Teaching Sustainability Through Critical Thinking

Simple, ready-to-use PDF student worksheets that help students explore real-world sustainability issues through inquiry, critical thinking, and action.

Built around School Journal articles and stories, each worksheet guides students through a structured learning journey using Bloom’s Taxonomy and other thinking tools to deepen understanding and encourage meaningful discussion.

From climate change to citizenship, waste to wellbeing, students learn that everything is interconnected.

Helping Students Think Sustainably

Sustainability is more than caring for the environment.

It is understanding the connections between:

Nature

How healthy ecosystems support life.

Economy

How resources are produced, used, and shared.

Society

How fairness, citizenship, culture, and community shape our future.

Wellbeing

How people, communities, and environments flourish together.

Our resources help students explore these connections through engaging, real-world topics that matter.

Everything you need to teach the topic in one resource pack

Designed for individual students, small groups, whole-class learning, homework programmes, relief teachers, and EOTC follow-up activities.

Every pack is built around a high-quality student worksheet and includes a teacher guide, student workbook, word search activity, 10 inquiry-based learning tasks, Bloom’s Taxonomy questioning framework, critical and creative thinking opportunities, and links to relevant School Journal texts. All resources are supplied in ready-to-use PDF format.

Topics Students Love Exploring

Students investigate authentic issues such as:

• Kaitiaki of the Stream

• Climate Change

• The Plastic-Free Challenge

• The Fight to Vote

• Penguins

• Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• Equity and Social Justice

• Biodiversity and Conservation

With more than 50 resources available and new topics added regularly.

Why Think Sustainably?

The challenges facing our future are rarely simple.

Students need opportunities to analyse information, consider different perspectives, evaluate solutions, and think critically about the world around them.

These resources are designed to help young people become thoughtful, informed, and engaged citizens who can contribute positively to a sustainable future.

Because sustainability isn’t just a topic.

It’s a way of thinking.

Created by Teachers for Teachers

Think Sustainably was created in Aotearoa New Zealand to help teachers bring sustainability and social responsibility into everyday classroom learning.

Our resources integrate naturally into literacy, social sciences, science, inquiry learning, and Aotearoa New Zealand Histories programmes.

Practical. Flexible. Ready to use.