Have learners think about how they can have Marty check more than one item with just one green card: the initial video shows Marty moving to the side of an item that does not allow recycling and then sidesteps to an item that can be recycled, with the dance celebration.

Have the recycling icons to hand for all learners that need them. 

Draw partiular attention to the arrows on the colour cards so that learners can see the way Marty should move depending on the direction Marty is facing: Marty should stand as though facing a mirror of the character on the colour card.

Reinforce the forward, backward, left and right vocabulary.

Teacher Guide

Presentation for Marty Learns About Recycling

Story text

Images of recyclable items

Recycling images

I can tell Marty when to move and when to stop

This lesson is used to have learners investigate whether a product can be recycled. Learners will compare the pictures on the products to pictures in the presentation. Learners will decide how Marty should react when the product is / is not recyclable. 

Marty will make use of the colour cards and colour sensors in order to command him to move.

Share the objectives and success criteria with learners, from the start of the presentation. 

Have a collection of items that are ready for the bin or ready to be recycled, they should be clean but still have their labels; alternatively, there is a series of images in the presentation that could be shown. There is no need to use both so feel free to delete the slides if you choose to bring a physical resource. 

Ask learners if they have ever heard the word recycle before, display the word with the arrow triangle symbol from the presentation.

If learners recycle at home, or already help with recycling at school, ask them to say some things that can be recycled from the objects that were shown in the presentation or are displayed at the front of the room. Along with items like paper, plastic and metal, learners may say food can be recycled. Ask them, 

does the food goes in the same box as the other items that can be recycled

food recycling is a little bit different than some of the other recycling that we have, but it is a kind of recycling

food that is being recycled can get a bit smelly which is why we don't have it here; also, the flies love food like that so we keep the food outside that is being 'recycled'.

Read the story text from the presentation, which guides Marty through the town where he was created. He will pass by a number of situations where waste is not expertly handled. Take time after reading the text for each slide to have learners think about what is going on and have them offer any potential support for Marty, in the situations. Many of the slides will offer potential questions to ask and possible answers the learners may give.

Learners will need to be confident about the recycle symbol. It needs to be displayed throughout the lesson and possibly available where learners are sitting. 

These symbols indicate a product is recyclable.

These symbols are more specific about what can be recycled.

These symbols do not mean the product is recyclable, this only informs what the product contains.

This symbol means the product is for the regular bin.

Only the first two recycling and the last icons appear in the presentation and on any of the images in the compressed file. These are the most important icons that address the objective. 

This video clip shows a line of items with a person checking for the symbol on the back. The icon is presented alongside what is filmed from the packaging. At the start of each item, a question is shown on the screen - Can I recycle it - followed by a zoom in and display of the symbol. The answers is given as 'Yes!!' or 'No!!' so feel free to pause and ask for learner inupt before that appears.

This next clip shows Marty walking up to and reacting to several items: Marty stops and dances when the items are recyclable. If the item is not recyclable, Marty either backs away or moves to the left or right. The colour cards were used throughout the video clip to command Marty's movements. The green card is used for Marty walking forward and the red, blue, purple and yellow cards are used to command Marty to act when he reaches an item. Learners are not shown where to place the cards, they are only 

Learners need to take the cleaned materials or the printed images and investigate whether they are recyclable or not. Each of the images either feature the recycling symbol or the person with the waste bin. If you are bringing your own resources, be sure to have no ambiguous products that have what looks like a recycling symbol but is really clarifying what the product is made of. If you are using the printouts, it may help to watch the video that identifies the symbols, again.

Once learners have investigated the materials, have them line them up and place the appropriate colour card in front of each item. Learners need to decide what Marty will do when in front of each item. The video shows Marty always stopping and dancing when the item is recyclable and either walking back or walking to the sidewhen the item is not recyclable. 

For learners who are waiting to use the colour cards with Marty, or who have completed the task, have them create a poster with the recycle icon to be used on containers in the school to remind adults and children which bins are for recycling. You will need to decide on the criteria for success for this task. 

Celebrate the creative work that was accomplished: "You helped Marty to move and had him react to different things! (for those who complete the alternate idea) You also made a wonderful recycling poster for the school!"

Remind learners of the goals for the lesson, "Make Marty move and stop and say if something can be recycled."

Ask learners if they think they did well with the lesson using a familiar formative assessment strategy: thumbs up for good, thumbs to the side for OK, thumbs down for not so good; a green, yellow or red card, indicating their thoughts; a one to one chat about the learning; whole class feedback using a PMI (plus, minus, interesting) approach; or some other strategy with which the learners are familiar. One strategy document is included in the resources.

Read the closing part of the text to tie into the next lesson (from the Story Part 1 text).

