MARLBOROUGH GIRLS’ COLLEGE
SUSTAINABILITY 301
INTERNAL ASSESSMENT FOR Education for Sustainability 3.1
Achievement Standard: 90828 Version 1
Evaluate a planned personal action that contributes toward a sustainable future
Credits: 6
Towards a Sustainable School
Student Instruction Sheet
On completion of this assessment you will be able to show that you can:
 plan a personal action that will contribute towards a sustainable future
 implement the plan of action
 evaluate the planned personal action that contributes to a sustainable future.
What is a sustainable school?
A sustainable school cares about the energy and water
it consumes, the waste it produces, the food it serves,
the traffic it attracts, and the difficulties faced by people
living in its community and in other parts of the world.
A sustainable school helps learners care about
themselves, each other and the environment.
A sustainable school takes an integrated approach to
its improvement. It explores sustainable
development through its learning (curriculum); in its
values and ways of working(campus); and in its
engagement of local people and partners (community).
A sustainable school strives for sustainability in a number of areas:
food and drink; energy and water; travel and traffic; purchasing and waste; buildings and grounds;
inclusion and participation; local well-being; and the global dimension.
From http://www.globalfootprints.org
INSTRUCTIONS
Conditions:
 You may work in small groups for the planning and implementation of the action, but the
evaluation is completed as individuals and presented as a written report.
 In order to ensure authenticity of student work, each of you must keep a reflective log or
learning journal. These will contain evidence of the processes involved whilst planning and
taking action.
 Where you plan and carry out the action in groups, you must still submit individual and
original evidence in your learning journal.
 The assessment is with supervision, and this will be achieved by milestone reports. You
need to take heed of the milestone dates so that you can discuss each different stage with
your teacher
 You are required to keep a learning journal from the very first day, to record the
development and implementation of your action plan.

Your journal may be in the form of a wiki, blog, notebook, or electronic records such as
Google Docs but your teacher must be able to access any electronic form of learning
journal.
TIME: You will be allocated in-class time for this assessment, but you will be expected to complete
some of it during homework time and in the holidays.
DUE: Friday 30th August 2013
Late submissions will not be accepted without the permission of the school’s Assessment
Co-ordinator.
You will be assessed on how well you:
 formulate a logical and detailed plan of action to address an identified sustainable issue, based
on evidence
 implement your plan and record modifications as required
 critically evaluate your action plan and justify the action taken in relation to a sustainable
future.
START
RECORDING IN
Task 1: CHOOSING AND DEFINING A SCHOOL SUSTAINABILITY
YOUR LEARNING
ISSUE
a) Use observation, and research to identify a school sustainability
JOURNAL NOW
issue that interests you, and allows you to create a vision for the
school in relation to this issue.
b) Explain how your defined issue is linked to a sustainable future. Link it to the elements of
sustainability – environmental, social and economic.
c) Establish your vision and discuss how the vision might be achieved by identifying
alternative courses of action.
d) Explore the alternative courses of action. Look at what
others have done and research your options. Choose
AN ACTION MIGHT BE ABOUT
one action and justify your choice.
CHANGE OR CREATION.
e) Describe how your action will contribute towards a
sustainable future.
f) Create criteria that will evaluate the effectiveness of your action.
Ideas
 Is canteen food healthy? Produced sustainably? (think palm oil maybe?)
 How well does MGC reduce, reuse recycle – paper, compost, plastic, cardboard, glass etc
 How many skips of rubbish does MGC fill in a week?
 How does MGC rate for biodiversity?
 Is the school heated sustainably?
 How sustainably are the ways our students travel to school?
 Is MGC using energy efficiently? Could we improve?
 How is student awareness of sustainability issues eg Climate Change – how does it rate?
If you think of one that is not listed check with your teacher first to get the okay!
MILESTONE ONE - LOG BOOK Week 10 Term Two
 Issue identified.
 Vision established.
 Action chosen.
OVER THE HOLIDAYS, YOU WILL WORK INDIVIDUALLY ON AREAS OF THE ASSESSMENT
THAT YOU NEED TO DO ALONE. IDEAS WILL BE PROVIDED. YOU MAY ALSO CHOOSE
TO WORK ON THE PLAN WITH YOUR ACTION GROUP.
Task 2: TAKING ACTION FOR SUSTAINABILITY
1. PLAN.
Use a sustainability planner to prepare a detailed plan that will allow you to carry out
your chosen action. .
a) Based on your research and any other information gained so far, use an action planner to
write a comprehensive action plan. This should include a series of steps to achieve your
action within a suitable time frame. At this stage, you should also consider how you are
going to evaluate your plan. How will you know if it has been successful or not?
b) Identify the skills in your group and decide who is going to carry out which actions.
c) Identify any resources you will need – people or things.
d) Decide on even distribution of tasks.
e) Relate the action to your overall purpose (how will it help you to achieve your vision)
MILESTONE TWO - LOG BOOK, END OF WEEK TWO TERM THREE. YOUR ACTION PLAN.
2. IMPLEMENT.
Carry out your plan.
 Keep a record of the date and the activities that you were involved in – this is to be written
up in the learning journal or log and can be supplemented by photos, newspaper articles,
video clips, interviews etc that illustrate your action(s).
 Record any barriers that you faced.
 Record any modifications to your action plan with the reasons why changes were made.
 Collect whatever information that you will need to allow you to evaluate the plan of action.
This evidence might be a questionnaire, a video interview.
Remember to keep recording everything in your learning journal – enter your reflections daily.
Questions you may ask yourself are: ‘What did I do this week? How did I feel about my progress?
(personal reflection is important) What have I learned? What people did I meet with? What do I
plan to do next?
LAST CHECK BEFORE
MILESTONE 3 WEEK 4 TERM THREE
EVALUATION. ALL LEARNING
JOURNALS MUST BE HANDED
Task 3: EVALUATION.
IN BY FRIDAY AUGUST 23RD
This evaluation is in three parts.
Identify and discuss the strengths, weaknesses, of your action planning process. Document any
modifications to the plan and the reasons why they were made. Explain why some procedures
didn’t go as well as planned if appropriate, and what you could have done to improve on this.
a) Critically evaluate and justify the effectiveness of the action taken for a sustainable future.
Apply aspects of sustainability using the criteria you developed in Task 1 to make a
judgment. Include any evidence or feedback to back up your statements. Include
recommendations for possible future actions for a sustainable future.
b) Describe your personal response to the action or initiative in terms of aspects of
sustainability. Discuss whether it has changed your understanding, attitudes or behaviour in
relation to this issue.
c) Communicate relevant information about the plan, action taken and evaluation in a written
report.
Support your report with evidence which could be in the form of a blog, wiki, video documentary
graphs, statistics, timelines, diaries; annotated diagrams artifacts, maps, visuals, radio excerpts,
photos, newspaper articles, video clips, music etc.
You will complete the evaluation in 2 hours during Prelim Exam Week (week 5 Term Three)
and 2 hours in Week 6 Term Three.
Checklist
Your report should include:
 Action chosen and the reason relating to a sustainable future.
 Comprehensive and informed plan with evidence of implementation of action.
 Critical evaluation and justification of how the plan and the action will support a more
sustainable future.
 Personal reflection on your attitudes, values and behaviours in response to implementing
this action.
Make sure you include all the aspects of the assessment that could count towards Excellence in
your written report.
HAND IN YOUR LEARNING JOURNAL AS WELL – THIS IS KEY EVIDENCE OF YOUR
LEARNING JOURNEY.