This lesson is part of an Idea Set called Tracking Our Plastic: Sea to Source.

Preparation
Materials You Provide:

• Waste and recyclables for each classroom waste audit
• A tarp or similar protective surface on which to conduct the waste audit
• Gloves for volunteer students to handle the waste
• Chart paper and markers

Resources Provided:

• In carousel above:
  • Slide Show: Plastic Pollution
  • Infographic: Teach About the World
  • PDF: Teaching Across Perspectives
• Linked above:
  • Chart: Know & Need to Know

Physical Space:

• Classroom

Grouping:

• Large-group instruction
• Large-group learning
• Small-group work

Overview

Humans consume massive amounts of plastic, materials that can be molded easily at high temperatures. Although plastics have been used by humans for thousands of years, they were originally made of natural plant materials. In 1907, the first mass-produced synthetic plastics were developed, and the amount of plastic made each year has been growing since the 1950s. In 2015 alone, the world produced hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic!

Millions of tons of plastic reach the world’s oceans each year. This debris moves with the flow of water through rivers, from where it is discarded to where these waterways empty into the sea. Upon arrival in the world’s oceans, plastic tends to collect in large swarms called gyres, sinks to the bottom, or washes up on beaches. In waterways of all types, this plastic affects aquatic ecosystems.

Objectives

Students will:

• Collect and organize data in a chart.
• Connect the extent and effects of plastic pollution on local and global levels.
• Recognize the existence of plastic pollution within their own community.

Teaching Methods:

Hands-On Learning: Learning by doing—includes knowledge and skills acquired outside of book/lecture learning situations through work, play, and other life experiences.

Inquiry: Also referred to as scientific inquiry; refers to activities in which learners develop knowledge and understanding of how scientists study the natural world.

Brainstorming: Activity or technique to encourage the creative generation of ideas—usually a group process, in which group members contribute suggestions in a spontaneous, noncritical manner.

Skills Summary

This activity targets the following skills:

• Science and Engineering Practices
  • Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
  • Planning and carrying out investigations
• 21st Century Student Outcomes
  • Learning and Innovation Skills
  • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
  • Communication and Collaboration
  • Information, Media, and Technology Skills
  • Information Literacy
  • Life and Career Skills
  • Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
• 21st Century Themes
  • Global Awareness
  • Civic Literacy
  • Environmental Literacy
• Critical Thinking Skills
  • Understanding
  • Applying
  • Analyzing

Directions

1. Activate students’ interest in plastic pollution with an image gallery.

• Show students the images of plastic pollution provided in the carousel above and/or print them out to display around room for a gallery walk.
• Focus and connect students to aquatic plastic pollution in the photographs by asking:
  • What do the habitats in these photographs have in common?
  • What sort of objects are you noticing in each of these images?
    • (Plastic waste!)
• Prompt students to record their responses in their notes as they walk around the gallery or view the digital images.
• When students have made their observations, ask them to share their answers, keeping track of their ideas in a visible place.
• Prompt students to similarly record their own and their peers’ responses to the questions (as well as any other material that feels relevant or important) in a notebook or journal throughout the unit.

2. Connect global plastic problems to students’ understanding of local pollution with a think-pair-share.

• Prompt students to reflect individually on two questions, emphasizing that each student’s personal knowledge makes their response critical to the group’s understanding:
  • Question 1: What kinds of plastic pollution have you observed locally?
  • Question 2: How do you think plastic arrived in that location?
    • Student responses may vary, and may be as specific as a particular street corner or as general as “a trash can by my house,” but most will have noticed some sort of local plastic pollution.
• Ask students to pair up with a neighbor and compare/contrast their understanding of local plastic pollution.
• Finally, solicit students’ answers as a class, again recording responses in a visible place and encouraging use of their notebook or journal. Emphasize that students may share their own observations, peers’ observations, or the similarities/differences they noticed between the two.
• Summarize class responses verbally to transition from discussing the impacts of plastic (Question 1) to its origins (Question 2).

