Teacher resources

We are a fearful species. Without fear, we wouldn’t have the instincts we need to survive. Fear is one of our basic responses to the world around us. It helps to form strong memories containing warnings about certain behaviours. Often, early memories are ones which are associated with strong emotions. You can find more information about fear in the brain in the feature.

The National Fear Survey is an interactive, web-based survey looking at what we are afraid of and how we face those fears. It is a self-evaluative, fun and engaging survey that looks at the science behind fear and finds out what Australians fear the most.

The survey has six parts:
Part 1: Personal information on age, region, religion and general habits.
Part 2: Looks at specific fears, such as the fear of spiders, heights, or enclosed spaces.
Part 3: This section looks at common, daily anxieties: getting to school, getting homework in on time, or encountering a strange animal.
Part 4: This asks about worldwide fears - are we more worried about global warming, terrorism or bushfires?
Part 5: This looks at how we face our fears – what are our strengths, and where do we get the support to face our fears.
Part 6: Looks at social anxiety, for example the fear of public speaking.

You might like to have a classroom discussion about fear as part of the National Survey – what sorts of things do we fear? What does a fearful facial expression look like compared to an angry or happy face? What do we do when we are afraid? What happens to our body? Where do we get the support we need to face our fears, and what are our strengths that help us to face our fears?

You can find more activities to do with fear and memory and resources for kids and teachers below.

For more ABC Science teachers resources, experiments and lesson ideas, or to join the science teachers email list, go to http://www.abc.net.au/labnotes/.

Activities

The ABC does not endorse any of the websites below.

Web resources

For Kids

For Parents/Teachers

More resources