Trees and Economics: The Accountant's Advocacy

Middle  Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Information and Communication Technology Capability
Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking

Australian Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability Priority

Cooperative Learning Activity

Teacher

This activity could be used for Ecology or looking at the economics of urban planning or for carbon offsets in rural regions.

Introduction: Scenario

You are to be "an Accountant" working at the Council. You are to attend a Council meeting to inform the Councillors of the economic benefit that trees have to the Council.

You are to develop a presentation - written notes and a PPT - to inform the Council. This presentation should be between 5 - 10 minutes in length.

1. In groups of 4 - 5 students, read the following articles: 

Economic Value of Trees

The value of trees in urban areas

Tales by Trees: Do Living Trees Have Economic Value? [USA]

ABC Landline 26 February 2023

2. Together create a Mind Map of the ideas express here and then convert the ideas into a presentation. One student is to exclude themselves from the creation of the presentation and become a "Devil's Advocate". The D'sA is to create 10 hard hitting questions as if they were the Councillors.

3. Use Mind Meister to create the mindmap.

4. Role play the presentation and the questioning.

The Bank, the Sergeant and his bonus: What does History tell us about Accountancy in Australia?

Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Ethical Understanding

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

Australian Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

Cooperative Learning Activity

1. As a group of 4 - 5 students, read the following article from The Conversation 5 December 2018

Write down 10 dot points between you that you all agree on as interesting.

2. Part of the article is a 31min audio file from the History Lab published on 28 November 2018.

As a group, listen to the audio file [you will go to another website to hear this audio].

What further information did you get from this audio file? Add to your dot points.

3. How was Macquarie presented in this History Lab audio file? Do you all agree with this assessment?

4. Sergeant Jeremiah Murphy is at the centre of this history.

Sergeant Jeremiah Murphy holds the unique place in Australian commercial history as being the first person in Australia (whose affairs were recorded as a ledger account prepared within a double-entry accounting system). His bank deposit on 5 April 1817 was the first deposit taken by the Bank of New South Wales. (Source: R.Craig Jeremiah Murphy: Bank Account 1" Australian CPA, December 1998, pp. 68 - 9)

What was mysterious about this deposit? Why is this finding important today?

5. As a group, you are to create two of the following:

a. A poem about Sergeant Jeremiah Murphy and his deposit
b. A replica of the Holey Dollar (in papier mache or wood)
c. A report from Macquarie requesting the commencement of a bank
d. A letter or song from an Aboriginal Elder describing the massacre at Government Provision Depot at Cox's Road in 1816
e. A timeline of the events [history] leading up to the deposit of Jeremiah's money

Sweatshops and Child Labor WebQuest Middle  Secondary Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability Australian Curriculum General Capability: Ethical Understanding Teachers will need to research for more up to date resources at this WQ was created in 2014