Visy Education - The Physical Properties of Recycling

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

• adaptability
• creative thinking
• critical thinking
• communication
• cultural understanding
• initiative
• problem solving

Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content description: 

Year 7 Science

Students learn to:

• investigate and represent balanced and unbalanced forces, including gravitational force, acting on objects, and relate changes in an object’s motion to its mass and the magnitude and direction of forces acting on it (AC9S7U04)
• use a particle model to describe differences between pure substances and mixtures and apply an understanding of the properties of substances to separate mixtures (AC9S7U06)
• write and create texts to communicate ideas, findings and arguments for specific purposes and audiences, including selection of appropriate language and text features, using digital tools as appropriate (AC9S7I08).

Relevant parts of Year 7 achievement standards: Students represent and explain the effects of forces acting on objects. They use particle theory to explain the physical properties of substances and develop processes that separate mixtures. They select and use language and text features appropriately for their purpose and audience when communicating their ideas and findings.

NSW Syllabus outcomes:

Stage 4

A student:

• describes the effects of forces in everyday contexts SC4-FOR-01
• explains how the properties of substances enable separation in a range of techniques SC4-SOL-01

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

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability 

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – The teacher will facilitate the scientific design process.

UN SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

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

• 2 bins or buckets labelled ‘Recycle’ and ‘Landfill’
• Device capable of presenting a video to the class
• Samples of commonly found waste from the school (1 per student)
• Student Worksheet (1 copy 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.