Embedded Files
How to use this resource
How to use this resource
This water use and efficiency learning resource will guide students through an extended school based investigation. Students will develop and implement a chosen sustainability action and then evaluate and reflect on their success and their learning.
The resource assists students to:
- understand water use in their school
- understand different sources of water and their uses in their school and community
- investigate, plan and communicate changes to water use, efficiency and management to improve sustainability.
Authentic issues
The investigation process is best applied to an authentic local issue and is designed to provide the opportunity for students to undertake action that results in positive change. Some student proposals may require resources or funding. If possible, teachers should identify these prior to commencing the process.
Past evaluation of the sustainability action process through the Climate Clever Energy Savers program showed it to be highly effective in engaging students and providing them with 'a sense of agency'.
Duration
Teachers should allocate several weeks to a term to allow time for a thorough investigation of the issue, deep engagement with the knowledge and time for implementing the action. The complexity of the project and action will also determine the time required.
It is recommended that students work in small groups. This will result in more collaborative learning which can be shared between groups periodically. If resources are limited, the multiple sustainability actions proposed by groups can be presented and the best or most feasible selected.
Student learning
Student learning
Water use and efficiency learning resource
Students work sequentially through the five steps in the sustainability action process accessed through the top navigation bar. Each step includes:
- focus or inquiry questions
- tasks with embedded links.
Investigation, planning, action, reflection
The five-step sustainability action process takes students through:
- investigation of a sustainability issue
- identifying and defining a need for change
- developing ideas for possible solutions
- selecting, developing and implementing the optimum solution
- reflecting on the result and the learning.
Learning journal
Students document their learning and the development of their project proposals in their learning journal. This also becomes a record of their developing ideas, skills and understandings as well as project design and production processes.
Design and production
The sustainability action process closely aligns with design and production processes and enables students to develop and practise design and production skills.
Authentic problem based learning
The resource supports the investigation of real world issues in the context of the students’ own school or local environment. It is designed to support an extended investigation and develops:
- an understanding of a sustainability investigation, planning and action methodology
- a deep understanding of a sustainability issue
- a range of general capabilities.
The authenticity and context provides a high level of significance, personal connection and a commitment to achieving a positive outcome.
Sustainability action process
Sustainability action process
Sustainability
Sustainability is a goal or state in which society meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Learning for sustainability equips students with the skills, knowledge and confidence to contribute to a sustainable future. It seeks to enable and empower students to make decisions and take actions that contribute to creating a sustainable society and ecosystem.
Learning that leads to action
Learning to take sustainable action requires:
- acquisition of sets of knowledge, skills and attitudes
- a capacity to see the interrelationships between apparently disparate sets of knowledge, skills and ideas
- creation of new knowledge and ways of living that solve emerging sustainability issues.
Sustainability action is both a preferred pedagogical approach for teaching sustainability and also includes essential knowledge for students to learn. Whilst the sustainability action process appears linear, its application is flexible, recursive and varies with context.
Steps of the sustainability action process
- Make the case for change
- explore the sustainability issue
- assess the current situation in the school
- investigate concepts and ideas relating to the sustainability issue
- state the case for what needs to change in the school and why
- Explore options for action
- generate ideas and explore options for making a change
- identify available resources and constraints
- select ideas for action
- Develop the proposal for action
- develop the statement, the brief, for action
- prepare to communicate the proposal
- gain agreement on the proposal from stakeholders including the principal
- Implement the proposal
- put the proposal into action
- monitor and record the implementation
- Evaluate and reflect
- evaluate the sustainability action
- reflect on the learning.
Systems thinking
Systems thinking considers interconnections and interactions among components of a system to understand how a system functions. When sustainability action is applied as a systematic process to issues and needs, it can be modelled and reapplied to new problems with increasing levels of complexity.
Sustainability action
The ultimate learning goal is to enable students to implement sustainability action with such fluency that they can operate independently of the need for a scaffolded process.
Environmental and zoo education centres
Environmental and zoo education centres
Contact your local environmental and zoo education centre (EZEC) for support with water audits and your sustainability action process learning activities.
Resources
Resources
Water – includes water audit process, case studies and links to Schools Infrastructure NSW resources
Eco-Schools Australia – resources and award scheme
NSW Environmental Trust – grants available, includes examples of projects
Resource development history
Resource development history
This resource was first published as an online resource in 2016. This updated edition was published in 2019.
The resource was developed by staff in the NSW Department of Education's environmental and zoo education centres (EZEC).
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