This activity was used with pupils in key stage 3, year 8.

Aim

• To raise awareness of sustainable technology.

Activity objectives

• To raise pupils' awareness of sustainable technology in their own community and develop practical ideas for promoting it.
• To learn how technologies developed in some areas of the world can adversely affect cultures elsewhere in the world.
• To explore how different cultures have responded to common problems (such as waste and recycling) and to compare solutions analytically.
• To design and model a waste collection point or bin for recyclable materials that might be used in the school.

Activity description

This activity was adapted from the Intermediate Technology Development Group's teaching pack, Live well, live wisely! (ITDG Publishing, 2000). The task was summarised as follows:

Recent years have seen a massive increase in the amount of product packaging, especially in the countries of the North. In turn, this has led to a great increase in the volume of waste, much of which is dumped rather than recycled. If we are to move towards a more sustainable way of living, we need to make the most of every opportunity to sort waste and to recycle as much as possible.

Design and make a litter bin for use in school that will encourage people to sort their waste into different types of recyclable material.

The pupils were asked to investigate the following topics for this project:

The concept of sustainability throughout the world

The pupils discussed the environmental problems that have been created in UK culture, for example excess food packaging, and talked about the positive and negative impacts of technological developments.

Local recycling and waste collection

The pupils researched local recycling and waste collection activities, using a questionnaire, and presented the collected information.

Recycling and waste collection around the world
The pupils researched and compared how different cultures have addressed local recycling and waste collection.

Using research to aid design and making
Using the information they had collected in the local recycling and waste collection activity, pupils designed and modelled a waste collection point or bin for recyclable materials that might be used in the school.

Alternative energy
The pupils investigated various types of alternative energy and compared their use, effectiveness and impact on society.

These topics followed some of the school's design and technology (D&T) schemes of work.

The teacher provided the following structured activities to guide the pupils:

Discussion: improving your world
The pupils were asked to think about where they live:

What is good about it?
What could be better?
Which technologies make life better? worse?
What changes would you make to your local area?
How could technology help make these changes?

Evaluating existing products: are they sustainable?
In groups, pupils were asked to think about how all things that are made have an impact, and to consider the following questions:

What materials are used to make the product?
How are the raw materials produced?
How is the product manufactured?
How is the product transported to the shops?
How is the product reused or disposed of after its first use?
How is the packaging reused or disposed of?

Evaluating technologies and products: are they appropriate?
Some technologies that work well in one context are inappropriate in another. Using case-study materials, groups of pupils evaluated appropriate technologies and compared how people have addressed similar problems differently. They investigated:

Is the technology and/or product what people want and need?
Is the product affordable? made locally?
Does the product use local skills? local materials?
Does the technology and/or product provide work and help people to earn money?
Is the technology and/or product environmentally friendly?

Winners and losers
Every new technology or product has both good and bad consequences; groups are affected in different ways. In groups, pupils were asked to look at a new technology and consider all the groups who are directly affected by the product during steps in the production process, which include:

• extracting and processing materials;
• manufacturing;
• distribution;
• sale;
• use;
• recycling;
• disposal.

The pupils were also asked to think about the following:

At each stage in the production processes:

• who benefits and who loses out, financially?
• who is affected indirectly?
• which groups will gain and which groups will lose?

Commentary

'Education for sustainable development' refers to the kind of learning needed to maintain and improve quality of life. It enables pupils to develop knowledge and skills and an understanding of relevant moral issues, and to participate in discussions and decisions about the way things are done individually and collectively, on both a local and global scale. These decisions should be about improving the quality of life now, without damaging the planet or having a negative impact on the lives of people, wherever they live.

Teaching methods were used that encouraged positive attitudes to difference and diversity. Positive images of different cultures and how they have addressed problems to all societies (for example, waste management and collection) were displayed. The pupils were challenged to address assumptions about technology and society, for example, that:

• all technological developments are advances;
• the world produces too much waste to manage completely.

Pupils acknowledged that the modern way of life may not be helpful for the world’s future. For example, non-sustainable technologies are used and non-renewable resources are wasted.

The pupils learnt that, all around the world, people use solutions that other people have come up with to find and manage sustainable resources and technologies. In studying how some cultures cope with and overcome environmental problems, pupils' assumptions about technology and those cultures were challenged (for example, they began to view some countries in a more positive way. They saw that a less-economically developed country that uses a so-called 'low' technology such as the bicycle may be on the right track, environmentally speaking.)

The pupils looked at local community recycling projects and discussed what the world is now trying to do to make better use of its resources. The aim was to get pupils thinking about issues such as which resources are used and discarded daily, and how to use discarded waste more productively so as to avoid creating landfill. The pupils realised that the world needs all kinds of technologies and resources to give societies a future and they began to suggest why research into more diverse technologies and resources is needed. They wanted to encourage and inform other people about recycling in particular. This project therefore took into account the need to make the recycling process more noticeable, user-friendly and enjoyable, especially for young people.

The pupils hugely enjoyed this work.

Because of the limited time scale, some of the final products could not be finished

Points to note

The project involved looking at reducing the use and consumption of resources as well as recycling and reusing them. The pupils looked at case studies where the use and consumption of resources was reduced and did further projects on this.

This project was successful and is being introduced into the school's main D&T scheme of work. All year 8 pupils will study sustainable technology. This project was a good example of a teaching approach being piloted with a particular group and then being used throughout the school.

The teacher thought recycling could be a fund-raising activity adopted by the school community.

One outcome of the project may be that recycling collection points are set up within the school for aluminium drinks cans. (Many pupils buy and discard cans daily from the drinks machine in the school.)

Resources

Miller, C and Pitt, J, Live well, live wisely! Technology for sustainable development, ITDG Publishing, 2000