Back to Earth - Green Waste Messages - 5 & 6

Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students communicate positive messages about green waste recycling by planning a communication project based on creating a slogan, rhyme, rap, or by rewriting the lyrics to a favourite song.

Following these lessons plans is an ideal way for your students and the community to tune in to what happens to green waste once it is collected in a kerbside bin. The Back to Earth initiative is about connecting people with what happens to green waste once it leaves the garden, how it is processed, what it is used for at the end of this cycle and why its important to put the right things into the bin!

Join thousands of others who have learnt about the benefits of using their green waste service correctly, for their communities and for the planet. Don’t forget to check out the Back to Earth initiative website: www.backtoearth.vic.gov.au – to learn more.

Learning goals:

Students understand the environmental problems associated with sending green waste to landfill.
Students recognise the benefits of composting.
Students understand how to plan a communication project and how to communicate positive messages about green waste recycling to the community.

General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking, Literacy.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.6, OI.7.

Australian Curriculum content description:

English Year 5

Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)

English Year 6

Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with text structures, language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1714)

Design and Technologies Year 5 & 6

Investigate how people in design and technologies occupations address competing considerations, including sustainability in the design of products, services and environments for current and future use (ACTDEK019)
Critique needs or opportunities for designing, and investigate materials, components, tools, equipment and processes to achieve intended designed solutions (ACTDEP024)

Syllabus Outcomes: EN3-2A, ST3-14BE, ST3-15I, ST3-16P, ST3-5WT.

Topic: Back to Earth

Time required: 60 mins

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – oversee activity.

Resources required: Student Worksheet, internet access, desktop or online song recording program, Project Action Planning – Tips for success.

Digital technology opportunities: Digital sharing capabilities.

Homework and extension opportunities:

Keywords: Green waste recycling, communication, song, slogan, rhyme.

Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

The Back to Earth Initiative would like to acknowledge Veolia and these participating councils.

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher preparation

Overarching learning goal: By participating in this activity students will understand the environmental problems associated with sending green waste to landfill and will recognise the benefits of composting. Students will also understand how to plan a communication project and how to communicate positive messages about green waste recycling to the community.

Teacher content information: Many people think that sending green waste to landfill is fine. It’s natural right?? Surely it just breaks down and creates good soil that helps the environment?? No, sadly, this is not what happens at all.

Landfill sites are essentially great big piles of rubbish. There is no air in these great big piles and this means nothing much breaks down in them at all (did you know that old landfills are now being treated as archaeological sites because the waste is so well preserved?!). The only organisms that can survive in a landfill are bacteria which decomposes the waste anaerobically

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Student Worksheet

Thought starter: What does your house do with its green waste?

In groups you are to create and share a slogan, rhyme, rap or song (by rewriting the lyrics to a song) with the aim of encouraging more people to use their green waste bins correctly.

Think outside the box but ensure that the details of your project are aligned with the SMART goal idea: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound. For more information, have a look at our Project Action Planning - Tips for success.

Project Action Plan

Group Members:

Steps	Actions/Decisions	Person Responsible
1. Brainstorm Ideas No idea is too big or too small at this stage. Have one group member record all the ideas generated, then begin discussing them. Complete this task as a group.
2. Project Aims What do you hope to achieve through this project? Complete this task as a group.
3. Background Research Use the Internet to search for case studies similar to y

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Activity: Back to Earth – Green Waste Messages – 5 & 6

Activity Introduction