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Teach and plan through Civics and Citizenship concepts.

Description

Activity

This deck of cards can be used for multiple activities to teach Civics and Citizenship through concepts. These cards refer to a civics and citizenship concept wheel:

Example activities with students:

As a class, do an exercise to define the overall wheel themes, e.g. equity, governance. Then allocate the cards and ask each student to define the concept underneath each theme.

Pick out a concept card, then find a news article from that day that shows the concept in action.

Pick out a concept card, then describe how it links to two other subjects at school.

Look at texts, videos, news articles or works of art, and draw concept cards one at a time until you make a collection of all the concepts you can see in that work.

Example activities with other teachers:

Support cross-curricular Civics & Citizenship implementation by using the card themes to link to other subject areas.

Plan lessons around individual concepts.

Staff meeting thought exercises - teachers draw a card and explain how the concept is seen in their subject.

Duration

Various.

Preparation Required

1. Print the instruction page (or refer to it online) for ways to use with students and teachers.

2. To create a deck of cards, print the remaining sheets A4 landscape and slice in half. You'll end up with a deck of A5 sized cards.

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Civics and Citizenship Concept Cards - Parliament of South Australia

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Teach and plan civics and citizenship through conceptual ideas using these interactive cards.

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Civics and Citizenship Resources for the Permanent Collection

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Civics and Citizenship Resources for the Permanent Collection

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Our resources and programs for teachers and students are framed around capability building, not just content delivery. We want all young people to be visually and media literate, have the ability to analyse and inquire, deconstruct, think critically, evaluate and have empathy for others.

We have compiled a selection of resources about artists and works of art in our collection that provide starting points for teachers to introduce civics and citizenship concepts to students.

Governance is a vital part of civics and citizenship education, and probably the first thing you and your students think of when hearing this topic. However, it is more than governance. Civics and citizenship education is about understanding broader values such as respect, civility, equity, justice, responsibility, diversity and identity in contemporary society. This cross-curriculum priority is also about learning how individuals and groups (including artists) can influence civic life and developing skills, values and dispositions that enable students to become active and informed citizens.

The Australian Curriculum acknowledges the experiences and contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and their identities within contemporary Australia. While the curriculum strongly focuses on the Australian context, students also reflect on Australia's position and international obligations and the role of citizens today, both within Australian and in an interconnected world.

In creating this suite of resources, we have used the 'Civics and Citizenship Concept Wheel' created by Malcolm McInerney (Lecturer/ HaSS Curriculum Advisor at University of South Australia, 2020), as a way of connecting civics and citizenship concepts to works of art.

The individual artist resources you will discover below provide contextual information about each artist, their works of art and provocations for making and responding activities in the classroom that make links to the Australian Curriculum and the Civics and Citizenship Concept Wheel.

More

We encourage you to engage with the Education Team at Parliament of South Australia for programs, tours and resources on understanding Australia's system of government. This includes how people choose their governments, how the system safeguards democracy and how laws and the legal system protect people's rights.

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Civics and Citizenship - Radical Textiles

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Programs for Schools at Parliament House

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Programs for Schools at Parliament House

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R-12 Schools & Homeschool - Parliament of South Australia

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Discover the different programs available to R-12 Schools & Homeschool to tour and learn about Parliamentary processes.

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Subscribe to our
Teacher Newsletter

Sign up for updates from the Community Education Office. We email each term with an overview of what is coming up in the R-12 parliamentary education space, including professional learning opportunities, student programs, and new teaching resources.

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Resources - Parliament of South Australia

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Sign up for updates from the Community Education Office. We email each term with an overview of what is coming up in the R-12 parliamentary education space, including professional learning opportunities, student programs, and new teaching resources.

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The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Curiosity Cards promote critical and creative thinking and encourage 'long looking', resulting in students actively engaging with works of art, with ideas and with each other. The questions provide students with an alternative 'way in' to a work of art, sparking their curiosity and developing their confidence in responding to visual information. Some questions require a quick response, and so are great icebreakers for all students to have an opportunity to share, while other questions are designed to stimulate extended activities and could be completed in pairs or small groups.

