Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability

In The Arts, the Sustainability priority provides students with engaging and thought-provoking contexts in which to explore the nature of art making and responding. It enables the exploration of the role of The Arts in maintaining and transforming cultural practices, social systems and the relationships of people to their environment. Through making and responding in The Arts, students consider issues of sustainability in relation to resource use and traditions in each of The Arts disciplines. The Arts provides opportunities for students to express and develop world views, and to appreciate the need for collaboration within and between communities to implement more sustainable patterns of living. In this learning area, students use the exploratory and creative platform of The Arts to advocate effective action for sustainability.

In English, students develop the skills necessary to investigate, analyse and communicate ideas and information related to sustainability, and to advocate, generate and evaluate actions for sustainable futures. The content in the language, literature and literacy strands is key to developing and sharing knowledge about social, economic and ecological systems and world views that promote social justice. In this learning area, students may interrogate a range of texts to shape their decision-making in relation to sustainability. They develop the understanding and skills necessary to act responsibly and create texts that inform and persuade others to take action for sustainable futures.

In Health and Physical Education, students explore how people connect and interact with natural, managed and built environments, and with people in different social groups within their social networks and wider communities. They consider how these connections and interactions within systems play an important role in promoting, supporting and sustaining the wellbeing of individuals, the community and the environment as a whole, now and into the future. Students develop their world view by exploring concepts of diversity, social justice and consumerism as these relate to the promotion and maintenance of health and wellbeing. Through movement experiences, students are provided with opportunities to develop a connection in and with environments and to gain an appreciation of the interdependence of the health of people and that of environments.

In Humanities, the Sustainability priority supports students to respond to the challenges of sustainability requiring an understanding of the key historical, geographical, political, economic and societal factors involved, and how these different factors interrelate. The learning area provides content that supports the development of students’ world views, particularly in relation to judgements about past social and economic systems, and access to and use of Earth’s resources. It gives students opportunities to integrate their study of biophysical processes with investigations of the attitudinal, demographic, social, economic and political influences on human use and management of the environment. The curriculum prepares students to be informed consumers, to act in enterprising and innovative ways and to perceive business opportunities in changing local, regional and global economic environments. Students explore contemporary issues of sustainability and develop action plans and possible solutions to local, national and global issues which have social, economic and environmental perspectives.

In Languages, the Sustainability priority contributes to students’ capabilities to investigate, analyse and communicate concepts and understandings related to sustainability in broad contexts, and to advocate, generate and evaluate actions for sustainable futures. Within each language, students engage with a range of texts focused on concepts related to sustainability. In this way, students develop knowledge and understanding about sustainability within particular cultural contexts. This is crucial in the context of national and international concerns about, for example, climate change, food shortages and alternative ways of caring for land and agriculture. Through developing a capability to interact with others, negotiating meaning and mutual understanding respectfully and reflecting on communication, students learn to live and work in ways that are productive and sustainable.

In Mathematics, students develop the skills for the exploration of sustainability issues and their solutions. Students apply spatial reasoning, measurement, estimation, calculation and comparison to gauge local ecosystem health and can cost proposed actions for sustainability. Mathematical understandings and skills are necessary to measure, monitor and quantify change in social, economic and ecological systems over time and statistical analysis enables the prediction of probable futures based on findings and helps inform decision-making and actions that will lead to preferred futures.

In Science, the Sustainability priority provides students with the contexts for investigating and understanding chemical, biological, physical and Earth and space systems. Students explore a wide range of systems that operate at different time and spatial scales. By investigating the relationships between systems and system components and how systems respond to change, students develop an appreciation for the interconnectedness of Earth’s biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. Relationships including cycles and cause and effect are explored, and students develop observation and analysis skills to examine these relationships in the world around them. In this learning area, students appreciate that science provides the basis for decision-making in many areas of society and that these decisions can impact on the Earth system. They understand the importance of using science to predict possible effects of human and other activity and to develop management plans or alternative technologies that minimise these effects.

In Technologies, the Sustainability priority enables students consideration of preferred futures. When students identify and critique a problem, need or opportunity; generate ideas and concepts; and create solutions, they give prime consideration to sustainability by anticipating and balancing economic, environmental and social impacts. The curriculum focuses on the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to design for effective sustainability action taking into account issues such as resource depletion and climate change. Technologies give students opportunities to explore their own and competing viewpoints, values and interests. Understanding systems enables students to work with complexity, uncertainty and risk; make connections between disparate ideas and concepts; self-critique; and propose creative solutions that enhance sustainability. Students reflect on past and current practices, and assess new and emerging technologies from a sustainability perspective.

