Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

45 minutes	Part B: How Many Bins Do We Have?
60 minutes	Part C: Finding Out How Much Waste Our School Creates
60 minutes	Part D: What’s In Our Bins?

Lesson preparation:

Before conducting this audit, you may need to alert teachers and office staff when your students will be collecting data for this activity
If necessary, use the Waste Safety Code to guide a class discussion about being safe with waste.

Part A: What Is Waste?

Step 1.

Divide your whiteboard vertically in two. Invite students to stand or sit around the board and to work as a class to create a mind-map based on the term 'waste’. Make sure to only use one half of the board. Students should add anything they can think of that relates to waste, including different types of waste, different ways to dispose of it, what waste can be made of, how waste can harm our environment and any other information about waste that they think is interesting or important. Encourage students to develop the ideas that other students are adding to the mind-map.

Once the mind-map is complete, discuss it with students, leading them to the conclusion that waste is created and dealt with in many different ways.

Step 2.

Now invite students to focus on the other side of the board. Pose this question:

What is the story of waste at our school?

Students should now spend some time participating in a pre-assessment of the waste situation at your school, including what types of bins you have, your most common types of waste, which types of waste most commonly end up as litter, and what waste programs already exist. Work with students to create a mind-map to record their ideas. Keep a record of this mind-map; students can return to it later in the lesson.

If you have already completed the Litter Audit of your school, include the results or conclusions from that into your mind-map.

Step 3.

Prepare your students to conduct a waste audit of your school. They will explore how much waste their school creates, and what types of waste are most commonly created. They will then be able to create a plan for making less waste and disposing of it more responsibly.

As inspiration, share the following clip with students. It explores one way of conducting an audit and is a great place to start when addressing waste:

War On Waste: Waste Sorting (https://youtu.be/Iuz80yD9S7A)

Once the clip is complete, invite students to reflect on it with the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was this clip about?
What was interesting or important about this clip?
What questions do you have? What do you want to know more about?

Part B: How Many Bins Do We Have?

Step 1.

Before beginning your audit, explain to students that the audit will have three parts:

Identifying how many bins you have at your school and what types of waste these bins are meant for (e.g. recycling or compost).
Calculating the volume of the different bins at your school. These calculations will help you understand how much waste your school creates.
Analysing what is going into your bins to determine if your bins are being used correctly.

Step 2.

The first step in your audit process is to count the number of bins you have at your school.

Project a map of your school or use Google Maps to locate your school. Take a moment to identify the key features of your school before thinking about where the bins might be located.

Step 3.

Break the class into small groups and assign each group with a category of bins to investigate, such as recycling bins, general waste bins or compost bins. Remind students to politely ask permission from teachers and office staff before entering a room to count bins.

Before heading outside, remind students of your guidelines for outdoor learning, such as:

Students can use the table in Part B of the Waste Audit Worksheet to record their observations.

Step 4.

Once students have assessed the bins at your school, invite them to mark the number and location of the bins on the map.

Ask students to graph their observations, either with bar graphs or pie charts. Encourage students to think about which type of graph or chart would be best for communicating this data.

Step 5.

Engage students in a class discussion around their observations. Consider the following questions in your discussion:

How many different types of waste collection systems are there in your school to collect waste?
What was the total number of bins at your school?
Did you notice anything interesting about any of the containers or bins?
Which types of bins were missing and where could these bins be located?

Part C: Finding Out How Much Waste Our School Creates

Step 1.

Remind students that they have already completed the first stage of their audit: calculating the number of bins at your school. Review the results of this stage before moving onto the next step.

Step 2.

Explain to students that they will now work as a class, or in groups, to find out how much waste your school creates.

Each group will focus on one type of waste or waste disposal system, for example, food waste, recyclables or general rubbish (landfill). The number of groups and the types of rubbish investigated will depend on what types of bins you already have at your school.

Each group will be assigned a type of waste or waste disposal system and will need to go to different parts of the school to collect data on their assigned system or waste. Students may need to:

Measure bins to calculate volumes
Contact office staff to find out how frequently bins are collected
Contact ground staff to find out how much green waste/compost is generated.

