Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Grocery Store Bans Plastic Bags

For Teachers 2nd - 6th
Students participate in the paper vs. plastic bag debate, then read a news article about one grocery store that is banning plastic bags. In this current events activity, the teacher introduces the news article with a debate and a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

It's A Gas

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students build an organic waste methane generator and learn by running a scientific experiment to see what happens when people alter nature's way of recycling.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Internet Research: Methane and Waste

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students conduct Internet research to discover the causes of methane and how to implement a waste action plan. They answer worksheet questions as they search Websites. On the Eduzone site students find information on reducing their own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Junk Mail

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders consider the impact of junk mail on our natural resources and landfills. They collect their families' junk mail for a week and explore ways to reduce junk mail, and write a book that explains the importance of trees in our...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

3RC (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Compost)

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars examine the effects of packaging decisions and the engineering advancements in packaging materials and waste management. They observe biodegradation in a model landfill.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners determine the importance of recycling to reduce waste, to employ trash in useful ways, and to save the environment. They estimate the percentages of landfill waste that items constitute, based on what they found in their own...
Worksheet
Curated OER

The Case of the Broken Loop

For Students 4th - 5th
For this environmental awareness worksheet, students complete 8 pages pertaining to waste, landfills, recycling and composting. Included are: matching words and definitions, crossword puzzle, scrambled letters, a code, word search and a...
Lesson Plan
NASA

The Cycle of Matter

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
An educational lesson focuses on the idea of conservation of matter through a demonstration of the water cycle, a discussion of digesting food, and the path of carbon and oxygen atoms as they change form. 
Lesson Plan
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Back to the Earth

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students conduct an experiment in which they bury four objects (apple, lettuce, plastic and styrofoam) in the ground and come back to observe them a month later. They consider what biodegrades and how it affects our planet.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Wise Use of Paper

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students explore the paper recycling process. They experiment with ways to conserve and recycle paper products.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

In Search of Reused and Recycled

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students identify recycled and recyclable products by reading their packaging They understand the impact of solid waste on landfills and relate the idea of conserving natural resources to the importance of recycling and buying recycled...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Garbage Pizza

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders explore the concept of waste management. In this recycling lesson plan, 4th graders identify materials that must be landfilled as well as items that may be recycled or reused.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Everything's Connected

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Students explore how trash decomposes. In this ecosystem instructional activity, students discuss new vocabulary words, such as producers and consumers, and think critically to answer how landfills work.
Lesson Plan
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There Is No Away

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students identify how trash is disposed of. In this environmental lesson, students read and discuss the poem "Sarah Sylvia Stout" by Shel Silverstein and discuss the ways people treated the items in the poem. Students discuss how trash...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Biodegradability

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students test a variety of plastic bags to test its biodegradability. They record their observations and discuss them once the experiment is complete. They identify materials best suited to be placed in a landfill.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Environment: Banana-in-a-Jar Experiment

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students conduct experiments using bananas sealed in jars to observe the effects on biodegradable waste in landfills. They cover the lid with a plastic sandwich bag to create an airtight seal. Students observe how the oxygen is used...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Trash City

For Teachers K - 5th
Students work together to build a trash city. They collect items that would go into a landfill to help them build their city. They discuss ways to cut down on garbage.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Recycling

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders gain an awareness of recycling. For this science lesson plan, 4th graders become aware of how much garbage we can produce, identify landfills and their purposes, and explain how recycling saves energy and resources while...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Water in the Environment

For Students 8th - 10th
In this water in the environment worksheet, students match 10 terms related to water to their definitions. They identify 10 sentences as true or false related to groundwater, layering and landfills. They fill in the blanks for 2...
Activity
Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Winogradsky Columns: Microbial Ecology in the Classroom

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Substances that decompose with the help of living organisms do so at different rates. Scholars experiment with Winogradsky columns to determine the rate of decomposition, the oxygen and sulfide content changes, and bacteria levels. The...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pollution

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders investigate pollution. They discuss pollution and its effects. They create a Venn diagram of pollution and people polluting. They create a landfill and predict what will occur over a week's time. They create two air...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Activity #5 Soils-Permeability and Impurity Removal

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students predict which types of soils would work best for keeping contaminants contained. They comprehend that in the past, landfills have been one major source of groundwater contamination. Pupils comprehend that placing and building...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Composting -- Nature's Disappearing Act

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Studenst work together to discover the concept of biodegradability. They build a model of a landfill and how different items decompose. They examine how engineers use this information for better waste management.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Decomposition

For Teachers K - 3rd
Students create a compost pile and chart changes as the materials decompose. Students draw pictures of items placed into their "landfill" and predict how and whether the item will change or not. After two weeks, students write...

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