Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Activating prior knowledge

20 minutes

Find Out: Sustainability of mobile phones

20 minutes

Take Action: Sustainability and Responsibility

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions:

Students will...

understand the importance of recycling mobile phones
understand the principles of sustainable design
understand the principles of cradle-to-grave and cradle-to-cradle product life cycles
understand consumer and manufacturer responsibility as it relates to eco-design.

Success criteria:

Students can...

explain the concept of cradle-to-grave and cradle-to-cradle product lifecycles.

Preparation: Flipped classroom

Prior to participating in this lesson, students should complete the Flipped Classroom activity on the Student Worksheet. In this activity, students are asked to complete a Colour-Symbol-Image activity to reflect their initial ideas about sustainability. Students will then find three definitions of sustainability that they like online and explain why these definitions appeal to them. Students need to bring this completed activity to the classroom in preparation for completing the remainder of this lesson.

If you have extra time, students could complete this activity in class, but keep in mind they are more likely to be influenced by their peers. Make sure to have copies of the Students' Worksheets ready to distribute at the start of the lesson.

Tune In: Activating prior knowledge

Step 1

Begin this lesson by inviting students to access their completed Flipped Classroom activities and to navigate to the Colour-Symbol-Image activity. Ask students to:

Stand up if you chose the colour green.
Stand up if you drew a recycling symbol.
Stand up of you drew a leaf symbol.
Stand up if you drew a picture of the earth.
Stand up if you drew a picture of a tree.
Stand up if you drew a picture of nature.

Students should stay standing after each item. This cumulative effect is likely to demonstrate that there are some core symbols our society uses to identify with sustainability. Look around the room and see how many students are still seated. Then ask everyone to sit down.

Ask students what other colours, symbols, and drawings they came up with? Encourage them to share why they chose these.

Ask students to draw conclusions about whether they think most people have similar ideas about what sustainability relates to, and incorporates. Indicate that although this may be true, many of us have a very hard time defining it.

Step 2

Now, invite students to read out some of the definitions for sustainability that they chose and explain why they chose these definitions. You could then engage the class in a discussion around some or all of the following questions:

What are some words that appear across all the definitions? (stick with nouns, verbs, and adjectives)
What words do some definitions use and not others?
Do some definitions place a greater emphasis on nature or on the economy or on people? How can you tell and why do you think this is?

How might the emphasis depend on the organisations or agencies who have authored these definitions?

Through your discussion explain to students that many people consider sustainability to be a balance of three factors: the environment, the economy, and society. When these are in balance then you can achieve sustainability. Share (or create on the board) the following image with students to explain this concept further:

Step 3

Explain to students that in this lesson they will be focusing on sustainability in terms of design. Invite students to brain-dump what 'sustainable design' might mean and record ideas on the board.

You might like to use a Google Doc that students can all access and project this on the board/wall while they input their answers.

Step 4

Suggest to students the following definition for sustainable design:

Sustainable design is about designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to meet the principles of ecological sustainability.

Clarify with students that because design deals with creating products and services that are for society and that need to be affordable, sustainable design occurs when the product or service also causes minimal environmental impact. You might also like to provide students with a copy of the Sustainability Factsheet.

Find Out: Sustainability of mobile phones

Step 1

Explain to students that they first need to analyse mobile phones in terms of their current sustainability status. Play the following video about mobile phones and afterwards, invite students to answer the following questions (on the Student Worksheet):

What did you see in this clip? What was this clip about? Summarise in 30 words or less.
What does the information presented in this clip make you think about in terms of mobile phones and sustainability?
What does the information presented in this clip make you wonder in terms of mobile phones and sustainability? What questions do you have?

What’s A Smartphone Made Of? - Kim Preshoff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIdJ22AfsO8)

Step 2

Once students have completed their responses, invite them to team up with one or two classmates to share their answers. Students should look for similarities and differences in their answers and be encouraged to make amendments to their initial responses during their exchange.

You can then engage students in a class discussion around their responses, suggesting to students that mobile phones currently come with a range of issues relating to sustainability, including:

Landscape degradation and biodiversity impacts from mining
Land, water and air pollution from mining, production and transportation
The use of non-renewable resources
Social impacts from pollution and e-waste disposal
The production of greenhouse gases from transport, processing and mining, contributing to climate change

Step 3

Now, pose the following question to students:

"What is one simple thing we could do to improve the sustainability of phones and other devices?"

Invite students to suggest ideas and develop a list on the board or a shared document. Then:

This is basically two circles, with one smaller circle sitting in the centre of the other - you'll want to draw these quite large so you can fit a number of words inside them.

Draw a Circle Of Influence, Circle Of Concern Diagram on the board.
Write any of the students' suggestions that they, personally can have influence over, in the centre circle.
In the outer circle, you might like to list or draw an arrow to, any suggestions that they may be concerned about, but which they can't directly influence at the moment.

Through this process, lead students to the idea that recycling mobile phones is a fundamental element in ensuring their sustainability and is something we can all be responsible for. The reason recycling is so important is the process does not require the sourcing and extraction of materials for the phones.

Note: Recycling, however, still does carry environmental costs associated with processing and transportation.

Step 4

Watch the following clip with students:

MobileMuster - The Benefits Of Recycling Your Phone (https://vimeo.com/265126147)

Once complete, invite students to share what they learnt about sustainability and mobile phone recycling from this clip. For example:

How might recycling mobile phones benefit our environment?
How might recycling mobile phones benefit future generations?
How might recycling mobile phones be economically beneficial?

