Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes	Part B: What Is Happening With Waste In Australia?
30 minutes	Part C: Diving Into The Numbers Around Plastic Waste
5 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by projecting the following image to the class (also available here - Litter Image):

You can then invite students to work independently to complete a SEE THINK WONDER activity around this image (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Once complete, students can turn to a partner to share their thoughts. Encourage students to spend some time sharing their ideas, exploring new ideas and making additional notes to their original answers.

Step 2.

Now engage students in a class discussion around the following questions (some suggested answers included):

What did you see in this image?
Suggested answer: Waste, river, mountains, nature.
How can we describe what waste is? What is a definition for waste?
Suggested answer: Waste is any stuff that we no longer want or can use that we throw away into the bin.
What should we do with waste? How could we prevent something like this (in the image) happening in our neighbourhood?
Suggested answer: Firstly, we could use fewer things that create waste, such as using reusable plastic bottles and bags. And we could try and recycle any waste we create. Also, if we see litter, we could pick it up and put it in the bin (only if it is safe to touch and always making sure to wash hands after).
What did this image make you think about?
What do you already know about the types of waste in this image?
Suggested answer: Some of these types of waste – such as the plastic bottles – will take hundreds or even thousands of years to break down, but could be recycled instead. Waste can harm our environment by hurting the animals that live there and by polluting water and soil.
How does an image like this make you feel about waste?
Do you think it’s a useful way of communicating the problem of waste?
Does it help you understand the problem of waste?
What questions do you have about this image?

Part B: What Is Happening With Waste In Australia?

Step 1.

Now explain to students that in Australia we create all sorts of waste. This doesn’t just come from households but also from businesses. Some of this is waste that we can recycle, some we can compost and some we need to find other ways of disposing, such as in landfill.

Share the following graph with students (selecting the graph relevant to your year level):

Waste Chart Fractions - Years 4 & 5
Waste Chart Percentages - Year 6

Invite students to share what they think this chart is telling us about waste in Australia. Use the information below to clarify student understandings.

In 2016-17 waste generated in Australia:

About 25% was masonry materials. Masonry materials are things that are used in building, such as brick, stone and concrete.
About 22% was from organics. Organic waste includes garden waste, food waste and wood.
About 18% was ash from coal-fired power stations. Electricity generated from coal is produced by burning coal. When the coal is burned, ash is left behind. This ash is waste.
About 9% was metals. Metal waste could include anything from food containers (tins and cans) to old appliances (fridges) to old cars and building materials.
About 9% was hazardous waste. Hazardous waste is any waste material that threatens human health or the environment. This could include things like chemicals or oil.
About 8% was paper and cardboard. This includes any paper and cardboard you might use at home or school, to packaging materials for factories or paper used in offices.
About 4% was plastic. This includes plastic packaging, and old and broken goods like toys, furniture and electronics.
About 5% was other. This is anything that doesn’t fit into any of the other categories, such as glass.

You could conduct a range of maths activities around this chart, such as converting the figures in the graph into decimals or fractions.

Step 2.

You could then invite students to reflect on the use of an image like this to help communicate ideas about waste. For example:

How does an image like this make you feel about waste?
Do you think it’s a useful way of communicating the problem of waste?
Does it help you understand the problem of waste?
How does it compare to the image of waste that you looked at earlier?

Through your discussion explain to students that graphs and charts like this one are useful for communicating facts and numbers about an issue but don’t always make you feel something about the topic. And for waste, feeling something is an important first step in taking action to reduce waste.

Part C: Diving Into The Numbers Around Plastic Waste

Step 1.

Now explain to students that they are going to explore another way of communicating information about the topic of waste. They will do this by drilling down into one of the categories of waste identified in the chart: plastic. Invite students to suggest why plastic might be an important one to focus on. Add student suggestions to the board.

Differentiation: Where students have completed the Waste Breakdown Experiment, remind them of the waste breakdown rates for different waste materials. Where students have not completed this experiment, you could project the following information:

Breakdown rates for common types of household waste
Banana - 3-4 weeks
Paper bag - 1 month
Cardboard - 2 months
Apple core - 1 to 2 months
Sock - 1 year
Orange peel - up to 2 years
Plastic bag - up to 20 years, although some plastics will never truly break down and will persist in the environment forever
Leather boot - 40-50 years
Tin cans - 200-500 years
Plastic bottle - 450 years
Aluminium cans - < 1 million years
Glass bottles - unknown

Through your discussion ensure that the following points are included on the board:

Plastic left in our environment never really goes away. Instead it just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces.
Many things made out of plastic are recyclable. However only about ⅓ (32%) of plastics were recycled over the last year. That means that a lot of the plastic we are using today will be around for longer than we are.

You could take a moment to briefly explore some of the maths around the figure presented in this final point, such as the amount of plastic waste that is NOT recycled? How could this be expressed as a percentage, decimal of fraction?

Step 2.

Students will now watch a clip from War On Waste which talks about the amount of plastic waste produced in Australia. As they watch, invite students to take note of anything they find interesting or important. In particular, invite them to focus on how the big ideas about how the amount of plastic waste created in Australia is communicated. View on iTunes or Clickview:

Episode 1, The Battle Continues - 4:05 to 7:46

Once complete, invite students to either work in pairs or as a class to answer the following questions. Questions are also available on the Student Worksheet; suggested answers are included below:

What did you find interesting or important about this clip?
What types of plastic waste did you see?
Why do you think a giant foot was used to demonstrate the amount of plastic waste being used?
Suggested answer: When we talk about something having a ‘footprint’, we are talking about the impact that it has on the environment around it. In this case, we are talking about the impact that plastic waste has on our environment.
Do you think using a giant foot is a good way of communicating the amount of plastic waste that we use? Why or why not?
Suggested answer: Suggest to students that the numbers being discussed in this clip are very large, and communicating large numbers is really tricky because people quickly lose track of the number of 0’s and the amounts are just too big for us to get our heads around when written on paper. Using something like a foot and showing how much space it takes up in a location that is relatable is a useful way of helping people understand these numbers.
How does this plastic foot compare to both the chart and the image of plastic waste you looked at earlier? Does it help you understand the problem of waste?

Where students have worked in pairs to discuss their answers, briefly review their responses to these questions, particularly the final two, before moving on to the next activity.

Step 3.

Explain to students that there are many more facts around plastic waste that are important. Distribute a copy of these Waste Facts to pairs of students and read through the facts together, ensuring that students understand what is meant by each of these facts.

Students can convert the numbers in this factsheet to fractions, decimals or percentages (where suitable.)

Pairs of students can then work together to select a fact that interests them and then create an image that both communicates the details of this fact and helps people understand the problem of waste beyond the numbers.

Older students can be encouraged to conduct research in order to find additional information to support the fact that they have chosen, and could incorporate this information into their work.

Examples include:

A drawing of a plastic bottle with plastic facts on the label
An image of a fish with plastic in its stomach, talking or thinking about what it ate
A picture graph with the rates of recycling for different types of waste.

Encourage students to create a draft of their idea and to share it with another pair for feedback before working on their final version. Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback.

Once complete, invite students to share their work with the class.

Reflection

Students can work independently to complete the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

I used to think…
But now I think...

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 - Tuning In To Numbers Around Plastic Waste

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