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Step 3.2 
Research task 2: Explore options for making a sustainable change at school

Suggested Subject Area: Environmental Education, Geography and Literacy

Purpose
To provide students with opportunities to:
  • Recall what they know about the school’s ecological footprint
  • Discuss things we all can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change and improve the school’s ecological footprint 
  • Reflect on their own ideas, values and priorities for their school and to consider practical ways in which they can influence change at school
  • Develop skills in comprehension, questioning, reporting and presenting.

Preparation
You will need:
  • A copy of Resource 1.1 for all students
  • Access to the Internet

Procedure
Discuss with the students how they have researched how other schools and communities have used a variety of actions to improve sustainability practices, adapt to a changing climate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and developed their own vision of what a sustainable classroom or school might look like.

Ask them to recall what they know about:
  • The school’s sustainability practices
  • The school’s adaptation practices
  • Factors that can affect a school’s sustainability practices
  • Factors that can affect a school’s adaptation practices
  • What uses energy and water at the school; what practices produce waste at the school; what types of waste are produced; what transport options are available at the school; and what options there might be to grow local food, trees and plants at the school
  • The range of possibilities that could improve the school’s sustainability performance, ability to adapt to change and minimise greenhouse emissions at the school

Ask the students to reflect on the type of actions that could be undertaken to improve the sustainable practices and/or adaptation practices of the school. Display questions like:
  • What improvements could be made to the school’s current practices to make them more sustainable?
  • What measures could be implemented to adapt to the challenges of climate change?
  • Are some solutions more sustainable than others? Why?
  • Are some solutions more cost effective for the school? Why?
  • What else could we do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
  • How will we know if the changes we make have been successful in changing people’s behaviours?

Ask students to use their learning journal, to define and document the actions that are most appropriate, sustainable and cost effective for the school to implement. See Resource 1.1.

Assessment Note
Student writing or drawing samples in their learning journal about what to possibly change at the school may provide information about student learning.

Follow up
Ask students to recall the schools that are factoring sustainability and/or adaptation practices into their management decisions. Ask them to reflect on the case studies they viewed in the earlier part of the unit about how other schools and communities have approached some sustainability and adaptation issues in their schools, villages and places of living and the solutions they developed as a school or community. Encourage students to re-read those sources for information about the resources they needed and used and the constraints (if any) they encountered and needed to factor into their projects for change.

See:
  • Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI) http://www.environment.gov.au/education/aussi/case-studies/index.html
  • Carbo Schools http://www.carboeurope.org/education/
  • Green School http://www.greenschool.org/
  • Eco Schools http://www.eco-schools.org/

Ask students to document those resources in their learning journal and consider the available resources they have for their sustainability idea, campaign, design or project at the school and note any constraints that might also need to be thought through.

Encourage students to use their research and to start generating ‘real ideas’ in their learning journal that they feel could be implemented in the school to improve sustainability and /or adaptation practices.

Use the free online tool to build a case, support your ideas or hypothesis. See http://educate.intel.com/en/ThinkingTools/ShowingEvidence/TryTheTool/

Ask students to report to others in the class on how the project ideas researched and initiatives learnt about work and their possible impact or effect on the school and its community.

Also, talk with the about approaches that can help the school and its community adapt to climate change as well as mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Invite students to consider some of the ways other children are adapting to their circumstances.

See: http://www.savethechildren.org.au/what-we-do/climate-change-and-disasters/climate-change-adaptation where children and communities are:
  • Coping with drought
  • Building contours around the school and community to conserve water
  • Harvesting rainwater in underground tanks
  • Growing crops in alternative ways
  • Using drip irrigation to water plants
  • Drying food and storing it for the monsoon and wet seasons
  • Planting bamboo along rivers to stop erosion, and
  • Increasing awareness and skills in the local community to understand the risks and impacts of climate change on people, livestock and crops.

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PRIMARY UNIT
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