Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

	Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge - What Is Sustainability?
25 minutes	Part B. What Are Natural Resources?
25 minutes	Part C: Using Resources Sustainably
30 minutes	Part D: Dreaming Up A Car For The Sustainable Use Of Resources
10 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge - What Is Sustainability?

Step 1.

Begin by asking students 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 the last column.

Step 2.

Once students have completed the activity on the Student Worksheet, invite them to share their colours, symbols and images and add these to the columns. Engage students in a discussion, considering the following questions:

Which colours, symbols and images are 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?
What is your definition of sustainability?

Through your discussion, lead students to the conclusion that sustainability is often based on the three pillars of environment, society and economics. This Definitions of Sustainability Factsheet has examples of sustainability definitions and the Sustainability Factsheet - secondary has more information on understanding sustainability.

Part B. What Are Natural Resources?

Step 1.

Now, invite students to work in pairs to find out what they already know about natural resources. Students can work in their pairs to answer the following questions and record their answers on the Student Worksheet (Note: Students can work together to discuss their answers; however each student is responsible for recording their own answers in their own words). Suggested answers have been included below:

What are natural resources?
Suggested answer: Natural resources are useful raw materials that we get from the Earth. They occur naturally, meaning humans cannot make them. Instead, humans can use and modify natural resources in ways that are beneficial to us.
Can you provide examples of two natural resources?
Suggested answers: Examples of natural resources include air, water, wood, oil, wind energy, hydro-electric energy, iron and coal.
How do people use natural resources? Provide two examples:
Suggested answer: We use natural resources for just about everything we do: eating and drinking and entertainment, building and infrastructure, creating electricity, transport, medicine, etc.
What are renewable resources?
Suggested answer: A renewable resource is a resource that is replaced naturally and can be used again, such as fresh water, solar energy or timber.
What are non-renewable resources?
Suggested answer: Non-renewable resources are resources for which there is a limited supply.
What does ‘sustainable’ mean in the context of resources?
Suggested answer: It could mean using resources in a way that doesn't deplete the resources faster than they naturally regenerate.
Can you think of an example of a natural resource that humans use unsustainably?

Once complete, you could invite students to share their ideas in a class discussion. Ensure that the points included in the suggested answers above are included in your discussion. Before moving onto the next activity, check student understanding by asking: "Please put thumbs up, thumbs down, or sideways to let me know if this is clear, and it's perfectly fine if you don't understand or are unsure - I just need to know." Clarify any questions or concerns students have.

Step 2.

Now, break the class into four groups and assign each group a number from 1 to 4. Invite students to record which group number they belong to (this will be useful in the next activity). Now, assign each group one of the following categories:

Waste
Water
Energy
Materials

Using the questions on the Student Worksheet, invite each group to investigate their resource, explain why it is important and its relationship to sustainability. Groups should conduct research online in order to answer these questions.

Students can discuss their research and answers to the questions in their groups; however, each student is responsible for recording their own answers in their own words. This will become more important in the next activity, where students will move into new groups and will act as the experts in their resource type.

Part C: Using Resources Sustainably

Step 1.

Now, explain to students that they are going to investigate how we can use resources more sustainably.

Break the class into new groups where at least one student from each of the groups in the previous activity forms part of a new group i.e. each group has at least one student from groups 1, 2, 3 and 4. Give each group a sheet of butcher's paper and some marker pens. Explain that each group will investigate each resource, describing how the resource could be used more sustainably by finding an example of how each resource can be used more sustainably in different situations (see below). The ‘experts’ in each resource will guide the investigation into the actions they could take for that particular resource.

Use the following questions to guide student research (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Personal actions – How can we use resources more sustainably in our personal lives? For example, the ways we shop or travel. Find one example for each resource type.
Actions at home – How can we use resources more sustainably in our homes? For example, the materials houses are built with or the water or energy used in our houses. Find one example for each resource type.
Actions at school – How can we use resources more sustainably in our schools? For example, the waste we produce or the resources we use in the classroom. Find one example for each resource type.
Actions for business – How can we use resources more sustainably in business? For example, the products we produce, or the energy and water used. Find one example for each resource type.

Step 2.

Once complete, create a table on the board with four columns. Label the columns:

Personal
Home
School
Business

Invite groups to suggest actions for each column and record these on the board. Where groups have suggested the same actions, record the idea only once.

Step 3.

