Remco

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In addition to knowledge and thinking skills also more affect-eliciting activities (stories-films-cases and multi-perspective discussions about them)

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See, for example: unlocke.org; also other concept development/conceptual change approaches (Vosniadou et al.). Look also system thinking skills (Assaraf & Orion, 2010), etc..

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For a class of approximately 30: Split class into 9 groups of 3 (or 2-4 per group to fit numbers).

The first three groups are given the task of investigating What’s so good about…? Each of the groups receives a different topic: e.g. A. Social Justice; B. Biodiversity; C. Maintaining a Stable Climate. They are asked to find out: What is this about? Why is it important? Is this desirable? If so, why?

The second three groups are given the task of investigating What’s the problem with…? Each of the groups receives a different topic: e.g. A. Using cheap labour to make our clothes; B. Eating large quantities of cheap meat; C. Using fossil fuels for our energy needs. They are asked to find out: Why is this considered to be a bad thing? What impacts is it having on people’s lives/the environment? Why is it happening?

The third three groups are given the task of investigating How can we deal with…? Each of the groups receives a different topic: e.g. A. Exploitative employment practices; B. The negative impacts of the meat industry; C. Greenhouse gas emissions. They are asked to find out: How can we deal with this issue? How might we reduce its impact? What alternatives are there for this (in terms of materials and our actions or habits)?

Share: After 30-40 minutes’ group work ask the groups to come together in three teams comprising the Group As, Group Bs and Group Cs. The teams should now listen to each other in order to discover any links that they can between their different pieces of evidence. They should work together to develop a presentation that they can share with the other two teams.

Present: Each team gives a five minute presentation to the rest of the class and takes questions on their given issue.

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Group is divided into small groups and asked, as a pre session task, to research an everyday item such as a pair of trainers, or a mobile phone. They should investigate the following and prepare a presentation for the rest of the group:

After the presentations, the group leader should ask questions leading the group to reflect on the sustainability of this practice drawing attention to the fact that some of the items involved in manufacture are finite and thus running out, that increases/decreases in production might have environmental, economic and social impact and that the production is probably linear and resulting in waste.

This should lead to input on linear and circular economies.

Groups are then asked to either redesign their item according to circular economy principles, or to find an existing product that is already designed in that way and to present and discuss their findings.

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Small groups. Each given a different model of sustainable development to a) discuss and interpret, b) consider what they like about it, c) consider any reservations they may have about the model.
Reformed groups containing a person representing each model. a) each person their model and their thoughts b) discuss together which model they prefer and why c) discuss which they feel are the earlier versions and which later and why.
Plenary share thoughts.

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Whole group is asked to simply stand up and wander around without further instructions or explanations.

Eventually things will happen e.g. people will stop and talk, will sit down, will start to protest.

In plenary the group are asked to reflect on what happened e.g. what patterns emerged and what behaviours emerged. This could then lead on to discussions of emergence, autopoiesis and the ripple effect.

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Various pictures of wildlife are distributed amongst the group, e.g. oak tree, hawthorn, fish, bird of prey, spider, hedgehog…
Members discuss together what they know about each.
Group leader then moves randomly amongst the group asking what connections each thing has with other items. A ball of string is then passed between each to show the connections and to gradually build up a web between them.
Group leader then creates a scenario whereby one of them is removed, and then another and the web starts to collapse.
This should lead to input on the meaning of and models of sustainability.

Alternatively:

Ask students in their assigned role to find something that eats them or that they eat, hold a length of string tightly between them and use additional string to add other connections. At the centre of the web should be one student who is assigned as an oak tree. The leader moves among them, distributing lengths of string and ensuring that everyone is connected at least once to the central web. Once everybody is connected the leader acts out the role of woodcutter (pretending to use an axe or chain saw for dramatic effect) and fells the oak tree. As the oak tree student falls to her knees she holds tightly to her lengths of string. Each student that feels their piece of string being pulled must also fall to their knees while holding tightly to their strings. Very quickly the entire class will fall to their knees showing how the loss of one key species can affect many others.

Short description

Group is divided into subgroups of around 4-6 and given a sheet of flipchart paper and pens. They are asked to look for anything that members of the group might have in common or are connected by and to show this somehow on the paper.
Afterwards, groups can comment to the rest of the group as to what they found.
At the end, the group leader should draw the activity to a close by highlighting the fact that we are interconnected in many different ways – often without realising and therefore part of a complex system.

This should lead to input on systems thinking, boundaries around systems and feedback within systems