National Recycling Week - Collaborative Consumption Project - Primary

Activity Introduction

Quick summary: This activity encourages students to take action for National Recycling Week at their school and in their community. Students learn about ‘collaborative consumption’, plan a project and put a small collaborative consumption project into action with the goal of creating less waste at school by sharing things with each other, which may include time and skills as well as physical items.

This lesson has been developed as part of the Schools Recycle Right Challenge for Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week. Register your lesson or other activities so they can be counted towards the national achievement and to receive other free support materials.

Learning intentions:

Students understand the impact of over-consumption on the environment and on society.
Students devise a trading/sharing system.
Students will rethink the concept of sharing and waste and take action to alter their own consumption habits.

21st century skills:

Australian Curriculum Mapping

This lesson can be used with all the learning areas of the Australian Curriculum. Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.

General capabilities: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability, Critical and creative thinking, Personal and social capability, Ethical understanding.

Time needed: 60+ minutes – this activity can be extended over several sessions.

Resources required: Internet, Student Worksheet.

Keywords: National Recycling Week, Resources, Rubbish, Re-using, Recycling, consumption.

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

Overarching learning goals: Students learn about collaborative consumption, plan a project and put a small collaborative consumption project into action with the goal of creating less waste at school by sharing things with each other, which may include time and skills as well as physical items.

Teacher content information: Planet Ark’s National Recycling Week started in 1996 to bring a national focus to the environmental benefits of recycling. This highly regarded annual campaign continues to educate and stimulate behaviour change by promoting kerbside, industrial and community recycling initiative. It also gives people the tools to minimise waste and manage material resources responsibly at home, work and school.

Cool Australia Presents Consumption

Hot tip: This activity can be extended over several sessions, and will require time for planning the event, running the event and analysing the success of the event.

Teaching sequence

10 minutes - Part A: Prepara

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Student Worksheet

Thought Starter: What do you share?

Preparation

Have a chat to someone at home about items you’ve felt really lucky to have borrowed, or items that have been given to you that once were used by somebody else.

What items did you borrow or were given?

How did it make you feel to have these items?

Share and share alike

Work in groups to complete this table

Item at school we usually share:	How I feel about sharing this ? :-) or :-(	If I don’t like sharing it, what could we change so that I would like sharing it?

Plan a share or swap event for your school

In groups, you are to design your school share or swap event. The aim is to encourage people to examine their current consumption practices and make better choices. Think outside the box but ensure that the details of your project are aligned with the SMART goal idea: Speci

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Activity: National Recycling Week – Collaborative Consumption Project – Primary