Cross-curricular Themes

Waste Disposal – Level 4

Suggested learning outcomes for environmental education
Students will develop:

knowledge and understanding of:

• common forms of waste and current methods of disposal;
• changes in waste production over time and the reasons for these changes;
• the impact of different waste disposal systems on the environment;
• strategies to limit the production of waste.

skills, such as:

• research and inquiry

  –	collecting information by constructing and carrying out an opinion survey,
  –	using organised data and scientific ideas to suggest answers to selected questions and problems,
  –	evaluating the results of an investigation into waste and waste disposal;

• social and co-operative skills – working co-operatively with others on a group project;
• communication

  –	receiving and conveying information, ideas, and feelings through written and oral language,
  –	arguing clearly and concisely about an environmental issue;

• decision making – identifying the causes and consequences of environmental problems;
• physical skills – using appropriate handling techniques for disposing of wastes.

attitudes and values, such as:

• a respect for the beliefs and values of others;
• an appreciation of the need for independence of thought on environmental issues;
• a respect for evidence and rational argument;
• an awareness of the need for individual and group action to solve an environmental problem.

Achievement objectives from selected curriculum statements that could be used as a focus for the environmental education topic Waste Disposal
These include:

Science
Making Sense of the Material World
Students can investigate the positive and negative effects of substances on people and on the environment (AO4).

Making Sense of Planet Earth and Beyond
Students can investigate a local environmental issue and explain the reasons for the community's involvement (AO4).

Social Studies
Place and Environment
Students will understand how places reflect past interactions of people with the environment.

Resources and Economic Activities
Students will understand how and why people view and use resources differently and the consequences of this.

English
Oral Language: Interpersonal Speaking Students should talk coherently in small and large groups about experiences, events, information, ideas, and opinions, organising material effectively and questioning and supporting others.

Technology
Technological Knowledge and Understanding
Students will investigate and explain the use and operation of a range of everyday technologies.

Technological Capability
Students will:

• use quantitative and qualitative methods to identify and clarify needs and opportunities;
• with reference to identified needs and opportunities,
  1. identify the nature and details of the issue and explore feasible strategies; select an appropriate solution through testing, adaptation, refinement, and modification;
  2. prepare plans of action, identifying the required resources (time, human,material, financial); produce the selected solution to meet agreed or specified criteria;
  3. present and explain designs, plans, strategies, and outcomes to specific groups, using a variety of forms of communication;
  4. explain their choices, review strategies, and appraise outcomes, taking responses of others into account.

Technology and Society
Students should:

• identify and compare the range of factors and attitudes that promote or constrain a current technological development in the wider community;
• explore and discuss the impacts over time on the local and wider environments and society of some specific technology.

Suggested learning experiences that could enable students to meet the learning outcomes of environmental education in association with achievement objectives from selected curriculum statements

• Interview people of different generations to investigate how and why their views and actions relating to waste disposal may have changed over time.
• Research past and current waste disposal options in the local community and discuss reasons for any changes.
• Visit the local refuse station or landfill site to observe the disposal of waste and record feelings and thoughts about the experience.
• Collect, sort, and classify the major sources of waste produced by the school and investigate its potential impact on the environment by:

  –	investigating and describing the school's waste-disposal systems;
  –	investigating waste-disposal options for the school;
  –	making a presentation to the school's board of trustees about the findings from the school-waste investigation;
  –	reporting on the findings of a survey that collates student ideas about proposed waste-disposal systems;
  –	designing and making a waste-disposal system for the schoolís use.

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