Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Topic: Looking after the places we live in
Year Level: Foundation
Key Concepts/Values
Responsibility
Community Ownership
Introspection
Building connections with the world around you
Big Idea: Students will be learning about the concept of personal and
social responsibility, as well as sustainability, concerning the
environment that they live in and interact with.
Teaching proposal
The goals of this unit include ensuring that the students understand responsibility they have to take care of the environment for themselves and for
others. Through proper education concerning the care of the local environment, it will allow the students to make informed decisions concerning their
conduct and behaviour in relation to environmental care and responsibility, according to Ramsey (citied in Skelly & Campbell Bradley 2007, p.103). By
connecting students to environment, studies have shown that the knowledge developed leads to a care of nature and active citizenship in taking care of
it (Lloyd & Gray 2014, p.1). Another goal of this unit would be to not only demonstrate a sustainable way to interact with the environment but how to
ensure that it will still be able to be used in the future. By intervening in the students education early on, it will lay a foundation to develop responsible
citizenship in terms of environmental sustainability and ownership (Lloyd & Gray 2014, p.1). Furthermore, by engaging students in environmental
education earlier on, students have been shown to possess a high level of displayed responsibility for the environment that they interact with (Skelly &
Campbell Bradley 2007, p.102). Both of these goals will work towards the Big Idea that was mentioned earlier.
It is imperative to get students to learn about sustainability and the goals stated because it is an important topic that affects all of them and without
proper education, students will learn less about those topics. By capitalising on the prevalence of the students engagement, teachers have been shown
to enhance the learning of their students, promote experiential learning and teach environmental education in such a way that their students are able
to sustain an interest and sense of ownership in their surroundings (Skelly & Campbell Bradley 2007, p.98). One of the main reasons for teaching
sustainability is to develops the knowledge, skills, values and world views necessary for people to act in ways that contribute to more sustainable
patterns of living these skills, values and views will be necessary for the future of the students and the Earth itself (Cutter-Mackenzie & Hoepper, p.
402). Furthermore, their overall disposition to the environment improves with the integration of effective environmental study programs. Louv (cited in
Lloyd & Gray 2014, p.1) states that basing education in nature and the environment will help students understand that school isn't a polite form of
incarceration, but a portal to the wider world. And it is through this portal that the ideas of environmental responsibility and citizenship will arise.
Environmental education is important for other reasons as well. The environment that students need to take care of provides them with benefits that go
beyond its physical properties and into emotional and social support. By interacting with nature, there has been a link that it can improve student well
being more than with disassociation with the environment (Grinde & Patil 2009, p.2338). Students go through different stages in life and ideas are
formed during each one. These lessons may just provide the students to adopt active environmental sustainability morals (Lloyd & Gray 2014, p.1)
Understandings:
Key Skills
History
Geography
Humanities
Code
(VCHHK058)
(VCGGK069)
Skills
Code
Civics &
Citizenship
Indigenous
Asia
Sustainability
Organising ideas
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities maintain a special
connection to and responsibility for
Country/Place throughout all of
Australia.
Interrelationships between humans and
the diverse environments in Asia shape
the region and have global implications.
Sustainable futures result from actions
designed to preserve and/or restore the
quality and uniqueness of environments.
Code
OI.2
Organising ideas
Code
OI.3
OI.2
OI.3
OI.9
OI.5
GENERAL CAPABILITIES
Literacy
Numeracy
Compose texts
Basic addition skills
Ability to read and write numbers 110
Ethical
understanding
(ICT) capability
Basic typing skills
basic ability to search for information
using the internet
Pose questions
Consider alternatives
Reflect on processes
Intercultural
understanding
Understandings
AC links/
codes
(ACSIS014)
Respond to
questions
about
familiar
objects and
events
(ACHGS006)
Reflect on
their
learning to
suggest
ways that
they can
look after a
familiar
place
(ACHGK002)
The places
people live
in and
belong to,
their familiar
features and
why they are
important to
people
2,3
2. The environment
is fragile and there
are many factors
that can disturb it
and put it out of
balance
3. Through
research, students
will have a greater
understanding of
the impact that
humans have on
the world
4. Groups or
communities will
only continue to
work if everyone
cooperates
5.To be sustainable
is to be able to
continue living on
In the first lesson using the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax. Read
the book to the students stopping on the pages where the
Lorax explains that he has to send some of the animals away
and ask the students why it happened, to get them thinking
about the negative effects of what is happening to the
environment. Also ask them what do they think will happen if
this type of activity keeps on going? Ask the students if they
have seen or heard of any of the things going on in the book in
real life? Link the ideas of the book to the real world. Talk
about how these actions would not be sustainable and just like
in the book animals, trees and people would disappear.
