HASS · Year 6

Active learning ideas

Australia's Role in World War I

Active learning works for this topic because students need to grasp the human scale of the Great Depression rather than just memorize dates. When they handle real budget figures or examine photographs of families in the 1930s, they connect emotionally to the economic collapse and its impact on daily life.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9HASS6K02

• 30–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Simulation Game
• 40 min · Pairs

Simulation Game: The Great Depression Budget

Pairs are given a limited number of 'tokens' representing a family's weekly susso. They must decide how to allocate them across food, rent, and medicine, experiencing the difficult trade-offs families faced.

Analyze how Australia's participation in World War I contributed to a distinct national identity.

Facilitation Tip

During the Simulation: The Great Depression Budget, circulate with a checklist to ensure all students calculate their household’s income and expenses accurately before they present their choices to the class.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'How did fighting in a war far from home, alongside British and other Empire forces, help shape a unique Australian identity?' Facilitate a class discussion, encouraging students to reference specific events or concepts like the Anzac legend and mateship.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Gallery Walk
• 30 min · Individual

Gallery Walk: Images of the 1930s

Display photos of 'shanty towns' (Happy Valleys), men 'jumping the rattler' (trains), and soup kitchens. Students use post-it notes to record their observations and questions about how people maintained their dignity.

Explain the origins and enduring significance of the Anzac legend.

Facilitation Tip

During the Gallery Walk: Images of the 1930s, set a 3-minute timer at each station so students have time to annotate key observations on their graphic organizer without rushing.

What to look for

Provide students with a Venn diagram template. Ask them to compare and contrast the experiences of soldiers at Gallipoli versus those on the Western Front, listing at least three distinct points for each side and any shared elements in the overlapping section.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 03

• Inquiry Circle
• 50 min · Small Groups

Inquiry Circle: The Bridge and the Dole

Small groups research how projects like the Great Ocean Road or the Sydney Harbour Bridge provided jobs. They create a 'news report' explaining how these projects helped the national spirit.

Compare the experiences of Australian soldiers on the Western Front with those at Gallipoli.

Facilitation Tip

During the Collaborative Investigation: The Bridge and the Dole, assign each group a role—historian, economist, or worker—to ensure every voice contributes to the final argument about whether the Sydney Harbour Bridge justified its cost.

What to look for

On a small card, ask students to write two sentences explaining why the Anzac legend is still important in Australia today, and one sentence identifying a key difference between fighting at Gallipoli and fighting on the Western Front.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Self-Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers approach this topic by grounding abstract economic data in lived experience. Pairing statistical graphs with personal letters or diary entries makes the scale of unemployment real. Avoid presenting the Depression as a distant event; instead, connect it to students’ own communities by asking where local infrastructure projects like bridges or schools were built during the 1930s. Research shows that role-play and collaborative investigations increase empathy and retention when studying economic crises.

Successful learning looks like students explaining how Australia’s reliance on primary exports made the Depression worse and describing how infrastructure projects provided short-term work. They should also articulate how ‘susso’ payments kept families alive even as unemployment peaked.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Gallery Walk: Images of the 1930s, watch for students who assume the Depression was only an American problem.

  Remind students to compare the global unemployment graphs posted at the final station with the Australian data on their worksheets, prompting them to note that Australia’s rural exports made the crisis worse here than in many other countries.

• During the Simulation: The Great Depression Budget, watch for students who blame individuals for their poverty.

  Use the debrief to highlight the budget choices: ask students to report how many applied for jobs that did not exist and how many families had no choice but to cut meals, making it clear unemployment was structural, not personal.

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Methods used in this brief

• Simulation Game
• Gallery Walk
• Inquiry Circle