Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes	Part B: Selecting An Idea For Action
20 minutes	Part C: Planning Your Action
20 minutes	Part E: Project Completion

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Select one of the following options:

Option A. If students have completed the previous lessons:

1. Invite students to form a discussion circle and suggest what they already know about plastic. Topics for discussion could include:

How we use plastic in our daily lives
Different types of plastic (hard and soft)
The impact of plastic on our environment
Single-use plastics
Plastic litter at your school

Option B. If students have not completed the previous lessons:

Ask students to form a discussion circle, and pose the following provocation to students: "Right now, you are surrounded by plastic." Invite students to suggest how this might be the case, and spend some time looking around you and identifying all the ways that you are surrounded by plastic. Consider things like furniture, storage (including plastic tubs and containers), stationery, devices, school bags, drink bottles and lunch boxes (and things inside lunch boxes), clothes and shoes (polyester, nylon and synthetic materials including synthetic rubber are all forms of plastic), light fittings and switches, carpet (most carpet contains plastic), and heaters, air conditioners and fans. We need plastic for so many things!
Now explain to students that most of this plastic is stuff that we use over and over again. But there are lots of things made of plastic that we only use once before we throw them out, such as plastic wrappers for food, plastic straws, plastic bags and some plastic bottles. The problem with these items is that while many of them should be recycled, a lot of them actually end up in our environment.
Watch the clip: Episode 1, The Battle Continues - 4:05 to 7:46
- What did you see in this clip?
- What does it make you think about?
- What does it make you feel?

Step 2.

Explain to students that at your school there are probably lots of ways that plastic is used and then wasted. For example, ask students to focus on food at school. This could include lunch boxes or food from the canteen. Can students think of any examples of plastic in either of these scenarios that is used to wrap or help us eat/drink food and which is then thrown away? For example straws, cutlery, sauce sachets, food wrappers or bags.

Add suggestions to the board.

You can then explain to students that the problem of plastic is a big one and many people around the world are working hard to help solve it and improve the health of our environment and the animals that live there. There are things that we can all do to reduce the amount of plastic that is used and wasted, and in the rest of this lesson students will think about and take action for plastic waste at their school, particularly those things that they just listed on the board.

Part B: Selecting An Idea For Action

Step 1.

Now explain to students that they are going to focus on one plastic problem at their school; this will be your ‘problem’. Explain to students that they will then work together to create a plan for addressing this problem.

There are several ways you could decide on which problem to pursue:

You could present students with a range of problems that you are already aware of, such as plastic cutlery or straws in the canteen, plastic wrappers in lunch boxes or snacks in the staffroom. Students could select their favourite problem. The problem selected by the most students is the one that you pursue.
You could propose a problem that they think is most feasible or that they know will meet with support from the rest of the school community, including the principal.

Step 2.

Write your chosen problem on the board. You can now invite students to consider the following question in response to their problem:

Why is it this way?

The aim of this question is to begin developing some causal understanding for why something is the way it is. For example:

The canteen uses plastic cutlery. Why is it this way? Because plastic cutlery is cheap and clean and easy for kids to use. Also, plastic cutlery saves on washing up.
There are lots of plastic wrappers in the schoolyard as litter. Why is it this way? Because lots of kids eat foods wrapped in plastic for their lunch and the plastic wrappers get dropped or blown around.
When you get a pie from the canteen you get a sauce sachet. Why is it this way? Because the people in the canteen don’t know if you want sauce or not and a sachet means the person eating the pie can choose.

Spend some time with students exploring the variety of reasons behind why the plastic problems at your school might exist.

Step 3.

Now look at the cause for the problem you identified in the previous step, and work with students to think about what types of actions you would need to take to address this problem. Pose the following question:

What could we do?

For example:

The canteen uses plastic cutlery. Why is it this way? Because plastic cutlery is cheap and clean and easy for kids to use. Also, plastic cutlery saves on washing up. What could we do? We could bring our own cutlery when buying things from the canteen or we could have reusable cutlery that students have to wash after use.
There are lots of plastic wrappers in the schoolyard as litter. Why is it this way? Because lots of kids eat foods wrapped in plastic for their lunch and the plastic wrappers get dropped or blown around. What could we do? Make reusable sandwich and snack bags that students can use to pack their lunch in.
When you get a pie from the canteen you get a sauce sachet. Why is it this way? Because the people in the canteen don’t know if you want sauce or not and a sachet means the person eating the pie can choose. What could we do? Students could bring their own sauce from home or we can have refillable bottles of sauce at the canteen that students can use.

Work with students to create a mind-map of your ideas for what you could do to address your problem. You could create your mind-map on the board or use an online tool like mindmeister, bubbl.us or padlet. As you create your mind-map, encourage students to be inspired by what other students are suggesting, and to think creatively and imaginatively about what you could do.

You could share the following clip from War On Waste. This clip shows some schoolchildren from Lane Cove Public School (NSW) who identified a waste problem at their school and worked collaboratively to create a solution. Once you have watched the clip you could work with students to identify the problem, and explain the solution the students generated. You could then allow students some time to reflect back on their own ideas that you have recorded in your mind-map, be inspired by what they saw in the clip and add some new ideas to their mind-map.

Lane Cove Public School join the War On Waste (https://youtu.be/kMzCzpU_MXE)

Once you have generated a range of ideas, you can then work with students to choose an idea for action.

Part C: Planning Your Action

The planning phase has been written to be completed by the teacher; however, opportunities for student involvement do exist.

Once you and your students have made a decision on the type of action, you can begin planning what your action will look like, what resources you will need and the timeline for your project. Use this Project Planning Guide to help with your planning.

Students could be involved in this process by:

Helping define what the project is and what success will look like (e.g. How will you know when you are done?)
Thinking about what materials and resources will be needed to complete the project
Thinking about who else could be involved in the project
Designing ways to communicate what they’re doing with the school community

Part D: Delivering Your Action

After you have completed the planning process, allow time for students to action their project.

You could use this Project Checklist to help you stay on track with your project.

Consider the following tips when supporting students through the action phase of their projects:

Part E: Project Completion

Invite students to participate in a discussion around the following questions:

Was our project a success? Why or why not?
What parts of the project were the most successful and why?
What parts of the project were the least successful and why?
How would we improve these parts?
How would we improve the project overall?
What challenges did we face and how did we overcome them?
What are we going to do next?

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

War On Waste - Solving School Waste Problems

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