Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

45 minutes	Part C: Analysing Your Data
15 minutes	Reflection

Lesson preparation:

Before conducting this audit, you may need to alert teachers and office staff when your students will be collecting data for this activity.
If necessary, use the Waste Safety Code to guide a class discussion about being safe with waste.

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin by posing the following question to students:

What is litter?

Invite students to suggest definitions and record some of these on the board.

Work collaboratively to develop your own class definitions. Use the following definitions to guide you:

Waste is any item/product that we no longer want or can use that we throw away into the bin.
Litter is any waste left lying about in a public or open place.

Step 2.

Now, pose the following question to students:

Do we have a litter problem at our school? Why or why not?

Students can work as a class or in pairs/small groups to discuss their responses to this question.

Note: If students have completed the Waste Audit, they will have explored answers to a similar question: Do we have a waste problem at our school? Why or why not? Invite students to reflect on their responses to this question, and ask whether the topic of 'litter' came up during this process. If it did, why? And if it didn’t, why not?

Through this process invite students to reflect on the following:

What items often become litter at your school? Why do you think this is?
What do students think about the amount of litter in their school and how does it get there?
Where do students think the main litter hotspots are and why?

Explain to students that in this lesson they will be looking for litter hotspots around their school and mapping the composition and distribution of waste littered in these places. With this information, students will be able to make a plan to address litter at their school.

Step 3.

Differentiation:

If students have completed the Waste Audit remind them of this process and invite them to recall why auditing is a great place to start in improving waste generation and disposal.
If students haven’t completed the Waste Audit share the following clip with them, explaining to them that it talks about auditing and why it is a great place to start in improving waste generation and disposal:

Waste Audit (https://youtu.be/3mh1lMpuV5A)

Part B: Where Are The Litter Hotspots At Our School?

Step 1.

Students will begin the litter auditing process by locating the school litter hotspots. They will map the distribution and composition of litter at each hotspot.

Before commencing, introduce students to the Waste Safety Code, in particular, encourage students to wear gloves and use tongs when handling any litter. Explain that they must not handle 'sharps' (syringes, broken glass) themselves but notify a teacher about where sharp items are located.

Step 2.

Share a hard copy map of the school with students, taking a few moments to allow students to familiarise themselves with the map by identifying several key features of the school. You will then take a quick walk around the school with students to see where litter seems to be most common. Students will probably already know where these sites are.

Before heading off, remind students of your outdoor learning guidelines, for example:

Step 3.

Back in the classroom, work with the students to divide the school grounds into about six to eight distinct sections, ensuring that all the outside areas are covered and all litter hotspots are included. The areas don’t have to be equal in size but should include some littered spots. Some locations with high litter densities (e.g. around the canteen) may be quite small while others, such as the sports oval with low litter densities, may be quite large.

Label the sections with a number or letter and mark these on your map/plan. You can then cut out these sections, mark north on each and enlarge them on the photocopier (using the same enlarging ratio).

Step 4.

Break the class into as many groups as you have sections on your map, and assign each group with one section, giving them the corresponding enlarged map for their assigned section.

In addition, give each group a copy of the Litter Key Table, ensuring that students understand that this key can be used to help them record the different types of litter that they may find (you may wish to add or delete items in this list).

Each group will also need a device or camera to take photos.

Remind students of their guidelines for outdoor learning before heading outside.

Step 5.

Allow time for each group to head outside and to mark any litter hotspots in their section on their map. Groups will now go to their assigned section and collect their data by:

Taking a photograph of the area to give an overview of the location and make a note of how this area is used (i.e. is it close to a classroom or the canteen or a playing area?)
Taking photographs of any litter hot spots
Working collaboratively to identify every item of litter in their section and to record the position of each item on the map, using the key to identify each piece of litter.

Part C: Analysing Your Data

Step 1.

Once all groups have returned to the classroom, ask students to join all the completed maps together to form a composite map of the school. This should show a clear picture of the 'litter hot spots' in the school.

In addition, each group should examine their section in more detail by completing the following tasks (instructions also available on the Student Worksheet):

Count the number of each type of litter and create a table to record your findings
Add up the total number of litter items in your section and record your findings
Use your data to create bar charts or pie charts showing the makeup of the litter in the area they mapped.

Students should use the photographs to identify quantity and composition of litter in the section they looked at.

Students can then continue working in their groups to answer the following questions for each mapped area (questions also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was the total number of litter items in your section?
What were the three most common items? What do you think are some reasons for this?
Where was the litter densest in your section? Why do you think this is so?
Which items of litter could have been recycled or composted?
What percentage of all the pieces of litter could be recycled?
What percentage of all the pieces of litter could be composted?
What percentage of all the pieces of litter should have been placed in the rubbish bins?

Step 2.

Once complete, invite all the groups to come together to share and compare their results. You could also invite students to collate the results of all the sections in order to:

Create a table to record the total number of litter items found in each mapped area
Create bar charts or pie charts showing the numbers of items of litter for each section.

With this information, students can work in groups or as a class to answer the following questions for the whole school grounds (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was the total number of items of litter in the school grounds and courtyards?
Which area had the greatest number of litter items?
What were the three most common litter items overall? What do you think are some reasons for this?
What percentage of all the pieces of litter could be recycled?
What percentage of all the pieces of litter could be composted?
What percentage of all the pieces of litter should be placed in the rubbish bins?

Step 3.

Students should then work in pairs to record their response to the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Why do you think there is so much litter in certain areas of the school grounds?
What is it about these areas that create litter (e.g. are the bins nearby often overflowing, does the wind always blow bits of litter to this part of the schoolyard, are animals getting into the bins)?

Reflection

Step 1.

Invite students to return to the question posed at the start of this lesson (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Do we have a litter problem at our school? Why or why not?

If students have also completed the Waste Audit, they could elaborate on this question by incorporating findings from the Waste Audit into their answers.

Step 2.

Invite students to watch the following clip from War On Waste (iTunes, Enhance TV):

Episode 2, Australia - 31:52 to 36:03

Once complete, invite students to reflect on this clip and their audit using the following questions. This could be done as a class discussion or with students working independently (questions also available on the Student Worksheet):

What is most interesting or important about this clip?
What does this clip say about the problem of litter? Why is it important?
Why do you think litter might be important in places that are not close to the ocean?

Step 3.

If you are planning on completing the follow-up social action lesson, War On Waste – Taking Action For Waste – Years 7-10, you can use learnings from this lesson to develop a plan for waste at your school.

If you are not planning on completing the social action lesson invite students to work in pairs or small groups to come up with some ideas about how they could:

Reduce the amount of litter generated by their school (e.g. waste-free lunch box days, address the canteen about packaging options)
Take action against littering and litter hotspots (e.g. campaign for new bins at hotspots or introduce more recycling bins or compost bins).

Consider working with students to action one or more of their ideas.

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?

War On Waste - Auditing the Litter at Our School

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