Teaching sequence

Session 1

Step 1

If students are unfamiliar with terms about waste, or you think they need a chance to refresh their understanding of waste terms, begin this activity with a brief discussion around the following terms and their meanings (using examples from student lunchboxes):

Waste – any material that is no longer needed. Examples from your lunchbox might be: plastic used to wrap your sandwich, your empty juice box or an apple core. You might be able to recycle, reuse or compost these things so don't just put them straight into the rubbish bin.
Recycle – materials that can be made into something new at a factory. Examples from your lunchbox: paper sandwich wrap used to wrap your sandwich or empty juice boxes.
Reuse – material that can be reused in a different or new way. Examples from your lunchbox: paper or plastic bags can be used to carry things other than your lunch.
Composting material – material that comes from plants such as fruit and vegetables scraps. Examples from your lunchbox: apple core or banana skin.
Rubbish – material that can't be recycled or composted or reused. Examples from your lunchbox: plastic used to wrap your sandwich and the plastic straw from your juice box. These things can't be reused, recycled or composted and should be put in the rubbish bin.
Litter – material that has escaped from the rubbish or recycling bin and might pollute the environment.

Step 2

Explain to students that in this activity they will be looking at aluminium; where it comes from, how it is used and how it is recycled. To begin this activity, students need to do four things:

Watch the video below (also available on the student worksheet);
Read the 'Aluminium factsheet' and 'Aluminium cycle factsheet' (available on the student worksheet);
Look at examples of aluminium in the classroom (provided by the teacher and displayed at the front of the classroom); and
Answer the questions on the student worksheet.

Students can move around the classroom working on these tasks without instruction, but set a time limit of 5-7 minutes for completion.

Once complete, ask students to share their experiences, answers to questions, and any other questions they have. Also consider using the following points in a class-wide discussion:

What raw material is used to make aluminium?
What are some properties of aluminium?
Why should all aluminium waste be recycled?
When old aluminium cans are recycled, what can they be turned into?
What happens to aluminium after it gets collected by the recycling truck?

Step 3

Ask students to watch the video on sorting recyclables in a materials recovery facility (available on the student worksheet) and answer the associated questions.

Allow 10-12 minutes for students to watch the video and answer the questions. Once complete, engage your students in a class discussion around their observations of the video and their answers to the questions.

Also ask students to share their thoughts on:

How useful was this video at explaining the recycling process?
Did it make it clearer to you why recycling is important?
What questions did this video leave you with?
How do you think other people at your school think about recycling in general? How do you think they think about recycling aluminium?

Survey

The survey itself will need to be conducted during break time when other students from other classes are available to be surveyed. However, there is some student preparation that is required for this survey that should be conducted before conducting the survey.

Step 1

Survey guidelines - In this part of the activity, students will conduct a simple survey of other students at the school about waste and recycling, with a particular emphasis on aluminium recycling.

The aim of this activity will be to find out what questions other students at your school have about recycling and recycling aluminium and then create a video that answers these questions. The first step will be to survey students. Explain to students that the surveys must be done to keep the information confidential.

When students do a survey, they should follow the guidelines for conducting a survey:

Explain why the survey is being done and what the survey is about.
Also ask if they have already done the survey.
Explain that any information provided will remain confidential i.e. the answers can’t be linked to the people who gave the answers.
Students don’t talk about the people they asked to do the survey.
The names of people who answered questions aren’t recorded.

Step 2

Creating survey questions

You should work as a class to create the questions that you will be asking other students. If your students would prefer answers that don't require a YES or a NO, consider limiting the number of questions you ask to 2 or 3 so that you don't have too much data to work through. If your happy with YES or NO answers, as many as 5 questions would be fine?

Sample questions:

Do you recycle?
What do you recycle?
Why do you think it is important to recycle?
Why do you think it is important to recycle aluminium?
Why do you think it is important not to waste aluminium?
How can we all create less waste?
How can we all use less aluminium?
What would you like to know about recycling?
What would you like to know about aluminium recycling?

Once you have settled on your questions and are clear about the guidelines for conducting a survey, students can begin their interviews. However, the survey itself will need to be conducted in break time when other students from other classes are available to be surveyed.

Session 2

Step 3

Analysis of survey data

When the surveys are completed the yes and no responses need to be tallied and put onto a single chart. Analyse the results. Consider using the following questions to guide your analysis:

What did people already know about recycling in general/recycling of aluminium?
What did people want to know more about recycling in general/recycling of aluminium?
Which actions are people doing?
Which actions are people not doing?
Are any actions split half way (i.e. which actions have the greatest difference between students?)?

Step 4

Create a video

With all the data gathered and analysed, it's time for students to create their own informative video on recycling and recycling aluminium. The video should aim to address the issues and questions raised in the survey, with the target audience being the students surveyed. The video should include tips on recycling and ways to cut waste. For some inspiration, share the following video with your students:

Managing Classroom Waste - Video 5 from Cool.org on Vimeo.

Assessment/reflection

Working independently ask students to think about the following question (also available on the student worksheet): ‘What five things can our school do to better care of our local environment?'

Ask students to create a poster that will share one of the ideas for improving the environment at your school. The poster:

Should describe the action that can be taken to improve the school's environment and why this action is recommended;
Will make suggestions for what people at your school can do to support this action;
Should include both text and images; and
Will be displayed at your school for other students and staff to see.

These Planet Ark resources were developed by Cool Australia with funding from the Alcoa Foundation.

National Recycling Week - What a Waste

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