Quickly read through The Lorax again to refresh the students
on the story and ask the what was the main problem in the
book? to get them thinking about sustainability again. At the
end of the book as the students to list all the issues that
happened because all the truffala tress were cut down. Explain
the worksheet that the students will be completing. It will be a
fill in the blanks work sheet not involving too much writing.
After they have finished the sheet and it has been corrected
(ACHGK004)
The reasons
why some
places are
special to
people, and
how they
can be
looked after
(ACHGS006)
Reflect on
their
learning to
suggest
ways that
they can
look after a
familiar
place
earth without a
negative effect
4,5
1. In order to enjoy
their environment,
students must not
be passive in their
attitudes towards
sustainable living
2. The environment
is fragile and there
are many factors
that can disturb it
and put it out of
balance
3. Through
research, students
will have a greater
understanding of
(ACSSU003)
Objects are
made of
materials
that have
observable
properties
(ACHHS017)
Pose
questions
about the
past using
sources
provided
6,7
2. The environment
is fragile and there
are many factors
that can disturb it
and put it out of
balance
3. Through
research, students
will have a greater
(ACHGK002)
The places
people live
in and
belong to,
their familiar
features and
why they are
important to
understanding of
the impact that
humans have on
the world
4. Groups or
communities will
only continue to
work if everyone
cooperates
5.To be sustainable
is to be able to
continue living on
earth without a
negative effect
people
(ACHGK004)
The reasons
why some
places are
special to
people, and
how they
can be
looked after
(ACHGS001)
Make
observations
about
familiar
places and
pose
questions
about them
(ACHGS002)
Record
geographical
data and
information
collected by
observation
(ACHGS006)
Reflect on
their
learning to
suggest
ways that
they can
look after a
8,9,10
familiar
place
(ACHGS006)
Reflect on
their
learning to
suggest
ways that
they can
look after a
familiar
place
(ACHHS019)
Identify and
compare
features of
objects from
the past and
present
(ACHHK004)
How the
stories of
families and
the past can
be
communicat
ed, for
example
through
photographs
, artefacts,
books, oral
histories,
digital
media, and
museums
(ACHGK004)
The reasons
why some
places are
special to
people, and
how they
can be
looked after
Bibliography:
Cutter-Mackenzie, A & Hoepper, B 2014, Teaching for sustainability in R. Gilbert and B. Hoepper (eds.), Teaching humanities and social
sciences: history, geography, economics and citizenship, 5th edn, Cengage Learning Australia, South Melbourne
DAmico, E 2014, Making Paper, Kinder Art, retrieved 17 September 2015, <http://www.kinderart.com/recycle/makepaper.shtml>.
Department of Education and Training 2013a, Diagnostic Assessment, Victorian Department of Education and Training, retrieved 18 September
2015, < http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/participation/pages/reengagediagnostic.aspx>.
Department of Education and Training 2013b, Assessment for Learning, Victorian Department of Education and Training, retrieved 18
September 2015, < http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/module3.aspx >.
Grinde, B & Patil, G 2009, 'Biophilia: does visual contact with nature impact on health and well-being?', International Journal Of Environmental
Research And Public Health, vol. 6, no. 9, pp. 2332-2343
Lbrowne 2013, 12 things to do around the home, TES, retrieved 17 September 2015, <https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/12-things-to-doaround-the-home-6218002>.
Lloyd, A & Gray, T 2014, 'Place-based outdoor learning and environmental sustainability within Australian Primary School', Journal of
Sustainability Education, p. 1.
Parks Victoria 2015, Ranger Talks, Victoria State Government, retrieved 17 September 2015, <http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/learn/teachers/rangertalks>.
Science Kids 2015, Recycling Activities, Science Kids, retrieved 17 September 2015,
<http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/lessonplans/earth/recycling.html>.
Skelly, S & Campbell Bradley, J 2007, 'The Growing Phenomenon of School Gardens: Measuring Their Variation and Their Affect on Students'
Sense of Responsibility and Attitudes Toward Science and the Environment', Applied Environmental Education & Communication, vol. 6, no. 1,
pp. 97-104.