Sustainable Futures:
Addressing sustainability at
the ASMS.
Andrew Stone and Terry O’Reilly
The ASMS
• A public school that caters for years 10 – 12.
• Purpose designed open learning
environment
• 360 students and 35 teaching staff.
Platforms of Innovation at the ASMS
LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
PROFESSIONAL
LEARNING
INNOVATION IN
TEACHING
AND
LEARNING
STUDENT
LEARNING
LEARNING
PROGRAMS
Why interdisciplinary curriculum?
• Real world problems do not
come in disciplinary shaped
boxes. (OECD, PISA).
– Climate Change,
– Water security,
• New sciences of
neuroscience,
nanotechnology cross
‘traditional’ disciplines.
Interdisciplinary Curriculum
• “Rigorous disciplinary understanding requires
that students come to view the disciplines as
the knowledge and thinking tools that our
societies construct and revise to make sense of
the world, explain phenomena, solve problems,
create products and ask novel questions in
informed ways.”
(Boix-Mansilla and Jackson,2011)
ASMS Central Studies Sequence
SEMESTER 1
SEMESTER 3
REASONING AND RELATIONSHIPS
ORDER AND CHAOS
THE BODY IN QUESTION
VARIETY OF LIFE
A TECHNOLOGICAL WORLD
TOWARDS NANOTECHNOLOGY
SEMESTER 2
SEMESTER 4
REASONING AND RELATIONSHIPS
ORDER AND CHAOS
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
BIOTECHNOLOGY
SUSTAINABLE FUTURES
EARTH & COSMOS
SPECIAL INQUIRY PROJECT
SPECIAL INQUIRY PROJECT
AC Cross-curriculum priorities
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
histories and cultures
• Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
• Sustainability
Sustainability OI
AC General Capabilities
SF Wordle
Essential Questions
• How are Earth systems interdependent and
interrelated?
• How do human actions impact on global
systems?
• How can we achieve a sustainable future?
• How are scientific questions investigated?
• How have human induced changes
challenged sustainability?
The Ethnosphere
The Ethnosphere
• "This century will not be remembered for its
wars or for its technological innovations. It’s
going to be remembered as the era in which
we stood by and either actively endorsed or
passively accepted the massive destruction
of cultural diversity on the planet.“
Wade Davis
The Ethnosphere
The Ethnosphere
“All cultures are always changing. They are always
dancing with new ideas and possibilities. We
must stress the problem is not change. Nor is the
problem technology per se. The Iroquois warriors
did not stop being Iroquois when they gave up
the bow and arrow for the rifle, anymore than the
American farmer stopped being an American
when he gave up the horse and buggy for the
automobile. It is neither change nor technology
that threatens the integrity of the ethnosphere, it
is power of cultural domination.”
Wade Davis
Evidence of Learning
•
•
•
•
•
•
Titration of Brukunga Water sample
Sustainable Home Design
Water Issues Community Forum
Sustainability design Investigation
The Oral Tradition
Earth Summit
Sustainability OI
Sustainable Home Design
• Sustainability
OI 3-9
The oral tradition
Gary Larson
The Far Side
Earth Summit
• Sustainability
Organising
Ideas 4-8
AC General Capabilities
Biosphere
Poetry and
picture
books
Earth
Summit
How can we
achieve a
sustainable
future?
Hydrosphere
Immersion
The oral
tradition
Year 10 Australian Curriculum
Maths
English
Science
History
Geography
Unit 1/2 Australian Curriculum
Maths
English
Chemistry
Earth
and Env
Science
Biology
Geography
Address:
Australian Science & Mathematics School
Flinders University
Sturt Road, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042
Telephone: +61 8 8201 5686
Facsimile: +61 8 8201 5685
Email: info@asms.sa.edu.au
South Australian Department
for Education and Child Development
T/A South Australian Government Schools
CRICOS provider number 00018A