Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What is Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme?

10 minutes

Find Out: How can we help our community?

35 minutes

Take Action: Let’s make a plan!

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: What is Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme?

Step 1

Show your students this picture, and ask them: What can we do with these containers when they are empty?

These are all containers that can be recycled. Until recently, to recycle all of these containers, they would go in our recycling bin and get mixed up with all the other recycling. Now, there is an additional way to recycle these in Victoria.

Step 2

Show your students the following video and discuss the questions with them:

CDS Vic - That’s a lot of change (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj6YhI8SmKM)

What containers can you recycle?
What containers can’t you recycle (what needs to keep going in your yellow bin)?
How can you return these containers?
Why would you recycle your containers?
What else did you see in the video?

Navigate to the Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme(CDS Vic) website, and explore the different sections to answer the questions with your students.

Learning extension:

Have students investigate the benefits of the CDS Vic through the three pillars of sustainability:

What environmental benefits does the scheme provide?

What economic benefits does the scheme provide?

What social benefits does the scheme provide?

Students could complete this as a class discussion or as a Think, Pair, Share exercise using the student worksheet.

Find Out: How can we help our community?

Step 1

With your students, conduct a brainstorm of community organisations that would benefit from fundraising through the CDS Vic. These could include:

local sporting clubs
community gardens/orchards
LandCare/CoastCare groups
community aid groups such as food pantries
wildlife rescue organisations
other not-for-profit organisations
and, of course, YOUR SCHOOL!

Step 2

Choose an organisation(s) to fundraise for. You may choose to:

Plan and run the fundraiser for one organisation as a whole class (this is our recommended approach for younger learners)
Choose one organisation and divide the class into groups. The groups could either plan different elements of the fundraising event (The organisation, our school, the event, etc. See questions below) or plan different fundraising events for the same organisation (e.g. at an event, at school, at the organisation, etc.)
Divide the class into groups, and each chooses a different organisation and plans their events separately. This will require some cross-group communication to make sure there is no cross-over, e.g. two groups collecting containers on the school open day. This approach is recommended for older learners as it lets them be more involved in all the different elements of the planning process.

Students working in groups can use the student worksheet to facilitate their planning.

Step 3

Answer the following questions:

What does this organisation need? (e.g. sporting equipment, uniforms, benches, tools, etc.).
How many 10-cent containers would we need to collect to purchase these items? (This may require some research!)
How could we collect containers?

Take Action: Let’s make a plan!

Step 1

Now we have our big ideas, let’s create our plan. Choose one of the methods for collecting containers from your brainstorm.

Step 2

Either as a class or in groups, we need to answer the following questions:

The organisation:

Who are we collecting containers for? (the organisation)
How will this provide benefit to the organisation?
Who do we need to talk to from the organisation?
What is their contact information? (This might need some online research!)
What do we need to tell them? (See the Teacher Content Worksheet for more information on how organisations can sign up to be donation partners.)

Our school:

Who do we need to talk to from the school?
What do we need to tell them?
Do we need to prepare a presentation? What will be in it?

Our event:

Where will we collect containers?
When will we collect the containers?
What will we put the containers in?
What other things do we need? (Think safety! Sun protection, gloves for handling containers, hand sanitizer, etc.)

Do we need to store the containers? If we do, where will we store them? (This needs to be out of the weather so the containers don’t fill with water or get damaged.)

Depositing the containers:

When will we deposit the containers?
Where will we deposit them?
How will we get the containers there?
What will we do with the containers that can’t be returned through the CDS Vic?

Communicating:

How will we tell people about our fundraising?
What do we need to tell people?
Who do we need to share the results with?
How will we share the results?
How will we celebrate when we are finished?

In Lesson 2 - (Creating Change with Containers) students will have an opportunity to create behaviour change media to support their fundraising efforts.

Reflection

You have a great-looking plan in place! Even the best-placed plans can run into hiccups. Ask your students to identify one challenge they may encounter. What are some ways they could overcome this challenge?

Planning Our Fundraiser

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Planning Our Fundraiser

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