Sustainability Folio

Protecting Our Oceans from Plastic Pollution

An arts-integrated inquiry unit exploring how primary students can investigate ocean plastic pollution through Humanities (HASS), Visual Arts, and the Sustainability and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priorities.

Illustration of discarded plastic bottles and debris floating underwater, lit by sunlight from above.

Millie, a sea turtle sculpture woven from ghost net in navy, yellow and turquoise, by Racy Oui-Pitt of Erub Arts.

Saleha Nadeem Master of Teaching (Primary and Secondary) Primary Specialisation: English, TESOL/EAL Deakin University

Welcome to this folio, a learning space that explores ocean plastic pollution through environmental awareness, creative inquiry, and primary education. The folio brings together perspectives from the humanities and social sciences, visual arts, and classroom practice to consider how environmental issues can be explored meaningfully with young learners. Through artistic interpretation, creative response, and curriculum-connected learning experiences, the folio develops a Year 5 learning sequence that encourages students to engage with sustainability, think critically about human relationships with the environment, and consider their role in caring for the natural world.

Assignment 1

Sustainability Folio

Part 1: Inquiry Focus. Part 2: Arts Exploration. Part 3: Development for Primary Students.

Go to Assignment 1 →

Assignment 2

Teaching and Learning Resource Package

Part 1: Resource for Teaching. Part 2A: The Learning Sequence. Part 2B: Detailed Lesson Plan. Part 3: Rationale and Discussion.

Go to Assignment 2 →

Big Idea: An estimated eight million tonnes of plastic enter the world's oceans every year. Because plastic is one of the most familiar materials in a child's daily life (lunchboxes, toys, packaging), it offers an unusually accessible entry point into a global environmental crisis that can otherwise feel too abstract or distant for young learners to grasp.

Sustainability Folio

Protecting Our Oceans from Plastic Pollution

An arts-integrated inquiry unit exploring how primary students can investigate ocean plastic pollution through Humanities (HASS), Visual Arts, and the Sustainability and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priorities.

Welcome to this annotated education portfolio, exploring how inquiry-driven, arts-integrated teaching can help primary students engage with the global challenge of ocean plastic pollution. Across Humanities, Visual Arts, and the Sustainability and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures priorities, it grounds ecological literacy in empathy, curiosity, and creative practice.

Saleha Nadeem Master of Teaching (Primary and Secondary) Primary Specialisation: English, TESOL/EAL Deakin University

About this portfolio

This portfolio documents an annotated inquiry built around a single "big idea," ocean plastic pollution, and explores it through three lenses: the humanities and social sciences, the visual arts, and classroom practice for Year 5–6 students. It brings together an area of inquiry, a critical response to two contemporary artists working with marine plastic, an original artwork created in response to the same issue, and a curriculum-aligned plan for using this material in a primary classroom.

Use the navigation above, or the section summaries below, to move through the portfolio.

01

Area of Inquiry

The issue of ocean plastic pollution, the rationale for choosing it as a teaching focus, and the open inquiry questions that frame the unit, supported by a mind map of the topic's cross-curricular connections.

Read the inquiry →

02

Exploring the Arts

A critical response to Aurora Robson's The Great Indoors and Erub Arts' Ghost Net Art, followed by the process and artist's statement for an original woven-plastic sculpture, "Caught."

View the arts exploration →

03

Development for Primary Students

How this inquiry meets the Australian Curriculum's HASS and Arts learning areas, the Sustainability and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander cross-curriculum priorities, and the limitations to plan for.

See the curriculum links →

Big Idea: An estimated eight million tonnes of plastic enter the world's oceans every year. Because plastic is one of the most familiar materials in a child's daily life (lunchboxes, toys, packaging), it offers an unusually accessible entry point into a global environmental crisis that can otherwise feel too abstract or distant for young learners to grasp.

NextArea of Inquiry →

About

About Me

A short introduction to the person behind this portfolio.

I am a researcher and educator completing my Master of Teaching (Primary and Secondary) at Deakin University, specialising in English and TESOL/EAL. My work is grounded in making global issues tangible and meaningful for young learners through inquiry-based, arts-integrated teaching practice.

Researcher & Educator Master of Teaching (Primary & Secondary) English & TESOL/EAL Deakin University

Part 1

Area of Inquiry

The issue, the rationale for choosing it, and the open questions that frame this unit of learning.

The Issue

Plastic pollution in oceans and waterways is the sustainability issue at the centre of this inquiry. An estimated eight million tonnes of plastic enter the world's oceans every year. It does not biodegrade within any time frame meaningful to human life; instead, it breaks into smaller and smaller fragments, entering food chains as microplastics and accumulating in marine animals, ecosystems, and eventually in the seafood people eat.

For primary-aged children, plastic is one of the most familiar materials in daily life: it is in lunchboxes, toys, and packaging. This makes it an unusually accessible entry point into a global environmental crisis that can otherwise feel too abstract or distant for young learners to grasp.

Rationale

Plastic pollution was chosen as the focus "big idea" for three reasons, each grounded in this unit's readings on education for sustainability (EfS).

First, Taylor, Quinn and Eames (2015) argue that EfS matters at the primary level because young learners are inheriting environmental problems they did not create, and that building the knowledge and disposition to respond should be central to primary schooling rather than an optional add-on. Plastic pollution is a clear, concrete case through which to build that disposition: its cause (everyday consumption) and its consequence (visible harm to marine life) are both directly observable by children, unlike more abstract sustainability issues.

Second, it connects naturally across learning areas: science (materials and decomposition), geography (ocean currents and the global movement of waste), and civics (who is responsible for managing waste), which Noble (2015) identifies as a strength of using a single, tangible issue to anchor cross-curricular HASS learning. Noble demonstrates how education for sustainability in primary school HASS can be developed through examining environmental challenges and evaluating community responses, rather than isolating sustainability as a separate subject.

Third, Henderson and Tudball (2016) demonstrate that youth action for sustainability is most effective when children are given genuine opportunities for democratic and participatory citizenship, rather than simply being told about a problem. Plastic pollution offers many entry points for real, primary-appropriate action (reducing single-use plastic, organising a clean-up, redesigning packaging), which supports this participatory approach rather than leaving students as passive recipients of bad news.

This issue matters to me personally because a documentary about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch changed how I viewed plastic. I was shocked to learn that an everyday item such as a plastic water bottle could end up inside a seabird thousands of kilometres away. Since then, I have tried to reduce my plastic use, although I still sometimes choose plastic packaging out of habit. I want to explore this gap between awareness and action honestly with students, rather than suggesting that I have solved it.

