Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune in: Discuss - Does sustainability influence you?

15 minutes

Find out: Real world example - Fairphone

35 minutes

Take action: Write a design brief

Tune in: Discuss - Does sustainability influence you?

Step 1. Discuss:

Do you believe that sustainability is important, or is an important factor in your life? In what way?
Do you believe that you can choose to lead a sustainable life? How? Explain to students that our purchasing choices not only have a big impact on the planet, but they can heavily influence producers. Companies want to make money, so they will follow the trends, and if they see enough people buying sustainably, they will be forced to adapt.
Should all businesses make products that are sustainable? Challenge students to think about how this could be done. Shouldn't businesses have a choice in the decisions they make with regards to how they run their business? Or can they be forced to do things a certain way? Remember that there are already a number of health and safety or environmental restrictions in place on businesses, so it never has been a free-for-all anyway.
Would you pay more for a smartphone that you know has been ethically and environmentally made? Challenge students to think carefully about this. Would they still make this choice if it meant smartphones were more expensive? Harder to repair? Ran slower? These are some of the compromises they may have to make in order to prioritise suistainability as a design factor.

Step 2.

Sustainability can be a tricky topic for some students to tackle. Introduce the concept of sustainability to students by asking them to work through the 'Colour, Symbol, Image' activity on the Student Worksheet.

While students are working on this activity, draw three columns on the board. Place the heading ‘Colour’ in one column, ‘Symbol’ in another and ‘Image’ in another. When students have completed the activity on the Student Worksheet, ask them to share the colours, symbols and images that relate to their interpretation of sustainability, and add these to the columns. Engage students in a discussion, considering some of the following questions:

Which colours, symbols and images were the most popular?
Why do you think these are the most popular?
How do these colours, symbols and images help to explain what sustainability is?

These impressions will be helpful in our designs later on.

Find out: Real world example - Fairphone

Step 1.

Independently, students look at Fairphone, a social enterprise that designs and develops smartphones with minimal harm to people and the environment.

Students are to spend several minutes looking at the Fairphone website (https://www.fairphone.com/) and watching the following Fairphone video on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/fairphone

Take action: Write a design brief

Step 1.

Using the Student Worksheet, students create a design brief which analyses the needs or opportunities for designing, and selects appropriate materials.

Reflection

Invite students to share their designs and offer one another feedback.

Students could create a pitch for their design. Check out our tips on how to plan and deliver a great elevator pitch

Ask students to assess their peers using our elevator pitch rubric to guide them. You might want to develop this rubric further with students before undertaking the project.

Tips for providing feedback

Be kind - it can be hard sharing your ideas with other people so make sure you remain kind and supportive.

Be specific - be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying "I like your slogan", say something like "I like the way your slogan makes you think about the issue from two different angles".

Be helpful - try not to just say what is wrong or weak, but also make suggestions about how things could be improved.

Depending how much time you have, you might encourage students to refine their design using the feedback they've been given.

Design a Sustainable Smartphone

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