Topic: Sustainability

Transcription

1 Topic: Sustainability Lesson: How can we live a more sustainable life? Resources: 1. Resource 1 Eddie s interview 2. Resource 2 Our TV interview 3. Resource 3 Help sheet 4. Resource 4 Peer assessment KS or Year Group: Year 7 Objectives: Students can understand what sustainability means. Students can understand how to live more sustainable lives. National Curriculum Key Concepts: 1.2a Key Processes: 2.1a, 2.2d, 2.3a, 2.3c, 2.3d Range and Content: 3a, 3e Curriculum Opportunities: 4a, 4b, 4c, 4g Lesson overview Students explore the concept of sustainability through a TV interview (for the imaginary Green Teen TV). Through the creation of their own TV interviews, they then explore how they might lead more sustainable lives. Starter Share the lesson objectives with students. Give the definition of sustainability to the class (to sustain = to allow something to continue for an amount of time). Ask students to come up with some synonyms for sustain. Examples of good answers: Sustain means to keep something going for a while. If you sustain something you basically make sure that it doesn t stop. To sustain something is another way of saying that you want to make it last. Explain to students that the term sustainability is often used to refer to keeping our planet healthy for future generations. Tell them that some experts believe that we are destroying our planet through using too much energy and thus causing pollution. Also explain that the government wants us to live more sustainable lives (e.g. by being less lazy about recycling) for the sake of children of the future Page 1 of 9

2 Ask five volunteers to come to the front and to perform from the script on Resource 1 Eddie s interview. Praise those who did so. Invite the class to pick a character whose idea they would most like to try, and to explain why. Examples of good answers: I really liked Kimberley s idea about the four-minute shower. I might try to time myself in the shower every morning. I won t need to buy a timer because I ve got a waterproof watch. All of the ideas were good, but my favourite one was the one about walking instead of using the car. My parents keep saying that they need to do more exercise, so I m going to persuade them to walk more often. I think it s nice that Natalie s in charge of the bins. It gives her some responsibility in her house and she ll probably have four bins when she s an adult. I wouldn t mind organising that at my house. I ve no idea where our local tip is so I d have to find out I suppose. Invite students to put up their hands if they think that the characters green ideas are realistic. Ask students to justify their responses. Examples of good responses: Yes! All four children did things that were either cheap or which didn t take up much time. I didn t put up my hand because I don t think I could manage to get clean properly if I only had a shower for four minutes. I put up my hand because I think that all of us could do what the characters did. What s so hard about sticking some labels on some bins? It wouldn t take long but it would make a big difference. I don t think that the ideas would really work. Some people s nearest park is really far away so you can t always walk everywhere. Plus, it would be hard to remember to carry a bag with you all of the time. It s easier to use the ones in the supermarket. Main activity Ask students to get into groups of five. Explain that they are going to create their own TV interviews based upon the one that they have just seen performed. Tell students that they are going to act out these interviews in front of the class. Show students Resource 2 Our TV interview and explain that they will need to: choose a name for the TV interviewer (students can use their own names and base the character upon themselves if desired) Page 2 of 9

3 choose names for the four young characters (again, students might wish to use their own names and base the characters upon themselves) choose a name for the environmentally friendly TV programme fill in the TV presenter s speech bubble (using Eddie s speech bubble for guidance) fill in the characters speech bubbles (using the ideas on Resource 3 Help sheet and preferably adding their own) practise their piece of drama. Plenary Explain that two groups will be performing their TV interviews. Talk the students through Resource 4 Peer assessment: each student will mark the performances out of 20 the example in the table is there to help planning means how well the group prepared their performance (e.g. did they all have a sheet to read from and know who spoke when?) ideas means how realistic and useful their characters sustainability ideas were (e.g. did they choose ideas that people in this class could fit into their lives?) acting means how confidently and expertly they performed (e.g. did they face the audience and speak loudly?) X factor means whether there was any originality in the performance (e.g. did the TV programme have a really interesting name and were any of the characters funny?). Choose two groups to perform and remind the audience to fill in their peer assessments during the performances. Invite students to provide feedback. Examples of good feedback: I only gave Jenny s group 7 out of 20 because they didn t really plan their performance properly and so everything went a bit wrong. They could have improved it by making sure that the characters had different ideas. Three of them seemed to say pretty much the same thing! Also, they could have thought of a better name for their TV programme instead of using the same one as Eddie s. I gave Noah s group 16 out of 20 because I really liked their TV interview. Their programme was full of sensible ideas and was really well planned. I put a high score in every column except the X factor one. That was because their performance didn t surprise me, probably because they just used the ideas from the help sheet. Ask those students who played an imaginary character to explain which of the characters ideas might work in their own lives Page 3 of 9

