Activity Introduction
Quick summary: This lesson forms part of a Design Thinking Unit in which students identify issues relating to recycling, build an understanding of the impact that not recycling can have in their own community, work to find and prototype a solution, then take action in their community that addresses the issues they have identified. In this lesson, students will share findings relating to the community’s experiences with waste and recycling. They will present data and information as graphs and tables, as well as summarising it into a visual organiser to represent what members of the community see, do, think and feel. They then consider this information to generate ideas about how recycling practices could be improved.
This activity has been developed in partnership with Visy. For over 70 years Visy has been committed to finding sustainable solutions for Australia and New Zealand’s recyclables and helping to reduce local landfills. Visy collects, receives and sorts paper, cardboard, glass, plastics, steel and aluminium from households, businesses and schools with the purpose of reusing these products in the re-manufacture of new packaging products.
Learning intentions:
- Students will be able to identify and define issues relating to waste and recycling based on data collected
- Students will be able to develop solutions to problems identified within their community
- Students will understand how to plan and take action in their community.
21st century skills:
Curriculum Mapping
To view our Australian Curriculum alignment click here
To view our NZ Curriculum alignment click here
Topic: Recycling, Sustainability.
Unit of work: Visy Education – Using Design Thinking to Solve Problems – Year 5 & 6.
Time required: 120 mins.
Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – tasks within the Design Thinking Unit are designed to encourage students to work independently and in groups to develop their own ideas and actions. The teacher will need to observe and monitor groups, conferencing when suitable and providing support to interpret and present data and plan and implement actions.
Resources required:
- Device capable of presenting a video to the class
- Design Thinking Workbook (one per student, retained from previous lessons)
- Sticky notes
- Basic craft materials, including white and coloured paper, pencils, markers, sticky tape, glue and scissors
- Blu-Tac to display completed posters, or pins if placing posters on display boards
- Class Action Planner
- Gripes posters, retained from the Discovering the Waste Problem lesson.
Related professional development: Introduce Primary Students to Design Thinking.
Keywords: data, graphs, surveys, sustainability, recycling, change, ideas, action, project.
The information and statistics included in this document are approximate and have been simplified for educational/illustrative purposes. They should not be relied upon for any other purpose.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
Teacher Preparation