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LESSON PLAN
The Unplastify Challenge invites high school students across the world to explore the complex issue of plastic pollution by connecting emotionally with the topic, reflecting about their own relationship with the material, and inspiring them to get involved.
BENEFITS:
This lesson plan aligns with Global Competency standards, including:
Global Competence Assessment – PISA
Global competence is the capacity to: analyze global and intercultural issues critically and from multiple perspectives, to understand how differences affect perceptions, judgments, and ideas of self and others, and to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with others from different backgrounds on the basis of a shared respect for human dignity.
Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Global Competence – Asia Society, Center for Global Education
This lesson plan aligns with these Common Core Standards:
This lesson plan aligns with the International Baccalaureate focus and subjects.
International Baccalaureate Programme
The IB prepares students to succeed in a world where facts and fiction merge in the news, and where asking the right questions is a crucial skill that will allow them to flourish. The programmes focus on teaching students to think critically and independently, and how to inquire with care and logic.
Middle Years Programme 11-16 years (MYP)
The MYP aims to develop active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning. The programme empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
Subject groups:
Diploma Programme 16-19 years (DP)
The DP aims to make students aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge, including personal ideological biases. It offers students and their teachers the opportunity to:
Participation in this process develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize and evaluate knowledge.
Subject groups:
Career-related Programme 16-19 years (CP)
The CP enables students to:
Prior to viewing the films, introduce the SIFT Worksheet. This is a graphic organizer designed to help students keep track of their reactions while viewing the films. Using the worksheet during the film viewing, ask students to notice and record any physical SENSATIONS, any IMAGES that are particularly evocative, any FEELINGS that they experience, and any THOUGHTS that occur to them. Be sure to supply one worksheet per film for each student.
In addition, ask your students to write down any thoughts and questions they had while watching the films.
Screen the film(s). After watching each film, allow time for students to discuss their reactions either as a class or in small groups.
Hint: This reflection is a critical step in learning from the film as it allows an opportunity for participants to make an emotional connection to the issues through the storytelling.
This lesson plan aligns with Global Competency standards, including:
Global Competence Assessment – PISA
Global competence is the capacity to: analyze global and intercultural issues critically and from multiple perspectives, to understand how differences affect perceptions, judgments, and ideas of self and others, and to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with others from different backgrounds on the basis of a shared respect for human dignity.
Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Global Competence – Asia Society, Center for Global Education
This lesson plan aligns with these Common Core Standards:
This lesson plan aligns with the International Baccalaureate focus and subjects.
International Baccalaureate Programme
The IB prepares students to succeed in a world where facts and fiction merge in the news, and where asking the right questions is a crucial skill that will allow them to flourish. The programmes focus on teaching students to think critically and independently, and how to inquire with care and logic.
Middle Years Programme 11-16 years (MYP)
The MYP aims to develop active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning. The programme empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
Subject groups:
Diploma Programme 16-19 years (DP)
The DP aims to make students aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge, including personal ideological biases. It offers students and their teachers the opportunity to:
Participation in this process develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize and evaluate knowledge.
Subject groups:
Career-related Programme 16-19 years (CP)
The CP enables students to:
Pair your students into groups of 4-5 members to answer the following questionnaire:
About the films:
What can we do as a group to change this?
What can we collectively do to change this?
Hint: For more information about the environmental impact of plastics, check out Unplastify.com.
This lesson plan aligns with Global Competency standards, including:
Global Competence Assessment – PISA
Global competence is the capacity to: analyze global and intercultural issues critically and from multiple perspectives, to understand how differences affect perceptions, judgments, and ideas of self and others, and to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with others from different backgrounds on the basis of a shared respect for human dignity.
Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Global Competence – Asia Society, Center for Global Education
This lesson plan aligns with these Common Core Standards:
This lesson plan aligns with the International Baccalaureate focus and subjects.
International Baccalaureate Programme
The IB prepares students to succeed in a world where facts and fiction merge in the news, and where asking the right questions is a crucial skill that will allow them to flourish. The programmes focus on teaching students to think critically and independently, and how to inquire with care and logic.
Middle Years Programme 11-16 years (MYP)
The MYP aims to develop active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning. The programme empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
Subject groups:
Diploma Programme 16-19 years (DP)
The DP aims to make students aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge, including personal ideological biases. It offers students and their teachers the opportunity to:
Participation in this process develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize and evaluate knowledge.
Subject groups:
Career-related Programme 16-19 years (CP)
The CP enables students to:
Ask each group to choose one representative to briefly share their group’s ideas from STEP 2. After each presentation, hang the large papers on the walls around the classroom.
Once all of the papers are posted, send each group to one of the papers, though not to their own. The group should read the ideas generated by the previous group and then add a check ( ) next to the ideas they agree with or especially like, an (X) next to the ideas they disagree with or don’t like, and a question mark (?) next to ideas they are not sure about. Encourage students to add new ideas or add to existing ones. After a couple of minutes, tell the groups to rotate clockwise to the next sheet. Continue having groups rotate until each group returns to its original position.
