Teaching a Lesson based on Environmental Education

This lesson is based on encouraging students to take responsibility for their actions, and inspiring them to be environmentally active. Many children of this age may have limited knowledge of environmental issues, and therefore providing them with real-life applications as such could elicit an increased interest. 

Time: 1-3 hours
Class/Set: 9-10 year olds			Number: 12
Lesson subject/topic focus: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle ·    Students will create a mini landfill and fill it with items that are leftover from their school lunch e.g. packaging, leftover food etc. ·   They will investigate what items from their school lunch are sent to the landfill and learn how these items decompose. ·     They will brainstorm ways to reduce and reuse the contents of their lunches ·     They will then repeat the lunchtime investigation and compare the results.
Target for student teacher: What target will I be focussing on within this lesson? -     Ensuring all students are actively engaged in the lesson -    Providing opportunities for students to discuss and share ideas about recycling.						Target achieved within this lesson? ü or x
Learning objective(s) (with reference to relevant curriculum documentation – only 1/2  key objectives per subject being taught): What do I want the children to know or be able to do by the end of the lesson? By the end of the session: ·   All children will be able to successfully use resources such as books and the internet to research how landfills work and create a poster about their findings. ·    All children will assess what items from their lunch box would decompose in a landfill and how long it will take those items to decompose. ·   Most children will be able to explain the impact of landfill sites on the environment, including what harmful gases are associated with them. ·    Most children will gain an understanding of their own impact on the environment and be able to share this knowledge with others. ·   Some children will be able to investigate other ways of getting rid of waste and the impact of these alternatives on the environment e.g. to see what the least damaging type of waste disposal is. Success criteria: How will I know this has been achieved? (you many use child-friendly ‘I can…’ statements here):  Communicate with students to gage their level of understanding: ·    Do they understand how landfills operate? ·   Do they know what items in their lunchbox would decompose in a landfill and how long it would take each item to decompose? ·    Can they explain the environmental impact of landfills – what depth is their knowledge? ·    Do they have an understanding of their own personal environmental impact? ·    Can they provide insight into ways of reducing their impact? ·    Do they have any suggestions for alternative waste disposal options? Assess their knowledge of how things decompose, and what individuals can do to reduce their waste – Assessment will be made based on the posters that are produced by the children ·    Does the poster clearly explain how things from their lunchboxes decompose? ·    Does it provide ideas on how to reduce the amount of waste they have? ·    Is the poster eye-catching and easy to understand? ·    Does show the importance of being ‘greener’ people? Assessment evidence: How will I gather evidence of pupil achievement?  (e.g. observation of pupils, peer-assessment against success criteria, self-assessment against success criteria, marking of work). ·     Short piece of writing at the end of the session to assess individual levels of understanding. ·   The poster will be created in groups, so a peer-assessment could be used to assess the level of engagement of each student and how much their peers feel they have contributed to the task.
Pupils’ prior experience and learning: In light of the LO(s) and/or success criteria, what do the children in this class already know or what are they able to do? ·    There will be brief introductory discussion/ Q&A section at the beginning of the session. This will enable me to assess the groups’ level of knowledge in this area and make any necessary changes to the lesson if needs be.
Teaching and learning activities:
Timings 20 mins  20 mins 30 mins 20 mins 15 mins 50 mins 10 mins 15 mins	What teaching strategies and activities will I use? (highlight/underline your key teaching strategies throughout the lesson e.g. explain, ask key questions, model, demonstrate, recap in a mini-plenary, use play/the learning environment as a prompt) An active learning teaching strategy will be used throughout this session. Students will be encouraged to take charge of their own learning, and be actively engaged in discussing and researching. Teacher may need to initiate some discussions. Stage 1 Students will be told to save the packaging and any food remains from their lunch. Before any items are disposed of, students will record how many items and what sort of item they will be throwing away e.g. scraps of food, 2 plastic pots, and 1 crisp packet. This information will be used to create a graph that displays the number of items from each category that will be thrown away/ recycled – teacher will create this, leaving space to record data from activity two. Build a mini land fill in a container in the classroom or in an outside area so the students can see how much waste is created by one group. Discuss the items that were thrown away or recycled from the students' lunches, including how certain items could be reduced e.g. if they throw away food, students might want to bring this up with their parents and ask them to put less food in their lunch (alternatively, make it themselves!) Discuss what items can be recycled and what can be re-used, including how long it takes for certain items to decompose – use books and internet to research this if children need extra help. Group the waste products into categories with points e.g. decomposed the most = 1, decomposed a little = 2, didn’t decompose at all = 3. Ask the children to look at their individual post-lunch list and see how many points their waste items are worth – shows them the impact they have had. Discuss how reducing, reusing and recycling makes less waste, which saves natural resources and causes less pollution. Stage 2 As a class, brainstorm ways to produce a ‘litter-less’ lunch. Spilt the group into 3 groups of 4 to design posters – they may choose to glue items to the poster, draw, use the computer/ any other bright ideas! Group 1: This poster will show a lunch that didn't reduce, recycle or reuse. Group 2: This poster will show an example of a ‘litter-less’ lunch. Group 3: This poster will illustrate what happens to lunch box items when they go to a landfill. The posters may be hung in the classroom, or maybe in the hall/ lunch room so other students can see them. To finish - discuss how people need to take responsibility for the waste they produce. Discuss how it’s actually fairly easy and that every action helps to make a difference. Ask students to spend 15 minutes writing about what they, as kids, can do to make a difference and why it is important for them to take responsibility for their own actions. Give students notice – they will be creating another landfill next week to see if they are actively engaging in reducing/ reusing and recycling their lunch. The post-lunch examination completed in Stage 1 will be repeated so they can compare the results.			What will the children/other adults do at key points in the lesson? How will I ensure that all children are able to access, participate and succeed in all parts of the lesson? The children will build this as a group. Each child will add their own waste to the mini land-fill. Children to talk with a partner about the different ways they can do this, and each pair will then share an idea with the rest of the group. Some example websites that children may find useful will be provided by the teacher, but children will be encouraged to search elsewhere for further information. This will be done in pairs again – different pairs from the last discussion – followed by a period of sharing with the rest of the group. Peer group assessment of contribution to the poster will determine levels of engagement with the activities and whether learning outcomes have been achieved. Perhaps the children will convey the information they learned to their parents, siblings or friends?! This activity will assess whether the children have developed have a level of connectedness with the subject that makes them think about changing their actions.
Subject specific vocabulary: Is this new or familiar vocabulary for the children? The vocabulary should be familiar.				Resources/ICT: Books, computers, pens, pencils, paper, container for the landfill.

Lesson adaptation:       Do I need to make any special provision with regard to health & safety? ü or x and detail as necessary       General classroom rules apply.

Assessment of pupil learning and implications for future planning:       Have I gathered and (where appropriate) attached evidence of pupil attainment/achievement? (This might       include photographs, annotated work, teacher/TA post-it notes, group assessment sheets). ü or x ·                 Photographs of the children working e.g. researching, creating posters, making the landfill site. ·                 Poster presentations. ·                 Short piece of writing.     As a result of this, for which children do I need to tailor teaching in the next lesson?  (Consider individuals        or groups of children who have exceeded or not met the learning objective/success criteria and list                    initials/future actions below). ·            For any children that have not met the requirements: pair up with a child that has achieved or exceeded the    targets to discuss the importance of these issues. ·            A school trip to a land fill site could be useful if possible.

Evaluation would be completed by the teacher after the lesson – adaptations/ changes may need to be made.