A self-guided visit can often be a daunting experience with students seeing works of art in situ, sometimes for the first time. The Curiosity Cards assist you to plan a visit to a gallery, without the pressure of disseminating content in the exhibition space. Rather, slow down the gallery experience by providing opportunities for students to make connections and respond, emphasising that every student's opinion is acknowledged and valid.

Outcomes

Provide alternative ways in to a work of art.

Experience long looking to develop visual literacy.

Improve critical and creative thinking skills.

Increase confidence when talking about works of art and suggesting ideas.

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52 prompts to spark curiosity about art, ideas and the world

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Patricia Piccinini is one of Australia's leading contemporary artists. She was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and arrived in Australia in 1972 with her family. She initially studied economic history before enrolling at art school in Melbourne. After studying painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, she rapidly established a reputation for her work dealing with topical social issues, especially those concerned with bio-engineering and human reproduction.

She enjoys exploring what she calls 'the often specious distinctions between the artificial and the natural'. The concepts that underpin modern science, such as genetic engineering and other forms of biotechnology, are of particular interest to her.

Piccinini has embraced a wide array of materials in her work and moves across multiple media forms: these include still, computer generated images, interactive CD-ROMs, immersive video and sculptural installations, and most recently, film. Piccinini often works by commissioning specialist collaborators from various fields of contemporary industrial manufacture. She is well known for her bio-morphic silicon sculptures, minutely detailed visions of imaginary creatures brought into the world through genetic engineering.

Piccinini has an ambivalent attitude towards technology and she uses her artistic practice as a forum for discussion about how technology impacts upon life. She is keenly interested in how contemporary ideas of nature, the natural and the artificial are changing our society. Specific works have addressed concerns about biotechnology, such as gene therapy and ongoing research to map the human genome. Piccinini often creates acutely aesthetic and appealing works as a means of discussing complex ethical issues; she is also fascinated by the mechanisms of consumer culture.
Text by Tracey Lock, Curator of Australian Paintings and Sculpture, 2009

Through the realism of photography, moving image, sculpture, drawing and installation, Piccinini takes us into a world that is not so different from our own.' She invites us to contemplate our place within a time - our time - when biological and digital technologies are challenging the boundaries of humanity. Piccinini's practice has been described as transversing three orbits - the biosphere, the autosphere and the atmosphere - each of which in turn reflect her investigation of biotechnology, car culture and the construct of nature within contemporary society. The themes that inform her practice occur are ultimately a story about finding beauty in a world that can never be perfect.

The tenor of Piccinini's work is one of hope - that we will use our capacity to make change for the better. She reminds us that sinister forces and tensions are ever-present, from capitalist motivations, to the unknown outcomes of human-assisted evolution. Her underpinning message is, however, that we should not abandon what we initially judge to be frightful or hideous. By demonstrating that we are on the cusp of living Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Piccinini prompts us to recall how it was the continual rejection, torment and prejudice against the monster that pushed him to renounce humankind and take revenge against his creator. If we are to avoid the tragic fate of Frankenstein and hi monster, we must show greater compassion and tolerance towards one another and all living things. Perhaps only then will the world be fine tonight'

Piccinini awakens our minds and emotions to the possibility of a genetically modified and transgenic (where genes from one species are inserted into the genetic material of another species) world. Since the mid- 1990s she has taken audiences on a journey to the fringes of existence, leaving them there to contemplate their humanity, their prejudices against difference, the ethics of biotechnology and the hopes - or fears - they assign to medical science. Piccinini's interest has never been whether such technologies are right or wrong, or in the actual processes of biochemistry and molecular biology, but rather whether society will accept the progeny of scientific intervention when it does not conform to the idealised image promised by gene therapy.

In recent years, the focus of her work has begun to shift. While incorporating many of the same issues and concepts, Piccinini's critique has expanded to include an investigation of evolutionary biology and how the machine - that invention that now dominates contemporary society - may, by developing animalistic patterns of behaviour, become a sentient and autonomous being. Although her work is primarily optimistic, in that she celebrates the wonder and diversity of creation, it does contain dark undercurrents. The utopia promised by new technologies sits uncomfortably within Piccinini's work and we are compelled to consider human destiny in the face of a post-human world.

Humankind cannot control life or evolution; we may manipulate its various elements by altering the environment or creating new life forms, but we cannot control or predict the outcomes of our interference. Hence, if society chooses to customise life, we need to understand that we are answerable for the outcomes.