Jenkins (2015) argues that effective education for sustainability integrates theory with practice: inquiry should not simply transmit facts about an issue but build students' "action competence" (their capacity and disposition to act) through open, student-negotiated questions rather than a fixed unit of content delivered by the teacher. Murdoch (2015) adds that authentic inquiry begins with genuinely puzzling questions that do not have a single, findable answer, and that can sustain investigation over time. This is why the inquiry questions below are framed as open provocations rather than closed factual prompts, and why in an actual classroom they would be revisited and extended in response to students' own curiosities rather than answered once and closed off.

Inquiry Questions

These questions move from the concrete and observable (where our rubbish goes) toward the systemic and ethical (who is responsible, what can genuinely be done), consistent with Jenkins' (2015) emphasis on building both understanding and action competence through inquiry, rather than understanding alone.

Where does the plastic we use each day go after we discard it?
How does plastic end up in the ocean, even in places far from the coast?
What happens to marine animals and ecosystems when they encounter plastic waste?
Why is plastic so difficult for the environment to break down?
Who is responsible for reducing plastic pollution: individuals, companies, or governments?
What could our class, school or family do to reduce the plastic we use and throw away?

In a real classroom, I would present these alongside a provocation such as a short video of a seabird autopsy revealing plastic fragments, or a collection of plastic items found at a local beach, and invite students to add their own questions before investigating.

Mind Map

The mind map below illustrates the breadth of concepts, questions, people, places, and artefacts connected to this big idea. It maps five key branches: Science & Systems, Human Impact, Arts Expression, Inquiry Questions, and Cross-Curriculum Connections, demonstrating how this topic can be explored through multiple disciplinary lenses.

Previous← Home NextExploring the Arts →

Part 2

Exploring the Big Idea Through the Arts

Responding as an audience to two contemporary artists, then making an original work in response to the same issue.

As Audience / Responding

Artist 1: Aurora Robson, The Great Indoors

Aurora Robson is a Canadian-born, multimedia artist based in New York who transforms plastic debris (much of it discarded PET bottles and packaging otherwise destined for landfill) into large-scale sculptures and immersive installations (Robson, n.d.). Her installation The Great Indoors used cut and reassembled plastic bottles to construct an immersive tunnel of abstract, organic forms resembling deep-sea creatures and micro-organisms, lit from within with LEDs to give the discarded material a sense of life (Rice Gallery, n.d.).

Installation view of Aurora Robson's The Great Indoors, showing translucent coral- and pink-toned sculptural forms made from recycled plastic bottles suspended from the ceiling of a gallery. — Aurora Robson, *The Great Indoors* (installation view).

The Great Indoors: Aurora Robson
https://youtu.be/Q_NS1pJQfVc?si=I4VA7jydmMc24PSw

Robson (as cited in Espinosa, n.d.) describes her practice as being about "subjugating negativity and shifting trajectories," treating plastic waste as "a viable art material" rather than only as a symbol of environmental harm. Her intention is explicitly future-positive: she wants viewers to leave with a sense of creative possibility rather than despair, using the same material that causes the pollution problem to build something that provokes wonder.

I looked at images of The Great Indoors on Robson's website, and what struck me immediately was the colour: these glowing, translucent forms in blues and greens that looked almost like jellyfish or coral. It took me a moment to realise they were made from the same kind of plastic bottles I throw in my recycling bin. That shift in perception is what made the work powerful for me: one moment I was looking at something beautiful, the next I was recognising the material as waste.

I chose this work because it does not lecture the viewer. It does not say "plastic is bad" in a heavy-handed way. Instead, it says "look what this material can become," which feels like a more generous entry point for children.

Viewpoints frame: Structural (cut plastic bottles reassembled into organic forms) Viewpoints frame: Materials (waste treated as a legitimate sculptural medium)

Engaged through the Australian Curriculum Viewpoints (ACARA, n.d.).

See the original work

Artist 2: Erub Arts, Ghost Net Art

Erub Arts is a collective of Torres Strait Islander artists on Erub (Darnley Island), who since 2010 have woven large sculptural works (turtles, sharks, frigate birds, coral) from "ghost nets": commercial fishing nets lost or abandoned at sea that wash up on Erub's shores and are estimated to kill more than 200 marine species (Australian National Maritime Museum, n.d.). Between 2004 and 2014 alone, more than 14,000 ghost nets were removed from Erub's coastline (Australian National Maritime Museum, n.d.).

A sea turtle sculpture woven from ghost net rope in teal, orange, and yellow, made by Erub Arts. — Erub Arts, ghost net sculpture (sea turtle).

Erub Arts: Ghost Net Work
Australian National Maritime Museum: Ghost Nets of the Ocean

The artists apply traditional Torres Strait weaving techniques to this reclaimed material. Each sculpture is intended to "evoke the interconnection between the ocean, the Torres Strait Islanders and caring for Country" (Australian National Maritime Museum, n.d.), which distinguishes this work from Robson's individual studio practice: Ghost Net Art is a community practice grounded in an ongoing, specific relationship to Sea Country, not a general statement about plastic waste.

I looked at the Australian National Maritime Museum's online exhibition of Erub Arts' ghost-net sculptures, and the piece that stayed with me was a giant turtle woven from bright green and blue net fragments. What I noticed first was the scale: it was much bigger than I expected, and the colours were surprisingly vibrant for something made from discarded fishing gear. But what really struck me was reading that the artists work together as a community, that the nets are collected from their own beaches, and that the weaving techniques are traditional.

This is not art about the ocean made by someone in a city studio; it is art made by people whose Country is the ocean, using materials that have invaded their home. I chose this work because it connects the environmental issue to Indigenous knowledge and community practice in a way that feels authentic rather than added on.

Viewpoints frame: Cultural (expression of Torres Strait Islander relationship to Sea Country) Viewpoints frame: Structural (traditional weaving adapted to marine debris)

Engaged through the Viewpoints framework (ACARA, n.d.).

See the original work

As Artist / Making

My son's quiet wonder at a fishpond inspired this artwork; primary children, including those with special needs like my son, love water and fish, and we must protect them.

Artwork: "Caught"

Medium: Woven plastic form (single-use plastic bags, bread tags, wrappers, six-pack rings, collected and bound into a fish shape) Dimensions: 25 × 15 cm

A fish-shaped sculpture suspended from a thread, woven entirely from clear and coloured single-use plastic, including bread tags, netting, and a black six-pack ring around its midsection. — Figure 3. Final artwork: "Caught."

