DEFENCE 2O20

YOUTH CHALLENGE PROGRAM

Investigating Defence Issues and Your Future:
Is the Spirit of ANZAC relevant to the ADF today?

From April until June 2010 a Youth Challenge program will be staged in all states and territories throughout Australia.

The Challenge will bring together young Australians, politicians, ADF personnel (many of whom will have direct and recent peacekeeping experience) and community representatives to explore many of the issues surrounding defence and Australia’s future.

Years 9-11 students will benefit most from the Youth Challenge Program, as it is particularly relevant to SOSE/HSIE, Citizenship Education and English curriculum areas.

Schools will be invited to nominate 8 students and numbers are restricted to around 120 students to ensure all participants can be involved in this very interactive program.

www.defence2020.info
Online registration is now open

This is a whole-day program commencing at 9.00am and ending at 2.45pm.

Prior to coming to the Challenge students will be sent some pre-Challenge reading to help them prepare for the day so that they can make an informed and active contribution.

Through the program students will have the chance to:

>	Study a video to decide if modern ADF members show the spirit of ANZAC in their behaviour and activities
>	Interact with a multimedia decision-making presentation to learn decision-making and implementation skills and see that their choices have consequences – Can you overcome the hidden traps and dangers to find the mysterious 'Spirit of ANZAC'?
>	Meet the Minister or his representative and some of Australia’s peacekeepers to ask questions and find out first hand a variety of experiences, especially the role of peacekeeping
>	Workshop their response to the video hypothetical with fellow students and community representatives
>	Role-play their findings and demonstrate the civics and citizenship processes they went through to reach their conclusions
>	Win prizes for their performances and receive certificates of participation
>	Find out more about the ‘Spirit of ANZAC’ Participation Task that will qualify the winners to represent the youth of Australia at the National Youth Challenge to be held in Canberra during September 2010.

We invite a teacher from each school to attend the Youth Challenge. Through the provision of resource materials and involvement in the civics and citizenship processes, teachers will have the opportunity to enhance their skills and implement a similar program (whether defence related or not) in their own classrooms and local communities.

Teachers will also be presented with their own copy of the educational resource kit DEFENCE 2020: Is the Australian Defence Force a Responsible Citizen?

We urge you to involve your school in the DEFENCE 2020 Youth Challenge Program. It is a very valuable opportunity for your students to represent their school and local community in a lively, exciting and very important educational program that focuses on Australia’s future. For further information about the program and curriculum units in STUDIES 2009 please go to www.defence2020.info or contact Ryebuck Media at www.ryebuck.com.au