How Do Our Attitudes Affect Waste?

High schoolers conduct a survey of society's typical purchasing practices to determine the influence of packaging on consumer choices and to determine if consumers consider waste disposal and recycling when making purchasing decisions.

Students review the garbage/landfill graphs included with the activity. 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...

How many people really recycle recyclables and how do they feel about it? High schoolers create a survey to find out. Once they agree on what questions to include, they each interview four people outside of the classroom....

Students examine the role of choice in a democracy, the choice to participate and not to participate. They take a position on the role of recycling and whether in a democracy people can be forced to recycle. They break into for and...

Students, in small groups, investigate and present a strategy for waste management in their community using a simulation activity in which each group represents a sector of their community.

Examine the nature of landfills through experimentation. Scholars build miniature landfills and monitor changes over a six-week period. Observations allow individuals to draw conclusions about the different types of trash and their...

Let the data tell the story. A lab activity has pupils collect temperature data on solutes as they melt and freeze. They use their data to create a cooling curve and then calculate the molar mass using the freezing point depression.

Young scholars research the difference between hazardous waste and municipal solid waste. Different companies in their community are researched to determine which are contributing waste in their region, what type of waste is generated,...

Even if a school has gone digital, chances are there's still plenty of paper being used. The three activities help scholars learn about the environmental impact of paper and another consumer products of their choosing, the issue of...

An umbrella organization with hundreds of affiliate groups across the United States, whose goal is to educate and motivate people to reduce their litter by recycling, reusing, disposing of things properly, and by changing their consumer...