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Teaching activity - What's my carbon footprint?

This resource for level 5 students illustrates how to engage with science in the real-life context of carbon emissions and encourages them to develop a personal action plan to reduce their footprint.

A forest viewed from above.

Tags

  • AudienceKaiako
  • Curriculum Level5
  • Resource LanguageEnglish

About this resource

This resource illustrates how ākonga can use Genesis Energy's School-Gen website to investigate and calculate their own carbon footprint and then formulate an individual action plan to reduce their carbon emissions. Students will gain insight into how their activities compare on the local and global scales. 

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Teaching activity: What's my carbon footprint?

Mātauranga Māori 

In Te Ao Māori, people are closely associated with the land and nature. Kaitiakitanga (guardianship or protection) is a way of managing the environment. There are many responsibilities of kaitiaki today, including assuring the sustainability of taonga and kaimoana and preserving the balance of our ecosystems.  

Read more about kaitiakitanga on Understanding kaitiakitanga on the Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao.   

Learning focus 

Students develop their awareness of the impact of their daily activities on carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere. 

Learning activity 

Genesis Energy: What's my Carbon Footprint? Tōku tapuwae waro?

This resource provides hyperlinks to all the information students need to research and calculate their personal carbon footprint. 

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There are several possibilities for highlighting the “participating and contributing” nature of the science strand. Students could develop an action plan to reduce their personal carbon footprint and become more energy efficient. They could then document their progress and success (or not) in implementing and sticking to the plan for a specified period of time, (perhaps one term). At the end of that time, they could write a report on what happened and what they learned about possibilities and challenges for living in more energy-efficient ways. 

In some schools, teachers have encouraged parents to join the investigation alongside their children. Informing parents and asking them to allow their child access to the household’s energy bills for a year is one possibility. Another is having the student report to their parents on what they found out and the implications of this for the family’s lifestyle.

Given how hard it can be for individuals to change what they do within existing constraints (e.g., the availability of public transport), another way to extend this activity is to investigate specific changes in the wider community that would make it easier for individuals to reduce their carbon footprints. This could become a combined science and social science research and action project.

Supporting students to become scientifically literate, that is, to participate as critical, informed, and responsible citizens in a society in which science plays a significant role, is the purpose of science in NZC. This is the purpose of science in The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. 

This activity challenges students to increase their awareness of the environmental impact of routine daily activities and to act on what they find out. Encouraging students to strengthen their dispositions to take informed action is an important aspect of this activity. 

What are we looking for?

Do students undertake the research carefully and responsibly? 

Do they sustain their efforts and record-keeping for the specified time period? 

Do they acknowledge their personal responsibility to reduce their carbon footprint, and are they willing to try and do this?

Other organisations also provide resources to support students to develop action projects in their local community. Taking action on water quality is a common focus.

Look for regional council resources such as this one from the Northland Regional Council: 

Wai Care also has many relevant related links and resources.