Teach Engineering
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of several garbage patches around the world where garbage accumulates naturally. As part of a GIS unit that combines oceanography, environmental science, and life science, class members investigate...
Curated OER
The Trash We Pass
Where does our garbage go? What is the difference between a recyclable and non-recyclable item? Pose these important, but often overlooked, questions to your class and invite them to consider the lasting and damaging effects of the...
Curated OER
The Six Faces of Garbage
Students use the mathematics of surface area to approach the problem of garbage pollution from the classroom. After watching a video, students construct replicas of cereal boxes and compute their surface area.
Curated OER
Trash Bashing
Students define trash, garbage, or solid waste, discuss ways of disposing of trash, list examples of biodegradable materials, and have trash relay race in order to sort trash into appropriate containers labeled biodegradable, reusable,...
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Waste and Recycling: Recycling and Energy Recovery
Reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover. Young environmentalists learn about the overwhelming amount of garbage produced and discover better ways to minimize their impact on Earth by learning the difference between garbage and recyclables.Â
Curated OER
Where Is Away?
Students explore garbage. In this landfill lesson, students investigate how much garbage is collected in landfills on average each day. Students discover hazardous materials that are disposed of improperly and the effects of these...
Bonneville
The Problem of Plastic Trash Islands
Trash collection can be a hassle, especially out in the ocean. The second of four parts in the Adrift in a Sea of Plastic unit has pupils research plastic trash islands in marine ecosystems. They investigate why they occur and potential...
Curated OER
A Lot Of Garbage
Learners collect their own garbage. In this recycling lesson, students keep their own garbage for a day in their own personal garbage bag and then consider methods to reduce wastefulness.
Curated OER
Trash a Pizza!
Students investigate data about America's trash production. In this environmental lesson, students use statistics about what we throw away to create an art pie chart project called a "trash pizza."
Curated OER
After the Garbage Can: Where Does Our Trash Go?
Young scholars explore how waste disposal has changed over time and what the current issues are. In this disposal activity students collect data and create graphs.
NOAA
Turning the Tide on Trash: A Learning Guide on Marine Debris
The lessons in this learning guide are designed to increase youngsters' awareness of the impacts of marine debris and to teach them about pollution prevention techniques. This fabulous, 30-page packet is chock full of important...
Curated OER
The Zabbaleen, Cairo's Garbage Workers
Here is a fascinating human geography study of the Zabbaleen. They are a sub-class of people who work as garbage collectors in Cairo, Egypt. I can't say enough good things about this resource in my limited space here. It is fabulous! If...
Curated OER
Trash to Gas
Middle schoolers experiment with biomass materials as alternative energy sources. In this biomass material lesson, students participate in an experiment with cow manure to determine how it can be used as an energy source. They record...
Curated OER
Mystery Bag of Trash
Students investigate recycling. In this recycling instructional activity, students sort through recyclable items and place them in proper bins. Students explain their choice at the end of the activity.
Curated OER
Lesson: After Nature: Dystopia and Detournement
Werner Herzog's film, Lessons of Darkness is the topic of this lesson on art, politics, and culture. Learners discuss the concepts of utopia, dystopia, detournment, and Scorched Earth then compose a paper which describes dystopian reality.
Curated OER
Turning the Tide on Trash: Marine Debris Curriculum
Seven pages of fascinating reading on marine debris preface the activities in this lesson plan. Four different activities are employed to simulate how the debris is distributed in the ocean and along beaches. Early ecology learners...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Good Litter, Bad Litter
Which ones can be thrown on the ground? Discover the difference between natural litter and unhealthy trash, helping scholars by using several examples. Use the information here to give them a basic background, but also encourage prior...
Curated OER
Trash Disposal Choices
Students determine the differences between reusable, compostable and recyclable trash.
Curated OER
Trash: Past, Present and Future
Students explore how much trash they create. In this recycling instructional activity, students define stewardship and conduct an experiment to see how much trash the class produces in a week. At the end of the week the students...
Curated OER
Trash Talkin'
Students analyze classroom solid waste. In this environmental lesson plan, students weight and categorize classroom waste over a one week period. Students examine ideas on how to limit the amount of waste.
American Chemical Society
A Catalyst and the Rate of Reaction
More than 90 percent of chemical products are made using a catalyst. Lesson demonstrates the way a catalyst changes the rate of reaction without altering the chemical reaction. A catalyst doesn't appear as a reactant or a product, yet it...
Illustrative Mathematics
US Garbage, Version 1
An interesting example of a discrete function and how it is applies to the real world. This could easily make a good collaborative lesson with an environmental science class. Practice reading a table and drawing a scatter plot make up...
Curated OER
Garbage or Art?
The three R's are, reduce, reuse, and recycle. Third graders use recycled materials to design and create an environmentally themed piece of art. They discuss and examine major art works that were created using recycled materials, then...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 18
As first-year students continue to investigate how sugar changed the world, the focus shifts to a consideration of why people with limited job options take on dangerous or subjugating work. Class members read an opinion piece by Nicholas...