Process Documentation and Annotations

My creative exploration of ocean plastic pollution began with a question: could I make something that embodies the problem rather than just illustrating it? I wanted the material itself to be the message: the finished piece should be physically made of what it is warning against.

Refinement 1: Collection

Over two weeks, I collected every piece of soft single-use plastic my household generated: soft drink bottles and their wrappers, bread bags, fruit netting, chip packets, six-pack rings, and plastic wrapping from online deliveries. I kept them in a green bag and then in a box under my kitchen sink, and by the end of the fortnight the box was overflowing. This collection phase was itself a provocation; I was shocked by how much plastic one person accumulates without noticing. I photographed the full box before sorting the materials by colour and texture.

A bag full of collected plastic bottles and wrappers.

Plastic waste stored in a plastic tub ready for sorting.

A cardboard box overflowing with soft plastic waste under a kitchen sink.

Refinement 2: Material testing

I tested three methods for transforming plastic into a workable material. First, I tried cutting the bags into long strips and twisting them into cord, like making yarn from fabric. This worked for the thinner bags but the thicker wrappers kept snapping. Second, I tried weaving the strips on a simple cardboard loom. This held together but looked too neat, almost like a craft project rather than an artwork about pollution. Third, I tried a freeform binding technique, wrapping and knotting the plastic strips around a wire armature. This gave me the irregular, tangled texture I was looking for: it looked caught, trapped, which matched the concept. I photographed each test and kept notes on what worked.

Three material tests laid out on a table: twisted plastic cord, a woven cardboard-loom sample, and a freeform bound wire sample, alongside handwritten observation notes.

Refinement 3: First draft

Using the binding technique, I created a first draft of a fish shape: a simple oval body with a tail, wrapped in overlapping layers of blue and green plastic strips. I chose a fish because it is immediately recognisable to children and because it represents the marine life most directly affected by plastic pollution. However, when I stepped back from it, the shape was unclear: the plastic layers were too thick and the fish looked more like a tangled ball than a creature. The colours were also too harmonious; I had unconsciously arranged the blue and green strips to look pretty, which undermined the serious message.

A tangled, egg-shaped bundle of blue and green woven plastic strips: the first draft of the fish sculpture, with an unclear form.

Refinement 4: Refinement

Based on my own reflection and feedback from a peer, I made three changes. First, I stripped back some of the layers to reveal the wire frame underneath, which created negative space and made the fish shape more readable. Second, I deliberately added strips of red, orange, and clear plastic (colours that do not occur naturally in fish) to create visual discomfort and signal that this creature is made of something foreign. Third, I left some plastic ends loose and frayed rather than tucking them all in, because the messiness communicated entanglement better than a tidy finish. I also incorporated an actual six-pack ring fragment around the fish's midsection, making the threat literal.

A clearer fish-shaped sculpture made of silver wire frame with red, orange and clear plastic strips, and a black six-pack ring fragment around its midsection.

Refinement 5: Final work

In the final version, I added smaller details: bread tags for scales, a piece of clear netting for a fin, and a single black bread tie for the eye. These small elements reward close looking: a child who examines the piece closely will recognise familiar objects, which makes the connection to their own plastic use immediate. The fish hangs from a thread, suspended as if caught in a net or floating in water, which adds a sense of vulnerability and movement. The final piece is called "Caught" because the fish is both caught in plastic and caught by the viewer's gaze: we cannot look away from what we have made.

The completed sculpture 'Caught': a fish woven from clear and coloured single-use plastic, hanging from a thread against a plain background. — Figure 2 / 3. Process documentation and final artwork: the five stages of "Caught."

Artist's Statement: "Caught"

With "Caught," I wanted to make a piece where the material and the message are inseparable. The fish is made entirely from plastic waste I collected in two weeks: waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill or potentially ended up in a waterway. By turning that waste into a creature that appears to be trapped and struggling, I am asking the viewer to recognise their own role in the story. This is not a fish in a natural ocean; it is a fish made of the things we throw away.

I was directly inspired by Erub Arts' Ghost Net Art, particularly their woven marine sculptures made from discarded fishing nets. While my piece is much smaller and uses different materials, the principle is the same: take the pollutant and transform it through traditional craft techniques into something that speaks back to the problem. I want to acknowledge Erub Arts explicitly as an inspiration for the weaving/binding approach, while being clear that my materials, scale, and context are my own. I am not Torres Strait Islander, and my relationship to the ocean is different from theirs; this piece is my own response to a shared environmental crisis, not an appropriation of their cultural practice.

My hope is that a child looking at this piece would first recognise the shape (a fish), and then, on closer inspection, recognise the materials: "That is a bread bag. That is a six-pack ring. I have seen those before." That recognition is the moment of connection I am aiming for.

Previous← Area of Inquiry NextDevelopment for Primary Students →

Part 3

Development for Primary Students

Suitable year level, curriculum alignment, and the limitations to plan for in the classroom.

Suitable Level and Curriculum Alignment

This inquiry into ocean plastic pollution, paired with the arts explorations of Aurora Robson and Erub Arts, is well suited to Year 5–6 students (typically ages 10–12). At this stage, students possess the cognitive capacity for abstract reasoning, systems thinking, and ethical reflection required to engage meaningfully with global environmental issues that operate across distance and time (Shepardson & Hirsch, 2019/2020). They can understand that a plastic bottle discarded in their suburb may eventually affect a marine ecosystem thousands of kilometres away, and they can begin to evaluate multiple perspectives on responsibility and action.

Meeting the Humanities (HASS) Curriculum

AC9HS5K04

Under the Australian Curriculum (Version 9.0), Year 5 HASS/Geography content descriptor AC9HS5K04 requires students to examine "the influence of people, including First Nations Australians and people in other countries, on the characteristics of a place." Ocean plastic pollution sits directly within this requirement: students can investigate how coastal and marine environments influence human settlement, fishing, and recreation, while also examining how human management or mismanagement of waste influences the future of those environments. Students could compare a coastal Australian community (e.g. a Torres Strait Island community affected by ghost nets) with another place experiencing plastic pollution, examining causes, consequences, and community responses.

Noble (2015) argues that HASS is well placed to hold this kind of integrated, issue-based learning because it draws together the social, political, and environmental dimensions of a problem rather than isolating them into separate subjects. In this inquiry, the HASS strand allows students to move beyond scientific facts about decomposition rates toward questions of equity, responsibility, and governance, asking not just "what is happening?" but "who is affected, and who should act?"

Meeting the Arts Curriculum

The Australian Curriculum: The Arts (ACARA, n.d.) organises Visual Arts learning in Years 5–6 around four interrelated strands: exploring and responding, developing practices and skills, creating and making, and presenting and performing.

