Teaching sequence

10 minutes

Tune In: What's in a school?

25 minutes

Find Out: How do you recycle a school?

20 minutes

Take Action: Write a letter

05 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: What's in a school?

Step 1.

Ask your students to list something they can recycle. They might think of glass, paper, cans, etc.

Step 2.

Ask your students:

Can you recycle a school?

You might get a few giggles! You might get some confusion, too. Let’s start to break this down. On your board, write:

What is a school made of?

Ask your students to think of all the physical materials that are in a school and create a word cloud on the board with their suggestions. Ask them to think of all the different rooms, the walls, floors, ceilings, and fixtures. If your students say something like ‘lights’, ask them what are the lights made up of (metal, glass and plastic).

They might think of:

glass (windows, mirrors)
timber (walls, ceilings, benches, furniture)
bricks (walls, garden beds, paths)
tiles (bathrooms, science lab)
plastic (window trims, lighting fixtures)
ceramic (sinks)
metal (taps, door nobs, sinks, window frames)
plaster (walls and ceilings)
concrete (paths, building slabs)
dirt/soil and sand.

There’s a lot of resources that go into a school. When the school is no longer needed or is old and needs to be replaced, which materials on this list can be recycled, and which will have reached their end-of-life?

This might be a good time to look at the difference between reusing and recycling. If students say the windows can be taken out and used as windows in another building, that’s re-using. If they say, the glass can be melted down into a base material and used to make new windows, that is recycling.

In your word cloud, underline the materials students think can be recycled and circle the ones they think can’t be recycled and would end up in the landfill.

Find Out: How do you recycle a school?

Step 1.

Watch this video with your students:

What can go into a skip bin? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix0enIOPDPY)

Were there any materials in the list of things that can be recycled that your students had circled in their word cloud? Which ones were surprising?

Step 2.

Let’s find out how these materials are recycled.

Watch this video with your students:

BINGO Eco Products (https://vimeo.com/870123314?share=copy#t=0)

After watching the video, share this diagram with your students of the journey goes on from being collected from skip bins, recycled and reused:

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Ask your students:

Where would these materials go if they weren't recycled?

Numeracy extension: In 2020, the construction and demolition industries produced 27 million tonnes of waste. How much space would that take up if it all went to landfill? (HInt: 1 tonne of construction waste is, on average, 2m³) Australia recycles around 76% of this waste. How much has the landfill waste reduced? These are BIG numbers, and it can be hard to imagine. To help, students could mark out a large area on an oval or playground, calculate the area, and then calculate how tall the pile would be. How much shorter is the pile when you reduce it by recycling 76%? Alternatively, you could calculate the volume of your classroom and see how many classrooms you would fill with 27m tonnes, and how much that would reduce when you recycle 76% of the waste.

What are the three eco-products that can be made out of a school? And what materials are used to make these eco-products?

aggregate (tiles, concrete, bricks)
sand and roadbase (tiles, concrete, bricks)
mulch (timber, green waste).

Step 3.

Where in our school do we use these products (aggregate, mulch, sand and roadbase)? They might think of:

Mulch - gardens, pathways, playgrounds

Aggregate - pathways, roads, car parks, concrete, building slabs, around sewer and water pipes, drainage (swales etc.), gardenbeds

Sand and Roadbase - Concrete, car parks, roads

What about in our local community? Who uses these products? Students might think of

landscaping supply stores
garden centres
building companies
school grounds keepers
community gardens
landscaping companies
plumbers and other tradies
us at home
the local council.

Step 4.

Let’s investigate: Where do these products come from when they’re not sourced from recycled construction materials? Using the student worksheet, direct students to conduct online research into their chosen resource (mulch, aggregate, or sand & roadbase).

This is a great opportunity for students to improve their digital literacy skills. Talk with your students about how to phrase their online searches. What keywords or phrases should they include?

Learning Support: If students are having difficulty conducting online research, you can share the below resources with them.

Students can compare this process to the process of obtaining this material from recycling construction waste as shown here:

BINGO Industries - Materials Processing Centre

Step 5.

Watch this video with your students:

What is the circular economy? A resource for teachers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DU6x0q5c2o)

Ask your students:

How does a circular economy help us?

Learning Extension: To extend your student’s thinking, ask them to think in terms of environmental benefits, social benefits, and economic benefits.

Take Action: Write a letter

Step 1.

Now that we know more about the environmental impacts of collecting these resources let’s see if we can use our voice to make a change in our community. Have students choose one of the community organisations discussed earlier. Using the student worksheet and their findings from their online research, have students write a persuasive letter explaining the benefits of switching to recycled materials.

Step 2.

Have students share their letters with another student for peer review.

Tips for providing feedback:

Be kind - It can be hard to share your ideas with others, so remain kind and supportive.

Be specific - Be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying, ‘I like the colours, ’ say something like ‘, I like the ways those colours help create a mood that supports your message.

Be helpful - Try not to say what is strong or weak, but also make suggestions about how things could be improved.

Step 3.

Give students time to edit their letters and then help them to email or mail the letters to their recipients.

Reflection

Discuss with your students:

How does it make you feel to use your voice to make a change?
What other issues would you like to add your voice to to make a change?

Closing the Loop: Building and Construction Waste

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Summary

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