Westport kids are often made to feel like crap because they live in coal mining. In this assignment I designed a lesson to start getting kids thinking differently about coal, their history and their identity.

1. A/Os and 1/Os Learning Experiences Resources
Children will be able to: Motivation / Introduction
Outline the major events (road Children think-pair-share:
transport and incline shutting Why did Denniston turn into a ghost town?
down) that led to Dermiston What could be making towns like Granity, Hector and Ngakawau get smaller?
becoming a ghost town. What happens to coal when it is burnt?
What could be put in place to help get rid of coal bi-products?
Give examples of coal bi-
product (smoke and ashes) dis- Lesson Development
posal technologies in their Children think of both lessons and in jigsaw groups of first two activities work with de Bono's hats to con-
own community (Cape Foul- sider issues — both the following questions and their own learning points
wind Cement works) . White What are the facts we know?
What are the issues connected to these facts for Westport! Karamea / Granity people?
Green What are the good points of technological changes (both in mining and in bi-product
disposal)?
Black What are the bad points both in mining, consumption and technological changes?
Red How do people feel when technological changes occur?
Yellow How could these problems be changed in a creative way?
Blue What learning has our group done?
Where to from here with our learning?
What other things do we depend upon in our community for jobs?
e. g. What could happen if the cement works shut down?
One group joins with another and shares answers and issues — children choose a position (one group for
and one group against) and spend five minutes in small jigsaw group discussing points to debate and focus
on.
Class debate time - three / four debates with six! eight groups. I.e. two groups debate at one time with
the rest of the class observing — debates are to last five minutes each (at the most)
Conclusion
Each child writes a statement in topic book on the issues and opinions of the community, employers and
scientists regarding that issue.