Check Your Impact

Prior to Semester

Curate websites or use the following sites (check these links before you present them to students):

1. Environmental Footprint:

• How Big is Your Environmental Footprint? (refer to Resources/Technology).This UK version has a small number of UK-specific questions

• The Australian version refer to Resources/Technology) has more graphics and sounds.  The results are presented slightly differently. The Australian version offers more data as well as a range of interesting topics, for example, water and there are follow up activities

• In the following website; http://www.earthday.org/splash_page.php whether you select Australia or the UK as your location, you will get the same quiz.  Also, this site allows students to easily make comparisons across a number of other countries

• The EPA Victoria website runs exactly the same WWF calculations.  The site, also, has some recommendations that are unique to Victoria and a database of EPA publication

2. Carbon Offset:

• COTAP (Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty) (http://cotap.org/?gclid=CI_vuoj7qcgCFVVwvAodz0EL7Q)While this calculator is based on the US lifestyle, it does offer some interesting insights into individual CO2 production and how others are affected.  Students can get an approximate idea of how many tonnes of CO2 they are responsible for in one year

• Carbon Neutral (http://carbonneutral.com.au/). This site is Australia-based and offers a more flexible way to calculate carbon footprints. It gives data on lifestyles of typical Australians and it can be used to compare carbon footprints across states and territories or social-economic groups

In Class

1. Explain to students that this exercise employs authentic learning located in real world issues

2. The exercise is beneficial to students, as global citizens, to appraise and evaluate their impact on the world through globalisation and sustainability

3. Ask students to open the respective websites and calculate their impact

4. Ask students to analyse the data and  the calculations

5. Ask students to transfer the data into a spreadsheet

6. Ask students to research their consumption based on the data to build a good picture of their own personal impact

7. Ask students to construct their own personal pie charts and examine the implications of changing lifestyle to reduce their potential impact

8. Ask students to upload a report  to a forum  for general discussion

EXTENSION

9. Ask students to vary and switch some of the categories, for example, from car use to public transport

OR

10. Ask students to calculate carbon savings; if a given percentage of Melbournians switched from car travel to public transport

11. Add results to a spreadsheet and graph the results

12. Upload into the Forum for comment

FURTHER EXTENSION

13. Divide students into groups of 4-6 individuals

14. Give each group a “demographics card” and ask them to use the calculators to estimate consumption and resource use

15. Ask each group to post their demographic profile and results to a forum and compare their usage of resources with other groups

OR

16. Ask student to explore different products and devise an infographic; for example the iphone sage (http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/31/iphone-manufacturing-graphic/)

The extension and further extension can be a face to face or an online activity.