Curated OER
Fashion Forward, Fashion Functional
Students consider the implications of waste. In this waste streams lesson, students learn what waste streams are and identify their impact on the environment. Students also recycle waste materials to create functional objects.
Curated OER
Garbage Pizza
Fourth graders explore the concept of waste management. In this recycling lesson, 4th graders identify materials that must be landfilled as well as items that may be recycled or reused.
Curated OER
Where Is Away?
Students explore ways to dispose of trash. In this lesson plan, students discuss where trash goes when it leaves their house and other inappropriate ways to dispose of trash. Students brainstorm ways to produce less waste.
Curated OER
Sludge
Students become familiar with the idea that sludge is a waste product but can also be a resource, depending on its characteristics and how we manage it. They read information and answers questions on a worksheet imbedded in this plan.
Curated OER
Recycling Paper
Learners recycle old paper into new. In this sustainability lesson, students take old newspaper and recycle it into new paper.
Curated OER
Industrialization of the American Landscape
High schoolers summarize the three sectors of industry and how these sectors applied to the Industrial Revolution. Students apply their skills in research and note-taking, as well as vocabulary building through web organizers. High...
Curated OER
Trash Flash Through Time
Students describe ways in which solid waste was disposed in the past and the present. They survey an older citizen about his/her solid waste disposal methods. They discover solid waste practices from long ago.
Curated OER
In Search of Reused and Recycled
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...
Curated OER
Create, Design, and Invent with Plastic
Students explore creative ways to reuse materials. In this ecology/art lesson, students create artwork using trash. Students view examples of folk art from around the world that used waste products as a main component.
Curated OER
Applied Science - Built Environment Lab
Students evaluate trash. In this Science instructional activity, students collect and weigh trash from their classrooms. Students categorize the trash and the corresponding weights, recording the information on a data sheet.
Royal Society of Chemistry
Green Plastics—Chemistry Outreach
How do green plastics reduce waste and environmental pollution? Budding scientists create and test a variety of compounds used in green plastics during an insightful experiment. Beginning with startling statistics and ending with...
Curated OER
Pollution Prevention
Students investigate how to reduce solid and hazardous waste, and estimate the amount of household hazardous waste in their community. Students discuss methods of changing people's habits, and how to convince them to use alternative...
Curated OER
Packaging: What a Waste!
Students examine the environmental and economic impacts of excess packaging. They investigate the price and relative amount of processing and packaging of different food products in a local grocery store, analyze graphs, and complete a...
Curated OER
JUST THROW IT AWAY!
Students different types of reusable trash containers to class. They use the pieces of trash to create something like a bird feeder. They discuss other ways of reusing items to generate less garbage.
Curated OER
Fur, Feathers and Fins
Students examine the stages between growing the animal and buying it at the grocery store. In food system lesson students study the role that animal products have on nutrition and study animal agriculture.
Curated OER
Recycling-Taking it Easy on the Environment
Learners review the garbage/landfill graphs included with the lesson. They discuss the information on the graphs and discuss which garbage products come from their homes. Students collect examples of over packaging to share with class...
Curated OER
In Search of Reused and Recycled
Young scholars identify recycled and recyclable products by reading labels. They discuss what happens to solid waste in landfills and its impact on the environment. They discuss ways in which they can conserve natural resources.
Carnegie Mellon University
How Power Plants Work 2
In this second of three lessons on power plants, future engineers find out how we generate electricity and how coal-powered plants operate. They work in small groups to make electromagnet generators to light LED bulbs. A set of...
Curated OER
What a Waste
Young scholars analyze components of garbage. They collect and sort a few days' worth of garbage. They chart the results of an investigation.
Curated OER
Ecology of the Dump
Students determine which types of garbage are biodegradable and which are nonbiodegradable. They practice measuring skills, hypothesizing, taking data, and writing a lab report. Students observe the relative biodegradability of metal,...
Curated OER
Talkin' Trash (All About Landfills)
Students investigate the types of waste created by people and identify various options for trash disposal. They read and discuss a handout about what a landfill is and the different types of trash, match types of trash with the proper...
Curated OER
Trash a Pizza!
Young scholars 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
The Case of the Broken Loop
In 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...
Curated OER
One Person's Garbage, Another Person's . . .?
Students list many, different and unusual items that could be constructed out of refuse and found objects.