embedding esd into your curriculum · embedding esd into your curriculum ... a student -led...

Lincolnshire

School Improvement Service

Embedding ESD into your curriculum

Waste

Reducing your carbon footprint

Growing projects

Developing your school grounds

More to come soon.....

Lincolnshire


Education about Waste

English

Create a display about waste and other associated words especially

recycle, reuse and reduce

Research what happens to landfill waste, recycling and waste water

Interview parents about why they do or don’t recycle

Research what items are made from recycled materials

Produce an information leaflet about recycling facts

Teamwork to plan/question/discussion and debate topical issues

Keep a rubbish diary - what do you throw away/recycle?

Carry out a waste audit and write an action plan to reduce your waste

Write newsletter/web pages/Blog about your waste project

Creative writing about recycling eg adventures of a steel can

Role-play a recycling centre - how are things sorted

Mathematics

Measure and graph the weight of waste produced during an audit

Calculate fractions /percentages of waste recycled

Introduce waste free lunches and monitor the waste produced

Record/graph meter readings during a campaign to reduce water

Calculate the miles travelled by your waste materials

Scale drawing of the school with recycling points marked

Science

How fast do items decompose? - set up an experiment burying

different materials outside, or construct compost bottles

Set up a compost bin to observe decomposition and decomposers

Identify decomposition as an irreversible change

Research energy from waste power stations

Link recycling/reusing/reducing to a reduction in greenhouse gases

Sorting/grouping materials - what are objects made of, what are

their properties, what alternative materials could do the same job?

Research how different materials are recycled; make recycled paper

Art, Design and Technology

Create sculptures and other art out of waste materials

Create a greenhouse out of plastic bottles

Design and make jewellery, clothes or gifts from waste materials

Make recycling boxes/points inspiring to encourage their use

Consider the sustainability of your design work

Investigate sustainable products and packaging

Ask trading standards team to talk to your class about packaging

Make recycled paper using natural dyes

Learn the logos associated with recycling and recycled materials

Design recipes to use up leftover food

ICT

Use digital cameras to film reusing/recycling in your school or on a

visit to a recycling centre

Record interviews with councillors/council officers

Invite a refuse collector to speak and record their interview

Create a blog about your thoughts about waste

Geography

To investigate people’s views, impacts on others and contrasting

your locality, the following questions could be asked:

• What do your community think about waste management?

• Is there any litter in your area?

• What are landfill sites and what is wrong with them?

• Does some of our waste go to other countries and how does it

affect people in those countries?

• Mobile phones - what are the global problems?

What do other countries do with their waste?

Education around the subject of waste can offer great

opportunities for cross-curricular activities.

Read on for more ideas

History

Investigate why recycling, reducing and reusing has become such a

big issue over the last few years. Consider the following:

• Research the history of waste

• Investigate when different things were invented ie plastic bags

used in homes from 1960, foamed polystyrene in 1954, 1950 -

PET ie plastic bottles invented

• Look at what people used instead of plastic - make do and mend

- link to WW2, toys from the past

• That our society buys more things now

• Items have more packaging on them

• People reuse fewer items now than they used to.

• Change in people’s attitudes - more environmentally aware

PSHE/Citizenship/Sustainable Schools

Give students the chance to develop their project to improve

communication in your class

Interview council officers or councillors about the school’s

concerns about recycling

Link to global issues - how we affect people in other countries

A student-led approach

Introduce the topic of waste to your students. Get them to

identify what waste is, what they would like to learn about it,

what skills they would develop and allow them to help you design

their lessons.

They may wish to consider:

• What the word waste means?

• Definitions of reduce, reuse, recycle?

• How much waste does the school produce and how much

could be recycled?

• What is a landfill site and why are they a problem?

• How long does it take for objects to decompose?

• Where does our recycling go and what happens to it?

• How are recycled products made?

• What can we recycle?

• Why can we recycle different items in different district

councils?

• What happens in a compost bin?

• What could we do with left-over food?

• How could we reduce or reuse our waste?

• How could they set up recycling efficiently in the school?

• How do we set up recycling of phones, textiles and ink

cartridges in our school? And what happens to them?

• What happens to waste water?

How could we reduce the waste water we produce?

Resources to support you

For more curriculum links, ideas and lesson plans see:

www.recycleforlincolnshire.org.uk

www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/sustainableschools

www.youtube.com for videos of landfill and recycling sites

www.lovefoodhatewaste.

www.recyclenow/schools

www.practicalaction.org.uk

www.britglass.org.uk/Education

www.wasteonline.org.uk

Others

Create musical instruments from waste materials and research global

music that using waste materials

Find out how other countries deal with their waste

Lincolnshire


Reduce your carbon footprint

English

Teamwork to complete environmental audit of school and

construct an action plan

Discussion to develop a school eco-code - poetry

Planning and publicity to campaign for sustainable travel

Write to local companies to find out what they are doing to

measure/reduce their carbon footprint

Persuasive/informative leaflet for local community about

reducing their carbon footprints

Planning a community environmental day - writing invites, poster,

communicating ideas, presentations

Assembly about energy reduction - drama, presentation, filming

Use their views about our impact on the environment as stimulus

for creative writing

Debates around various environmental thinking - why bother?