Finally, engage students in a class discussion and invite them to suggest any other actions that they know of that they think need to be included in the table.

Part D: Dreaming Up A Car For The Sustainable Use Of Resources

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now think which actions for the sustainable use of resources are most important and design a car that will help to execute these actions. The car they create will be a dream car. This means it doesn’t have to be a feasible car; instead, it can be a car of your imagination that can look however you want it to look and do whatever you want it to do, in the context of this lesson.

Explain to students that they will need to create a painting or drawing of their dream car which will be submitted to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

Spend a few moments discussing the process of submitting their artworks and the prizes that might be won.

You could also work with students to view some of the previous year’s finalists to Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. As you view these artworks, invite students to consider:

What do you notice about these cars?
What are the best things about these cars?
Have any of these artworks incorporated features that address natural resources and using resources sustainably? If so, how?

Step 2.

You can now invite students to dream up some ideas on how their car could help with a more sustainable use of resources. A good way to help students focus their ideas might be to invite them to think about and answer the following:

Which points in the activities about natural resources and sustainability did they find most interesting or important?

Students could think of at least three points to focus on.

They could then think of some ways a dream car could help to address these points. Remind students that the aim here is to think creatively. You could pose the following questions to help the thinking process:

Will your dream car only drive on roads, or can it float, swim, sail, balance, bounce and/or burrow?
How big is your dream car?
Will your car be made from sustainable materials? Which ones and why?
What does your dream car use for fuel? Will it use a sustainable fuel?
How will your dream car help people to use resources more sustainably?

Remind students to dream big!

Students could come up with a range of ideas and record these on the back of the Student Worksheet. They could then team up with one or two classmates to share their ideas and to get some feedback. When providing feedback, students could consider the following questions about each other’s designs:

Which natural resources does this car hope to address?
How will this car help to make the use of these resources more sustainable?

When providing feedback, remind students to be kind, helpful and specific:

Students can then amend their ideas to incorporate any relevant feedback,

Part E: Creating A Dream Car And Entering The Contest

Step 1.

Explain to students that they are now going to create an artwork that describes their very own dream car. Once complete, this artwork will be submitted to the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest.

Explain the following contest rules for creating your dream car:

You must create your dream car artwork by yourself (no working with a friend or in a group).
Your dream car must be hand-created using things like pencils, pens/markers, crayons, paints, etc. It can’t be made using collage or a computer/digital device.
It must be drawn on an A3 piece of paper (or smaller). You might like to use this Toyota Dream Car Drawing Template.
Find the contest entry information here (including dates, prizes and full terms and conditions).

Step 2.

Invite each student to create a draft version of their dream car. Give students a set amount of time to create their draft and emphasise that perfection is not important at this stage: instead, it is more important to have fun and to create the car of your dreams that will help you do the job of your dreams!

This dream car can include some of the features written on the board from the class brainstorm, or students can think up features that are entirely new!

Depending on time, you could also encourage students to experiment with different colouring or painting techniques and mediums, such as:

Techniques - pointillism, hatching, perspective or shading.
Mediums – pencils, marker pens, acrylic paints, watercolour paints or pencils, crayons, pastels, etc.

Step 3.

Once students have created their drafts, invite them to share them with a classmate and to offer feedback. Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific during the feedback process.

Step 4.

Once feedback has been provided, invite students to create the final version of their dream car on A3 paper, incorporating feedback where necessary.

Step 5.

As part of their entry, students are required to write a statement in response to the following: “Please explain the idea behind ‘Your Dream Car’ artwork”.

Ask students to create a draft version of their response, ensuring that they focus on being clear and brief and that they have explained what their car will do and how it will do it.

Again, invite students to share their statements with another student to seek feedback, and to check spelling and grammar.

Finally, have students scan or take a clear photograph of each entry and submit all entries using the online entry form.

Important! Students (or yourself) will need to hang onto their artworks after entering in order to be eligible to win prizes and have their artwork showcased.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What did I used to think about natural resources and sustainability?
What do I now think?
What was hardest for me in this lesson?
How did I overcome this challenge?
What part of my dream car do I like the most and why? What are its best features?
What part of my artwork am I most proud of? (Think of technique, choice of medium, colours etc.)
Do we need something like a dream car to help us manage our natural resources sustainably? Explain your answer.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Toyota Dream Car Art Contest - Using Resources Sustainably

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