Washed Ashore

Stewardship—Washed Ashore

Summary: Through the Washed Ashore community project, students create marine-themed art from plastic debris found on beaches. The art serves to educate the public and increase awareness about marine debris and plastic pollution.

Concepts to teach: Plastic, marine debris, art

Goals: Students turn problematic plastic trash into pieces of art as a powerful way of showing the pervasiveness of plastic in our oceans and its effects on marine wildlife.

Standards:
AR.03.CP.01, AR.03.CP.03, AR.03.HC.03, AR.03.HC.04, AR.03.HC.05
AR.05.CP.01, AR.05.CP.03, ARl05.HC.01, AR.05.HC.03, AR.05.HC.04, AR.05.HC.05

Specific Objectives:

  1. Sort plastics by type, color and functionality
  2. Create a marine-themed piece of art from the plastic
  3. Showcase the art to the public along with supporting essays, presentations, and student work about the topic of plastic pollution in the ocean.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Washed Ashore Project—The Washed Ashore community project was initiated by Bandon artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi. The website includes videos, exhibit schedule, and training opportunities.
  • See how two 6th grade classrooms in Oregon’s Lincoln County School District used Washed Ashore to incorporate the study of oceans, art and marine pollution into their curriculum: Washed Ashore Presentation.
  • NOAA’s FAQ about plastic marine debris and its impacts.
  • NOTE: Not all information is appropriate to share with elementary students. For more on this topic read the article Beyond Ecophobia by David Sobel.

Assessment:

  • Student portfolio includes a ocean-themed art piece made from plastic marine debris with an accompanying essay that describes the artwork and its relationship to ocean health.
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Pollution Solutions

Stewardship—Pollution Solutions

Summary: Students come up with “good manners” stewardship solutions to reduce waste and pollution at home, school, and in the local community.

Concepts to teach: Personal behavior, reduce-reuse-recycle, modeling, stewardship

Goals: Students share their knowledge about solutions to pollution with peers and adults at school and at home. They implement positive changes that have a lasting impact on the culture at school/home.

Standards:
SS.03.GE.05
SS.05.GE.07, SS.05.GE.08

Specific Objectives:

  1. Brainstorm ways to reduce and reuse plastics and other waste materials in school.
  2. Use knowledge to make improvements to classroom/school recycling protocols.
  3. Share knowledge with the community.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Cleaning up– This lesson plan from the Learning to Give website uses the children’s book The Wartville Wizard to show a humorous example of a ‘solution’ to pollution.
    • A good introduction to “solutions”
    • Turn The Wartville Wizard story into a skit, but have the students add more realistic solutions at the end. Tailor the examples and solutions so they apply to the classroom/school.
  • Garbage Gone Wild lesson plan from Kids Science Challenge: KSC Lesson Plans—Students think of ways to reduce loose litter and communicate their ideas to the public by making a poster.
  • Improve waste/recycling habits in the classroom and school
    • Are we reducing our waste?—Brainstorm ideas for using less and make changes in the classroom culture.
    • Are we recycling all that we can?—Make posters so that people clearly know what can and cannot be recycled.
    • Are enough recycling bins available?—Make (cardboard box) and/or acquire bins (from local recycling collection company) so that every room has at least one bin, and certain areas have several (lunchroom, near copy machine, etc).
    • Decorate cardboard boxes as office recycling bins and present them to adults in the community.
  • Fundraiser idea: Decorate and sell cloth grocery bags

Assessment:

  • Students generate ideas to reduce loose litter and communicate their ideas through a poster or an essay.
  • Students encourage recycling manners by presenting others with decorated cardboard recycling boxes and information.
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Pathways to the Ocean

Human Impacts—Pathways to the Ocean

Summary: Students investigate the ways in which plastics and other persistent debris get into rivers and the ocean.

Concepts to teach: Watershed, downstream, litter

Goals: Students recognize that their use and disposal method of plastic and other waste products can have an impact on aquatic and marine ecosystems both locally and far away.