Piccinini presents audiences with what may initially be perceived as the flawed, the hideous or the grotesque. Her work could arguably be seen as irrational and futuristic, the product of a mind obsessed with Hollywood's version of sci-fi. Such a sensationalist reading of Piccinini and her work, however, is misplaced. Her practice has far greater nuance and compassion. Fundamentally opposed to Hollywood's fiction, she draws inspiration from existing technologies and events reported in the media. Since the birth of the first in-vitro fertilisation baby in 1978, the world has continued to witness monumental developments in genetic science, from the first cloned animal (Dolly the sheep) in 1996, to the complete draft mapping of the human genome and the creation of the first synthetic organism (SOl) in 2000. From this context of tissue engineering, genetic modification and the creation of synthetic life forms, Piccinini's creatures have emerged.

Text by Jane Messenger, originally published in 'Patrica Piccinini: Once upon a time'.. catalogue, 2011.

Inquiry and Skills

Pose questions to investigate people, events, places and issues (ACHASSI073

Interact with others with respect to share points of view (ACHASSI080)

Work in groups to generate responses to issues and challenges (ACHASSI102)

Examine different viewpoints on actions, events, issues and phenomena in the past and present (ACHASSI099)

Develop appropriate questions to guide an inquiry about people, events, developments, places, systems and challenges (ACHASSI094

Citizenship, diversity and identity

How values, including freedom, respect, inclusion, civility, responsibility, compassion and equality, can promote cohesion within Australian society (ACHCK052 )

Analysis, synthesis and interpretation

Critically analyse information and ideas from a range of sources in relation to civics and citizenship topics and issues (ACHCS056)

Account for different interpretations and points of view(ACHCS085)

Problem-solving and decision-making

Appreciate multiple perspectives and use strategies to mediate differences (ACHCS057)

Recognise and consider multiple perspectives and ambiguities, and use strategies to negotiate and resolve contentious issues (ACHCS086)

Patricia Piccinini's work encourages us to consider ethical dilemmas. While they may seem far from reality, these works of art help students to understand what it means to be empathetic and consider possible ethical questions that could arise in their lifetime.

This work is inspired by two events in Piccinini's life. The first is a true story about a female baboon whose baby died and feeling sad and lonely, the baboon took a human baby to care for. Despite the large scale of the figure, she gently holds and feeds a human baby, showing love and tenderness just like humans do. The baby is calm and safe in the arms of Big Mother. This work of art encourages us to be empathetic, and highlights the bonds that unite all living beings, regardless of appearance.

The second came from the difficulties Piccinini had breat-feeding her son Hector. "He really didn't want to suck which made it hard to get the milk going and so my sister suggested I try breast feeding her baby, who was older and more hungry. I tried, and through breast feeding my sisters baby I learned how to feed Hector. It was really interesting how strange and unusual it is for a mother to breast-feed another person's baby. Even stranger perhaps is how much more comfortable we are drinking the breast milk of another animal - say a cow - than another human being."[1]

By experiencing the emotions presented so palpably in Big Mother, we, the human audience, begin to see the boundaries between human and animal disappear. The feelings and instincts of Piccinini's animals, regardless of how they have evolved, are equal to our own. Piccinini thus prompts us to consider the validity of the hierarchy we impose, a hierarchy that continues to privilege human over non-human animals, and domesticated animals (such as pigs and dogs, which she deliberately references in her creatures to remind us of their' artificially' selective breeding) over the transgenic beings and chimera developed in laboratories, Should all animals have the right to equal consideration because, as the ethicist Peter Singer has argued, 'if an animal feels pain, the pain matters as much as it does when a human feels pain - if the pain hurts just as much. Pain is pain, whatever the species of being that experiences it'?

When looking at the work we can imagine different stories: is this mother a specially engineered primate who has been bred to be a wet nurse? Is she some kind of helper, carer or babysitter?

[1] Patricia Piccinini, Big Mother, https://www.patriciapiccinini.net/writing/50, 2005

Why is Big Mother so sad? If Big Mother could talk, what do you think she would say to you about being a mother?

How can we encourage empathy in order to influence our world in positive ways in the future?

