Key question
What do we do and use?
What could we do to take more care of the environment?
Outline
In this activity the children work in groups to think about their actions. They prioritise their actions.
Preparation
Each Pyramid (Investigation 09, extra boxes are provided) needs to be cut up. Children can do this and include other activities they already do, or could do.
Learning outcomes
On completing these activities all children will be able to:
- Outline activities they carry out and describe which ones have a more positive andmore negative impact on the environment.
Resources
- Blank paper, cut into squares (or use Investigation 09, page 2)
- Products from the classroom, e.g. items from lunches or pencil cases
- Pyramid of Actions (Investigation 09)
- Scissors
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Learning activities
1. Using the Pyramid: Copy and cut out cards on pyramid sheet (Investigation 09) and ask the children to place them in order of importance to the environment, from top to bottom - explaining their decisions.
2. Brainstorming ideas: Individually children identify 10 actions they already do, after a time the teacher ‘brainstorms’ all the ideas onto the board.
3. Selecting actions: Children select / record 10 actions they do or could do and these are written on blank pieces of paper.
4. Prioritising actions: Children re-arrange the actions in their diagram so that the most important are towards the top of the pyramid, the least important towards the bottom. It is essential that the children explain their choices / ideas.
5. Categorising: Children could also categorise the cards into ‘home’, ‘school’, and positive/negative effect on the environment, etc.
6. Concluding: Children should be encouraged to compare their diagrams, for example:
- The teacher could ask each student/group to justify why they put a particular action at the top of the diagram, and while others could be asked why they placed the same action at the bottom.
- Each member of the class should be asked their “most important” action. These could be tallied up on the board against individual actions to get an overall “class view”. This information could also be used as the basis of a debate.
Variations on the activity
- Provide all or some of the factors in advance to students. They merely come up with a few more to fill the blank boxes.
- Provide all 10 factors for consideration, but make three of them incorrect. Students start by deleting these, then replacing them with their own factors.