Year 3 Save the Planet
When it comes to living more sustainably, it’s not governments that are leading the charge – it’s our young people! And this term, Year 3 are exploring different ways we can be kinder to the planet.
It all started when Year 3 students started their latest PYP unit of Inquiry into Sharing the Planet, focusing on the central idea: Environments provide resources that require careful management. Over the coming weeks, the students will be looking at the Earth’s finite resources and their uses; the agricultural and industrial processes that transform natural materials into the goods and services we use in our day-to-day lives; and the impact that using up the Earth’s finite resources has on the environment.
To kickstart their thinking, Ms Laumberg and Mr Robson asked their students to think about the different ways in which we currently use the Earth’s finite natural resources. And they discussed ways we are using certain resources to the point of depletion, such as deforestation, which has a knock-on effect on things like rainfall and global warming. It made the students realise how closely interconnected everything is and how important it is for humans to act more sustainably when it comes to safeguarding the earth’s finite resources.
Ms Laumberg and Mr Robson then asked the students to choose a natural resource to research and discover how humans currently use it. Could we be using this resource more sustainably and if so, how. The students used their research skills to explore different resources such as water, silk bauxite, sulphur and gold. They wrote down all their findings and then filmed themselves using Flipgrid to share their findings with their peers. They shared and received feedback on their research, which was invaluable to advancing their understanding on a broad range of natural resources.
Over the coming weeks, the girls will continue to work together, exploring renewable energy such as solar and wind, and thinking about the ways in which renewable energy can enhance environmental, economic and social wellbeing. They will also look at the positive impact of sustainable processes such as rainwater harvesting on the production of materials such as cotton. It will encourage them to think more deeply about sustainability. And it will perhaps help them to drive change at a grassroots level by encouraging their families and friends to live more sustainably.
You can view Caitlyn's presentation on Water .