Aims:
- To encourage students to consider how land fits amongst other lifestyle priorities
- To explore similarities and differences in values and attitudes within the class group and between different cultures
- To explore how people meet needs in different ways
- To develop speaking and listening skills through group discussion
- To develop skills of cooperation through reaching group consensus
Materials required:
- A copy of student sheet 1.1, student sheet1.2 and student sheet 1.3 for each group
- scissors
- A large sheet of paper for each group
What to do:
- Divide the class into groups, and provide each group with a set of priority cards (student sheet1.1.1) and an importance grid (student sheet 1.1.2). Ask each group to consider the different lifestyle priorities and then decide as a group where they would place the cards on the grid based on what is important to them and their lives. However, only 5 cards can be placed in the ‘most important’ section, 7 in the fairly important section and 7 in the least important section.
- After a few minutes when all groups have decided on their five most important priorities, come back together as a class and ask each group to list the priorities they have put in the most important section and why. Record responses on a flipchart or on the board.
- Discuss the similarities and differences between the ways in which groups have ranked their priorities.
- Provide each group with a copy of the importance sheet(student sheet 1.1.3) completed by a subsistence farmer in Africa and ask the class to compare it to their own sheet, identifying similarities and differences.
- Ask students which priorities were similar to theirs and which were different,and discuss the possible reasons for these differences.
- This should lead on to a discussion about how the needs of subsistence farmers in developing countries are met, and how this differs from the way our needs are met here in Scotland. For example: where our food and water comes from, how we build our homes, how we make our money etc.
- Encourage students to think about the relationship between land and some of the other basic needs, and how one is often dependent on the other. If you took land away, how would it affect the basic needs of different communities?
Note: this activity can also be used collaboratively to explore similarities and differences in and attitudes between your school and a partner school.
From www.onthelandwestand.org.uk adapted from an original activity in Final Frontiers, Leeds DEC
