Lesson Summary
Students will create an elevator pitch aimed at a local organisation to support the circular economy and use of recycled materials in the construction industry.
Learning intentions:
Students will...
- create media to explain the circular economy and are able to justify why the building industry should be using recycled resources.
Success criteria:
Students can...
- explain where specific materials can be sourced and the competing factors in the different sourcing options
- produce written material analysing these competing factors and advocating for one source over another.
Lesson guides and printables
Lesson details
21st Century Skills
- Critical thinking
- Communication
- Community Engagement
- Digital Literacy
- Initiative
- Leadership
Curriculum Mapping
Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content description:
Design and technology, English, Year 5 & 6
- explain how people in design and technologies occupations consider competing factors including sustainability in the design of products, services and environments (AC9TDE6K01).
- plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive, developing ideas using visual features, text structure appropriate to the topic and purpose, text connectives, expanded noun groups, specialist and technical vocabulary, and punctuation including dialogue punctuation (AC9E5LY06).
- plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive, using paragraphs, a variety of complex sentences, expanded verb groups, tense, topic-specific and vivid vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and visual features (AC9E6LY06).
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability
General capabilities: Literacy
Relevant parts of Year 5 & 6 achievement standards:
Students explain how people design products, services and environments to meet the needs of communities, including sustainability. They create written and/or multimodal texts, including literary texts, for particular purposes and audiences, developing and expanding on ideas with supporting details from topics or texts.
Resources Required
- board and pens
- device to show videos to the class
- devices for students to conduct online research
- student worksheets (1 per student)
Additional Info
Level of teacher scaffolding: medium - scaffold student discussion and research and support students to write letters.
This lesson was created in partnership with Planet Ark and BINGO Industries.

Coles is a Major Sponsor of Planet Ark's National Recycling Week, which was established in 1996 to encourage Australians across the country to engage in recycling education - improving recycling habits and keeping valuable resources out of landfill. They became involved with Planet Ark's National Recycling Week as a part of its Sustainability Strategy to minimise its environmental footprint.
The strategy includes two focus areas, Together to Zero and Better Together. Together to Zero sets out ambitions across the key sustainability areas of climate change, waste and hunger. Better Together ensures the wellbeing of employees, suppliers and community and works towards positive social change. Its goal is to support all Australians lead healthier, happier, and more sustainable lives.
Click here to find out more about National Recycling Week and the Schools Recycle Right Challenge.
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