Further information about the benefits of mobile phone recycling can be found here: MobileMuster.

Take Action: Sustainability and responsibility

Step 1

Explain to students that in Australia, consumers are primarily responsible for mobile phone recycling. While many local councils provide support for recycling a number of items through regular rubbish pickups and less regular hard-rubbish pickups (or public access to recycling centres), not all items can be safely handled through this process.

Step 2

Invite students to visit the MobileMuster website to explore the various options available for mobile phone recycling in their local area (https://www.mobilemuster.com.au/recycle-a-mobile/). Give students 5 minutes to complete this then write each option on the board in a list.

Students could include these recycling options in their films for the MobileMuster Film Competition.

Step 3

As a class, ask students to design a rating system that they can use to assess each item (for example, they may have several factors they want to rate, they could use a 3 or 5-star rating system, or rate out of 10). They might like to consider distance to travel, ease of process, convenience (do they already go there regularly? etc.)

Step 4

Using the rating system developed by the students, have them vote on a rating for each recycling option listed on the board. Write these ratings beside each item. Ask the students to discuss the following:

What do you notice about the ratings?
Would you find it easy to use these methods?
Which option would you choose, if you were to recycle your phone?
What other options would you like to see available?

Students could pitch their creative alternative solutions for phone recycling in their films for the MobileMuster Film Competition.

Step 5

At some point during this discussion, students may raise the issue of putting the responsibility for recycling back onto the manufacturer or pushing it onto the government. (For example, they might expect the manufacturer to arrange pickup of the product). Take note of this. Either way, raise these questions with the class:

Should the recycling of products be the responsibility of the people who make them?
How might they achieve this?
Should there be a law that makes manufacturers take responsibility for the recycling rates (and sustainable design) of their products?
How could this be enforced?

These concepts will be addressed further in the next section.

Step 6

Show this clip to the class:

Life Cycle Assessment & Sustainability (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=258&v=01tF21O2iso)

Step 7

Have the students jot down any interesting facts, about the manufacturing process, that they notice in the video. Collect their responses on the board. Highlight the three 'eco-design' strategies mentioned:

Design for disassembly
Design for longevity
Design for de-materialisation (uses fewer materials)

Have students rate their own mobile phones (or a family member's) against each of the eco design strategies above, based on what they know. It's likely that they might struggle to answer these questions. Ask them why they may not have this knowledge - i.e. does the manufacturer advertise any of its products' eco-design features? Students may like to visit the manufacturer's website if they want more information.

You might need to look up (or agree upon) definitions for 'disassembly', 'longevity' and 'de-materialisation'.

Step 8

Direct students to develop their own definitions of the following terms on their Student Worksheet, reminding them that it should relate back to product design (you could also ask them to provide a product example as an extension activity):

Cradle to Grave
Suggested answer: 'an economical or manufacturing system in which a product is made, used and disposed of'. Some products are designed specifically by manufacturers to have a fast 'cradle to grave' cycle so they can sell more products and make more money. Examples of this are single use plastics, such as drinking straws. Many quick turnaround 'cradle to grave' products have a high environmental impact.
Cradle to Cradle
Suggested answer: 'a system in which manufactured items contain materials that are all reused or recycled into new products, thus producing no waste'. Cradle to cradle manufacturing is especially important for products that require a lot of energy and resources to create, but which have short life cycles. See the Cradle to Cradle Products Registry for examples of such products.

Step 9

Pose the following questions to students and have them conduct a Think, Pair Share activity using their Student Worksheet:

Think Pair Share

Think pair share is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question.

Think - students independently think about an issue or question and record their thoughts.
Pair - students work in pairs to discuss their ideas and record new thoughts.
Share - students share their thoughts with the whole group or with other pairs to reach consensus.

Which lifecycle do you think mobile phones have (cradle to grave or cradle to cradle)?
Suggested answer: Most modern mobile phones are designed with a cradle to cradle design in mind. Most materials contained in mobile phones are able to be reused or recycled. Most mobile phones are also easy to disassemble and repair.
What are the benefits of cradle to cradle manufacturing?
Suggested answer: Less impact on the environment, greater life cycle of reusable materials, cheaper manufacturing processes.
What do you think are the challenges posed by cradle to cradle manufacturing?
Suggested answer: Recycling process, getting the product back from the consumer, designing a product using only reusable and recyclable materials.
What would inspire companies to take a cradle to cradle approach?
Suggested answer: Financial incentives, cost saving, laws requiring cradle to cradle design, awareness of environmental concerns, scarcity of resources, processes to make it easier, mutually beneficial collaborations.

You might like to let students know that the EU has introduced a cradle to cradle plastics policy and some European companies (like IKEA) are already implementing innovative cradle to cradle design with their products.

Reflection

Explain to students that they will now explore a case study of a mobile phone product that models cradle to cradle design. Show this video to the class or allow them to watch it individually:

Fairphone + vanPlestik (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8HcEngZPRo)

Invite students to work independently to think about the content explored during this lesson when critiquing this case study. Allow students 5 minutes to explore the Fairphone website. Ask students to consider the concept of sustainable design and cradle to cradle design while answering the questions below (also on the Student Worksheet):

What is a Fairphone?
What do you find interesting or surprising about Fairphone?
How does Fairphone address the principles of sustainable design?
How might you improve the Fairphone to enhance the sustainability and appeal of its design?

Designing for Sustainability Part 1

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