Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes	Part B: The Environmental Impacts Of Plastic Waste
5 minutes	Reflection

Lesson preparation: Collect a range of clean plastic waste, including food containers, water bottles, bags, wrappers, straws and food wrap. Try to collect both hard and soft plastics.

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin by inviting students to share what they already know about waste through a class discussion. You could consider the following questions:

What is waste?
Suggested answer: Waste is any item that we no longer want or can use that we throw away into the bin.
What do we do with waste?
Suggested answer: Different types of waste should get disposed of in different ways. Some waste items can be recycled, some can be composted, some can be given to the chooks, and some should be placed in the rubbish bin. You could also repair or reuse some types of waste.
What are some different types of waste?
Suggested answer: Food waste, waste from consumer items such as packaging and bags (including wrappers, jars, bottles, tubs, cans and containers), garden waste, broken items or items we no longer want.

Optional: If you have completed any of the other lessons in the War On Waste - Years 4 - 6 unit, include questions that directly refer to learning from these lessons, such as:

What happens to waste if it’s left to break down in our environment?
Suggested answer: Check in with your latest waste breakdown experiment results.
What is food waste and where does it come from?
Suggested answer: Leftover or unused food.
What is happening with waste at your school?
Suggested answer: Check the results of your waste or litter audit.

Step 2.

Display the plastic waste you collected and invite students to stand around these waste items. Take a few moments to work with students to identify the different types of waste (e.g. Where do they come from?) and to identify the different features of the plastic they are looking at (e.g. Which ones are hard plastics and which are soft plastics? Do the scrunch test!).

Step 3.

Break the class into small groups or pairs. Give each group a copy of the Plastic Factsheet and ask them to work together to read through the information on the sheet. They should then work collaboratively to annotate this factsheet with points that they found interesting or important, or with further questions they have about the information presented. They can record their annotations in the space provided on the right-hand side of the factsheet.

Keep a record of student questions; these can be used to guide further discussion or inquiry.

Once complete, groups can pair up with another group to share their observations. The teacher can move around to the groups, clarifying vocabulary and points of concern or confusion. Ensure that groups understand the following key points:

Our lives rely heavily on the convenience of plastic.
Plastic waste never really goes away; it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.

Step 4.

Once groups have had a chance to share their observations with each other, pose the following question to students:

Are you aware of any of the ways that plastic might harm our environment?

Students can suggest responses - record these on the board and explain that in the next part of the lesson they will be exploring the answer to this question in more detail.

Part B: The Environmental Impacts Of Plastic Waste

Step 1.

Students will now participate in a guided discussion around a clip from War On Waste. The clip describes some of the ways plastic waste is harming our environment, particularly the marine environment. View on iTunes or Clickview:

As students watch the clip invite them to record anything they find interesting or important.

Episode 2, Australia - 31:52 to 36:03

Note: From 35:23 to 36:03 the clip deals with marine animals that have ingested plastic waste. Some of this footage is a little graphic; you may want to warn students or avoid this section.

Once complete, students can respond to this clip using the following questions. This could be done as a class discussion or with students working in pairs or small groups (questions also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was surprising or interesting to me?
What new vocabulary or terms were new to me? If possible, ask students to suggest or research definitions. Some key terms to address include:
- Single-use plastics - Plastics that are used only once before being thrown away
- Ingestion - Animals can mistake plastic for food and will eat plastic waste.
Was there anything I didn’t understand?
What things in this clip reminded me of things I already know?
How did this clip make me feel?
.

Extension for Year 6: Depending on time available students could investigate the impacts of plastics on our environment in more detail by conducting research online into one of the following topics and producing a written piece to communicate their research:

• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• Microplastics
• Marine entanglement

Students could attempt to answer the following questions through their research:

• Describe your topic and explain the problem and its cause
• What impact does the topic you are researching have on the growth and survival of living things?

Part C: Taking Action For Plastic Waste

Step 1.

Explain to students that learning about issues like plastic waste can feel very overwhelming but there are things we can do as individuals. In addition, there are organisations and groups of people taking action.

Divide the class into two groups:

One half of the class will investigate the actions that individuals and households can do to reduce plastic waste.
The other half of the class will conduct research into some organisations that have been established to combat plastic pollution.

Students can work in large groups or create a list of tasks that can be divided amongst their group. The aim for each group is to produce a communication piece (such as a poster, video or presentation) to be shared with the class.

Students working on individual and household actions need to explain these actions and justify why these actions have been selected. This could mean the inclusion of supporting facts and stats - these could be presented as graphs or charts.

Students working on organisations taking action for plastic waste need to describe the work that these organisations do and why they do it. Again this could mean the inclusion of supporting facts and stats - these could be presented as graphs or charts.

Some resources to support students in their research include:

Individual and household action -

Single use plastics - Planet Ark - https://recyclingnearyou.com.au/education/singleuseplastic
Plastic Free July - https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/
Clean Up Australia - Live Greener - https://www.cleanup.org.au/live-greener
Don't Let Nature Go To Waste - WWF - https://www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/plastics#gs.rokfy6

Organisations and programs -

Take 3 For The Sea - https://www.take3.org/
Plastic Free July - https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/
Clean Up Australia Day - https://www.cleanup.org.au/
Ban The Bag in Victoria - https://vicbagban.com.au/
Straw No More - https://www.strawnomore.org/

You could also provide groups with the Communication Piece Assessment Rubric for this work so they have an understanding of what is expected of them.

Step 2.

Each group should present their communication piece to the rest of the class.

Once complete, invite your audience to ask questions of the group presenting and to provide feedback, remembering to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback:

You could also use the Communication Piece Assessment Rubric to assess student work. These could also be distributed to the audience for assessment of the group presenting.

Reflection

Students can work independently to reflect on what they looked at in this lesson and complete the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

How are the ideas presented in this lesson connected to what you already knew?
How has this information extended your understanding of this topic?
What is still challenging to you? What questions do you still have about this topic?

Take It Further

If students are conducting the waste breakdown experiment, investigate what is happening to the waste so far, especially plastic waste.
If you are planning on completing the follow-up social action lesson, War On Waste – Going To War On Waste – Years 4 to 6, you can use learnings from this lesson to develop a plan for waste at your school.

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 - The Problems With Plastics

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