Litter and Waste
Litter & Waste
Through discovering the topic of litter and waste we will show how schools can develop their global themes, outlook and skills with a joint curriculum project.
This takes the schools from an introductory fact find to an understanding of the problems connected with litter and waste, ultimately challenging the individuals and schools to change their ways of thinking and behaviour.
Find out how we can look after our local environment. Focus on asking and answering questions about litter. How much? What type? What does this tell each school about the other?
Finding sustainable solutions to mange our litter and waste again is a global issue which can no longer be ignored. Please Click HERE to download an excellent teaching resource published by the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust as part of their Eco Schools Malawi programme, to discover how schools in Malawi are focusing on tackling the real issues of waste management.
Classroom Activities
There are numerous activities listed below to help you create a fun and informative lesson on the topic of litter.
Suggested Lessons:
Litter - Useful Links
Do a big litter day in your school - Record what you collect. Itemise and share with your partner school. What does this tell you about your link school and their life?
Litter Busters - Do the "litter busters" sheet under shared work and case studies.
Environmental Review - Complete the Environmental Review, especially the litter section.
There are a wealth of additional resources available to review. We strongly recommend "Our Changing Environment" under shared work and case studies, which will develop communication between yourselves and your link school.
Eco friendly kids - Simply facts about litter and waste.
Love to know green living - Top ten litter causes.
Eco Schools- Fantastic resources to keep Britain tidy.
Developing joint global education
Sustainable Global Education
Linking offers many opportunities for exchanging information and allowing students to explore and appreciate the similarities and differences between their own lives and the lives of the students in their partner school. Engaging in joint global learning, with a rights based approach, encourages students to explore and develop a wider understanding of global inequality, the implications of individual choice locally and globally and an appreciation of and engagement with different values and perceptions.
The following framework has been developed, using the topic of Litter and Waste to illustrate the development and progression possible in addressing a topic of global importance. This has been specifically chosen because it impacts numerous areas of environmental care and demonstrates our interconnectedness. It provides an ideal opportunity for developing a greater sense of common humanity, has applications in both communities and impacts behaviour.
The framework is broad to allow application across all Key Stages although obviously the depth of approach will be Key stage appropriate
The framework can be adopted as stepping stones moving the project forward over time
A range of examples at each level illustrate how the enquiry approach is developed to engage pupils and allow them to take ownership
The framework can be applied to a range of topics and subject areas: science, geography, PSHE, life skills, farming, literacy, art, maths.
This joint partnership curriculum project is
EQUITABLE
MUTUAL
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPS GLOBAL LEARNING
Schools have discussed their relevant curriculum topic areas and have agreed on an area that is of mutual appeal. In this case the overarching topic is caring for one’s environment which is a topic within the Malawi skills curriculum and is within the UK geography and PSHE curriculum. Within this area this has been further refined to examine the issue of Litter and Waste.
The project should be undertaken with students in the UK and with the respectively aged pupils in Malawi. Then both schools will share their learning with the wider school community. Both schools must agree on approaches which take into consideration their respective access to resources, methodologies and learning styles, including key activities that have been agreed to be carried out within both school communities.
Litter Busters
A fact sheet/question sheet, exploring the problems of
litter for the environment.
Reactivity
In this section we will discover how our behaviour has an impact upon the environment.
We will discover that we can make a difference and as we do so we will be improving life throughout the world, as we all live on one planet. Globalisation means that there is a connectivity between what goes on in the UK and Malawi as we live in a World with finite resources. How we use them will tell something about what life will be like for future generations.
Recycling words Wordsearch
The Recycling words Wordsearch teaches us words that can affect the way we view our World.
Starfish TV - Useful Internet Videos
Click here to watch - "Tiverton High School”
Click here to watch - "Stop littering"
Click here to watch - "Trailer Rubbish".
Stop littering - (2:40) Why litter is bad.
Tiverton High School - (3:22) What a school did about their litter.
Sesame Street - (0:41) Cartoon song about mess.
Trailer Rubbish - (1:59) What to do with rubbish.
ENF Ranger - (4:19) Children sing about saving the World.
How to pack a Healthy lunchbox - (1:45) Wrapper free, litter free food.
Environmental, Litter and Waste - (6:34) Conference in Malawi school about environmental care.
Eco-stoves
Our primary goal is to bring into the classroom in Malawi and UK engaging and collaborative teaching around environmental issues. Flowing from improved learning will come changed knowledge, behaviour and attitude within the community as a whole.
Eco is a new curriculum area in Malawi. By making the school the hub of education and introducing practical programmes, this will create a powerful, visual expression of change for generations to come.
Various practical action projects will be introduced flowing from the teaching Our lead project seeks effectively to utilise part of our environmental problem (by recycling litter and waste into eco-briquettes) and make it into part of the solution (using these as a sustainable alternative to firewood) providing Malawi with a cheap alternative to wood burning, healthier and longer lives for hundreds of thousands of women, better attendance in school, local employment, environmental care and above all generational change through education within the schools.
Litter, rice husks, peanut shells, dried grasses (things currently burnt and destroyed, and causing health and environmental problems) are recycled it into something valuable. By addressing one issue it becomes the answer to another
Video: How to make Nsima
This worksheet is to be shared between the schools in Malawi and the schools in the UK. It talks about the benefits of using alternative methods of cooking in place of firewood. It enables children to consider the impacts on social and economic life, showing the consequences of choices made.
In Malawi, only 2% of the population have electricity, which causes them to look for alternative power sources. This unit of work explores the choices available and possible solutions to environmental problems.
Short Film: Fuel / Biomass Briquettes
Deforestation
This is one of the greatest issues facing Africa today. The effects of deforestation are tangible: less rain, hotter climates, soil erosion, and drought bring famine, poverty, and starvation. Yet in Malawi, an area of forest the size of a football pitch is cut down every 10 minutes! Deforestation brings loss of habitat and a biodiversity crisis.
Hundreds of thousands of women in Malawi die prematurely because of smoke inhalation from the burning of firewood. According to the World Health Organisation, 1.6 million people die prematurely from smoke inhalation every year — that’s more people than die of malaria! These effects are most poignant for women and children who spend most of their day around the fire.
We seek a world where the land produces a better harvest, where there are less orphans, with informed and savvy children….. a better life, and the substitution of firewood by litter will make a tangible difference