One person's trash is another man's treasure. Challenge your class to build something useful out of the trash they throw away on a regular basis. Groups design and build a practical item from trash they collect, allowing the class to...

Students are introduced to landfills and the importance of reducing garbage. In this Earth Day lesson, students collect garbage they find on the ground. They take it back to a plastic bin and attempt to bury all the garbage only to find...

With so many tons of trash going into landfills each year, your environmentalists can calculate how much the average person is tossing away. This activity has a series of questions not only requiring math, but a conscious thought of how...

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...

Every time you purchase something from the store, it goes into a bag, but what happens to the bag? This lesson encourages your learners to think about what happens to those plastic and paper bags and their effect on the environment. Use...

Paper is made from paper, right? Future scientists take bits of paper and produce sheets of recycled paper. The only drawback? It has to dry overnight.

You're on solid ground if you decide to use the resource. A simple activity has young engineers investigate the problem of liquefaction. A battery placed on dry sand will stay standing—but not if scholars add water to the cup.

In this activity, students work as engineers to build and observe a model landfill. They will understand the process and pitfalls of the use of landfills as a method for the waste disposal.

In this activity, you will build a sweet building on a homemade shake table and find out how an earthquake impacts buildings constructed in landfills.

Students design and build model landfills using materials similar to those used by engineers for full-scale landfills. Their completed small-size landfills are "rained" on and subjected to other erosion processes. The goal is to create...

Kids learn by experimenting with science. Project about recycling and landfills.

During this activity, students will try to construct model landfill liners out of two-inch strips of garbage bags within resource constraints. The challenge is to construct a bag that will hold one cup of water without leaking. This...

Student teams use the engineering design process to create a useful product of their choice out of recyclable items and "trash." The class is given a "landfill" of reusable items, such as aluminum cans, cardboard, paper, juice boxes,...

In this activity, students explore the idea of biodegradability by building and observing a model landfill. This serves as an introduction to the idea of composting. Students learn about the role of engineering in solid waste management.

[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about solving the problem of landfills. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.

[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about recycling to reduce trash in landfills. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.

Even though many cities have recycling programs, a lot of trash still ends up in the dump. Find out which materials will break down and which materials won't. Will the results of this experiment change which products you often buy?

[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about problems created by electronic waste being thrown in landfills. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.

This activity will allow students to bury various pieces of trash in a plotted area of land outside. After approximately two to three months, the trash will be uncovered to allow the students to investigate what types of materials...

[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about recycling. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.