Mathematics

Measure the energy used by different appliances/lighting and

calculate the expenditure over a year

Read meters and graph the data before and after the campaign

to reduce consumption

Tally and graph transport use to and from school

Calculate miles travelled by school staff

Science

Investigate the effects of insulation on a model house then

relate to real life examples

Investigate how to raise the temperature of water using

different insulating materials

Understand how electricity reaches our homes, and research

different renewable technologies

Use solar panels and wind turbines to learn about circuits

Research/Role-play greenhouse effect/global warming

Monitor wind speeds and light levels to investigate whether a

wind turbine or solar panels would be viable on your site


Research what makes a building sustainable, and design a

sustainable school/house

Design posters/stickers to encourage a switch off policy

Design a new wind turbine/environmentally friendly device

Research how companies promote their green credentials

through marketing

Look at the food miles of your hot school meals, or

investigate the carbon footprints of your packed lunch

ICT Data logging to record temperatures in rooms

Calculate your school’s (and personal) carbon footprint using

an online programme

Research new technologies on the internet

Design a screen saver to encourage switching monitors off

Review news clips on Newsround and other websites

Geography

Compare your school’s construction to schools elsewhere -

look at what could be improved

Compare your energy consumption and way of life to people in

other countries

Compare your school transport to schools in other countries

Working to reduce your carbon footprint can

offer great opportunities for cross-curricular

activities and to develop community cohesion.

History

Research why our carbon footprints have increased compared to

another time period

Research how children used to play before game consoles and

other electrical devices

PSHE/Citizenship/Sustainable Schools/Community

Discuss key issues and take action to make a difference

Research what effect climate change is having on the UK

and other countries - global dimension

Hold a community day inviting companies that can support

local people to reduce their carbon footprint

Calculate the carbon footprint of an associated building ie

local church

Visit local sustainable buildings

A student-led approach

Introduce the topic of reducing your carbon footprint to

your students. Get them to identify what they would like to

learn about, what skills they would develop and allow them

to help you design their lessons.

They may wish to consider:

• What is our carbon footprint?

• What effect is too much greenhouse gases having on

the environment?

• How environmentally friendly is our school?

• What could we do to improve it?

• What alternative energy is there?

• How do we travel to school and how much carbon does

this produce?

• Could we set up a car sharing, walking bus or other

scheme?

• Why don’t people cycle/walk more in our school?



www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/sustainableschools

www.carbondetectives.org.uk

www.sustainablelearning.info

www.practicalaction.org/id?=education

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/world/global

_warming/newsid_1575000/1575441.stm

www.generationgreen.co.uk

www.eon-uk.com/energyexperience/

http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html

Others Learn vocabulary associated with renewable energy/ energy

reduction in your foreign language

Lincolnshire


Growing Projects in School

English

Teamwork to plan/question/discussion and debating topical issues

like food miles, farming En1

Research different vegetables/recipes En2

Letters to parents asking for seeds and help, diary/

newsletter/web pages about the project En3

Mathematics

Counting seeds, dividing the growing area, fractions /percentages

of plants that grew, Ma1

Measuring plant height, scale drawings of plat Ma2

Plotting growth, mass, recording rainfall Ma3

Science

What do plants need to grow? - set up an investigation Sc1

Photosynthesis experiments, making keys, looking at variation and

adaptations of plants - relate to farming practices/GM, observe

plant and pest life cycles, competition, pests and diseases,

habitats, microorganisms/composting Sc2

Soil types, water cycle, frost- irreversible change Sc3

Forces/levers, sound made by insects, renewable energy Sc4


Drawing plants and seeds

Photographic diary of their project

Using natural dyes for painting

Planning planting schemes - looking at colour, texture, height

Research about using plants to make clothing.

Use their crops for environmental art, and being outside as

inspiration for their art work.

Making bird scarers and scarecrows

Designing wildlife houses and pest traps/ barriers

Harvesting food, food preparation and cooking

Design recipes around their growing

Linking to farmers/ farm visit

ICT

Researching plants and growing information on the internet

Inputting data and graph of the growth of plants

Using digital cameras

Geography Microclimates - weather readings and recording seasonal changes

Water cycle including water butts

Scale drawings/maps of their plot

Soil types

Links to local and global farming issues of food miles, and how

farming affects people around the world.

