Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes

Tune In: Product selection

20 minutes

Find Out: Informed choices

30 minutes

Take Action: What’s the answer?

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Product selection

Step 1

Invite students to consider the following scenario, implementing the Think-Pair-Share approach.

You are walking home from school on a warm day and have stopped to pick up your favourite drink from the local store. As you browse the fridge, you notice that you can purchase the same drink in three in different forms, in a glass bottle, a plastic bottle, or a can.

How do you decide which one to purchase?

What are the factors you consider when making this decision?

During the ‘share’ element, identify knowledge that the students have that helped them to make this decision while also considering if there are unknown factors that may be relevant.

Find Out: Informed choices

Step 1

Explain to students that today we’ll explore these different packaging options further so we can make informed decisions about which one to choose. We will look at various relevant factors such as whether it can be recycled, its contribution to pollution, hazards to workers, cost of production etc.

Provide students with the ‘Informed Choices’ worksheet. Show the following videos to the class. After each, discuss the information shared in the video and prompt students to record notes in the relevant section of their observation worksheet, ensuring they include positives and negatives for each material type.

Step 2

Once all videos have been viewed and students have had time to record their thinking, invite them to share what packaging material they think is best after finding this additional information. You might like to keep note of key ideas on the board.

Step 3

Explain to students that they will now have time to explore some additional resources and add additional notes to their research.

Provide students with access to the following resources and invite them to explore them and add further notes and findings to their table.

https://earth911.com/business-policy/how-many-times-recycled/
https://www.fiftyshadesgreener.ie/blog/tetra-v-glass-v-plastic-which-is-best-2
https://international-aluminium.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Cost-competitiveness-of-PET-aluminium-and-glass-beverage-containers-1.pdf (Page 2 - column graphs showing the cost of containers)

Once students have explored these resources, encourage them to research where the original materials for each product come from?

Aluminium - Where does Australia get its aluminium from?
PET - where does Australia get crude oil from?
Glass - where does Australia get its silica sand from?
LPB/Tetra Pack - Where does Australia get its cardboard from?

They can then add additional notes to the table on their worksheet, considering how this impacts the land/environment it is sourced from and whether there are long transportation distances that will lead to increased costs and pollution.

Step 4

Once students have had sufficient time to conduct their research, reconvene the class and invite them to share and discuss new findings and observations. Encourage a rich conversation that acknowledges that there may not be one clear and obvious answer but that there are many facts and details which we should be aware of.

Invite students to vote again on which material they think is best for packaging and why? Compare the outcome to the previous vote and discuss why this might have changed.

Take Action: What’s the answer?

Step 1

Discuss how the previous investigation demonstrated that there are pros and cons to almost all material types. Some of the take aways students might have gathered are:

Aluminium is lightweight and easily transported and can be recycled infinitely, but the original mining of it has negative environmental consequences.
Glass can be continuously recycled back into the same product but has higher emissions in processing and is heavier, which can lead to greater transport and logistics requirements.
Plastic production has the least initial environmental impact and required resources to produce but is the largest contributor to land and ocean pollution and doesn’t have the same recycling value as metal or glass.

Step 2

Emphasise how the process of recycling improves the use of any material.

A recycled aluminium can, is better than one that has been created from mined materials.
A recycled glass bottle is better than one that has required the collection and processing of more of the Earth’s natural sands.
A recycled tetra pack is better than one produced by the logging of additional trees
A recycled PET bottle is better than one that is fully developed from newly sourced non-renewable materials.

Show the poster Reinventing your 10¢ Containers. Discuss the impact of Containers for Change for all beverage container types.

Invite students to consider the following question, using the Turn and Talk approach:

If the value and impact of each beverage container is difficult to determine, is a better way to make decisions simply to consider if a product is recycled or not?
Will our contributions to recycling programs always be of benefit? Why?

Step 3

Invite students to complete the final section of the worksheet, explaining how recycling has a positive impact for all material types.

Reflection

Conclude the lesson by inviting students to consider the following questions:

What things will I consider when buying beverages in the future?
What ways can I contribute to the production of more environmentally friendly beverage containers?
What improvements do you think we can continue to make in the future?

Containers for Change WA - Conscious Choices

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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