Design and Technologies

Identify how people create familiar designed solutions and consider sustainability to meet personal and local community needs (VCDSTS013)

Explore needs or opportunities for designing, and the technologies needed to realise designed solutions (VCDSCD018)

Geography

Weather and seasons and the ways in which different cultural groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, describe them (VCGGK067)

Health and Physical Education

Explore actions that help make the classroom a healthy, safe and active place (VCHPEP078)

Identify and explore natural and built environments in the local community where physical activity can take place (VCHPEP079)

Participate in play that promotes engagement with outdoor settings including aquatic and the natural environment (VCHPEP063)

History

The history of a significant person, building, site or part of the natural environment in the local community and what it reveals about the past (VCHHK063)

Differences and similarities between students' daily lives and perspectives of life during their parents’ and grandparents’ childhoods, including family traditions, leisure time and communications (VCHHK061)

Science

Earth’s resources are used in a variety of ways (VCSSU047)

Observable changes occur in the sky and landscape; daily and seasonal changes affect everyday life (VCSSU046)

Living things have a variety of external features and live in different places where their basic needs, including food, water and shelter, are met (VCSSU042)

Civics and Citizenship

Examine the influence of a range of media, including social media, in shaping identities and attitudes to diversity and how ideas about Australian identity may be influenced by global events (VCCCC038)

Analyse contemporary examples and issues relating to Australian democracy and global connections, including key aspects of citizenship in a pluralist society (VCCCC035)

Discuss how and why groups, including religious groups, participate in civic life (VCCCC037)

Design and Technologies

Critically analyse factors, including social, ethical and sustainability considerations, that impact on designed solutions for global preferred futures and the complex design and production processes involved (VCDSTS054)

Explain how designed solutions evolve with consideration of preferred futures and the impact of emerging technologies on design decisions (VCDSTS055)

Investigate and make judgements on the ethical and sustainable production and marketing of food and fibre (VCDSTC057)

Critique needs or opportunities to develop design briefs and investigate and select an increasingly sophisticated range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment to develop design ideas (VCDSCD060)

Develop project plans to plan and manage projects individually and collaboratively taking into consideration time, cost, risk and production processes (VCDSCD064)

Evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions against comprehensive criteria for success recognising the need for sustainability (VCDSCD063)

Work flexibly to safely test, select, justify and use appropriate technologies and processes to make designed solutions (VCDSCD062)

Digital Technologies

Evaluate critically how well student-developed solutions and existing information systems and policies take account of future risks and sustainability and provide opportunities for innovation (VCDTCD054)

Economics and Business

Explore the nature of innovation and discuss how businesses seek to create and maintain a competitive advantage in the market, including the global market (VCEBB024)

Research the way the work environment is changing in contemporary Australia and analyse the implications for current and future work (VCEBW025)

Identify and explain the indicators of economic performance and examine how Australia’s economy is performing (VCEBR021)

Ethical Capability

Explore a range of ethical problems and examine the extent to which different positions are related to commonly held ethical concepts and principles, considering the influence of cultural norms, religion, world views and philosophical thought (VCECU020)

Distinguish between the ethical and non-ethical dimensions of complex issues, including the distinction between ethical and legal issues (VCECU021)

Discuss issues raised by thinking about consequences and duties, in approaches to decision-making and action, and arguments for and against these approaches (VCECD022)

Geography

Land and resource management strategies used by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples to achieve food security over time (VCGGK137)

Human alteration of biomes to produce food, industrial materials and fibres and the environmental effects of these alterations (VCGGK136)

Causes and consequences of an environmental change, comparing examples from Australia and at least one other country (VCGGK147)

The interconnection between food production and land and water degradation; shortage of fresh water; competing land uses; and climate change, for Australia and other areas of the world (VCGGK135)

Challenges in feeding the current and projected populations of Australia and the world, and responses to these challenges (VCGGK138)

Environmental worldviews of people and their implications for environmental management (VCGGK146)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ approaches to custodial responsibility and environmental management in different regions of Australia (VCGGK148)

Application of environmental economic and social criteria in evaluating management responses to an environmental change, and the predicted outcomes and further consequences of management responses on the environment and places, comparing examples from Australia and at least one other country (VCGGK149)

Effects of people’s travel, recreational, cultural or leisure choices on places and the implications for the future of these places (VCGGK143)

Role of initiatives by international and national government and non-government organisations to improve human wellbeing in Australia and other countries (VCGGK154)

Health and Physcial Education

Plan, implement and critique strategies to enhance the health, safety and wellbeing of their communities (VCHPEP149)

Plan and evaluate new and creative interventions that promote their own and others’ connection to community and natural and built environments (VCHPEP150)

History

Analyse and evaluate the broad patterns of change over the period 1750–present (VCHHC122)

Changing social, cultural, historical, economic, environmental, political and technological conditions on a major global influence in Australia (VCHHK159)

Analyse the long term causes, short term triggers and the intended and unintended effects of significant events and developments (VCHHC127)

Science

Global systems, including the carbon cycle, rely on interactions involving the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere (VCSSU128)

Ecosystems consist of communities of interdependent organisms and abiotic components of the environment; matter and energy flow through these systems (VCSSU121)

The values and needs of contemporary society can influence the focus of scientific research (VCSSU116)

Advances in scientific understanding often rely on developments in technology and technological advances are often linked to scientific discoveries (VCSSU115)