“Sustainability is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” 

This definition of sustainability comes from the Brundtland Report in 1987, which set the standard for sustainable development as we know it today. Source: https://www.unicef.org.uk/define-sustainability-children/

Sustainability Resources 

• About reducing food waste: https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.nsw.gov.au/
• Example lesson using Engineering Design Process: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• Gardening resources 

Real World Connections 

Articles on Sustainability by ‘Behind the News’

News Articles 

• Students strike for climate change protests, defying calls to stay in school
  
  • https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-30/australian-students-climate-change-protest-scott-morrison/10571168
  • https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2018/nov/30/thousands-of-students-join-climate-protest-video
• Australian recycling crisis 
  • https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/recycling-on-the-brink-of-collapse-in-victoria-20180131-p4yz5f.html
  • https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-19/queensland-council-recycling-dump-to-start-nationwide-reaction/9673370

• Transparent wheelie bins are latest effort to bring clarity to how much waste we create
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-19/council-to-issue-transparent-wheelie-bins-to-spark-waste-rethink/9667960

• Can you recycle your used pizza box?
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-08/can-you-recycle-a-used-pizza-boxes/9625498

• How 12,000 Tonnes of Dumped Orange Peel Grew Into a Landscape Nobody Expected to Find ***Good stimulus for learning about compost
  • https://www.sciencealert.com/how-12-000-tonnes-of-dumped-orange-peel-produced-something-nobody-imagined
  • https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/08/22/orange-new-green-how-orange-peels-revived-costa-rican-forest

• The Japanese town working towards a zero-waste goal by 2020
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-20/kamikatsu-the-japanese-town-with-45-different-recycling-bins/9776560

Sustainability and STEM 

Refish: Low cost air filter inspired by nature

https://biomimicry.org/solution-seekers/

Seed-filled balls are helping save the Earth’s forests

Streets are being painted white

Vertical Farms 

The man who grows furniture 

Click here for more examples of STEM 

Click here for STEM lessons, using the engineering design process. 

Lesson Ideas

Art: sculptures made out of recycled materials 

Students collected recycled materials and used these to create sculptures inspired by the Erub Arts Collaborative: Ghost Nets from the Ocean. Students could not use any modern join techniques such as sticky-tape, instead tied materials.

Tarnanthi Ghost Nets Resource

Create school garden: Click here for resources 

Biodegradable seedling pots

STEM

1. Show students a stimulus video. Discuss video and make connections to students’ lives.
2. Use the engineering design process, so students come up with ways that they as individuals, as a class, school or community can contribute to a sustainable world.

Click here for more examples of STEM 

Click here for STEM lessons, using the engineering design process. 

Example lesson using Engineering Design Process: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Science experiments and inquiry

Encourage students to be curious problem solvers and further develop students’ knowledge of living things. 

Click here for science resources