Visy Education - The Energy of Recycling

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• critical thinking
• collaboration
• communication
• ethical understanding
• reflection

Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content description: Year 8, Science

Students learn to

• classify different types of energy as kinetic or potential and investigate energy transfer and transformations in simple systems (AC9S8U05)
• explore the role of science communication in informing individual viewpoints and community policies and regulations(AC9S8H04)
• examine how proposed scientific responses to contemporary issues may impact society and explore ethical, environmental, social and economic considerations (AC9S8H03).

Relevant parts of Year 8 achievement standards: Students compare different forms of energy and represent the transfer and transformation of energy in simple systems. They analyse the key considerations that inform scientific responses and how these responses impact society. They also analyse the importance of science communication in shaping viewpoints, policies, and regulations.

Current NSW Syllabus outcomes:

A student:

• describes the action of unbalanced forces in everyday situations (SC4-10PW)
• discusses how scientific understanding and technological developments have contributed to finding solutions to problems involving energy transfers and transformations (SC4-11PW).

General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical Understanding, Literacy

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability 

Level of teacher scaffolding: High: Explicit teaching or concepts and guiding student discussion.

UN SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

• Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.

• Device to display media to the class
• The Energy of Recycling Flowchart
• Student Worksheet ( 1 per student)

This lesson has been developed in partnership with Visy. For over 70 years, Visy has been committed to finding sustainable solutions for Australia's and New Zealand’s recyclables and helping to reduce local landfills. Visy collects, receives, and sorts paper, cardboard, glass, plastics, steel, and aluminium from households, businesses, and schools to reuse these products and re-manufacture new packaging products.

Fit Sustainability Into the Secondary Curriculum

Quick Summary: In this course, you will learn a holistic definition of sustainability, which goes beyond compost bins and solar panels and how to embed sustainability concepts to enrich your current curriculum without it being an add-on.