Once in their original position, group members can read the ideas and responses of their classmates and ask questions to better understand the ideas. Invite the whole group to discuss the key ideas they generated about plastics pollution using the following prompts:
This lesson plan aligns with Global Competency standards, including:
Global Competence Assessment – PISA
Global competence is the capacity to: analyze global and intercultural issues critically and from multiple perspectives, to understand how differences affect perceptions, judgments, and ideas of self and others, and to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with others from different backgrounds on the basis of a shared respect for human dignity.
Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Global Competence – Asia Society, Center for Global Education
This lesson plan aligns with these Common Core Standards:
This lesson plan aligns with the International Baccalaureate focus and subjects.
International Baccalaureate Programme
The IB prepares students to succeed in a world where facts and fiction merge in the news, and where asking the right questions is a crucial skill that will allow them to flourish. The programmes focus on teaching students to think critically and independently, and how to inquire with care and logic.
Middle Years Programme 11-16 years (MYP)
The MYP aims to develop active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning. The programme empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
Subject groups:
Diploma Programme 16-19 years (DP)
The DP aims to make students aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge, including personal ideological biases. It offers students and their teachers the opportunity to:
Participation in this process develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize and evaluate knowledge.
Subject groups:
Career-related Programme 16-19 years (CP)
The CP enables students to:
What was it like going through this process?
What new ideas surfaced that you liked or gave a check ( ) to? Why?
What ideas surfaced that you didn’t agree with or gave an X to? Why?
How did it influence your thinking about plastics? What new ideas emerged for you?
How might you use what you have learned here in the future? How might this experience integrate into your life or your behavior going forward?
Finally, create a collective list of viable actions that can be taken to combat the plastics problem.
Hint: During these discussions, make special note of what topics raised by the films seem to be of most interest to your students and the most common solutions. Hopefully this will lead to natural working groups to take action in STEP 4.
In this final step you will guide students to design collaborative strategies to “unplastify” their school community. Drawing from the list generated in STEP 3, form working groups and guide them to complete their action plan:
Set clear goals:
This lesson plan aligns with Global Competency standards, including:
Global Competence Assessment – PISA
Global competence is the capacity to: analyze global and intercultural issues critically and from multiple perspectives, to understand how differences affect perceptions, judgments, and ideas of self and others, and to engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions with others from different backgrounds on the basis of a shared respect for human dignity.
Knowledge
Skills
Attitudes
Global Competence – Asia Society, Center for Global Education
This lesson plan aligns with these Common Core Standards:
This lesson plan aligns with the International Baccalaureate focus and subjects.
International Baccalaureate Programme
The IB prepares students to succeed in a world where facts and fiction merge in the news, and where asking the right questions is a crucial skill that will allow them to flourish. The programmes focus on teaching students to think critically and independently, and how to inquire with care and logic.
Middle Years Programme 11-16 years (MYP)
The MYP aims to develop active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning. The programme empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
Subject groups:
Diploma Programme 16-19 years (DP)
The DP aims to make students aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge, including personal ideological biases. It offers students and their teachers the opportunity to:
Participation in this process develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize and evaluate knowledge.
Subject groups:
Career-related Programme 16-19 years (CP)
The CP enables students to:
What are the short-term goals of your project? What would you like to accomplish right away?
What are the long-term goals of your project? What changes would you like to see after your project is completed?
Check your goals using the SMART method. Are they Sustainable, Measurable, Attainable, Relative, Timely?
How will you track your progress? Document the state of affairs when you started, and decide how you will track any changes that result from your project.
Hint: If the main goal is related to reducing or eliminating the use of a certain plastic on the campus, begin by estimating the current use, and establish periodic check-ins on any reductions using the same method of measuring.
Gather resources:
Hint: Resources may be material, monetary, human, technological or community (such as existing events). Encourage students to think out of the box!
Establish a timeline:
Create roles or tasks for each group member:
Prepare the final impact report, comparing outcomes with the initial data:
Replication opportunities: The best way to generate more positive impact is by scaling up. Think about where you can replicate this project, and the potential impact.
Hint: As a source for inspiration, share some of the innovative ideas in the following films from SIMA Academy:
Also, see these amazing projects from the Unplastify Challenge for Schools 2019!
The timeline can range from two weeks to a month, to allow ample time for research into the issue associated with the film’s topic, production and presentation.
Review the resource links at the end of this lesson plan and familiarize yourself with the concepts. Select 2-3 of the following films from the related to the problem of plastic pollution:
Want to take the learning further? If your students are between 15 and 16 years old, become their guiding educator and invite them to take the Unplastify Challenge and lead collective action for good. Learn more here.
