Lesson summary
In this lesson, students will create a proposal to improve your school’s support of sustainable agriculture. To begin this lesson, students will identify a range of food-related actions that they can take to reduce their own environmental footprints. To inform their proposals, the class will then analyse a case study of a group of students taking action to protect pollinators at their school. Finally, students will investigate a range of ingredients in your school canteen menu, assess their sustainability and create a half-page proposal on how to make the menu more sustainable.
Learning intentions:
Students will...
- understand a range of sustainability issues and relate these to consumer food choices
- be able to apply a chosen sustainability principle to available food products
- be able to research and select sustainable food options for your school canteen
Success criteria:
Students can...
- brainstorm and research a range of issues related to sustainable food production
- investigate the sustainability of a range of produce
- make informed decisions about purchasing sustainable food
- write a justified proposal for improvements to your school canteen
Lesson guides and printables
Lesson details
Curriculum mapping
Australian curriculum content descriptions:
Year 9 Geography:
- The capacity of the world’s environments to sustainably feed the projected future global population (ACHGK064).
- Human alteration of biomes to produce food, industrial materials and fibres, and the use of systems thinking to analyse the environmental effects of these alterations (ACHGK061).
- Challenges to food production, including land and water degradation, shortage of fresh water, competing land uses, and climate change, for Australia and other areas of the world (ACHGK063).
Year 10 Geography:
- Human-induced environmental changes that challenge sustainability (ACHGK070).
- Environmental world views of people and their implications for environmental management (ACHGK071).
- The application of systems thinking to understand the causes and likely consequences of the environmental change being investigated (ACHGK073).
Syllabus outcomes: GE5-2, GE5-3, GE5-4, GE5-5
General capabilities: Literacy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability, Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability
Relevant parts of Year 9 achievement standards: Students analyse interconnections between people, places and environments and explain how these interconnections influence people and change places and environments. Students propose action in response to a geographical challenge, taking account of environmental, economic and social factors, and predict the outcomes and consequences of their proposal. Students present findings, arguments and explanations using relevant geographical terminology and digital representations in a range of appropriate communication forms.
Relevant parts of Year 10 achievement standards: Students explain how interactions between geographical processes at different scales change the characteristics of places. Students identify, analyse and explain significant interconnections between people, places and environments and explain changes that result from these interconnections and their consequences.
Unit of work: Love Food? Love Bees! – Food Security and Sustainability – Year 9 & 10
Time required: 120 mins.
Level of teacher scaffolding: High – teachers will need to arrange a tour of the school canteen (with the whole class, and in class time) and for someone representing the canteen to review students’ work.
Resources required
- Student Worksheet – one copy per student
- A class set of devices capable of internet access
- Enough butchers paper for small group work
- Enough copies of your school canteen menu for small groups
Skills
This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Creativity
- Digital literacy
- Empathy
- Enterprise
- Initiative
- Leadership
Additional info
This lesson has been created in partnership with ACT for Bees. ACT for Bees is a not-for-profit organisation taking action to preserve these essential pollinators, ensuring a food-secure future.
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