rotate students in timed stations to analyze specific laws, building their ability to identify inconsistencies quickly.

What to look for

Present students with a list of existing laws (e.g., laws about noise pollution, laws about public spaces). Ask them to identify which of these laws might be insufficient to address a new situation, like a large public drone exhibition, and explain their reasoning.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 04

• Problem-Based Learning
• 50 min · Whole Class

Mock Parliament Debate: New Sports

Divide the class into teams representing government, public, and experts. Debate rules for a hypothetical extreme sport, with structured turns for proposals and rebuttals, ending in a class vote.

Hypothesize how emerging technologies or social trends might create a need for new regulations.

Facilitation Tip

In Mock Parliament Debate: New Sports, assign roles (e.g., lawmakers, sport representatives) to deepen engagement with democratic processes.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine a new type of drone that can deliver packages directly to people's balconies. What new rule might be needed to ensure safety, and why?' Facilitate a class discussion, encouraging students to justify their proposed rules.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should emphasize the iterative nature of law-making by having students revise their rules based on peer feedback or new information. Avoid presenting laws as static; instead, highlight how community input and unforeseen consequences shape legal changes. Research shows that role-playing and design tasks deepen understanding of systemic processes like this better than lectures.

Successful learning looks like students confidently proposing and justifying rules for unfamiliar situations and recognizing gaps between current laws and societal changes. They should articulate why some laws adapt while others fall short, using evidence from their activities.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Rule Design Workshop: Online Safety, watch for students who assume rules can eliminate all online risks entirely.

  Use the workshop to emphasize trade-offs, such as how stricter age verification might limit access for younger users, by having groups compare their proposed rules to real-world trade-offs.

• During Jigsaw Research: Tech Challenges, watch for students who believe new technologies automatically require new laws.

  After groups present their tech challenges, ask them to identify which issues could be addressed by existing laws, using their research materials to justify their reasoning.

• During Mock Parliament Debate: New Sports, watch for students who think laws are created only by politicians without public input.

  In the debate, require each team to include a step where they consult community stakeholders, using role-play to demonstrate how public input shapes law-making.

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Methods used in this brief

• Jigsaw
• Problem-Based Learning