Standards:
SS.03.GE.01
SS.05.GE.01, SS.05.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Trace a potential pathway of plastic marine debris from school to the ocean through both a water and land route.
  2. Identify several points along the pathway which can intercept plastic pollutants before they make it to a river or ocean.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Telling the Story: Fifth graders at Millicoma intermediate School created a PSA YouTube video that tells the story of how a plastic bottle cap gets into the ocean.
  • Plastic Bag – A Mockumentary—This four-minute video tells the tale of a plastic bag’s journey from an inland supermarket to the ocean. Caution: Younger students may take the dramatic positive-sounding narration and music literally instead of seeing it as a spoof.
    • Consider playing the video without sound and having students describe what they see is going on.
    • Stop the video periodically and brainstorm ideas for how to intercept the bag at various stages along the journey.
  • Creative Writing—Students write a realistic fiction story explaining the travels and experiences of a waste product that travels from their school to the ocean.
    • Action: Have the student write a ‘happy ending’ to the story, where an action or intervention stops the pollutant from actually making it to the ocean.

Assessment:

  • Probe: Plastics on the Trail—This probe from Alaska Sea Grant’s Alaska Seas and Watersheds Curriculum elicits students’ ideas about how a plastic bottle on a trail impacts the environment.
  • Probe: Connections to the Ocean—Explores student ideas about connections between Oregon communities and the ocean.
  • Using both a map and written instructions, have students describe a water route from a nearby stream to the ocean.
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Biodegradable Materials

Human Impacts—Biodegradable Materials

Summary: How long does it take materials to break down in the environment? Students investigate whether all substances break down in the environment, and how long it takes various substances to biodegrade. They then apply this knowledge to explain what happens to wastes that end up in landfills, waterways, and the ocean.

Concepts to teach: Biodegradable, decompose

Goals: Students develop an inquiry to discover what types of materials decompose, how long it takes, and what this means for certain types of garbage that makes its way into the environment.

Standards:
S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2, S3.3S.3
S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2, S4.3S.3
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2, S5.3S.3
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Differentiate between the kinds of material that nature recycles and those it does not.
    Conduct an experiment to answer an inquiry question.
  2. Recommend packaging materials based on their biodegradability.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • What is Biodegradable?—In this inquiry lesson adapted from the Alaska Activities Handbook, students conduct an experiment to determine which materials decompose when buried. Includes data worksheets.
  • What Kind of Trash Bag Breaks Down Fastest?—In this inquiry lesson excerpted from “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Science Fair Projects”, students conduct an experiment to determine which bag materials decompose in a simulated landfill over a four-week period.

Assessment:

  • Have students report their data and findings from their inquiry study.
  • List pros and cons of various packaging materials.
  • Suggest ways to reduce the amount of persistent plastics in the environment.
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Classroom Recycling

Human Use of Resources—Classroom Recycling

Summary: What kind of waste is generated in the classroom, and how much of what is in the garbage bin could be placed in the recycle bin instead? Students inventory their garbage, monitor their recycling output, and learn local recycling policy to ensure they are recycling all that they can.

Concepts to teach: Recycling, audit, measuring weight, histogram

Goals: Students gain an understanding of the garbage and recycling output from their classroom. After learning about their classroom habits and the local recycling policies, students challenge themselves to reduce their garbage waste and increase the proportion of waste that can go in the recycle bin.

Standards:
S3.1, S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2, S3.4D.2
S4.1, S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2, S4.4D.3
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Conduct an inquiry to determine the types and amount of garbage and/or recycling generated in the classroom.
  2. Identify which classroom waste products can be recycled, and which cannot.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Trash Pie lesson plan from Kids’ Science Challenge: KSC Lesson Plans—This lesson plan helps students investigate and classroom garbage output
  • Classroom Recycling–K-6 classrooms in Newport use a hand-held fish scale to weigh and chart their classroom recycling bags once a week over 2 months, and report their findings at the annual Newport Science Fair.
  • Recycle it, or not? – Recycling policies vary by region. Contact your local sanitation department to learn the details of your community’s recycling policy. Invite a recycling expert to the classroom to answer student questions.
  • Observe trucks removing waste and recycling from school dumpsters and bins. Follow up with a field trip to the local landfill, transfer station, or recycling center.

