War On Waste - Questioning Consumption

In this lesson, students will explore the costs associated with consumption. They begin by creating a list of things they would like to buy and classify these as needs or wants. Students then use their list to explore the relationship between consumers and businesses. The class will then analyse the full costs of the things we purchase through the lens of sustainability, focusing on the environmental costs, and choose one of their own needs/wants items to analyse in the context of sustainability. Students are then introduced to the idea of a decision tree and are asked to create a decision tree around the question: Do I Really Need It? Students present their work in a gallery walk format. Students can use their learning from the lesson as the basis for the follow-up social action lesson.