Cross Curriculum Priority of Sustainability

Sustainability addresses the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life, and the Australian

curriculum places emphasis on Sustainability as a learning priority. The design brief I have

created explores the cross curriculum priority of sustainability through the use of natural

materials found in natural environments, and explores how these materials can be used for a

specific purpose, which incorporates design and technologies. The design brief is called

‘Survival in Bushland’ and challenges students to design, test and create a device that can

collect and transport water from one place to another with minimum spillage. Through the

sequence of lessons involved in the design brief, the cross curriculum priority of ‘Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Island histories and cultures’ is a main focus, particularly for lesson four, in

combination with sustainability. Aboriginal people’s cultural practices, both past and present,

are based on the principles of sustainability. In the featured lesson plan the main learning

objective is the ability to identify more than one way Aboriginal people collected water in the

past, also providing an explanation of why water is not just a resource but also a part of

Aboriginal culture too. This links in closely with two cross curriculum priorities. Overall, the

design brief links with the sustainability priority which is future-oriented, focusing on

protecting environments and creating a more ecologically and socially just world through

informed action, which is achieved in this lesson plan through reflecting on how this was

once a way of living in the past. This design brief and lesson plan also link to the UN goal 6

‘clean water and sanitation’ which aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of

water and sanitation for all- linking directly to one of the sequential lessons where students

explore natural water filtration tools.