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Sustainability Education for High Schools: Yr 10-12
Subject
& Teacher Supplements
Introduction
Message from the authors
In our
experience , teachers are looking for rigorous
resources that they can learn from and also teach
with. Many have shared with us their frustration
over the lack of technical and applied resources
that go beyond introductory/ broad-brush discussions.
Our commitment is to inspire teachers and students
with possibility today, sharing content that we
are developing for senior technical colleagues,
business leaders and policy makers. Over the last
several years, this multi-staged initiative of
The Natural Edge Project has focused on developing
curriculum in the solutions space, highlighting
opportunities for engineers and built environment
professionals to make a difference.
We began
with four lessons for junior high school around
energy, waste and water, then added physics and
chemistry modules after teachers shared how little
senior materials are available for integrating
sustainability into the curriculum. After all,
how can society expect our future leaders to be
creative and innovative in addressing 21st Century
challenges, if we do not equip them with knowledge
and skills in topics such as making and storing
electricity, and in environmental chemistry?!
We undertook our own professional development
in creating these materials in plain-English,
going back-to-basics in understanding how elecrticity
is made from solar PV, solar thermal, wind, geothermal
and other emerging options.
After
we completed the student resources with a small
guide for teachers, most suggestions for improvements
from our colleagues centred around additional
teaching support. In particular teachers asked
for small activities and assessment ideas that
could be integrated within existing classes to
help embed sustainability within the curriculum.
This gave rise to the latest stage of the initiative,
producing a teacher supplement for each of the
three modules. Looking back at the evolution of
these materials there have been many contributors
and reviewers (see acknowledgements below) without
whom the initiative would not have been possible
- thank you.
Bearing
in mind that we come from an engineering, tech-heavy
background, we hope that the modules inspire with
their rigour and the accompanying fun activities
for the classroom. We have intentionally left
them as simple word and PDF files for easy copy-paste
and printing (Creative Commons Attributes Licence).
So 'take it and use it' freely, just acknowledging
source. Please let us know if you have any comments
for further improvement!
Foreword
| Foreword
by former Minister Rod Welford (2009) |
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In
the 21st Century we need citizens who can
innovate and creatively address impending
social, economic and environmental challenges.
Schools play a crucial role in developing
these strengths in students, who can then
move into careers designing and delivering
sustainable solutions for society. Moreover,
our students are calling for schools to
do so. This set of materials for Grade 10-12
provides a flexible tool for teachers to
thread sustainability content into the final
years of student learning, systematically
building on earlier years of education.
The straight-forward and flexible structure
of the resource will allow integration with
existing curriculum that is sensitive to
the diversity of school and classroom needs.
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Download
in PDF |
Module
1: Sustainability & Really Cool Technologies (Energy,
Water, Waste)
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The
Teacher Supplement provides additional information
to the Subject Supplements, including an activity
pack for each lesson. The content has been structured
to enable a wide variety of teaching methods,
from lecture-style teaching, to problem based
learning. Teachers may choose to fully explore
all of the material, or just take parts of the
content as they support existing materials in
the learning program. The Teacher Supplement
also addresses the National Curriculum cross-curriculum
priority 'Sustainability'. |
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Download
in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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The
aim of this lesson is to provide a general introduction
to the following three lessons on energy, water
and waste. Additional Readings are provided
to introduce students to key topics, in case
they do not have prior learning in these areas.
This introductory package provides the context
to sustainable development through identifying
a number of key challenges for the 21st Century.
We consider the definition of sustainable development
to be where technologies, processes and practices
can reduce our environmental impact while still
meeting the needs of the world’s growing
population. We highlight the specific role technology
plays in addressing climate change and sustainable
development.
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Download
in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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The
aim of this lesson is to provide an overview
of climate change and ‘peak oil’,
and introduce ways of reducing our greenhouse
gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels like
oil as an energy source. In particular, we will
consider using energy more efficiently in everyday
places like our homes, and using different forms
of fuel and technology to power vehicles. |
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in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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The
aim of this lesson is to provide an overview
of the challenges that Australia and the rest
of the world are facing with maintaining our
most precious resource: water. This lesson will
introduce various ways we can use water more
efficiently, clean water more effectively, and
help major users of water, like agriculture,
reduce their reliance. |
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in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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The
aim of this lesson is to introduce the significance
of waste that comes from our everyday practices,
and the extent to which waste-to-landfill impacts
on the health of our society and the environment.
