You can use these materials as a starting point for exploring recycling across many subjects at key stage 3. The following outlines and curriculum links offer some ideas. They are not exhaustive and we hope that you will find many other ways to help your students choose to recycle.
Design & Technology
Selected lessons can be used as a starting point from which you can extend their content to cover the outcomes shown below (these are not covered explicitly within the activities, but you can adapt them to focus on design considerations). Students can consider how existing products are made and how they can be disposed of or recycled. When designing their own concepts students can consider the need to recycle as a design feature, and select materials and designs that facilitate this.
| Description | L1 | L2 | L3 | L4 |
| 1.1a environmental dimensions of designing and making | * | |||
| 1.1d how products may develop in the future | * | |||
| 1.2a how products evolve according to users' and designers' values | * | * | ||
| 1.4a analysing existing products and solutions | * | * | * | |
| 1.c exploring the impact of ideas | * | * |
Geography
Students can consider the use of raw materials by industry and consumers within any exploration of humans’ interactions with their environments. How would a large-scale transition to a more recycling-led economy change current patterns of material flows, connections and effects?
| Description | L1 | L2 | L3 | L4 |
| 1.2a the flow of goods | * | * | * | |
| 1.3a personal, local, national and global scales | * | * | * | |
| 1.4a environmental connections between places | * | * | ||
| 1.6a human influences on environmental change | * | * | * | * |
| 1.6b sustainable development and climate change | * | * | * | |
| 3.h interactions between people and their environments | * | * |
Science
Recycling technology is driven by science. Students can consider recycling as an example of how science has moral implications in how it is applied. They can also consider recycling in the context of how human activity uses energy and natural resources, and how these affect local and global environments, including their effect on global patterns of climate change.
| Description | L1 | L2 | L3 | L4 |
| 1.2b examine the moral implications of applying science | * | * | ||
| 3.4c human activity and changes in the environment | * | * | * |
PSHE: Personal Wellbeing
Recycling is both a personal and a collective decision, driven by values and influenced by a range of information sources. Students can consider how the way they think about their environment is linked to wider concepts of self-awareness and self-esteem and consider how to make informed choices with better outcomes for themselves and their world.
| Description | L1 | L2 | L3 | L4 |
| 2.1a reflect critically on their own and others values | * | * | ||
| 2.1f reflect critically on their behaviour | * | * | ||
| 2.2a make informed choices | * | * | * | * |
| 2.2d resist unhelpful peer influence | * | |||
| 4a make real choices | * | |||
| 4c explore personal and social issues | * | * | ||
| 4d consider personal and moral dilemas | * | * | * | |
| 4e work as members of groups and teams | * | * | * | * |
| 4h link personal wellbeing with out of school activities | * |
Delivering Personal Learning & Thinking Skills
Each lesson also includes opportunities for you to integrate Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS). A simple icon system in the Learning Outcomes table identifies the specific skills, and are followed by all or part of the relevant outcome statement.
Example: EP present a persuasive case
You can then choose which skills and outcomes you will make explicit in your teaching, to suit the needs and abilities of your class.