Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Displaying impact

20 minutes

Find Out: Meaningful statistics

25 minutes

Take Action: Telling the story

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions:

Students will:

collect data to inform a campaign
create an entry for the Schools Classroom Recycling Challenge by MobileMuster.

Success criteria:

Students can:

use digital tools to turn their data into visual representations
design an infographic to present data.

Tune In: Displaying impact

Step 1

Introduce the Schools Classroom Recycling Challenge by MobileMuster and the theme of this year by reading through their webpage. Identify the prizes on offer to students. Also, be sure to open and read the judging criteria.

Explain that you will be collecting data from your school’s campaign for your competition contribution and submitting an infographic that clearly conveys your impact.

Step 2

Use the 2025 MobileMuster Annual Report to explain what an infographic is and how it conveys information visually. Display this report on your screen and provide each student with a sticky note. Next, ask students to write a quiz-style question that could be answered using any of the information on the screen.

Step 3

Invite students to pass the sticky note to another student, who will write the answer to the question. When finished, ask students:

Would it have taken longer to find the answer if all of this information had been displayed just as a body of text?
Why do you think that?

Some ideas may be:

it is easier to understand visuals at a glance
some people remember visuals more easily than words alone
it is easier to see patterns when they are in an infographic
rhe information is broken up into sections that can be quickly found

Find Out: Meaningful statistics

Step 1

Recap your school’s MobileMuster program. While your school may have approached this slightly differently, the general process to recap would be that students came up with a way to share the importance of recycling the materials that make up phones with the school community. A collection box was set up in your school for families to donate their old phones. The number of phones collected was counted before the phones were sent to MobileMuster.

In pairs, invite students to brainstorm ‘what data from this campaign could we collect that people would find interesting to see on an infographic?’. You may encourage students to think of the data which was collected in the annual report.

Prompt students to think creatively here, beyond just ‘the number of phones’. For example, by knowing the number of phones, could they also collect the total surface area of glass that has been collected by measuring the average phone screen size? Collect the responses to the brainstorm on the whiteboard.

Step 2

After the brainstorm, agree as a class which of these elements would be most impactful, and circle them. Review with students different ways of representing data visually, such as pie charts, pictograms, or graphs. Use the circled elements to decide on the most effective way to represent that piece of data.

Step 3

Hand out the Student Worksheet so that students can answer the questions:

What statistics do we have?
What do we still need?
How will we find it?
How will we represent it?

Step 4

Allow students to find any additional information that is still needed, and invite them to share their ideas with the class. Next, display all of the relevant statistics in preparation for students to represent in their chosen visual data form.

Direct students to use a graphing tool of their choice to digitally create graphic representations of the data. If desired, save these in a suitable format for their infographic.

Step 5

Next, gather students so they can view and display the MobileMuster calculator, and enter the number of phones collected. Hover over the categories to learn about the significance of each statistic. Ask students how seeing these numbers makes them feel and if it changes their thoughts about the campaign and their schools’ impact.

Take Action: Telling the story

Step 1

Return and review the judging criteria for the competition submission. Ensure that students understand that these points also need to be addressed when submitting their infographic. Therefore, to make an impact, it should contain:

A minimum of 2-3 sets of data
Graphics and images that are relevant
References to the 2026 theme
Mention of the environmental impact of your campaign
A key message or slogan that encourages others to recycle

Step 2

Work as a class to create your infographic using a visual design tool like Canva. As the teacher, you might be in control of the computer, but not the ideas! Let students contribute ideas of why certain graphics should be chosen over others, what information needs to be included (and what can be left out) and where to place each statistic to make the most visual impact.

Consider including any visual data that has been created. If there is disagreement, encourage students to justify their reasoning and allow the class to reach a majority agreement.

Step 3

On behalf of your class, use the entry form on the competition homepage to submit your infographic.

Reflection: Finish the sentence

Step 1

Students can discuss in pairs or work individually to finish the sentence stem ‘infographics are a powerful way to share information because…’

Create an Infographic - Tell the Story of Your Impact

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Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills Required

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Information

In this lesson