AC9AVA6E01 AC9AVA6E02 AC9AVA6D01 AC9AVA6C01 AC9AVA6P01

Responding

Analysing Aurora Robson's immersive installations and Erub Arts' woven ghost-net sculptures maps directly to the Responding strand, where students "evaluate how representations communicate artistic intentions" across cultures, times, and places (ACARA, n.d.). Robson's individual studio practice and Erub Arts' community-based Sea Country work offer contrasting models of artistic response, allowing students to compare and evaluate how representations communicate artistic intentions across cultures, places and contexts (AC9AVA6E01, AC9AVA6E02).

Making

Creating a woven or bound form from collected single-use plastic maps to both the Developing practices and skills strand and the Creating and making strand. With primary students, this can be scaffolded as a class collective project: students collect soft plastic from their lunchboxes over one week, then cut, thread and bind the material into small forms inspired by (but distinct from) Erub Arts' technique. This process requires students to experiment with materials, refine techniques, plan their design, and create an artwork that represents ideas about plastic pollution (AC9AVA6D01, AC9AVA6C01). Documenting and annotating the creative process further supports students in developing an understanding of their own artistic intentions and reflecting on their practice.

Presenting

Students can share their finished works in a class exhibition or school "Ocean Action" display, addressing the Presenting and performing strand (AC9AVA6P01).

Meeting the Sustainability Cross-Curriculum Priority

The Australian Curriculum structures Sustainability around four organising concepts: Systems, World Views, Design, and Futures (ACARA, n.d.). This inquiry addresses all four.

Systems is explored through ocean currents, food chains, and the movement of plastic waste from land to sea.
World Views is examined through the contrast between Robson's Western studio-activist perspective and Erub Arts' Torres Strait Islander relationship to Sea Country: two fundamentally different ways of understanding human responsibility to the ocean.
Design is embedded in the Making task, where students must design a creative response using the pollutant itself as material.
Futures is addressed through the final inquiry question about what action students could take.

Jenkins (2015) argues that the Futures concept is best built through "action competence": real, achievable action rather than abstract worry. Henderson and Tudball (2016) reinforce this by demonstrating that youth action for sustainability is most effective when children are positioned as democratic participants rather than passive recipients. This is why Part 3 activities should culminate in concrete, primary-appropriate action such as a single-use plastic audit, a class commitment to reduce packaging, or a letter to local council, rather than ending with discussion alone.

Connecting to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures

The Australian Curriculum's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures priority is structured around three aspects: Country/Place, Culture, and People (ACARA, n.d.). This inquiry connects powerfully through all three.

Country/Place is addressed through Erub Arts' Ghost Net Art, which is made on Erub (Darnley Island) from nets that wash up on Torres Strait shores, a direct, place-based response to marine pollution that emerges from a specific Sea Country.
Culture is present in the weaving techniques themselves, which apply traditional Torres Strait practices to contemporary environmental material.
People is represented by the artists as community members whose work is collective rather than individual, and whose practice is grounded in custodial responsibility.

Wooltorton, Collard, Horwitz, Poelina and Palmer (2020) caution that place-based Indigenous methodology cannot be reduced to a single lesson or artefact study; it depends on building genuine, ongoing relationships with specific Country and the people who hold knowledge of it. Applied to a primary classroom, this means a teacher should not treat Erub Arts as a stand-alone "multicultural" add-on, but should connect the inquiry to the specific coastline, waterway, or Sea Country nearest the school, and where possible involve local Traditional Owners or an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education officer directly. Preston (2015) reinforces this by arguing that place-based education in the Australian geography curriculum is only meaningful when it engages with an actual, specific place rather than a generic case study.

Judson (2020) offers one practical way to do this through a "walking curriculum": a structured walk to a local beach, river mouth, or stormwater drain, framed as an inquiry into what is found there and whose Country it is, rather than an incidental excursion. For this ocean plastic inquiry, a walking curriculum might involve students documenting plastic waste at a local waterway, photographing it, and mapping its likely journey to the ocean, connecting their immediate place to the distant Sea Country of Erub Arts.

Limitations and Challenges

One significant challenge I anticipate is avoiding tokenism when teaching the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cross Curriculum Priorities (CCP). It would be easy to show images of Erub Arts' ghost-net sculptures, describe them as "beautiful," and move on. But that would be superficial and disrespectful. Wooltorton et al. (2020) emphasise that Indigenous knowledge must be engaged with as living, ongoing, and specific to place, not as a decorative addition to a Western-framed unit. The real work is in building ongoing relationships with local Aboriginal communities and letting their knowledge shape the inquiry, rather than bolting it on as a "cultural" activity.

Another challenge is managing the emotional weight of the issue for young children. Shepardson and Hirsch (2019/2020) note that teaching about environmental crises requires careful attention to students' developmental levels, ensuring that content is honest without being overwhelming. Images of dead marine animals entangled in plastic can provoke eco-anxiety rather than action if not framed carefully. As a teacher, I would balance the severity of the problem with tangible, hopeful actions students can take, following Jenkins' (2015) emphasis on building action competence rather than despair.

Finally, there is the practical challenge of time and resources. A genuine inquiry with arts integration, community consultation, and a walking curriculum takes significantly longer than a textbook unit. Henderson and Tudball (2016) argue that this time is necessary for democratic, participatory learning, but I recognise that primary teachers work within tight timetables. I would need to advocate for the curriculum time to do this properly, perhaps by integrating the inquiry across multiple learning areas simultaneously, rather than rushing through the creative or community-engagement components.

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Reference List

References

All sources cited throughout this portfolio, in APA 7th style.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.). The Australian Curriculum: The Arts. https://australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/the-arts/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.). Cross-curriculum priorities: Sustainability. https://australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/sustainability/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.). Cross-curriculum priorities: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. https://australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-histories-and-cultures/

Australian National Maritime Museum. (n.d.). Ghost nets – message of sustainability. https://www.sea.museum/en/first-nations/ghost-nets-message-of-sustainability

Espinosa, A. (n.d.). From plastic debris to sculptures: Aurora Robson. Luxiders. https://luxiders.com/aurora-robson/

Henderson, D. J., & Tudball, E. J. (2016). Democratic and participatory citizenship: Youth action for sustainability in Australia. Asian Education and Development Studies, 5(2), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEDS-09-2015-0051

Jenkins, K. (2015). How to teach education for sustainability: Integrating theory and practice. In N. Taylor, F. Quinn, & C. Eames (Eds.), Educating for sustainability in primary schools: Teaching for the future (pp. 33–43). Sense Publishers.