4 Examples of good answers: The character that I invented gets her toys from the Freecycle website. I suppose I could do that too. It would mean I could save pocket money and I would be helping the world at the same time. My character made a promise to himself only to buy paper that s recycled. I m going to try and do this too now because I buy a lot of sketch pads. Encourage students to write down three ways in which they could live more sustainable lives (at the bottom of Resource 4). Invite students to compare these ideas in small groups. Aim high Challenge students to explain what the school could do to make students care more about sustainability. Assessment For homework, ask students to make one change in their household that will help to preserve the planet for future citizens. Level 5: Students can debate the concept of sustainability. Students can draw conclusions about other students views on sustainability. Level 6: Students can challenge other students ideas about sustainability. Students can understand how the rights of future generations need to be protected from an environmental point of view. Level 7: Students can represent the views of others in terms of sustainability. Students can evaluate the roles citizens can take in shaping decisions about sustainability. Level 8: Students can analyse how Britain s attitude to sustainability can affect groups and communities in different parts of the world. Students can explore the implications of different courses of action with regard to sustainability Page 4 of 9

5 Check the web Teenage internet magazine s advice about recycling eshow/default.stm BBC slideshow about sustainability Child-friendly game based around green issues Summary of key learning Students can understand what sustainability means. Students can understand how to live more sustainable lives Page 5 of 9

6 Resource 1 Eddie s interview Hello, viewers. Welcome to Green Teen TV the programme that no young person should miss! My name s Eddie, and today I m going to be interviewing some fantastic people who are an inspiration to us all. OK then, you lot, tell me how you bring the word sustainability to life! Let s start with you, Natalie. Hi, Eddie. Thanks for interviewing me! Mum put me in charge of recycling at home. She bought me four bins in different colours and said that it was up to me to label them. I made the different labels by cutting up magazines. I then stuck them to the bins. We ve now got a glass bin, a paper bin, a plastic bin and a metal bin in our kitchen cupboard. Every Saturday I help my uncle to empty our bins into the right containers at our local tip. Hi, Eddie. My name s Bodek. One thing that I m really good at is encouraging my parents to leave the car at home sometimes. Whenever we go to the local shops or to the park I say that we should walk. They re gradually getting the message now, although they don t like walking in the rain! I ve got a chart at home that shows the number of times that we walk instead of using the car. Last week we managed it four times, and we even did one of our walks in the rain. Dad bought Mum an umbrella to stop her complaining about getting wet! Hello, viewers. My name s Kimberley. I saw a leaflet about four-minute showers so I had the idea of getting a timer in our bathroom. The leaflet said that you should try not to waste water, and that cutting down your showers to four minutes was one way to do this. My sisters and I compete to see who can finish their shower before the buzzer goes off! My big sister s usually the quickest. Dad says that we care more about the earth than a lot of adults do. Hi, everyone. My name s Hayley. I bought everyone in my family a re-usable shopping bag for Christmas, and I got myself one too. Mum s has got cars all over it, and the one I bought for her boyfriend is plain black. My little brother s has got a ladybird on it because that s his favourite creature, and mine has got loads of bright stripes on it. I wanted everyone to have one so that we wouldn t need to use plastic carrier bags anymore. We used to throw away at least 20 plastic bags a week until my Christmas presents showed up! Page 6 of 9

7 Resource 2 Our TV interview Hello there, viewers. My name s Thanks for tuning in today to Hi. My name s Hi. My name s Hi. My name s Hi. My name s Page 7 of 9

8 Resource 3 Help sheet These ideas might help you choose what your character does to live a more sustainable life. Only buy food that comes from the local area so that not much fuel is used to move the food around? Persuade the adult(s) where you live to buy energy-saving light bulbs from the supermarket? Get your pencil case and pens from a special company that makes them out of recycled tyres? Look up information on the internet about the Green Party and some environmental charities so that you can take their advice? Help to insulate the loft in your house and agree to wear warm clothing at home so that you don t need the heating on very often? Donate your old mobile phones to an organisation that re-uses them? Buy a bike with your birthday money so that you don t have to take the school bus anymore? Join the School Council and organise a recycling bin for every classroom? Page 8 of 9

9 Resource 4 Peer assessment 5 = excellent 4 = good 3 = satisfactory 2 = needs some work 1 = needs a lot of work Group and total For example: Nikki s group Score = 10 Planning Ideas Acting X factor After this lesson, I am going to try to live a more sustainable life by: Page 9 of 9