Look at how they harvest their crop and compare to sustainable

management of habitats.

From the preparation of the ground to the harvesting

of the crops, growing plants in the school grounds fits

into many aspects of your daily curriculum or can be

developed as topic work.

It is a great way to enthuse your students.

Get out there and try it!

History

Create a WW2 garden - dig for victory

Study history of different plants for medicines and food.


Giving students a voice about how to develop their project will

make it sustainable and improve communication in your class, and

the wider community.

Step by step guide to a creative curriculum

Introduce the idea of growing plants to your students.

Get them to identify what they could learn from the experience,

what skills they would develop and allow them to help you design

their lessons.

Questions for them to consider

Will their garden have a theme?

• WW2,

• a menu ie Pasta Neapolitan,

• colours of the rainbow,

• texture,

• trying new food

• investigating growing.

How will they?

• research what plants to grow

• Plan the area

• Prepare the ground

• Plant the seeds

• Reduce pests

• Record their success

• Ensure that everyone in the class is involved

• Involve the wider community

• Harvest their crop and process it



www.growingschools.org.uk

www.gardenorganic.org.uk

www.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening

www.growinggrub.co.uk

www.face-online.org.uk

www.foodforlife.org.uk/resources/growing/school

www.cowfiles.com for global farming ideas and comparison

Others

Observe sounds whilst outside and create music to reflect them

Learn names in other languages and learn Latin names of plants

Improve health and well-being by being outside

Lincolnshire


Developing your grounds

English

Teamwork to plan/question/discussion and debate what they

would like En1

Developing communication whilst working on projects

Develop new rules for using the grounds via discussion/voting

Language development around new tools, designs

Research different play equipment, risk assessments En2

Letters to parents/companies asking for help/donations En3

Diary/ newsletter/web pages about the project

Mathematics

Tally of people’s opinions, percentages/fractions Ma1

Measuring length, area, dividing the space, marking out shapes

Scale drawings of plan Ma2

Plotting likes/dislikes on graphs Ma3

Science

Investigate what different plants and animals need in their Sc1

habitats - increase biodiversity by new habitat creation

Create a tree identification trail using keys

Build a compost bin/area to observe decomposition Sc2

Soil types - where is best for growing project Sc3

Using different tools - learn about forces/levers Sc4

Build a sound tube

Install a solar powered pond pump to learn about renewable

energy


Photographic diary of their project

Create a scale model of the planned improvements

Designing sculptures/features to go in the grounds

Design and create murals/mosaics

Designing wildlife houses and pest traps/ barriers

Planting vegetables plants that can be used in cooking

ICT

Researching different equipment on the internet

Researching risk assessments of play equipment on the internet

Inputting data and graph of the surveying

Using digital cameras to record likes and dislikes

Create a documentary of the development

Geography Scale drawings/maps of their plan

Improving their environment - gain people’s opinions of the grounds

and how they would like to improve it

Soil/ rock types to find best area for growing

Contrast your grounds with those of inner city schools or overseas

“When planned and implemented well, learning outside the classroom contributed significantly to raising standards and improving pupils’ personal, social and emotional development” (Ofsted report, ‘Learning outside the Classroom’ Oct 2008)

For a truly sustainable school developing an outdoor space to

stimulate learning and play is essential. There are many ways

this can be achieved however to ensure that it meets the

needs and expectations of your students and staff it is best

to undertake a whole school approach.

History

Create a WW2 garden - dig for victory

Den/shelter building linked to wars/conflicts

Investigate how Victorians developed new gardens


Giving students a voice about how to develop their project will

make it sustainable and improve communication in your class, and

the wider community.

Voting for changes - learn about democratic systems

Create playground buddy systems or playground equipment

sharing

A Whole School Approach

Where are you now?

Consider what you have already and what your

students/staff like or dislike about the grounds. It is highly

recommended that staff are encouraged to use the existing

grounds for teaching to be able to appreciate what they

would really find useful to change. ‘Get Out There’ guidance

notes with ideas linked to the curriculum are available at

www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/getoutthere

Where do you want to be?

Ensure staff, parents, governors, lunchtime staff, and

students all have a say in what they would like to do in their

grounds - be active, sit and read, role-play, perfrom

How do you achieve it?

Create a zoned map, and investigate solutions. Make a plan of

action and fundraise if required.

Get out there and do it

Get your students/staff/school community involved in doing

the work or working closely with external organisations to

achieve it.



www.ltl.org.uk

www.growingschools.org.uk

www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/getoutthere

www.lotc.org.uk

Others

Observe sounds whilst outside and create music to reflect them

Make musical instruments to go in the grounds

Improve health and well-being by being outside

embedding esd into your curriculum · embedding esd into your curriculum ... a student -led...

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