The activities planned in the unit work together to help children think of how living, learning and working change over time. The unit focuses on the potential impact of innovation and major changes on life and the world of work. The unit works to offer structured occasions for reflections on the future and works to give students the chance to think of changes in a proactive way to promote the pupils’ sense of agency and to highlight opportunities.

Stage 1: Spot the differences
The first activity invites pupils to look back and to think of the major changes of the past with a group game. Children are invited to work in groups and to write a list of major changes happened in the last 80 years for different areas. Pupils are invited to think of their grandparents’ childhood and to compare that historical situation with their own. The areas to reflect on are: technology, enviroment, school, medicine. Simple tables with two columns (yesterday vs. today) can be used to help spot the differences.
The group activity can be planned to happen in a class setting or pupils can be asked to collect ideas at home (via interviews) and to then work in groups at school discussing and putting together the materials collected. At the end of the activity, the teacher can ask each group to highlight their responses and a comprehensive map of all the groups’ ideas can be created.

Stage 2: Look ahead
Pupils are now asked to look ahead and to think of future changes which will shape society and work.
Each student is invited to create a words cloud of the future to draw a words portrait of a future scenario. Children are given the following instructions: “after focusing on the past, now we will look at the future! Think of the world you will live in when you will be 30 and write down words which will describe it (what is shaping the world of the future?).
After each individual work, the teacher is invited to create a common word cloud which could represent a summary of the the individual works.

Stage 3:
Pupils are now challenged with an imaginative task. They are asked to work in groups and to create a reportage as if they were in a tv news programme in 2050. The teacher can tailor the reportage to specific topics of interest (e.g. school, a specific industry, technology, etc.). The basic ”W” questions can be used to guide the groups’ work (“Who,” “What,” “When,” “Where,” and “Why”).

Stage 4.
The activity ends with a performance of the news from the future created in Stage 3.