With World Oceans Day on 5 June and World Environment Day on 8 June, the beginning of this month is the perfect time to remember how lucky we are to live on such a beautiful and diverse planet. It is also an ideal time to recall the responsibility every person has in helping Earth recover and ensuring the nature environment is healthy for future generations. As educators, our primary role to this end should be instilling this love and desire to protect the Earth in our students.
To guide governments, organisations and individuals across the world in protecting both our planet and every living thing that inhabits it, in 2015 the United Nations and its member states adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve by 2030. These goals have strong ties to all Australian curriculums, especially regarding sustainability.
To celebrate World Oceans Day or World Environment Day (or both!) in the classroom while linking your teaching to the SDGs and your curriculum, consider including the following science lessons in your June lesson plan.
Lower primary
Lessons: Science Year 1 Unit 1 Lesson 5 (Where are living things found?) and Lesson 6 (What do living things need?)
Key Curriculum Links: ACSSU211 (Australian Curriculum), ST1-4LW-S (NSW Syllabus), VCSSU042 (Vic. Curriculum), ACSSU211 (WA Curriculum)
SDG: Goal 14 (Life Below Water) and Goal 15 (Life on Land)
Along with instructing our youngest students how to protect the Earth, we also need to teach them why it is important that we keep it safe. These two lessons introduce habitats and the necessities provided by our planet that living things require to survive.
Middle primary
Lesson: Science Year 4 Unit 1 Lesson 8 (Why are living things endangered?)
Key Curriculum Links: ACSSU073 (Australian Curriculum), ST2-4LW-S (NSW Syllabus), VCSSU058 (Vic. Syllabus), ACSSU073 (WA Curriculum)
SDG: Goal 14 (Life Below Water) and Goal 15 (Life on Land)
This lesson discusses the negative impact of human activity on wildlife. It hence invites students to consider how they as individuals and society as a whole can change their treatment and use of the environment for the better.
Upper primary
Lessons: Science Year 6 Unit 4 Lesson 4 (How do wind and water generate electricity?), Lesson 5 (How do we get power from the sun?) and Lesson 6 (Which energy sources for the future?)
Key Curriculum Links: ACSSU097 (Australian Curriculum), ST3-8PW-ST (NSW Syllabus), VCSSU081 (Vic. Syllabus), ACSSU097 (WA Curriculum)
SDG: Goal 13 (Climate Action)
This set of lessons explores renewable sources of energy not only from a scientific perspective but also from a societal perspective, including comparisons to the benefits and downfalls of non-renewable energy. It allows students to relate the theoretical understanding of how renewable energy sources function with their importance in the real world.
To celebrate World Oceans Day, LTP is providing a classroom freebie that also supports Goal 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals (Life Below Water): posters and cards describing scientific innovations that protect the ocean and catastrophes that harm the ocean, plus an ocean-related game of snakes and ladders. This can be used independently or even in tandem with one of the suggested lessons!
World Oceans Day freebies
