Teaching Sequence

20 minutes - Part A: What is an ecological footprint?
40 minutes - Part B: What is your ecological footprint?

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: What is an ecological footprint?

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by inviting students to conduct a THINK PAIR SHARE thinking routine around the following question:

How do humans impact our environment?

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.

Once complete, invite students to share their ideas with the class. Through your discussion invite students to consider the following question:

How can we measure the impact of humans on our environment?

Step 2.

Next invite students to consider what an 'ecological footprint' might be. Ask students to share their ideas as a class before leading students to the description below:

Everyone on Earth needs natural resources to survive. These natural resources include air, water, soil, sunshine, plants, animals and minerals. Humans also produce a range of waste materials associated with our day to day lives. An ecological footprint measures the impact of the natural resources we consume and the wastes we produce.

An ecological footprint calculator is an online tool that works our how big our ecological footprints are. You can use an ecological footprint calculator to calculate the area of land that is required to provide you with the resources you need and to process the waste materials you create. You can then describe your impact as the number of Earths we would need if everyone on Earth used the same number of resources as you (e.g. if everyone on Earth used the same amount of resources as you, we would need 1 1/2 Earths).

Step 3.

Now access the online ecological footprint calculator: Footprint Calculator (https://www.footprintcalculator.org/) and project it on the board. Go through each question and choose the answer that applies to the average home. Discuss each question as you go and invite students to compare answers and to consider why variations might exist.

Part B: What is your ecological footprint?

Step 1.

Now invite students to complete the footprint calculator on their own.

Once complete, students need to work independently to complete the questions on the Student Worksheet.

Step 2.

Finally, invite students to work independently or in pairs/groups to research five of more things they could do during their life to reduce their ecological footprint. Students could use the Cool Australia Digital Library to research actions they could take.

You could then work as a class to create a poster of actions you can take at home or school to reduce your footprints.

Extend: Pose the following question to students and invite them to share their responses to this question with the class:

How do ecological footprints relate to sustainability?

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to think about what they looked at in this lesson and to complete the following statements:

I used to think...
But now I think...

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?

What's your ecological footprint?

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Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

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