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Education: starting early
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LINE UPS
Aim: to encourage students to think about how sustainability issues are embedded in many day–to–day activities
Age: 11–18
When: introduction to sustainability
Group size: approximately 10 at a time
Supports: citizenship, design & technology, geography
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Illustrating sustainability issues with everyday activities
Choose an everyday activity that can illustrate environmental, social and economic issues, e.g. making a cup of tea. Ask students to think about the process of making tea in their household – from sourcing the ingredients to the end of the products’ lives.
The ingredients
Ask them to think about how far the choice of ingredients normally takes account of:
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where the tea came from and who was involved in its production – has it come a long distance, was it fairly traded, who picked the tea? |
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where the milk came from – milkman, supermarket, local farm, a central depot |
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where the sugar came from – distance travelled, amount of processing involved |
The assessment
Now ask the class to get up and to stand at different points from each other, depending on how they assess themselves. For example, if they buy fair–trade tea, buy local milk and unprocessed sugar, they stand at the far end of room. If they never consider any of those points, they go to the other end. If they buy fair-trade tea but don't consider milk or sugar, they stand somewhere in–between.
The process
Now repeat the line–up activity, but focus on the tea–making phase:
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Do they measure the amount of water according to the number of cups they are making? |
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Do they leave the kettle and have to reboil it again because the water has cooled down? |
The end-of-life cycle
Complete a third line–up using the end–of–life cycle. Ask students:
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What do they do with leftover water? |
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What do they do with the tea bags/leaves? |
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What do they do with the packets the tea came in? |
Review the activity to bring out the point that there are sustainability issues in most everyday choices we make.
(Adapted from Sustainable Design Award Teachers Handbook. ITDG, 2003)
 Download Line Ups PDF (122 kb)
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