Step 3.3: Select ideas and actions
Suggested Subject Area: Environmental Education, Geography and Literacy
Purpose To provide students with opportunities to:
Preparation You will need:
Procedure Talk with the students about how all ideas and actions, or lack of ideas and action, carry a range of implications. Some can affect places/environment, people/society, economies and policies. As a class check out Wolfgang Kessling’s ideas as he is building the next World Cup Soccer stadium using sustainable principles. See http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/wolfgang_kessling_how_to_air_condition_outdoor_spaces.html (shown below) and discuss how the class might propose the school can create comfortable conditions with passive designs, using only available renewable energy sources like the sun and wind and recovering resources wherever you can at the school. Ask students to review their earlier thinking...ask them if they have considered:
Ask students to decide on the sustainability ideas that they propose be considered at the school to create more sustainable conditions and reduce the school’s greenhouse gas emissions; students can place ideas on a page of their learning journal. Then, draw a compass in the centre of the class’s board or use Resource 1.5 or access compass images from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=compass+rose+worksheet&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=plBzUKa7LMitiAeH4YCYAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1270&bih=544 or http://www.globaleducation.edu.au/verve/_resources/dev-compassrose.pdf Instead of naming the four compass points north, south, east and west use:
Note: Diagonal points represent relationships between the four main points. For example, NE highlights ideas and questions about how economic considerations might impact on natural environments; SE highlights ideas and questions about economic considerations and people’s lives. Using this ‘compass’ as a class identify the environmental, social, economic and political factors that influence the ways in which the class’s chosen sustainability ideas or designs, technologies or actions might impact or affect the school, its students, budgets and sustainable practices. Complete this activity for all ideas to really understand all of the implications for proposing their use and implementation at the school. Alternatively use a flow chart to list a series of events that might happen, sequentially as a result of your sustainability idea or design. Other boxes could be added to show related events. See: http://www.globaleducation.edu.au/verve/_resources/flow_chart.pdf for a template to use. Follow up
After looking at the implications of the students’ ideas, ask students to prepare an action plan that defines actions that best meet the criteria for improving sustainable and /or adaptation practices while reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the school. The plan should convey information about:
Ask students to consider a plan with the following headings. |