3. Conduct a classroom waste audit to identify local sources of plastic pollution.

• Prepare a safe space, such as a tarp in the center of the classroom, and empty classroom recycling/trash bins where the contents will be visible to all students.
• Ask students to gather around this central location and determine how they will categorize the waste they see, with a particular focus on plastic.
  • Possible categories include plastic cups, plastic bottles, plastic food containers, plastic straws, and plastic bags.
• Ask for 2-3 volunteers to sort through the items, placing them into piles according to the class categories.
  • Provide these students with gloves, emphasizing that students will be performing their own scientific data collection throughout the unit, and that they must employ appropriate safety precautions.
• In small groups, assign remaining students to count the number of items belonging to a particular category of plastic waste as it is compiled (for example, three students might count the number of plastic cups).

4. Create a chart to hold the class audit data, and examine the data together.

• Model the creation of a chart to tabulate class data, with item categories in a column labeled “Type” on the left, and tally marks or numbers of this item in a column labeled “Number” on the right. Emphasize important elements in the organization of a chart, including columns, rows, and labels.
• Close the classroom waste audit by asking students to use their data to answer two questions:
  • What are the biggest plastic waste sources for our class?
    • Prompt students to consider not just the types of waste that are the highest in quantity, but those that take up the most space, or might be most harmful to organisms based on their gallery walk.
  • What surprised you about the plastic waste we create?
    • Student responses may vary, but will likely center on the amount of plastic, or on items from particular categories.
• Record volunteers’ responses in a visible place and remind students to record their own and classmates’ responses in their notes.

5. Have students consider the question: How can we stop plastic waste from entering and traveling through the world’s waterways?

• Drawing on the images that students observed and the classroom waste audit, ask students whether they believe plastic pollution may be a problem in their own community. After a few volunteers have shared responses, explain that students will be collecting their own data of various types to learn more about local plastic pollution.
• Distribute or display the Teach About the World graphic. Introduce or review the meaning of the terms represented here (e.g., cultural, historical, ecological) and ask students to share their initial thoughts on how these different lenses might apply to plastic pollution.
• Elicit responses to the question asked earlier: How can we stop plastic waste from entering and traveling through the world’s waterways?, asking students to think about insights that might come from the different lenses represented in the Teach About the World graphic. Specifically, ask students to discuss with a partner:
  • What do we already know about how plastic pollution gets into and travels through water?
  • What do we need to know about how plastic pollution gets into and travels through water in order to come up with solutions to this problem that we can share with our community?
• Prompt students to share their thoughts in a whole class discussion, recording their ideas in a class Know and Need to Know chart. Keep the chart in a visible place in the classroom or easily accessible online, to be able to refer to students’ expertise and questions with which they started off the unit. Students will more formally revisit the chart throughout the unit as they learn new content and develop new questions.

Informal Assessment

Use students’ responses to the images of plastic pollution, the waste audit data discussion, and the Know and Need to Know chart to understand their initial thinking about plastic pollution. You can then leverage and build on students’ ideas in subsequent activities.

Tips & Modifications

• Tip: Step 1: Cornell Notes, a system to help students record and retain information, is one of many possibilities for structure in note taking. If you are using this system in your classroom, students can draw out key points from their notes as an exit ticket or write a summary for homework, to provide review and spacing of content across lessons.
• Tip: Steps 3-4: Several days prior to this activity, examine the waste collected in classroom bins. If necessary, collect waste/recycling over a longer period of time, or seek out waste/recycling bins with broader use to ensure that students can collect a representative sample of data. If teaching multiple class periods, consider identifying different waste containers that could be audited during each class period (such as those from neighboring rooms) and adding to the class chart during each period. Alternatively, you may ask students to return all waste to the appropriate container after this step, and create a new chart during each class period.
• Modification: Step 4: For classes with greater technology experience, consider tabulating data digitally and creating graphical representations of the waste audit with students.

Connections to National Standards, Principles, and Practices

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), available through the National Science Teacher's Association:

• Performance Expectation:
  • MS-ESS3-3. Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment.
• Science & Engineering Practices:
  • Asking questions and defining problems: Ask questions that require sufficient and appropriate empirical evidence to answer.
  • Planning and carrying out investigations: Conduct an investigation and/or evaluate and/or revise the experimental design to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence that meet the goals of the investigation.
• Crosscutting Concepts:
  • Patterns: Graphs, charts, and images can be used to identify patterns in data; Patterns can be used to identify cause-and-effect relationships.

Common Core State Standards (CCSS):

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.