Assessment:

  • Students create a posters describing what should be done with various types of unwanted plastics in their school and/or community.
  • Share findings from recycling inquiry studies with peers and adults:
    • through a school exhibition such as Science Fair
    • bring the information to other classrooms or to adults in their workplace through a presentation or poster
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Plastics Around Us

Human Use of Resources—Plastics Around Us

Summary: How do we use plastic in our daily lives? What are the properties of different types of plastics, and what do we do with plastic when we are done with it? Students investigate these questions through hands on activities.

Concepts to teach: Plastic, single-use plastic, biodegradable, recycling

Goals: Students gain an appreciation for the many ways in which we use plastic in our daily lives, and define single-use, recycled, recyclable and contaminated plastic. Students identify where and how household plastics can be reduced, reused, or recycled before they leave the classroom.

Standards:
S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2, S3.4D.2
S4.2P.1, S43S.1, S4.3S.2, S4.4D.3
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2, S5.4D.3
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Make a list of all the plastic found in a school or home environment.
  2. Define and identify examples of single-use, multi-use, recycled, recyclable and contaminated plastic.
  3. Describe three ways to reduce the amount of plastics that get thrown “away.”

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Plastics in Daily Life—In this lesson plan from OSU Chemical Engineering Department, students survey their own use of plastic, learn about the properties of different kinds of plastic, and sort plastics according to their recycling number.
  • Kids Science Challenge: KSC Lesson Plans
    • Packaging 101—Students examine different types of packaging, understand which types are recyclable, and explore practices that go into sustainable packaging.
    • Lunch Weigh In– Students collect data to measure the amount of waste generated from disposable lunch bags.
  • ThinkGreen—This website has several K-12 lesson plans and videos on the topic of waste and recycling, including:
    • Lesson 1: What is in our Trash?—Students examine items to determine what they are made of–glass, paper, plastic, or metal.
    • Lesson 2
      • Sorting it Out: Metals—Students explore how physical properties are used to sort recyclable materials efficiently.
      • Sorting it Out: Plastics—After describing the look and feel of plastic samples, students complete an investigation to determine their relative densities.
      • Paper Recycling—Students learn the cycle of products; their consumption, recycling into new products, their resale manufactures to create new products and ultimately their resale to consumers.
    • Lesson 3: The Energy of Decay—Students explore how decaying organic matter can be harvested as a source of energy.
  • Life Cycles of Plastic
    • For how long are common household plastics used? Develop a survey or worksheet for students to gauge the time a given piece of plastic is used in their home. Compare results as a class and discuss the differences between single-use vs multi-use plastics, cheap vs sturdy plastics, etc.
    • Life Cycle Assessment lesson plan—This lesson from Teach Engineering is designed for grades 6-8, but it may be brought down to upper elementary level and/or used for teacher background information. Students learn about product life cycle assessment and the flow of energy through the cycle, comparing it to the flow of nutrients and energy in the life cycle of an organism.

Assessment:

  • Create a KWL chart for plastics.
  • Students sort a variety of plastic objects according to type or number, and give written or oral justifications about why thy put each object where they did.
  • Students create posters illustrating three specific ways to reduce the amount of plastics in the garbage.
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Beach Debris

Place—Beach Debris

Summary: What kinds of materials end up on our ocean beaches? In this classroom-based activity, students explore the debris found on an ocean beach and sort by type and potential origin.

Concepts to teach: Marine debris, persistent plastics, biotic, abiotic, decomposition, biodegradable

Goals: Students gain familiarity with objects that wash up on Oregon beaches, and connect anthropogenic debris with local activities.

