Week 5 : Education for sustainability learning opportunity

                                                   Tangaroa Blue Foundation. (2018).
This month, we are working on Civics and Citizenships integrated with one aspect in the cross-curricular priority, Sustainability (ACARA, 2016).  The cross-curricular priorities would engage students in better understanding of our world through social, economic, political and educational issues (Taylor, Fashey, Kriewaldt & Boon, 2012).  We, as a class are looking into global issues such as land pollution.  The unit outline is designed to develop the willingness to be involved in action to look after the world. 

Links to the curriculum description: Year 5: HASS (ACARA, 2016)

                             
                              

                           

Through the lessons, students would understand it is our responsibility to look after the Earth!  We will break the subject down into the small steps necessary to maintain the environment.  To find local and global connections are the successful way to achieve the outcome.  Thus, the class are going to tackle the problem locally.  This is because students would show great enthusiasm for learning when they understood the content is meaningful and relevant to everyday life for them (Churchill, Ferguson, Godinho, Jhonson, Keddie, Letts, ... & Vick, 2011).  The unit of work is aimed to students to gain the essential life-long skills beyond mere academic knowledge.  To involve students in this role, they have watched a video at first.               

                              Tasmanian plastic bag ban ad (Tasmania plastickbagban, 2013)

After the class watched the video, the students asked three inquiry questions ‘Why are plastic bags banned?’, ‘How do plastic bags affect the environment?’, , and “How can we engage in positive ways to reduce our single use of plastics?’  Students have used Information and Communication Technology skills to find out the answers by using a Google, and they also worked as a team to develop cooperative learning skills such as supporting each other.  They practiced improving communication skills to accomplish the task successfully, such as the art of compromise.  Students shared their ideas via PowerPoint, told a story with pictures or a verbal presentation.  To complete the task, students share their ideas through discussion.  The conversation is an effective way to practice participation and decision-making skills (Gilbert & Hoepper, 2014).  Students learnt how to respect different opinions, develop listening skills and understand their situation in the wider community.  Each group has researched negative results such as plastic bags take a long time to decompose.  After the presentations, we watched a video clip and looked at issues outside of the community.  

Visualisation showing ocean garbage patches (NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, 2015)

                                                                     (Cooke, 2017) 

                                                                   (Willow, 2014)

Plastic waste affects animal life and pollution of our school/town/community.  Plastics produce greenhouse gas when we burn it.We discussed what we can do now as students.  The ideas are to use cloth bags as an alternative, use a lunch box/ recyclable water bottle and research how plastic affects sea life such as turtle and sea birds.  Moreover, students decided to run “Plastic bag free month", next month.

Therefore, please be aware of our project to reduce plastic bags and ensure children bring their reusable lunch box and own water bottle and they will take own lunch rubbish home.  This is to encourage students not to leave rubbish around the school.  Please encourage students to pack their lunch together and consider the pollution such as to pack sandwiches into container instead of using plastic wraps.  Moreover, involve students in washing up their lunch boxes when they come home from school.  The students will not achieve the aim of become active citizen without your support!  Thank you very much for your understanding.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2016). The Australian

Curriculum: Humanities and Social Science. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass

Churchill, R., Ferguson, P., Godinho, S., Jhonson, N., Keddie, A., Letts, W, ... Vick, M.

(2011). Teaching: Making a difference. Milton, Qld: John Wiley and Sons Australia.

Cooke,L. (2017, September 26). Inhabitat [Picture].Retrieved from https://inhabitat.com/plastic-
            beach-audit-in-the-philippines-reveals-which-businesses-are-the-worst-polluters/
Gilbert, R., & Hoepper, B. (Ed.). (2014). Teaching humanities and social sciences: History, 
             geography, economics and citizenship in the Australian curriculum (5th ed.). South
             Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning Australia.
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. (2015, October 2). Visualisation showing 
             ocean garbage patches [Video podcast]. Retrieved       
             from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?        
             title=File%3AGarbage_Patch_Visualization_Experiment.webm
Tasmania plastickbagban. (2013, October 16). Tasmanian plastic bag ban longer ad 
            [Video podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9S-JutsxJI

Tangaroa Blue Foundation. (2018). The guardian: Plastic draping plants in the Torres Strait. 

            Photograph [Picture]. Retrieved 

            from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/plastic-is-literally-

            everywhere-the-epidemic-attacking-australias-oceans

Taylor, T., Fashey, C.,Kriewaldt, J., & Boon, D. (2012). Place and time: Explorations in 
  
             teaching geography and history. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Australia.

Willow, A. (2014, September 30). The fifth estate: Our planet, our real estate(Picture). 
      
            Retrieved fromhttps://www.thefifthestate.com.au/urbanism/environment/trawling

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