Infographic project - Australian Indigenous populations

Years 7/8
Design and Technology

Suggested duration: Two lessons

Summary

In this project, students will design an infographic for a fictional app that presents population distribution data and other statistics drawn from The Little Red Yellow Black Book. The infographic will target a particular audience to communicate specific information simply and efficiently, and will consider a set of criteria by which they can evaluate the success of their design.

Before the 1967 Referendum we were not counted as people, but listed as ‘flora and fauna’. We were first counted as a discrete population in the national 1971 Census, and since then an increasing number of people have identified as Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander (The Little Red Yellow Black Book,p.52).

Learning outcomes

• Students will be able to design an infographic for a targeted audience which presents data sets on Indigenous populations in Australia.

Australian Curriculum content descriptions

Years 7 and 8 Design and Technologies

• Generate, develop, test and communicate design ideas, plans and processes for various audiences using appropriate technical terms and technologies including graphical representation techniques (ACTDEP036).
• Independently develop criteria for success to evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions and their sustainability (ACTDEP038).

Provisions for differentiation

Learning support

Students with special learning needs may wish to present an oral description of their ideas rather than a detailed written plan.

Extension

Students could test out their ICT skills and create the piece that they have described in this project.

Resources

• Activity worksheet (PDF)
• A3 paper - one sheet per student
• The Little Red Yellow Black Book - an introduction to Indigenous Australia (4th edition), ‘How we live’, Aboriginal Studies Press, AIATSIS, Canberra, 2018, pp 52-54.

For teachers

Ensure that the guidance notes included in The Little Red Yellow Black Book teacher resource have been considered.

Vocabulary

• Colonisation
• Census
• Self-identifying

Preparation: Copies of the Activity worksheet. Ensure students have access to copies of The Little Red Yellow Black Book (4th Edition).

Step 1.

Distribute the Activity worksheet and the A3 paper. Direct students to read pp 52-54 of The Little Red Yellow Black Book. Discuss the information presented in the reading.

Step 2.

Walk students through the instructions on the Activity worksheet and discuss some preliminary ideas for the presentation of various sets of data from the source material. Write the following points on the whiteboard in order to make it easier for the students to organise the data. They must include each of the following areas of data in their design:

• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population at the time of colonisation is estimated to be around 500,000 people.
• Between the 2001-2006 censuses, people identifying as Indigenous Australians increased by 11 per cent.
• Between the 2006-2011 censuses, people identifying as Indigenous Australians increased by 20.5 per cent.
• Between the 2011-2016 censuses, people identifying as Indigenous Australians increased by 18.4 per cent.
• The 2016 census counted 649,200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which represents 2.8% of the population of Australia.
• The Australian Indigenous population is projected to increase at an annual growth rate of 2.2% up to the year 2021.
• The Australian Indigenous population has a median age of 23 years compared with 38 for the rest of Australia.
• 30% of the Australian Indigenous population live in regional areas; the remaining 70% live in urban areas.

Step 3.

Assign the lesson for students to complete the task and offer individual assistance where necessary.

Assessment ideas

• App marked according to the instructions
• Self-evaluation answers to be collected