Students can use the information in Part C of the Waste Audit Worksheet to guide their data collection and to record their results.

Before heading outside, remind students of your guidelines for outdoor learning.

Step 3.

Once complete, share results among the class, ensuring that all students understand how much waste their school creates.

Part D: What's In Our Bins?

Step 1.

Remind students of the stages of the audit they have already completed:

Calculating the number of bins at your school
Determining the amount of waste created by your school.

Review the results of these stages before moving onto the next step.

Step 2.

Explain to students that this final stage is about analysing bin contents to find out if the bins are being used correctly. Explain that they don't need to look at every single bin; they will just be checking three inside bins and three outside bins.

Pose the following questions to students and invite student responses:

Why is it not enough to just look in just one bin?
Why isn't it necessary to look in all the bins?

Suggested answer: One bin may be biased, but looking in all bins would take a long time. Sampling gives a good idea of what is really happening.

Step 3.

Locate Part D of the Waste Audit Worksheet and explain to students that they will use these tables to record their observations about what's in the various bins. Explain that they will be assigned a bin, and will need to take a photo of the waste inside. They should try and take the photo from directly above so that they can see as much waste as possible. They will need to be aware of lighting; if the bin is dark, they may need to either move the bin or use a torch. Students should avoid touching or poking the rubbish.

Alternatively, if you are interested in doing a more in-depth audit, you could empty the bins onto a tarp, sort the rubbish into types and then photograph these types and record this information on the Student Worksheet.

Before students begin, explain that although they won't actually be handling any waste they will need to remember their class Waste Safety Code. All students should wear rubber gloves for this activity.

Step 4.

Break the class into six groups. Assign three groups to an inside bin and three groups to an outside bin. Remind students to ask permission from teachers and office staff before entering a room to gather data. You may need to inform teachers and office staff that your students will be collecting data for this activity.

Before heading outside, remind students of your guidelines for outdoor learning.

Step 5.

Once groups have received the necessary permission to look in their assigned bin, groups should photograph the contents and return to class.

Step 6.

Back in the classroom students can view their photos and count the number of different types of rubbish that they can see in the top layer of the rubbish in each photo. Ask students to use Part D of the Waste Audit Worksheet to record their observations.

Step 7.

After the class has completed gathering all the data, ask students to graph the data, either with bar graphs or pie charts. Invite students to think about which type of graph or chart would be most suited to this information.

Step 8.

Work as a class to discuss the results of your audit. Consider the following questions in your discussion:

What were the five most common items in the inside bins?
What were the five most common items in the outside bins?
Was there a difference between the contents of the inside and outside bins? If so, why?
How did your pre-assessment of your school waste compare with the results of your audit? Remind students of the mind-map they created earlier.
Were there any items in the bins that could have been placed in a different bin, such as a composting or recycling bin? What could the school do to fix this problem?
What else did you notice that was interesting about the contents of the bins?

Reflection

Step 1.

Share the following clip with students, explaining that it comes from War On Waste (iTunes, Clickview):

Episode 4, Australia - 51:57 to 58:12

Once complete, invite students to reflect on this clip and their audit using the following questions. This reflection could be done as a class discussion or with students working independently. The questions are also available on the Student Worksheet:

What is most interesting or important about this clip?
What information in this clip could be used to help your school reduce its waste?
What do the results of your audit tell you about where your school is on its waste journey? Do you think your school is already doing well with waste or could it be improved? Explain your answer.

Step 2.

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.

If you are not planning on completing the social action lesson, invite students to work in pairs or small groups to come up with some ideas about how they could:

Reduce the amount of waste generated at their school (e.g. waste-free lunch box days, speak to the canteen about packaging options)
Improve the way school bins are used (e.g. create signage for bins to show what should go in or stay out of each bin, or introduce more recycling bins or compost bins).

Consider working with students to action one or more of their ideas.

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 - What Waste Do We Create At School? Waste Audit

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