Humanities and Social Sciences · Year 9

Active learning ideas

Trench Warfare & New Technologies

This topic challenges students to confront difficult truths about Australia’s military history, and active learning helps them engage with these ideas honestly. Students move from abstract facts to concrete stories, which makes the injustices and complexities of Indigenous service more meaningful and memorable.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9H9K05

• 25–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Inquiry Circle
• 50 min · Small Groups

Inquiry Circle: Indigenous Anzac Stories

Groups research a specific Indigenous soldier (e.g., Douglas Grant or the Lovett brothers). They create a 'digital biography' that highlights their service and their life after the war.

Analyze how new technologies transformed the nature of warfare on the Western Front.

Facilitation Tip

During Collaborative Investigation, assign each group a different Indigenous soldier’s enlistment record to build a collective timeline that highlights patterns of resistance and perseverance.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Which technological innovation had the greatest impact on the nature of trench warfare, and why?' Ask students to support their arguments with specific examples of how the technology was used and its effects on soldiers and battle outcomes.

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

Activity 02

• Gallery Walk
• 40 min · Pairs

Gallery Walk: Equality in the Trenches?

Display quotes from Indigenous and white soldiers about their time together in the war. Students move in pairs to identify evidence of 'mateship' versus evidence of ongoing racism.

Explain the psychological and physical toll of trench warfare on soldiers.

Facilitation Tip

For the Gallery Walk, place primary sources (photos, letters, service records) next to student-generated responses to foster immediate connections between evidence and interpretation.

What to look for

Provide students with a short primary source excerpt describing life in the trenches (e.g., a letter from a soldier). Ask them to identify three specific challenges or dangers mentioned and explain how at least one new technology of WWI contributed to those challenges.

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

Activity 03

• Think-Pair-Share
• 25 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: The Return Home

Students compare the benefits given to white veterans versus Indigenous veterans. They discuss in pairs how this treatment affected Indigenous communities and share their thoughts.

Compare the effectiveness of offensive and defensive strategies in the trenches.

Facilitation Tip

In Think-Pair-Share, ask students to first reflect individually on a return visit home scenario before discussing with a partner to ensure deeper processing of systemic discrimination.

What to look for

On an index card, have students write one sentence explaining the primary defensive advantage of machine guns in trench warfare and one sentence describing a significant psychological toll of living in the trenches.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should balance the emotional weight of this topic with rigorous sourcing. Use Indigenous-authored or co-created resources when possible, and acknowledge gaps in records respectfully. Model how to read silence in sources—explaining why some stories are missing—and guide students to ask whose voices might be missing from official narratives. Avoid turning this into a purely inspirational story; keep the focus on structural inequality and resistance.

Students will explain how systemic barriers shaped Indigenous enlistment and treatment, compare wartime equality with post-war exclusion, and use evidence to argue its impact on lives. They will demonstrate empathy while maintaining historical accuracy in their discussions.

---

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Collaborative Investigation, watch for students assuming Indigenous men could not enlist at all.

  Use enlistment records from the activity to highlight cases where Indigenous men enlisted by omitting cultural details or identifying as another ethnicity, and ask students to identify patterns in the records.

• During Gallery Walk, watch for students believing Indigenous soldiers received equal treatment after the war.

  Have students use the comparison chart of veteran benefits in the activity to note discrepancies, such as exclusion from RSLs or land grants, and ask them to explain how these gaps reflect ongoing systemic discrimination.

---

Methods used in this brief

• Inquiry Circle
• Gallery Walk
• Think-Pair-Share