Shea Steven -ESH360 AT1.3 Education for sustainability linking to both Geography and Civics and Citizenship















What children are learning
In term 3 6S will be exploring how to be sustainable citizens within our school and our wider community. This includes discussions, inquiry based thinking and learning and implementing ideas on how we can make small changes to make our environment more sustainably friendly. Throughout this term, students of 6S will be engaging in discussions and activities that correlate with the outcomes provided by ACARA (2019) in the Humanities and Social Science (HASS) strand as well as combining understandings of sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority area and how this can all be linked to becoming a positive citizen.



Why they are learning
As much as we in 6S would love our school community to become plastic and waste free, we cannot guarantee that everyone within our school will partake. Our aim this term is to research, discuss and modify the way our classroom and school community operates when it comes to waste. Our focus throughout this term will be to become educated in Reusing, Reducing and Recycling within our environment. Gilbert and Hoepper (2014) express that as citizens of Australia, we have a responsibility to stop destruction of our earth and therefore work towards change to improve our global status. If we want to see a more sustainable future we need to change our attitudes, behaviours and lifestyles. 6S will start to do this through our classroom, school community and therefore make a positive impact on our wider community.

 How they are learning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtyBzFV9yTs

This video will start our unit off to help students understand sustainability and how we have such a large impact on earth by little things we do in our everyday life. From this short clip students will understand the importance of limiting waste (reducing), swapping plastic to reusable objects such as woven bags to carry groceries (reusing) and learning how to sort through used items such as a milk carton to put into the correct bin to empower environmentally friendly manners (recycling). Students will also have the opportunity to form a compost bin within our school grounds, where all fruit and vegetable scraps will be placed, thus allowing our students to see how doing this can form decomposition and reduce waste.

How parents/carers can support their child’s learning
As we are focusing on making our classroom more sustainably friendly, we hope to influence these changes within student’s home routine. In no way shape or form do we want you to feel pressured to making changes within your home, but if you are up for the challenge here are some things that you can introduce to your home to help your children understand and maintain a level of engagement within sustainability:
·      Reuse, Reduce and Recycle (understanding what can and cannot be placed into the recycling bin)
·      Saying no to plastic bags and taking reusable bags when going shopping; not just when grocery shopping but when doing some retail therapy too!
·      Using reusable and environmentally friendly packaging these can include; containers, cutlery, drink bottles and more!
·      Collect fruit and vegetable scraps and bring them to school to be decomposed in our compost bin!
Making these small changes can have a big impact on our environment and can help ensure our students in 6S can having a positive impact through civics and citizenship and sustainability within our school and wider community.

References:

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2019).
General Capabilities.  Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/

Gilbert, R., & Hoepper, B. (2014) Teaching Humanities and Social Sciences: History, Geography, Economics and Citizenship in the Australian Curriculum (5th Ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning.

Marsh, C., Clarke., & Pittaway, S. (2014). Marsh's becoming a teacher. Frenchs Forest, N.S.W: Pearson Australia.

Math Songs by Numberock (2018). Earth Day Song | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtyBzFV9yTs




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