Sustainability - Measuring Local Sustainability

A clear, skills‑focused lesson that revisits the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and builds pupils’ confidence using OS maps, land‑use identification, and secondary data analysis. Perfect for KS3 Geography or Citizenship, this lesson connects global sustainability themes with pupils’ understanding of their local area.

What’s Included

• Fully editable, visually engaging PowerPoint
• Recap of all 17 SDGs
• OS map extracts for land‑use identification
• Step‑by‑step modelling of 4‑ and 6‑figure grid references
• Secondary data table for pupils to score local sustainability
• Discussion tasks, map challenges, and plenary reflection
• Success criteria for self‑ and peer‑assessment

Lesson Focus
Pupils move from global goals to local geography, reviewing the SDGs before applying map‑reading skills to explore how sustainable features appear in their own environment. They then analyse secondary data to judge how sustainable their area is overall.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the lesson, pupils will be able to:

• Review the UN Sustainable Development Goals and explain their purpose.
• Identify land use using OS map symbols and colours.
• Master grid references to accurately locate sustainable features.
• Analyse secondary data to score and evaluate sustainability in their local area.

Success Criteria
Pupils can:

• Name several SDGs and explain how they link to sustainability.
• Correctly identify different land‑use types on an OS map.
• Use accurate 4‑ and 6‑figure grid references to locate features.
• Interpret secondary data to give a justified sustainability score for their local area.