Judson, G. (2020). A walking curriculum. Education Canada, 60(2), 8–9.

Murdoch, K. (2015). The power of inquiry. Seastar Education.

Noble, K. (2015). Education for sustainability in primary school humanities and social sciences education. In N. Taylor, F. Quinn, & C. Eames (Eds.), Educating for sustainability in primary schools: Teaching for the future (pp. 117–132). Sense Publishers.

Preston, L. (2015). The place of place-based education in the Australian primary geography curriculum. Geographical Education, 28, 41–49.

Rice Gallery. (n.d.). Aurora Robson: The Great Indoors. http://www.ricegallery.org/aurora-robson

Robson, A. (n.d.). Large scale sculpture + installation. Aurora Robson. https://www.aurorarobson.com/sculpture-installation

Shepardson, D. P., & Hirsch, A. S. (2019/2020). Teaching climate change: What educators should know and can do. American Educator, 43(4), 18–23.

Taylor, N., Quinn, F., & Eames, C. (2015). Why do we need to teach education for sustainability at the primary level? In N. Taylor, F. Quinn, & C. Eames (Eds.), Educating for sustainability in primary schools: Teaching for the future (pp. 1–11). Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-046-8_1

Wooltorton, S., Collard, L., Horwitz, P., Poelina, A., & Palmer, D. (2020). Sharing a place-based Indigenous methodology and learnings. Environmental Education Research, 26(7), 917–934. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1773407

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Assignment 2 · Teaching and Learning Resource Package

From Erub to Western Port: Following our Plastic to the Sea

Resource (artefact): "Millie", a ghost-net turtle by Racy Oui-Pitt, Erub Arts.

Big ideaProtecting Our Oceans from Plastic Pollution

Unit inquiry questionHow does the plastic we throw away in Casey reach the sea, and what can we do about it?

Saleha Nadeem Master of Teaching (Primary and Secondary) Primary Specialisation: English, TESOL/EAL Deakin University

About this resource package

EPO702: Arts, Humanities and Sustainability in Primary Education, Assignment 2. A Year 5 teaching and learning resource package built around one artefact, "Millie", and six lessons over three weeks.

Use the Assignment 2 menu above, or the section summaries below, to move through the package.

01

Resource for Teaching

The artefact, "Millie" (medium turtle) by Racy Oui-Pitt, Erub Arts, and the rationale for choosing it.

View the artefact →

02A

The Learning Sequence

Six Year 5 lessons: from a lunchbox plastic audit to an Ocean Action exhibition.

See the sequence →

02B

Detailed Lesson Plan

Lesson 2 of 6. Meeting Millie: What can a ghost-net turtle teach us?

Read the lesson plan →

03

Rationale and Critical Discussion

Inquiry, policy, the 8 Ways, hope over fear, and the challenges to plan for.

Read the discussion →

Big Idea: Protecting Our Oceans from Plastic Pollution.

NextResource for Teaching →

Assignment 2 · Part 1

Resource for Teaching (Artefact)

The artefact: "Millie" (medium turtle), Racy Oui-Pitt, Erub Arts.

The Artefact

Artist	Racy Oui-Pitt, Erub Arts, Erub (Darnley Island), Torres Strait
Medium	Ghost net (reclaimed fishing net and rope), polypropylene
Size	80 x 460 x 470 mm
Collection	Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), object number 00055244
View online	https://collections.sea.museum/objects/202998/millie
Organisations	ANMM Ghost Nets exhibition: https://www.sea.museum/first-nations/ghost-nets-message-of-sustainability; Erub Arts: https://www.erubarts.com.au/ghost-net-work/

Rationale

Millie is a turtle woven from ghost net: fishing net lost or abandoned at sea that keeps drifting and trapping marine animals. Sea rangers recover the nets from Erub's beaches and Erub Arts artists weave them into sea creatures using traditional techniques (ANMM, n.d.-a). More than 14,000 nets were removed from Erub's shores between 2004 and 2014, and turtles make up about 80 per cent of the marine life caught in them (ANMM, n.d.-a, n.d.-b). In Australia, a national CSIRO survey found that three-quarters of the rubbish on Australia's coastline is plastic, mostly from Australian sources, and that derelict nets in the Gulf of Carpentaria have killed an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 turtles (CSIRO, 2014). I chose Millie for four reasons.

It carries the big idea in its material. The problem students will investigate is inside the object. Paris (2002) argues that real objects spark curiosity and questions in ways text does not, because learners look, compare and interpret for themselves. A museum object is also a primary source, building the HASS skill of asking about origin, purpose and perspective (AC9HS5S04).
It presents a First Nations perspective as knowledge, not decoration. The turtle is a totem and food source for Torres Strait Islander communities (ANMM, n.d.-b). Millie lets students explore how First Nations Australians use visual arts to continue and revitalise cultures (AC9AVA6E02), and how care for Sea Country shapes a response to pollution (Sustainability: World views).
It is a hopeful entry point. In AT1 I proposed opening with a seabird autopsy video. I have changed this. Shepardson and Hirsch (2019) warn that environmental teaching must be honest without overwhelming children, and Ojala (2012) found that constructive hope predicts young people's environmental engagement. Millie shows community acting, so students meet the problem and a response together.
It leads to making and action. Girak, Lummis and Johnson (2019) found that when 12-year-olds transformed discarded materials into art, their attitudes shifted and they connected their own actions to the environment. Millie models exactly this transformation.

Millie is introduced in Lesson 2, after students audit their own lunchbox plastic, so they meet it with a personal connection. Its limitation is distance: it is in Sydney and viewed online. The sequence therefore pairs it with a walk on Bunurong Country (Lesson 4), because First Nations knowledge must connect to a specific local place (Wooltorton et al., 2020) and builds every lesson on the 8 Ways (Yunkaporta, 2009).

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Assignment 2 · Part 2A

The Learning Sequence

From Erub to Western Port: Following our Plastic to the Sea.

Sequence Overview

Title	From Erub to Western Port: Following our Plastic to the Sea
Year level and length	Year 5. Six lessons over three weeks (Lesson 5 may need two sessions).
Unit inquiry question	How does the plastic we throw away in Casey reach the sea, and what can we do about it?
Pedagogical framework	Inquiry cycle adapted from Murdoch (2015), with the 8 Ways of Aboriginal learning (Yunkaporta, 2009) embedded in every lesson rather than in one "cultural" lesson. The teacher is a co-learner questions nobody in the room can answer go on the Wonder Wall under "Ask a knowledge holder".
Overall aims	Students explain how plastic travels from homes to the sea (Systems), why Erub artists weave ghost nets (World views), make collective artwork from their own waste (Design), and propose an action (Futures).

