One of the most powerful activities you can do with students or teachers is a simple visual sustainability assessment of a school. This is a lot more fun than it sounds!

Here’s an example of Investigating Energy:
1. Download the worksheet and print out a few copies (or play with them on iPads/tablets)
2. Give each team a copy
3. Give teams a time limit of when they need to be back at ‘base’
4. Suggest a role for each team member eg. time keeper, scribe, spotters, photographers
5. Ask them to tick off what they see. They can write as many comments as they’d like and there’s room down the bottom for other ideas.
6. When they return ask them to identify the things that are working well and the things that need ‘extra love’.

What we find this simple activity is powerful because people often:
> Enjoying walking around a school rather than being trapped in a workshop/classroom
> Start noticing things they didn’t notice before
> Start talking about energy and other sustainability issues
> Start to take ownership over what they see, rather than being told what is there

This is also fantastic basis for a school celebration or an action plan!

You can get a whole ‘Sustainability Snapshot’ of a school by visiting our Key Documents page for ResourceSmart Schools – http://dev.sustainability.ceres.org.au/program/rsav/key-documents/
(see Number 2 – School Snapshot).
CERES Education provides lots of free resources via the Sustainability Hub because we are dedicated to supporting Education for Sustainability globally.