2
My
Environmental Footprint
Lesson aims
What impact do you have on the earth?
Have you got a friendly flea or a dumping dinosaur-sized
footprint? What can you do as an individual, class
or school to reduce your environmental impact?
Students will learn about the concept of their environmental
footprint. They will learn how to measure and reduce their
environmental footprint.
Learning outcomes
As outlined in the National Profiles:
Studies of Society Place and Space Features of places; People and places;
and Environment Care of places
Resources Use of resources;
Management and enterprise
Natural and Natural systems; Economic systems
Social Systems
Science Life and Living Living together; Structure and function;
Biodiversity, change and continuity
© Copyright Clean Up Australia 2006.
This sheet may be photocopied for non-commercial classroom use.
2. My Environmental Footprint
Sources &
further
information
Best Foot Forward developed this
ecological footprint calculator. To estimate
your footprint, students select those options
that most closely reflect their lifestyle.
www.bestfootforward.com/
Calculate Your Ecological Footprint.
Students answer 13 simple questions to
assess their use of nature.
www.lead.org/leadnet/footprint/
Eco Voyageurs: Students can fill out a range
of questions to calculate their Ecological
Background Footprint.
information www.ecovoyageurs.com/
With a world population of 6.1 billion people EPA Victoria: Provides information on what
and rising, we need to be concerned about an eco-footprint is and has developed an
the Earth’s ability to provide us all with the online household and school calculator.
things we need to live, and to absorb all the www.epa.vic.gov.au/eco-footprint/
waste we produce.
My Footprint: This Ecological Footprint Quiz
Your environmental footprint is a measure of
estimates how much productive land and
your personal impact on the environment. It
water you need to support what you use and
can be defined as the amount of the earth’s
what you discard.
surface it takes to provide everything each
person uses – food, water, energy, clothes, www.myfootprint.org
roads, buildings etc. The larger the footprint,
the more resources needed to support that
lifestyle. Classroom activities
1. Classroom Design
The ecological footprints of most developed Prepare the classroom design
countries require more land than is available. for a series of environmental
People in Australia have a footprint of 9.4 education lessons.
hectares (about the size of 14 average sports Some ideas are listed below:
fields) and we need to reduce our footprint
to 2.2 hectares. • Generate interest in the environment by
asking students to go through magazines
If everyone on Earth lived like and newspapers cutting out pictures and
the average Australian, we would need at articles on the environment. Display these
least four Earths to provide all the materials around the room.
and energy we currently use and the waste
we produce.
© Copyright Clean Up Australia 2006.
This sheet may be photocopied for non-commercial classroom use.
2. My Environmental Footprint
• Develop an area in the classroom devoted
to the theme of the environment. The
area could have photographs, books,
and videos about the environment for
students to look through. You could
also decorate the area of the room as a
3. Assessing
seascape which needs to be protected Our Environmental
from pollution. Footprint
• Ask students to complete
• Brainstorm a series of questions about the
the Worksheet: What is our
environment and hang them up around
Environmental Footprint? Students
the room. Questions could include: Is the
will be able to gain ideas from the large
water polluted? Do we have too much
footprint that the class produced when
rubbish? Are you a litterbug?
making their own footprint. When the
• Develop a list of words associated with students have completed the worksheet
the environment and display them in the hang them around the classroom.
room.
• Ask the students to complete the
2. Environmental Footprint Worksheet: Measure Your Impact. Lower
Introduction primary students may need some
• Introduce the students to the term assistance to complete the worksheet
‘environmental footprint’. Explain to them (from a parent) or you could record the
what the term means and that Australia, class footprint as a group and choose ten
as a country, has a very large footprint. activities that the majority of students
undertook during one day (24 hours).
• Draw up a very large footprint with the
title ‘Areas that make up your footprint’. • A good time for each student to start
As a class brainstorm, what activities recording their resource usage may be
contribute to our environmental some time during the morning so that
footprint? You may want to divide the they become familiar with recording
footprint up into three main areas: activities. You will need to remind them
after recess and lunch to record what
Energy - using electrical or other powered waste was generated from their lunch and
devices including microwaves, lights, how much water they used. During other
hairdryers, heaters, air-conditioners, class activities the teacher should remind
travelling in a car, tractor, bus or train, them when using electrical devices such
lawn mowers, televisions, computers, as computers. Students will take home
radios, and refrigerators. their recording sheet to continue to write
Water - using water for drinking, growing down what activities they undertake and
food, cleaning. It could be cleaning your what resources they use.
hands, teeth or flushing the toilet. Water • Each student then rates each of their
is also used in washing machines and activities and associated resources out
dishwashers, and to water the garden and of three in terms of their environmental
sporting fields. impact. Once students have finished
Waste - what you use and no longer rating each activity’s impact, they should
need. This could be bottles, newspaper, add up their total score to assess what
packaging, old clothes and leftover food. size their footprint was for that particular
day.
© Copyright Clean Up Australia 2006.
This sheet may be photocopied for non-commercial classroom use.
2. My Environmental Footprint
Extension /
Home-based
activities
Lower Primary
Treading Lightly
Once students have calculated their
footprint get them to pick one thing they Upper Primary
can do to shrink their own Environmental Into the Future
Footprint. Answers may be recorded in a Ask students to imagine what the world
variety of ways including drawing a picture would be like if we continue to use more
or cartoon. Display these suggestions around resources than we have. Students can write
the classroom. a story of living in the next century – the
year 3000. Have we managed to reduce the
Middle Primary amount of resources we use?
Rubbish Weight
Students can use their school bags to collect Homeprint
all the rubbish (clean and properly sealed) Students can calculate the Environmental
they use during the day and carry it around Footprint of their home, recording how much
on their back for a set period of time i.e. water, energy and waste they use/produce
morning tea. Encourage the students to in a day. A household calculator can be
discuss how much they use and how it could downloaded from the website:
be reduced.
www.epa.vic.gov.au/eco-footprint/
What is our School Footprint?
Use the Victorian EPA website to calculate
your school’s footprint. It can be
downloaded from the website:
www.epa.vic.gov.au/eco-footprint/
© Copyright Clean Up Australia 2006.
This sheet may be photocopied for non-commercial classroom use.
