Learning From the News – To Cull or Not to Cull? KS4
Lesson Plan: To Cull or Not to Cull? – KS4Lesson overview: Pupils will learn about how the media presents information
Year 9, 10 and 11 Unit 9: Conventions: drawing on conventions and structures
Objectives
Pupils should learn:
· write fluently and sustain standard English in wide and varied texts and contexts, and for a range of purposes and audiences (Unit 9.1) / Outcomes
Pupils should be able to:
· understand the range of formal and informal styles used by writers, and ways to deploy them appropriately in their own writing to enhance and emphasise meaning and create a wide range of effects with task, purpose and reader in mind
Resources
· Video lesson starter:
http://www.teachers.tv/learning-from-the-news-to-cull-or-not-to-cull
· Whiteboard/ screen to watch the video
· News articles on page 2-3 of this lesson plan
Starter
· Show the video: http://teachers.tv/video/x
· Group discussion: Do the pupils already know anything about the badger culling debate? Do they understand what Tuberculosis is? (There is further information on TB on pages 4 to 5 of this lesson plan) Do they know what a cull is? There is a good summary of it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_3550000/newsid_3552500/3552512.stm
Main activity 1
· Pair work: Give each pair a print out of the different news articles about badger culling. Get them to read them. How does the content of these news reports vary? How are they different or similar to the video they watched? What kind of key words are used in the opening paragraphs? Is it clear from these news articles what the opinion is of the person who wrote them?
· Group discussion: Get each pair to feedback to the class. Now discuss the structure of information in these articles. Most of the important information is at the top of the document
· Individual work: They are going to write a short 600 word news article of their own. If you run out of time to do this in the lesson, set it as homework. Before they begin, discuss how to ensure that the reader will get all the facts first. Is it important to be balanced?
Plenary
· Review what the pupils have learned.
Lesson Plan – To Cull or Not to Cull?: KS4 Biology p.01
To Cull or Not to Cull? News stories p.02-03
Further Activities for KS4 Biology p.04
Further information sheet for KS4 Biology p.05-06
News roundup
These are the first four paragraphs of a variety of different news reports about badger culling.
CBBC Newsround, 15 September, 2010
Farmers in England may be allowed to kill badgers if new plans go ahead.
The government reckons it will help stop the spread of a disease which kills cows called tuberculosis or TB.
The number of cows with TB has increased rapidly in the past few years, and 35,000 have to be killed every year after catching the disease.
But animal rights campaigners say there's not enough proof killing badgers will work. A planned badger cull in Wales was stopped in July.
The government is also looking into other ways of stopping the spread of TB, including giving badgers special injections to stop them catching it.
The Daily Mail, 16 September 2010
Tens of thousands of badgers will be slaughtered under controversial plans to halt the spread of TB in cattle, the Government announced yesterday.
The move, which will allow farmers to shoot and trap the protected mammals in disease hotspots, was backed by landowners but condemned by animal welfare campaigners. Bovine tuberculosis - a disease carried and spread by badgers - is on the rise in the UK. It led to the destruction of 25,000 cattle last year at a cost to taxpayers of £63 million.
A mass culling was ruled out by the Labour Government after a 10 year scientific study concluded it was not a cost effective way of stopping the disease. While farmers welcomed the new plans, animal welfare campaigners said the slaughter was cruel, unfair and unnecessary.
Some scientists are also sceptical - claiming that the culling badgers will not 'meaningfully' tackle the disease in livestock. The new plans, unveiled by Agriculture minister Jim Paice, would require farmers to meet the cost of killing badgers on their land.
Wildlife Extra, September 2010
In one of their first tests on animal welfare, the coalition government has reopened the divisive issue of badger culling.
A public consultation has been launched into whether a badger cull in some areas of England should make up part of a package of measures to control bovine TB in cattle. This is despite the fact that a previous consultation showed 95% of respondents were opposed to a cull.
People have been given until Wednesday 8 December to express their views to the government.
The RSPCA remains firmly opposed to any plans for a widespread cull based on current science, welfare concerns and practicality.
The Farmers Guardian, 15 September, 2010-09-17
NFU (National Farmers Union) president Peter Kendall has hailed Defra’s plans for a licensed badger cull in England as a “significant day for thousands of cattle farmers”.
