Block by Block: Building a sustainable future
Students challenge common perceptions of sustainability by placing them in the role of a sustainability team in an energy company. Appropriate for year 7-10 students focusing on addressing General Capabilities and Cross Curriculum priorities, this unit is also appropriate for year 11 and 12 students to explore careers in science.
During the activity, student groups manage limited resources by allocating 20 blocks across 13 sustainability topics, forcing them to navigate competing priorities and trade-offs. The activity incorporates a mid-session “curve ball” scenario, which compels students to re-evaluate their strategies in response to new information, highlighting the difference between personal ethics and corporate decision-making.
The lesson strengthens students’ critical thinking and their ability to justify evidence-based decisions in complex, real-world contexts and reference the relationship between societal, cultural and scientific contexts.
Lesson guiding video
Craig and Kristina will guide you through this lesson by introducing sustainability, but not as you might know it. Use this video to introduce the context of the lesson and pause and play as you need to discuss the sustainability concepts introduced.
After part 1 of the practical activity, Kristina and Craig will walk you through some of the challenges of working in sustainability. You’ll then get a chance to work through these challenges and discuss your problem solving strategies.
Key information
Learning area: STEM
Suitable for: year 7-12
Topics: Sustainability
Duration: 50-70 minutes
Preparation: none
Materials: Printed worksheets, blocks/counters
Resources
All teaching resources
This folder contains all teacher and student resources for this unit. By downloading this folder, you won’t need to download the individual files below.