Fishbone planning brainstorm titled From Erub to Western Port. The spine leads to the unit question. Upper bones: The Arts (Visual Arts), Humanities (HASS), Sustainability. Lower bones: General Capabilities, Pedagogy, First Nations Perspectives. The hook is Millie, the ghost-net turtle. — Figure 1. Fishbone planning brainstorm for the sequence.

Lesson Sequence Outline

Lesson and inquiry phase	Curriculum	Learning intention	Pedagogical strategies	Assessment
1. Where does our plastic go?Tuning in	HASS AC9HS5S01 Sustainability: Systems	Notice the plastic we use and ask where it goes.	Lunchbox plastic audit in small groups; class collection box starts for Lesson 5. Draw "the journey of a chip packet after the bin". Wonder Wall of student questions. 8 Ways: learning maps, story sharing.	Diagnostic: journey drawings, kept for Lesson 6.
2. Meeting MillieTuning in to finding outDetailed plan (Part 2B) →	Visual Arts AC9AVA6E01, E02 HASS AC9HS5S01, S04 CCPs: World views; Country/Place, Culture	Learn what ghost nets are and why Erub artists weave them.	Object-based learning with a net sample. See, Think, Wonder (Ritchhart et al., 2011). Viewpoints questions; artists' own words. 8 Ways: non-verbal, symbols and images, story sharing.	Formative: organiser, talk checklist, exit ticket.
3. From our street to the seaFinding out	HASS AC9HS5K04, S02, S03 Sustainability: Systems	Trace litter from Casey streets through Cardinia Creek to Western Port and compare with nets drifting to Erub.	Explicit teaching of map conventions with a worked example (DET, 2017). Google Earth mapping of the school's catchment. Jigsaw expert groups. 8 Ways: learning maps, non-linear (Erub and Casey linked).	Formative: annotated journey map with checklist.
4. Walking our waterwayFinding out, sorting out	HASS AC9HS5K04, S02 CCP: Country/Place	Investigate a local waterway on Bunurong Country and ask whose Country and water it is.	Walking curriculum (Judson, 2020): "Find something that does not belong here." Litter survey and photo journal. Invite a Bunurong education officer; if no excursion, survey school drains. 8 Ways: land links, community links, story sharing.	Formative: field data sheet compared with the Lesson 1 audit.
5. What the water carriesGoing further	Visual Arts AC9AVA6D01, C01 Sustainability: Design	Experiment with cutting, twisting and binding plastic, then make a collective Western Port Sea creature.	Teacher models her own process with "Caught" (AT1). Skills stations, then small-group making. Discuss learning from Erub's message without copying its designs. 8 Ways: deconstruct and reconstruct, non-verbal.	Formative: process journal showing two refinements; peer feedback.
6. Ocean Action exhibitionReflecting and taking action	Visual Arts AC9AVA6P01 HASS AC9HS5S06, K07 Sustainability: Futures	Present our artwork and propose one action, using criteria to judge its effect.	Exhibition for families; group artist statements. Action proposals (e.g. a letter to the City of Casey about litter traps); class votes on one. Redraw the Lesson 1 journey. 8 Ways: community links, learning maps.	Summative: rubric for artwork, statement and proposal; pre and post drawings.

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Assignment 2 · Part 2B

Detailed Lesson Plan (Lesson 2 of 6)

Meeting Millie: What can a ghost-net turtle teach us?

Template format after Dinham (2019).

Title	Meeting Millie: What can a ghost-net turtle teach us?
Resource	Artefact: "Millie" by Racy Oui-Pitt, Erub Arts (ANMM 00055244), viewed online, https://www.sea.museum/en/home, https://collections.sea.museum/objects/202998/millie
Year level / duration	Year 5 / 60 minutes
Learning intention	In this lesson we will look closely at a turtle made from ghost net, find out what ghost nets are, and think about why Torres Strait Islander artists turn them into art. Success criteria. I can: describe the artwork using art words (material, texture, form); explain what a ghost net is and why it harms turtles; give one reason Erub artists weave ghost nets; ask a question I want to investigate.

Curriculum: Learning Outcomes and Assessment

Visual Arts (Years 5–6)	AC9AVA6E01: "explore ways that visual conventions, visual arts processes and materials are combined to communicate ideas, perspectives and/or meaning in visual arts across cultures, times, places and/or other contexts" AC9AVA6E02: "explore ways that First Nations Australians use visual arts to continue and revitalise cultures" Elaboration: explain how an Erub artist uses reclaimed net and traditional weaving to share a message and keep a practice strong.
HASS (Year 5)	AC9HS5S01: "develop questions to investigate people, events, developments, places and systems" AC9HS5S04: "evaluate primary and secondary sources to determine origin, purpose and perspectives" Elaboration: treat Millie as a primary source: who made it, from what, and why?
Cross-curriculum priorities	Sustainability: World views, Systems. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures: Country/Place (Erub Sea Country), Culture (weaving as a living practice).
8 Ways (Yunkaporta, 2009)	Non-verbal (handling the net), symbols and images (the turtle as totem and message), story sharing (the artists' own words), learning maps (Wonder Wall). I learn alongside students and say when I do not know.
Vocabulary	ghost netmarine debrisSea CountryTorres Strait IslanderErubtotemsea rangerweavetextureformartist's intention
Assessment	Formative. Evidence: See, Think, Wonder organiser: do students separate seeing from inferring? Checklist during group talk: does each student give a reason? Exit ticket: "A ghost net is... Erub artists weave them because... I still wonder..." Strong answers give both an environmental and a cultural reason. Tickets are sorted (secure, partial, not yet) to group students for Lesson 3.

Prerequisite Knowledge and Links

Before	Lesson 1 audit, journey drawings and Wonder Wall.
After	Lesson 3 begins from exit-ticket questions about how nets and plastic travel. Millie returns in Lessons 5 and 6.

Preparation and Resources

Materials	Whiteboard: ANMM image of Millie (close-up crop and full view), ANMM ghost nets page, map showing Erub and Casey. ANMM: Millie (collection object) ANMM: Ghost nets, message of sustainability Mystery bag with a short length of cleaned fishing net. Masking tape marking Millie's real size (47 cm) on the floor. See, Think, Wonder organisers, picture glossary, sticky notes, exit tickets.
Before teaching	Check protocols with the school's Koorie education contact; preview media and remove images of injured animals.
Space	Carpet, then mixed-ability groups of four; Millie projected large.

