Climate/Future Teaching & Learning Sequence

This module focuses on how you and your organisation understand sustainability.

 

Having an agreed understanding helps establish a sustainability vision that is compelling and achievable – step by step.

 

Curriculum links

1: The cross curriculum priority area of sustainability

2: The General Capabilities of:

• Personal and Social Capability

• Ethical Understandings

• Critical and Creative Thinking.

 

Teaching and Learning Sequence

Adapt these activities and their order to suit your specific situation.

 

1: What do you think?

Give each person three coloured blank cards (or sticky notes) and ask them to write three ideas (one on each) they believe to be a part of a sustainable world. This can be an individual activity or pairs if learners need support. Then, give each person three different coloured blank cards (or sticky notes) and ask them to write three words that represent the biggest issues that preclude our society or community from being sustainable.

 

Have them number these issues in priority order. Collect the cards/sticky notes in two different groups.  These will be used in the next activities but some discussion now of the ideas is worth it – explore the variety (or not) of ideas and perspectives.

Celebrate the difference or commonality. 

 

Take a photo of the collection of cards/notes for groups 1 and 2 separately.

 

2: As a whole group, watch The Story of Stuff

 

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The Story of Stuff was written by Annie Leonard, Louis Fox, and Jonah Sachs, directed by Louis Fox and produced by Free Range Studios. Executive Producers included Tides Foundation and the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption. It was released in December 2007.

 

• Clarify understanding of the ideas in the video – this may take some time.  Go back and re-visit parts of the video to gain greater clarity (check out the website and read the transcript or the FAQ). Dig into the complexity that the video represents.  Explore the implications. Allow your students to wonder and be curious.

• Compare the ideas of issues from the second set of cards/sticky notes with the messages of the video. Look for ways to group the issues into clusters and explore the clusters. The amalgamation of these might clarify the root causes.

• Invite the students to add one or two more cards/sticky notes as a reflection on the Story of Stuff video.

• Discuss the possibility that our desires may be driving some of the current sustainability issues.  Explore specific issues and encourage research to gather the complexity and details.  Focus on local issues if possible.

 

3. Take a break and go outside…

Enjoy the air and trees and birds.  Reflect on the words on the first cards/sticky notes.

 

4: As a whole group, watch the Story of Change

 

 

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The Story of Change was created and released by The Story of Stuff Project and produced by Free Range Studios. Our distribution partners included dozens of local, national and international progressive, environmental, labor and economic justice organizations.

 

• Prepare the students by asking them to listen for good ideas as they watch the video.

• Clarify understanding of the ideas in the video. Go back and re-visit parts of the video to gain greater clarity (check out the website and read the transcript or the FAQ). Dig into the complexity that the video represents.  Explore the implications. Allow your students to wonder and be curious.

• Discuss examples of where and how change has happened in their own experience. Compare these local examples with what they hear/see on the video. Some may want to look into the examples provided in the video (Indian Independence Movement, Anti-Apartheid Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Environmental Movement) to find out more about the situations and results.

• More will be made of this in the next module

 

5: Action is vital.

But it needs to be in the right direction.

• In small groups, have the students prepare a few sentences that use the words on their cards/sticky notes to capture an understanding of sustainability.

• Combine groups and combine understandings into a new set of sentences. Gather these and work out a class understanding of sustainability.

• Check the definition of Sustainability in the Australian Curriculum: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/sustainability/

• If your school/organisation has policies already in place that include a definition of sustainability, compare it with what your group has prepared. Consider the need to and the processes for amending the policy definition or aligning your group’s understanding with the existing definition.

• If your school/organisation policies do not include a definition of sustainability, investigate and pursue the processes for developing and incorporating a definition into the policies.

• Display the agreed definition in your room. Discuss how you and your group will communicate the definition of sustainability to others to inspire action in your local area.

 

Notes for Teachers

1. Read the cross curriculum priority of sustainability https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/sustainability/

2. Make time to explore and watch and consider as many of the videos as you can https://storyofstuff.org/ – but especially focus on the Story of Stuff, The Story of Solutions, and the Story of Change. Don’t rush this task as it is important that you are aware of how to lead your students into exploring the complexity.

3. Take some time to research, for yourself, the local sustainability issues.  Become informed with web searches and by talking to local authorities (organisations, municipal and state governments agencies, and people with expertise). Explore a variety of perspectives.  Be aware of your own feelings and biases about these issues (and don’t be afraid to name them with your class – we all have opinions). Create opportunities for your students to express their opinions; check to see if those opinions are supported with evidence.

4. Use the cards/sticky notes to record your group’s thoughts.  The photos of the collection could be printed and reflected on during the rest of the modules.  This engages the group in reflections about their learning, and it keeps learning at the centre of what you are doing together.