Standards:
S3.2P.1
SS.05GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Sort debris into categories: abiotic v. biotic, natural v. anthropogenic, biodegradable v. non-biodegradable, local origin v. distant origin
  2. Recognize the prevalence and diverse types of plastic marine debris.
  3. Make a reasonable guess about the original use and physical origin of various types of human-generated marine debris.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Teacher can make or obtain marine debris kits for the classroom for students to explore.
    • Collect debris from an Oregon beach for your classroom kits. Include: a variety of plastic items in various sizes (recognizable and not), fishing gear, household items, familiar items, plastic loops, small plastic granules, Styrofoam, bags, building materials, glass, natural materials (shells, molts, driftwood, surf balls, dry algae) and whatever else you can find.
    • Pair an inland and coastal classroom for a joint exploration of beach debris. Students in the coastal classroom can visit the beach, collect items, and send them to the inland classroom. Classes can compare their results and conclusions.
    • The Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) has marine debris educational kits available in some areas in Oregon, including Lincoln County. Teachers can check out a kit through the C-MORE website. The C-MORE kit lessons are designed for grades 8-12, but some of the materials can be used for younger students.
    • Avoid graphic images and doomsday scenarios as they are not developmentally appropriate for upper elementary students. For more on this topic read the article Beyond Ecophobia by David Sobel.
  • Flotsam and Jetsam and Wrack is an Oregon Sea Grant guide to common (primarily biotic) materials that end up on beaches. Students can use this as a model for making up a similar guide to the common abiotic materials found on beaches.
  • Inquiry: How did a particular piece of marine debris end up on the beach? Examples can be found in the Pathways to the Ocean topic guide later in this focus area.
    • Science: Students explore an object and gather firsthand evidence of its origin, discuss ideas with others, and then describe their conclusions to the class
    • Creative Writing: Students write a realistic fiction story explaining the travels and experiences of the marine debris object
  • Learning Guide on Marine Debris: “Turning the Tide”—This NOAA guide gives the teacher background information and more ideas for marine debris lessons.
  • Trash Travels, a 2010 report from the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup—For teacher background information, this report provides, among other things, lists of the most commonly found items on coastal beaches (#1 cigarette butts, #2 plastic bags, etc.)

Assessment:

  • Probe: Plastics on the Trail—This probe from Alaska Sea Grant’s Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum elicits students’ ideas about how a plastic bottle on a trail impacts the environment.
  • Sort beach debris into categories and explain their common/differing characteristics and probable origins
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Human Impact Survey

Place—Human Impact Survey

Summary: The field-based “Human Impact Survey” lesson plan from Alaska Sea Grant is one part of a larger curriculum unit that focuses on the relationship between humans and the ocean. In this lesson, students construct knowledge about aquatic pollution through firsthand exploration of the local environment..

Concepts to teach: Pollution, marine debris, biodegradable, decomposition

Goals: Students develop a common definition of the term ‘pollution’, and identify some sources of pollution. Students increase their awareness of pollution in their local environment (school, neighborhood) and feel empowered to devise and carry out solutions.

Standards:
S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2
S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2
SS.05.GE.07

Specific Objectives:

  1. Define what makes something a pollutant, and identify several common types and sources of pollution at a local field site.
  2. Describe how local pollutants make their way into aquatic and marine environments.
  3. Determine what actions or changes are needed to reduce pollution at the local field site.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • Human Impact Survey—This lesson plan is from the Alaska Sea Grant’s K-8 Alaska Seas and Rivers Curriculum. Includes survey data sheets. This activity can be conducted on a beach or riverbank, or it may be adapted to apply to a park or schoolyard.
  • Consider combining the survey with a SOLVE (or similar) beach or river cleanup effort.
  • If you don’t have access to a marine beach, explore the following Beach Debris topic guide for classroom activities.
  • Map pollutants and their pathways. Use local maps from the Land and Water Use focus area to identify areas where pollution is found, pollutant pathways, and storm drains. Relate these findings to land use and natural features.