The Lesson

Stage and time	Teacher and student actions, key questions	Organisation and check for learning
Introduction10 min	Acknowledgement of Country; share learning intention and success criteria. Mystery bag: students feel the net without looking. What could this be? Where might it have come from? Show a close-up of Millie, then the whole turtle: "Today we meet a turtle made from this."	Whole class. Note words students already use.
1. See10 min	One minute of silent looking. Pairs list only what they see. What shapes, colours and textures do you notice? How big is it? Show the real size on the floor. Teacher models one "see" and one "think" sentence.	Pairs. Are pairs describing, not guessing? Ask "Where can you see that?"
2. Think12 min	Teacher shares ANMM facts: what ghost nets are, 14,000 nets removed from Erub, turtles 80 per cent of the animals caught, sea rangers and weavers. Locate Erub, then Casey. Groups discuss Viewpoints questions: Materials: Why use ghost net, not new material? (What would be lost if the turtle were made of new, clean rope) Culture: What might a turtle mean to Torres Strait Islander people? Meaning: What message might the artist want us to hear? Teacher presses: What makes you say that?	Groups of four with roles. Checklist: each student gives a reason.
3. Artists' voices8 min	Read Florence Gutchen's words: "It all comes back to the sea. We are all connected by the world's oceans" (ANMM, n.d.-a). How might Erub be connected to us in Casey? Link to the Lesson 1 audit. Key point: Erub's people are caring for Sea Country and teaching the world.	Whole class. Listen for links between our plastic and the ocean.
4. Wonder10 min	Students write two "I wonder..." questions. Groups sort them: research it, go outside to find out, ask a knowledge holder, big question with no single answer (Murdoch, 2015), then add them to the Wonder Wall.	Individual, then groups. Are some questions open "why" or "how" questions?
Conclusion10 min	Groups share one wonder. Teacher previews Lesson 3: tracing how plastic from our street reaches the sea. Exit ticket. Feelings check: students place a dot on a "worried, curious, hopeful" scale; teacher names the people already acting, including Erub artists and, soon, the class.	Whole class. Exit tickets sorted for Lesson 3.

Stage and time

Teacher and student actions, key questions

Organisation and check for learning

Introduction10 min

Acknowledgement of Country; share learning intention and success criteria.

Mystery bag: students feel the net without looking. What could this be? Where might it have come from?

Show a close-up of Millie, then the whole turtle: "Today we meet a turtle made from this."

Whole class.

Note words students already use.

1. See10 min

One minute of silent looking. Pairs list only what they see.

What shapes, colours and textures do you notice? How big is it? Show the real size on the floor.

Teacher models one "see" and one "think" sentence.

Pairs.

Are pairs describing, not guessing? Ask "Where can you see that?"

2. Think12 min

Teacher shares ANMM facts: what ghost nets are, 14,000 nets removed from Erub, turtles 80 per cent of the animals caught, sea rangers and weavers. Locate Erub, then Casey.

Groups discuss Viewpoints questions:

Materials: Why use ghost net, not new material? (What would be lost if the turtle were made of new, clean rope)
Culture: What might a turtle mean to Torres Strait Islander people?
Meaning: What message might the artist want us to hear?

Teacher presses: What makes you say that?

Groups of four with roles.

Checklist: each student gives a reason.

3. Artists' voices8 min

Read Florence Gutchen's words:

"It all comes back to the sea. We are all connected by the world's oceans" (ANMM, n.d.-a).

How might Erub be connected to us in Casey? Link to the Lesson 1 audit.

Key point: Erub's people are caring for Sea Country and teaching the world.

Whole class.

Listen for links between our plastic and the ocean.

4. Wonder10 min

Students write two "I wonder..." questions. Groups sort them: research it, go outside to find out, ask a knowledge holder, big question with no single answer (Murdoch, 2015), then add them to the Wonder Wall.

Individual, then groups.

Are some questions open "why" or "how" questions?

Conclusion10 min

Groups share one wonder. Teacher previews Lesson 3: tracing how plastic from our street reaches the sea.

Exit ticket. Feelings check: students place a dot on a "worried, curious, hopeful" scale; teacher names the people already acting, including Erub artists and, soon, the class.

Whole class.

Exit tickets sorted for Lesson 3.

Variations: Diversity, Inclusion and Extension

EAL/D learners	Pre-teach five key words with pictures; sentence starters ("I see... I think... because... I wonder..."); first-language talk before sharing in English (Gibbons, 2015); drawing accepted as a response.
Autism or sensory needs	Visual schedule; touching the net is optional; quiet space; predictable group roles.
Extension	Compare Millie with Aurora Robson's "The Great Indoors" (AT1): how do the artists' intentions differ?

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Assignment 2 · Part 3

Rationale and Critical Discussion

Why the sequence is built this way, and the challenges to plan for.

An Inquiry, Not a Topic

Taylor, Quinn and Eames (2015) argue that primary students inherit environmental problems they did not create, and that schools must build both understanding and the disposition to act. The sequence therefore follows an inquiry cycle adapted from Murdoch (2015) and ends with a real action rather than a test. Murdoch argues that genuine inquiry balances teacher questions with students' own and returns to them over time; the Wonder Wall opens in Lesson 1, grows in Lessons 2 and 4, and is used to judge learning in Lesson 6. Building "action competence" (Jenkins, 2015) and democratic participation (Henderson & Tudball, 2016), Lesson 6 asks students to propose actions, judge their likely effect (AC9HS5S06) and work towards a civic goal together (AC9HS5K07). Because inquiry can drift, skills are taught explicitly before they are needed (Department of Education and Training [DET], 2017).

Policy: Why This Matters Now

The sequence answers local, national and global commitments. Globally, it addresses Sustainable Development Goal 14.1, to significantly reduce marine pollution from land-based activities, and Goal 4.7, which asks education to give all learners the knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development (United Nations, 2015). Nationally, the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration commits schools to developing "active and informed members of the community" who understand and value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures (Education Council, 2019). Australia's National Plastics Plan sets targets for reducing plastic waste (Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment [DAWE], 2021), and the Ghost Nets Initiative funds Indigenous ranger groups to remove nets from northern waters (Parks Australia, 2021). This lets students see Erub's sea rangers as part of a national response, and their own action proposal as part of the same effort.

