Activity Introduction
Quick summary: Students form a Waste Warrior Team for their school and/or community. This resource has been designed to support you in starting a student action team around waste to tackle waste issues at your school and in your community. Students are guided through the processes of identifying a team vision, starting a team and assigning roles, identifying problems and developing solutions, planning the details of solutions and testing ideas, implementing actions and reflecting on achievements.
The aim of this lesson is to support teachers and students in establishing a waste action team whose work is monitored, improved upon and continued over the years, extending the real-world impact of student work. By documenting the work that you do you can pass on your work to new team members who can evaluate past successes, identify opportunities for improvement, and build a more sustainable school community in the long term.
Cool Australia’s War On Waste lessons have been developed in partnership with Lune Media and with support from the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network. These lessons have been designed to lead students through a deeper understanding of some of the big issues relating to waste in Australia and to support them to take action to reduce the impact of waste on our environment. To access the full War On Waste unit for Years 4 to 6, click here.
Learning intentions:
- Students understand issues around waste and our environment
- Students recognise the value of working collaboratively to take action
- Students recognise the value of creating a team whose work can address immediate waste issues and can inform actions for waste in the future
- Students understand some of the processes required in planning and implementing action around a real-world problem.
21st century skills:
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions:
Year 4 HASS
- The use and management of natural resources and waste, and the different views on how to do this sustainably (ACHASSK090)
- Interact with others with respect to share points of view (ACHASSI080)
- Reflect on learning to propose actions in response to an issue or challenge and consider possible effects of proposed actions (ACHASSI081)
Year 5 HASS
- Work in groups to generate responses to issues and challenges (ACHASSI102)
- Use criteria to make decisions and judgements and consider advantages and disadvantages of preferring one decision over others (ACHASSI103)
- Reflect on learning to propose personal and/or collective action in response to an issue or challenge, and predict the probable effects (ACHASSI104)
Year 6 HASS
- Work in groups to generate responses to issues and challenges (ACHASSI130)
- Use criteria to make decisions and judgements and consider advantages and disadvantages of preferring one decision over others (ACHASSI131)
- Reflect on learning to propose personal and/or collective action in response to an issue or challenge, and predict the probable effects (ACHASSI132)
Syllabus outcomes: GE2-2, GE2-3, GE2-4, GE3-4.
General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Capability.
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability OI.6.
Relevant parts of Year 4 HASS achievement standards: Students identify the interconnections between components of the environment and between people and the environment. They reflect on their learning to propose action in response to an issue or challenge, and identify the possible effects of their proposed action.
Relevant parts of Year 5 HASS achievement standards: Students work with others to generate alternative responses to an issue or challenge and reflect on their learning to independently propose action, describing the possible effects of their proposed action.
Relevant parts of Year 6 HASS achievement standards: Students collaboratively generate alternative responses to an issue, use criteria to make decisions and identify the advantages and disadvantages of preferring one decision over others. They reflect on their learning to propose action in response to an issue or challenge and describe the probable effects of their proposal.
Topic: Waste, sustainability.
This lesson is part of the wider unit of work: War On Waste – Years 4-6.
Time required: Time for meeting each week or fortnight, time to plan and implement actions.
Level of teacher scaffolding: High – support students in creating and running teams, and in designing and implementing actions. Time out of lesson time will be required.
Resources required:
- Action Checklist
- Action Planning Tool
- Device capable of presenting a website
- Group Roles (optional)
- SWOT Analysis Template
Keywords: Waste Warrior Team, school, community, waste, action, students.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