Assessment:

  • Use pre- and post- activity concept maps to explore learner’s understanding of the term “pollution” and local types and sources of pollution.
  • Worksheet included in the Human Impact Survey curriculum
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Citizen Biomonitoring

Stewardship—Citizen Biomonitoring

Summary: Students contribute to the scientific understanding of a local ecosystem by collecting data and reporting results to the community.

Concepts to teach: Stewardship, action, process of scientific inquiry

Goals: Students engage in scientific inquiry and come to see themselves as scientists as they collect and report data about a local outdoor site.

Standards:
S3.3S.1, S3.3S.2, S.3.3S.3
S4.3S.1, S4.3S.2, S4.3S.3
S5.3S.1, S5.3S.2, S5.3S.3, S5.4D.1

Specific Objectives:

  1. Adopt a local outdoor site and collect data that describes the health of the ecosystem.
  2. Gain experience with the use of scientific equipment, data collection and reporting.
  3. Draw conclusions and recommendations about the health of the ecosystem based on biomonitoring activities.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • This Land is Your Land—In this classroom activity from an earlier topic guide, students use their land use maps and use them to determine where to place a structure that will have the least amount of negative impact on the environment.
    • Consider adapting or extending this idea to a current land use issue that is affecting your school (ie, where should we place the new sports equipment shed?)
  • Conduct invasive species surveys in the schoolyard or nearby lands. Share surveys and maps of invasive species occurrence with land managers, city officials, and through invasive species reporting websites.
  • StreamWebs—This student stewardship network from OSU Extension provides open-source, web-based tools for watershed data management, analysis, and networking for teachers and students. Includes data sheets for mapping riparian habitats, canopy cover and pebble counts, etc. This tool is primarily for middle and H.S. level students, but simple assessments (ie, water temperature) could be addressed and reported by upper elementary grades.

Assessment:

  • Use the open-ended Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) to assess student attitudes about what scientists look like, and to determine the extent to which they see themselves as scientists. Scoring rubric example: DAST Rating Rubric
  • Present data findings to land managers, city officials, and/or data reporting websites.
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Habitat Restoration

Stewardship—Habitat Restoration

Summary: Students improve or restore an outdoor habitat to make it more suitable for wildlife.

Concepts to teach: Stewardship, action, sustainability, habitats

Goals: Students use their knowledge about animal habitat requirements to improve or restore a local outdoor space for wildlife.

Standards:
S3.2L.1, S3.4D.1
S4.2L.1, S4.4D.1, S4.4D.2
S5.2L.1, S5.4D.1, S5.4D.2

Specific Objectives:

  1. Describe the environmental characteristics that make local areas suitable for wildlife.
  2. Identify an outdoor site that could be improved or restored so that it will be more suitable for wildlife.
  3. Implement a restoration plan, and provide for its sustainability.

Activity Links and Resources:

  • The National Wildlife Federation assists schools in developing outdoor classrooms called Schoolyard Habitats, where educators and students learn how to attract and support local wildlife.
  • KidsGardening.org has several classroom projects ideas for school gardens that attract and sustain wildlife.
  • 4-H Wildlife Stewards promote science learning and environmental stewardship among youth. They create sustainable wildlife habitat sites on school grounds by inspiring, educating, and connecting communities, schools, and natural resource agencies and organizations.
  • Become a NOAA Ocean Guardian classroom by conducting a stewardship project in your local watershed. See examples of school-based conservation projects for ideas.
  • The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) website has a page of amphibian education resources, including
    • Toad Abode—Create suitable hiding places for toads and to enhance outdoor sites.
  • More restoration project ideas: Butterfly garden, bat house, water feature for birds, bushes for birds, invasive plant removal, etc.
  • Conduct invasive species surveys in the schoolyard or nearby lands. Devise and carry out a plan to remove or reduce the spread of invasive species to maintain suitable habitat for native species.

Assessment:

  • Students present a restoration plan to a school or district administrator, PTA funding group, or other governing body to obtain permission and funding for their project.
  • Students announce and explain characteristics of the finished project to the community through a letter to the local newspaper, video, etc.
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