Carry out any end of lesson routines. Collect the paper Martys for later use, making sure their names are on each. Personalising the Martys with colour is also a possibility.

collection of cleaned dry litter and recyclable items (or use the images in the resource section)

Formative Assessment

Help to Show Marty What we can Recycle

Curriculum for Excellence - Technologies: Craft, Design, Engineering and Graphics

Curriculum for Excellence - Technologies: Computing Science

National Curriculum - Computing, Design and Technology: Design and Technology

Curriculum for Excellence - Health and Wellbeing: Relationships

Curriculum for Excellence - Technologies: Technological Developments in Society and Business

CSTA Education Standards

Curriculum for Excellence - Technologies: Digital Literacy

Curriculum for Excellence - Numeracy: Information Handling

Australian Curriculum – Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Design & Technologies

Curriculum for Excellence - Literacy & English: Listening and Talking

Curriculum for Excellence - Health and Wellbeing: Physical Activity and Sport

Curriculum for Excellence - Health and Wellbeing: Mental, Emotional, Social and Physical Wellbeing

Curriculum for Excellence - Numeracy: Number, Money and Measure

Curriculum for Excellence - Health and Wellbeing: Planning for Choices and Changes

Australian Curriculum – Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Digital Technologies

National Curriculum - Computing, Design and Technology: Computing

Curriculum for Excellence - Literacy & English: Reading

Curriculum for Excellence - Literacy & English: Writing

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

Sustainability and the Environment - Marty Learns About Recycling

Challenge learners to create code that has Marty react to all of the different recyclable materials and make the reaction to items of the same type the same. 

Support learners with estimating distances: 

use tape to mark each estimate, with a number recorded on it, to support the next estimate 

question learners about if the next estimate needs to be more or less than the last one and then extend to, 'about how much' more or less

Presentation for Marty Disovers More About Recycling

This lesson is used to have learners investigate which 'type' of recyclable an item is. 

Learners will organize objects for recycling into a variety of different categories: glass, plastic, paper, metal or non-recyclable. 

Then learners will estimate movements for Marty and code a reaction for one, or more, of the recyclable types.

Share with learners the objectives and success criteria from the presentation.

Start by playing a game that involves sorting general classroom objects into categories, described or created by the learners: a variety of tools used for work like a ruler, scissors, crayons, pencils, etc; various items for an art lesson like a paint brush, water cup, clothing bib, paints, etc; a range of books like comic, magazine, fiction, class reader, non-fiction, dictionary, etc; coloured paper; construction toy pieces; etc.

Learners will, in their groups, organize the items they have into categories but they have to understand the categories they create and describe why one item belongs in a certain category.

Read the story that is in the presentation, with the images to support it. Following this, have learners complete the work page that asks them to put the describing words, or adjectives, with each item on the table; let learners know that it is possible to use an adjective more than once. You will notice that there is no row for non-recyclable items, feel free to ask learners why that row might not be there. The thinking was that all the adjectives could potentially be used to describe something that is not recyclable. 

This is where learners need to sort the recyclable materials needed for this lesson. Once this is complete, line up the items against a wall, like the image below, mixing up the items so they are arranged in random order. If items were not gathered, images of recyclable items are a good substitute.

If you feel it would support, show learners the video below that shows items being organized into different categories, for recycling. It isn't necessary with the discussion during the presentation but could be a good support for some. Click on the 'Watch on YouTube' button at the bottom left of the video window to see it there.  

Continue the presentation to see Marty inspecting several recyclable objects (the code is detailed in the teacher guide) and then share the starting code and video (on separate slides) for Marty to walk, and react, to one recyclable item (below). Learners will then engage with their groups to plan a sequence to get their Marty to walk, and react, to the recyclable item type that their group chose; so, stop the presentation after the second video of Marty reacting to the recycling. There are opportunities for learners to plan in their workbooks.

There will be plenty of time for trial and error at this point in the lesson: learners will need to do a lot of estimating and checking their work when it comes to having Marty accurately reach the first item and respond appropriately; learners will then need to estimate how many sidesteps it will take to reach the next item their group chose; this may need to be repeated with additional estimates. Feel free to share that the video in the presentation was not completed on the first estimate.

Strongly encourage that learners record their estimates on their planning page rather than just writing down the final attempt that was correct: it is worthwhile letting them see how they can quickly become more accurate with each estimate.

Celebrate the creative work that was accomplished: "You managed to get Marty to react to your group's recycling item. Fantastic work!"

Remind learners of the goals for the lesson, "Estimate distances with Marty; sort objects into different groups."

Ask learners if they think they did well with the lesson using a familiar formative assessment strategy: thumbs up for good, thumbs to the side for OK, thumbs down for not so good; a green, yellow or red card, indicating their thoughts; a one to one chat about the learning; whole class feedback using a PMI (plus, minus, interesting) approach; or some other strategy with which the learners are familiar. Ask them if there were any challenges they overcame or if there were any bugs they could not fix. Take time to discuss these

Read the closing part of the text to wrap up Marty's episode.

Carry out any end of lesson routines, and log off the devices.

