Activity Introduction

Quick summary: Students will learn about the concept of closing the loop and investigate the environmental savings their school can make by using recycled paper. They will conduct an investigation regarding paper usage in their school and use rate, conversion and percentages to calculate and comprehend findings. 

This lesson has been developed in partnership with Visy. For over 60 years Visy has been striving for sustainability, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill by collecting recyclable materials and recycling them into new paper and packaging products. Click here to find out more about Visy and their innovative work in recovering and transforming recyclable materials into new products to preserve our earth’s precious resources.

 

Learning intentions:

  • Students will understand the concept of closing the loop.
  • Students will know how the use of recycled products reduces our impact on the environment.
  • Students will be able to use rate, conversion and percentage to solve problems related to paper usage.

21st century skills:

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Content descriptions:

Year 7 Maths

  • Find percentages of quantities and express one quantity as a percentage of another, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA158).
  • Connect fractions, decimals and percentages and carry out simple conversions (ACMNA157).
  • Recognise and solve problems involving simple ratios (ACMNA173).

Year 8 Maths

  • Solve problems involving the use of percentages, including percentage increases and decreases, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA187).
  • Solve a range of problems involving rates and ratios, with and without digital technologies (ACMNA188).

General capabilities: Numeracy, Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.8.

Relevant parts of Year 7 Mathematics achievement standards: Students express one quantity as a fraction or percentage of another, and solve problems involving percentages and all four operations with fractions and decimals.

Relevant parts of Year 8 Mathematics achievement standards: Students solve everyday problems involving rates, ratios and percentages.

Topic: Waste, Sustainability.

Unit of work: Bright Sparks – Secondary Mathematics.

Time required: 75 mins.

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – teacher will be required to facilitate an investigation as well as classroom discussion.

Resources required: 

  • Student Worksheets (one per student).
  • Device capable of presenting a video and projecting images to the class.
  • Recycling logo (to project for the class to view).

Keywords: Recycling, closing the loop, making projections, percentage, conversion, rate.

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.

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Teacher Preparation

Learning intentions:

  • Students will understand the concept of closing the loop.
  • Students will know how the use of recycled products reduces our impact on the environment.
  • Students will be able to use rate, conversion and percentage to solve problems related to paper usage.

Success criteria:

  • Students can explain what is meant by closing the loop.
  • Students can contrast the environmental effects of using products made from recyclable material, with those that are made from raw materials.
  • Students can use rate and conversion to make yearly projections of paper usage.
  • Students can use percentages to calculate environmental savings.

Teacher content information: Almost everything we do in our daily lives creates waste. We can describe waste as something we no longer want or need. The food and drinks we consume, the clothes and cosmetics we wear, the transport we take, the stuff we buy, the energy we use in our homes and workplaces – all these thi

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Student Worksheet

Thought starter: What is ‘Closing the loop’?

Part A: Introduction

Recycling is not just about putting recyclable materials in the correct bin. It’s also about the creation of new goods from recycled material. When these new goods are used, the recycling loop is ‘closed’ and the process restarts. By ‘closing the loop’, we are able to conserve natural resources and reduce our impact on the environment.

Have a look at this image and answer the questions below:

1. What is this symbol?

2. What do each of the three arrows in this symbol represent?

Now have a look at the following graphic. This image reveals the amount of recyclable products manufactured at Visy in one year, as well as the amount of material recycled. Most of these measures are in tonnes which is 1000 kilograms.

Find the amount of paper and cardboard recycled at Visy, and the amount of paper-related products that were created:

Table 1. Amount of paper and cardboard recycled at Visy:

Recycled Paper and C
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