What is your first impression on looking at this sculpture? Does your impression change as you walk around the sculpture and examine it more closely?

Piccinini is interested in notions of family. Discuss in class your interpretation of family, or what constitutes a family in contemporary - or future - society?

How does this particular depiction of 'nurturing,' both physical and emotional, question what it is to be human?

The lovers cleverly mixes the appearance and features of animal and machine. It combines the shape of the popular Italian motor scooter, the Vespa, and the muscular form of a male deer, a stag. A hybrid form is created. Piccinini has 'imagined' two scooters behaving as animals - as stags fighting, perhaps over territory, or females, as animals do in the wild. there is a remarkable sense of movement achieved in the sculpture, with the shiny sinuous bodies seeming to twist and writhe. one stag is clearly dominant, the other appearing almost to cringe in defeat. the defeated stag looks bewildered - look closely at its 'dial'! The work raises issues about what is natural, and what is mechanical, and about power and hierarchies in groups or communities. Who will survive: the fittest, the strongest, those bred for particular conditions? The work also reflects another of Piccinini's favourite themes: consumerism. In Italy, Vespas are seen as symbolic of style and class - they are very desirable, even though not always practical.

Imagine what would happen in our world if machines became 'human'! Talk about this possibility with a classmate. Choose a machine from your home or shed, and show in a drawing how it could become 'human'.

Create a series of photographic images of mechanical objects and using a computer program, imagine an animate your favourite image as an animal. Consider how it's shape and form may influence the type of movements it makes.

Research developments in medical science / technology where new mechanical interventions and attachments are improving the lives of sick or disabled people.

More works by Patricia Piccinini in the collection

'Patrica Piccinini: Once upon a time', 2011 exhibition resources

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Patricia Piccinini is one of Australia's leading contemporary artists. She was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and arrived in Australia in 1972 with her family. She initially studied economic history before enrolling at art school in Melbourne.

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The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

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Hear what Sue's hope for the future is - what she would write on her postcard!

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Tuesday Talk - Sue Kneebone speaks on her display as part of SALA by Art Gallery of South Australia

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Thank you for listening to this track produced by the Art Gallery of South Australia. 

Join Sue Kneebone, this years South Australian Living Artist (SALA) Feature Artist, as she discusses her work on display as part of SALA. 

For more information visit agsa.sa.gov.au

Photo: Saul Steed 

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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AGSA offers a range of professional development opportunities for educators throughout the year. Events range from practical workshops to networking opportunities and briefings on new exhibitions and artist practices.

Fees may apply. Certificates of attendance addressing the AITSL Standards are provided for all professional development opportunities.

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

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AGSA - The Art Gallery of South Australia

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Fiona Hall is one of Australia's most well-known and innovative contemporary artists. She grew up in Sydney in a family with a keen sense of enquiry; most significantly her mother was a prestigious scientist and her brother pursued a career in mathematics. Hall's endeavours as an artist are parallel to that of a scientist; searching for understanding about humanity and the environment.

Hall works across a range of media including painting, photography, sculpture and installation. At times she uses unusual materials such as soap, sardine tins, aluminium cans, video tape, currency and beads. Hall uses these everyday objects to address contemporary issues associated with history, politics, conflict and the environment.

Occupied territory was Hall's first work about the British colonisation of Australia. The work consists of four native and four introduced plant specimens. The four introduced species are made from red and white beads; fig, pear, acorn and peach, while the four native species angophora, banksia, Norfolk pine and Sydney Wattle are constructed from black beads and nails. The choice of beads and nails refers to the 'gifts' offered to Aboriginal people by colonisers including Captain James Cook and Sir Joseph Banks.

Australian Curriculum Connection - Year 4 History

The nature of contact between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and others, for example, the Macassans and the Europeans, and the effects of these interactions on, for example, people and environments (ACHASSK086)

Stories of the First Fleet, including reasons for the journey, who travelled to Australia, and their experiences following arrival (ACHASSK085)

Check if this work of art is on display

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The Art Gallery of South Australia houses one of Australia’s most stunning art collections. Its outstanding collection of 38,000 works covers Australian, European, North American, and Asian art.

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Artful Citizenship  PD Takeaways Feb 2026