Farming and veterinary organisations have welcomed the consultation on badger control, launched by Farming Minister Jim Paice today.
Mr Kendall said it was as a ‘major step forward in the battle to control the spread of bovine TB’. “Today’s announcement sets out the government’s clear commitment to tackling this difficult issue. This is a significant day for thousands of cattle farmers. Bovine TB is out of control. The NFU has always said that in order to effectively tackle the spread of bTB we need to address the disease in both cattle and wildlife but it’s important to be clear; this is not about eradicating badgers, this is about disease control.”
He said the disease not only had a huge impact on farming businesses through movement restrictions and the slaughter of cattle, but also an “enormous emotional impact on farming families as they work to keep up with this terrible cycle of infection and re-infection”.
To Cull or Not to Cull: Further Activities
· Group work: Pupils could role play the debate. You could get one to be from the RSPC, for example, and another from The Farmers Guardian. Ask another pupil to chair the debate. Ask the rest to be the audience. Did any of them change their opinion on whether or not culling is the right decision?
Ideas for using the ‘To Cull or Not to Cull’ clip in other subjects
Biology: Year 10
· Starter: Show pupils the video on badger culling
· Main activity: Give children print outs of the information on badger culling on pages 5 and 6 of this lesson plan. Now ask the children a set of questions and ask them to write down whether or not they are ‘fact’ or ‘opinions’:
§ Badgers live in the wild
§ Badgers have black and white faces
§ TB is a disease caused by a bacterium
§ TB is a dangerous disease
§ Badgers spread TB
§ Killing badgers is always cruel
§ All farmers have problems with badgers
· Plenary: Talk about which statements the pupils thought were fact or opinion and why.
Related Teachers TV Videos
· http://www.teachers.tv/subjects/secondary/writing
· http://www.teachers.tv/subjects/secondary/biology
To Cull or Not to Cull – Further Resources
This is taken from the OCR GCSE exam booklet from June 2010-09-17
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by a bacterium. It was once a very serious human disease but the discovery of antibiotics brought the disease under control. In recent years a new strain of TB has become resistant to many antibiotics. TB is making a comeback in the UK because fewer people are being vaccinated and many people travel to the UK from countries that do not vaccinate against TB.
The human TB vaccine is not 100% successful and it does not provide lifetime immunity. Cattle and badgers can also catch TB. Vaccines for badgers and cattle do not yet exist but are being developed. It is likely that these vaccines will also not be 100% effective.
Some farmers think that badgers may provide a reservoir of infection for TB. They are worried that if their cattle get infected with TB from the badgers, their herd will have to be destroyed. They want to reduce the number of badgers to prevent them from spreading the disease. This killing of badgers is called a cull.
Some conservationists do not believe that the badgers are spreading the disease. They believe that the disease is spread when farmers move their cattle around the country to other farms and markets.
In 1998, scientists started a five-year study to answer the question “Do badgers spread TB to cattle?” They decided to cull badgers in 30 high-infection areas of the country to see if the number of cattle catching TB dropped.
The scientists divided each high-infection area into three zones:
zone 1 all badgers culled
zone 2 no badgers culled
zone 3 badgers only culled around farms that have cattle with TB.
They then monitored the number of cases of TB in cattle in each zone. Different zones gave different results, but these results also varied from one high-infection area to another. For example, in one high infection area the number of cattle with TB in zone 1 remained the same, but in another high-infection area the number of cattle with TB in zone 1 actually increased.
These results did not definitely prove that badgers spread TB. In fact, the incidence of TB in cattle increased in areas where badgers were culled. One possible explanation for this is that the surviving badgers wander much further in areas where badgers are being culled. This results in the TB being spread even more.
Some scientists think that a more effective way of reducing TB in cattle would be to have better cattle control measures such as moving cattle less often, testing cattle for TB before they are moved, quarantining purchased cattle and having more frequent TB tests.
There are different opinions about culling badgers:
Jane: “Culling badgers is cruel. I do not believe they spread TB to cattle.”
Ranjit: “The number of cattle with TB increases when badgers wander about more. This is because they are more likely to come into contact with cattle in neighbouring farms.”
Peter: “As more badgers were culled, TB in cattle on neighbouring land increased. On average, this increase was 20%.”
Stella: “I’m a farmer. If I were allowed to kill the badgers, I am sure that I could stop my cattle getting TB.”
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