A range of clean recyclable materials or photos of recyclable materials

Workbook for Marty Disovers More About Recycling

Help Marty see if we can organise the recycling

TEKS - Elementary Technology Applications: Kindergarten to Grade 2

Australian Curriculum - Mathematics: Number and Algebra - Number and place value

Australian Curriculum - Mathematics: Measurement and Geometry – Geometric reasoning

Next Generation Science Standards - Earth and Space Sciences:

National Curriculum - Science KS2: Physics – Light

Curriculum for Excellence - Science: Planet Earth 

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS2: Number - fractions

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS2: Geometry – properties of shapes

Curriculum for Excellence - Science: Materials

Common Core - Mathematics:

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS1: Number - addition and subtraction

National Curriculum - Science KS4: Chemistry – Earth and atmospheric science

Curriculum for Excellence - Science: Forces, electricity and waves

Australian Curriculum - Science: Science as a Human Endeavour

TEKS - Elementary Science: Knowledge and Skills

Curriculum for Excellence - Numeracy: Shape, Position and Movement

Australian Curriculum - Mathematics: Number and Algebra - Fractions and decimals

National Curriculum - Science KS3: Physics – Motion and Forces

Next Generation Science Standards - Science and Engineering Practices:

Australian Curriculum - Science: Science Understanding - Physical Sciences

Next Generation Science Standards - Physical Sciences:

TEKS - Elementary Math: Knowledge and Skills

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS1: Number - number and place value

Sustainability and the Environment - Marty Sorts the Recycling

Challenge learners to expand on the one journey, how far would they travel over a schools year?

Challenge learners to think about time on their journeys: Marty took five steps on the map, how long was that? 

Five steps were 12.5 cm, which is equivalent to 250m. 

How long would it take to complete this journey with the real-world measurement?

Support learners with lining up the ruler at the starting point and accurately reading the values.

The map used in the lesson had accessible measurements: half or whole centimetres only. Prepare maps with this in mind or encourage estimation to whole or half cm measurements.

Presentation for Marty Learns About Transport

Presentation for Marty Learns about Transport

Map file (svg format)

Map file (png format)

Infographics for emission content

Infographic for comparison to car emissions

I can estimate how far away something is using a scale map

I can describe the difference in emissions for different modes of transport

This lesson will showcase the differences between the emissions that are released from a variety of modes of transport. After comparing, learners will gain an awareness of the distances people travel to get to school using a map and scale. Then, learners will find out how many Marty steps that would take and perhaps how long it would take Marty to complete the journey. 

Revise the word scale and what it means for a map. The video below does this succinctly. This video features on the PowerPoint presentation slide, after the objectives and success criteria. 

Carry out a series of estimates: about how far is it to get to... For potential options, include other countries, local landmarks, cities within a country, geographical features, school, doctor's, etc.

There are several scale maps in the workbook. Learners are asked to measure the distance between two locations for each map, in cm, and then to convert to the real-world measurement. Each map has a small scale icon at the bottom right, showing the relative distance between the map and the real world.

Now that learners have an idea of distances to travel for a variety of locations, have them watch a quick video to see the emission comparisons for different modes of transport. This video can't be embedded in the lesson so you will have to click the link, below, to access it at the correct place or click the image on the presentation, following the video on scale. 

Each of the mentioned modes of transport refers to a different distance travelled. To get to approximately the same distance, there are expressions in the workbook to aid learners to get a distance that is about the same; they will need to calculate the emissions from what is given in the workbook, this makes it easier to talk about which vehicle produces more emissions.

Now, learners need to look at either the included map resource or one you have printed, which is perhaps more local. Using any of the suggested points on the map, learners need to measure the distance between them, in cm and convert using the scale. 

Challenge learners to code Marty to walk the distance on the map and count the number of steps, then they could apply the scale to see how many steps it would take Marty to walk in the real world. 

Here is a quick video of some measurements being taken on the printed map (from the resource section) and the converted distance for the real world, along with Marty walking the first part of the map. Each step Marty takes is 2.5 cm. The distance for the first part of the map is 12.5 cm. Marty completes that distance in 5 steps: 5 x 2.5 = 12.5. With this information, learners could make estimates, or calculations, about the number of steps for different parts of the map. Learners could then consider how many steps Marty would need to take 'in the real world'. 

According to the infographics in the lesson, the emissions for a person walking are approximately 0; for 5, 10, 20 or more journeys this amount will not change. Work with learners to see how many journeys are needed to equal the 880 km on the infographic for learners to see how much they help the environment, by walking.

Bring learners back together to discuss the challenges they faced and overcame. Have groups model their creations and explain what is happening, when. Encourage other groups to ask questions to deepen the understanding of the processes.

Suggested questions you might ask:

Did any of the emission amounts surprise you?

Were there any strategies you used to support your work on the scale map?

Were there any difficulties you faced for having Marty walk the route on the map?

Log off devices and clear everything away.

Workbook for Marty Learns about Transport

Compare the emissions from different types of transport

Sustainability and the Environment - Marty Learns about Transport

In this pack, learners will explore what they can do to support the goals of Sustainability and the Environment. Learners will explore and improve their understanding of recycling and become more aware of vehicle emissions and the difference that we can make on the environment by choosing different modes of transport.

Learning Portal

Learner Resources —

Sustainability and the Environment Lesson Pack

Lesson Pack Overview