Year 5 - Geography
Introducing sustainability
Sustainable world: does it matter how we live?
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit introduces sustainability by exploring how human choices affect the environment. Pupils learn about energy use, food waste, biodiversity and urban living, and consider how individuals and communities can work towards a more sustainable future.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain what sustainability means to you and start to identify choices that can be made with this in mind.
Key Notes
- Sustainability can be defined as meeting the needs of today without preventing future generations from doing so.
- There is great inequality across the world about who gets what, where, when and why.
- We have some power to enact some choices about where we go, how we get there, what we eat and what we do.
Vocabulary To Learn
- consumption: Consumption is the process of using up resources.
- inequality: Inequality is when something is not shared evenly between everyone.
- natural resources: Natural resources are those that come from Earth without human influence and can be used for human needs.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Children may believe that renewable resources are 'safe'.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this geography topic using two clear key points.
Sustainability can be defined as meeting the needs of today without preventing future generations from doing so. There is great inequality across the world about who gets what, where, when and why.
2. Define this geography term and use it in an example. 'consumption'
Consumption is the process of using up resources.
3. Correct this common geography misunderstanding.
Mistake: Children may believe that renewable resources are 'safe'. Correction: Explain that even water - a renewable natural resource - could become too polluted to use or if trees are cut down quicker than they can be replanted then that supply of wood will be exhausted.
More Lessons In This Unit
Browse all guides in the Year 5 Geography guide library.