This part will introduce the benefits of reducing
and eliminating waste, and highlights some examples
of what companies and governments around the
world are doing to achieve ‘zero waste’
goals. |
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Download
in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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Module
2: Electricity – Innovative Technologies for
Sustainable Development
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The
Teacher Supplement provides additional information
to the Subject Supplements, including an activity
pack for each lesson. The content has been structured
to enable a wide variety of teaching methods,
from lecture-style teaching, to problem based
learning. Teachers may choose to fully explore
all of the material, or just take parts of the
content as they support existing materials in
the learning program. The Teacher Supplement
also addresses the National Curriculum cross-curriculum
priority 'Sustainability'. |
|
Download
in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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The
aim of this lesson is to describe the key components
of solar cells and wind turbines, and the processes
used by these technologies to generate electricity
from the sun’s energy. |
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in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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The
aim of this lesson is to describe the key components
of steam turbines and electric generators, and
the processes used by these technologies to
generate electricity from steam. |
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in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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The
aim of this lesson is to describe the key components
of hydroelectric power plants and ocean power
plants, and the processes used by these technologies
to generate electricity from flowing water. |
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in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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The
aim of this lesson is to describe the key components
of fuel cell systems and the process that fuel
cell systems use to generate electricity from
gas without combustion. |
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Download
in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
Module
3: Green Chemistry – Innovations for Sustainable
Development
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The
Teacher Supplement provides additional information
to the Subject Supplements, including an activity
pack for each lesson. The content has been structured
to enable a wide variety of teaching methods,
from lecture-style teaching, to problem based
learning. Teachers may choose to fully explore
all of the material, or just take parts of the
content as they support existing materials in
the learning program. The Teacher Supplement
also addresses the National Curriculum cross-curriculum
priority 'Sustainability'. |
|
Download
in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
|
The
aim of this lesson is to introduce the topic
of ‘Green Chemistry’ and to set
the context for the following three lessons.
This lesson introduces a number of key Green
Chemistry principles that scientists and engineers
can use to move towards sustainable development. |
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in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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This
lesson aims to highlight the potential role
of Green Chemistry in helping to mitigate climate
change through innovations in: 1) reducing greenhouse
gas emissions, and 2) removing (sequestering)
greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The lesson
briefly discusses the types of greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions and some exciting chemistry
innovations in sequestering GHGs and reducing
GHG emissions. |
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in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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This
lesson aims to introduce the topic of reducing
toxicity and the concept of ‘benign by
design’, where products and services are
designed so that they don’t use or produce
toxins in the first place. The lesson provides
examples of companies and organisations that
are successfully applying this concept to their
products and services. |
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Download
in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
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This
lesson aims to introduce students to the issues
and possible opportunities within the field
of batteries, as well as the role batteries
will play in enabling sustainable development.
In particular, this lesson highlights the opportunities
in hybrid-electric and electric vehicle applications,
biodegradable batteries, and batteries that
can support reliable renewable energy supply. |
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Download
in PDF | Download
in MS Word |
Acknowledgements
The development of the ‘Sustainability
Education for High Schools: Year 10-12 - Subject
Supplements' was supported by a grant from
the Port of Brisbane Corporation and developed
by in partnership with Griffith University and
the University of New South Wales as part of the
Sustainable Living Challenge. In particular the
authors would like to thank the support and mentoring
provided by Ms Nikki Owen, Mr Rick Morton and
Mr Brad Kitchen (The Port of Brisbane Corporation).
Content was peer reviewed by Mr Cameron Mackenzie
(Queensland Department of Education), and Mr Ben
Roche (National Manager, Sustainable Living Challenge,
University of New South Wales). The development
of this publication has been supported by the
contribution of non-staff related on-costs and
administrative support by the Centre for Environment
and Systems Research (CESR) at Griffith University;
and the Fenner School of Environment and Society
at the Australian National University. The material
has been researched and developed by the team
from The Natural Edge Project.
The
development of ‘Sustainability Education
for High Schools: Year 10-12 - Teacher Supplements'
was supported by a grant from the Queensland Division
of Engineers Australia. In particular the authors
would like to acknowledge the support and mentoring
provided by Mr Ian McEwan (Executive Director,
QLD Division), Mr David Finch and Mr Geoff Haig
(Education Linkages Group, QLD Division). With
thanks to the teachers of South East Queensland
to gave their time and contributions to refining
this resource in March 2011. The following team
members also provided support in the review of
the resource: Mr David Sparks, Ms Angie Reeve
and Mr Matt Sorenson.
Citations:
Subject Supplements: Desha,
C., Hargroves, K., Smith, M. and Stasinopoulos,
P. (2008) Sustainability Education for High
Schools: Year 10-12 - Subject Supplements,
The Natural Edge Project, Australia. Teacher
Supplements: Desha, C., Hargroves, K. and
Farr, A. (2011) Sustainability Education for
High Schools: Year 10-12 - Teacher Supplements,
The Natural Edge Project, Australia.
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