The 8 Ways: Embedding First Nations Ways of Learning

In AT1 I warned against tokenism, and Wooltorton et al. (2020) argue that First Nations knowledge is living and tied to particular places. My response is to build the whole sequence on Yunkaporta's (2009) 8 Ways of Aboriginal learning rather than confining First Nations content to Lesson 2. Story sharing runs through the artists' own words (Lesson 2) and a Bunurong guest's knowledge of local waters (Lesson 4). Learning maps appear in the journey maps and the Wonder Wall. Non-verbal learning happens by handling the net and making by hand. Symbols and images frame the turtle as totem and message. Land links come through Judson's (2020) walking curriculum on Bunurong Country, answering Preston's (2015) call to learn in an actual place. Non-linear thinking links Erub and Casey. Deconstruct and reconstruct shapes Lesson 5: I show my finished artwork "Caught", take it apart into steps, and students rebuild the process in their own work. Community links come through the guest, the family exhibition and the letter to council.

The 8 Ways also changed my role. I am not Torres Strait Islander or Bunurong, and I should not "own" knowledge that belongs to those communities. Instead, I learn with my students: I say when I do not know, questions go under "Ask a knowledge holder", and answers come from the artists' published words or a Bunurong education officer. Sinclair et al. (2017) show that partnerships with artists and cultural organisations extend what a classroom teacher can offer, but they must be planned: a guest must be booked and paid in advance. If this is not possible, I will say so openly rather than fill the gap with my own account.

Why This Artefact, and Hope Over Fear

Dinham (2019) argues that authentic arts education joins responding and making: students respond to Millie in Lesson 2, then turn a pollutant into a message in Lesson 5. Everett et al. (2009) argue that knowledge alone rarely changes behaviour and that the arts build the emotional connection that does, while Ojala (2012) found that constructive hope predicts engagement. No lesson shows injured animals, every lesson ends with a next step, and the feelings checks in Lessons 2 and 6 help me notice anxious students (Shepardson & Hirsch, 2019).

Curriculum and Challenges

The sequence joins HASS (AC9HS5K04, S01 to S06), Visual Arts (AC9AVA6E01 to P01) and all four Sustainability concepts; Victorian schools would map these to the equivalent Victorian Curriculum 2.0 descriptions (VCAA, n.d.). Challenges remain. Time: an excursion and making take longer than a textbook unit. Equity: the lunchbox audit could make families feel judged, so I frame plastic as a system problem shared by companies, governments and communities. Assessment: a craft artwork can reward neatness over thinking, so the rubric weights the process journal, artist statement and action proposal equally. Even so, students gain a genuine question, a real artefact, a real place and a real action.

Close-up of a coral reef sculpture woven from ghost net and rope in white, turquoise, orange and yellow.

A school of green ceramic fish mounted on thin sticks above pieces of driftwood.

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Assignment 2 · Reference List

References

All sources cited in the Assignment 2 resource package, in APA 7th style.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.-a). Humanities and social sciences: Year 5 (Version 9.0). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.-b). The Arts: Visual Arts, Years 5 and 6 (Version 9.0). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.-c). Understand this cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability (Version 9.0). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/curriculum-information/understand-this-cross-curriculum-priority/sustainability

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.-d). Understand this cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures (Version 9.0). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/curriculum-information/understand-this-cross-curriculum-priority/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-histories-and-cultures

Australian National Maritime Museum. (n.d.-a). Ghost nets: Message of sustainability. https://www.sea.museum/first-nations/ghost-nets-message-of-sustainability

Australian National Maritime Museum. (n.d.-b). Millie [Sculpture by R. Oui-Pitt, Erub Arts; object 00055244]. https://collections.sea.museum/objects/202998/millie

CSIRO. (2014, September 15). Plastic on the coasts is ours [Media release]. https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/news/2014/september/plastic-on-the-coasts-is-ours

Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. (2021). National plastics plan 2021. Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/plastics-and-packaging/national-plastics-plan

Department of Education and Training. (2017). High impact teaching strategies: Excellence in teaching and learning. State of Victoria.

Dinham, J. (2019). Delivering authentic arts education (4th ed.). Cengage.

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Everett, L. M., Noone, G., Brooks, M., & Littledyke, R. (2009). Education for sustainability in primary creative arts education. In M. Littledyke, N. Taylor, & C. Eames (Eds.), Education for sustainability in the primary curriculum: A guide for teachers (pp. 180–206). Palgrave Macmillan.

Gibbons, P. (2015). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom (2nd ed.). Heinemann.

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Henderson, D. J., & Tudball, E. J. (2016). Democratic and participatory citizenship: Youth action for sustainability in Australia. Asian Education and Development Studies, 5(2), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEDS-09-2015-0051

Jenkins, K. (2015). How to teach education for sustainability: Integrating theory and practice. In N. Taylor, F. Quinn, & C. Eames (Eds.), Educating for sustainability in primary schools: Teaching for the future (pp. 33–43). Sense Publishers.

Judson, G. (2020). A walking curriculum. Education Canada, 60(2), 8–9.

Murdoch, K. (2015). The power of inquiry. Seastar Education.

Ojala, M. (2012). Hope and climate change: The importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people. Environmental Education Research, 18(5), 625–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2011.637157

Paris, S. G. (Ed.). (2002). Perspectives on object-centered learning in museums. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Parks Australia. (2021, May 3). Ghost nets initiative launch. https://parksaustralia.gov.au/news/ghost-nets-initiative-launch

Preston, L. (2015). The place of place-based education in the Australian primary geography curriculum. Geographical Education, 28, 41–49.

Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible: How to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. Jossey-Bass.

Shepardson, D. P., & Hirsch, A. S. (2019). Teaching climate change: What educators should know and can do. American Educator, 43(4), 18–23.

Sinclair, C., Jeanneret, N., & O'Toole, J. (2017). Support and partnerships for the teacher. In C. Sinclair, N. Jeanneret, J. O'Toole, & M. A. Hunter (Eds.), Education in the arts (3rd ed., pp. 225–237). Oxford University Press.

Taylor, N., Quinn, F., & Eames, C. (2015). Why do we need to teach education for sustainability at the primary level? In N. Taylor, F. Quinn, & C. Eames (Eds.), Educating for sustainability in primary schools: Teaching for the future (pp. 1–11). Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-046-8_1

United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (n.d.). Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0. https://f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au/

Wooltorton, S., Collard, L., Horwitz, P., Poelina, A., & Palmer, D. (2020). Sharing a place-based Indigenous methodology and learnings. Environmental Education Research, 26(7), 917–934. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1773407

Yunkaporta, T. (2009). Aboriginal pedagogies at the cultural interface [Doctoral dissertation, James Cook University]. ResearchOnline@JCU. https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/10974/

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