Let's Talk Trash

Introduction to Solid Waste Management

Lesson Plan #: AELP- INT0035

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An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan
Submitted by: Therese Lloyd
School or Affiliation: Holy Rosary School, Idaho Falls, ID
Endorsed by: These lesson plans are the result of the work of the teachers who have attended the Columbia Education Center's Summer Workshop. CEC is a consortium of teachers from 14 western states dedicated to improving the quality of education in the rural, western, United States, and particularly the quality of math and science Education. CEC uses Big Sky Telegraph as the hub of their telecommunications network that allows the participating teachers to stay in contact with their trainers and peers that they have met at the Workshops.

Date: May 1994

Grade Level(s): 5, 6

Subject(s):

  • Interdisciplinary
  • Science
  • Mathematics

Overview: This lesson is designed to instill curiosity in the field of solid waste science and to incite a response to improve the environment.

Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to increase the awareness of the elementary age student as to the need for solid waste management of the environment and to give a sense of individual and community responsibility and control over the world.

Objectives:

  1. Students will become aware of the types of materials discarded into the environment.

     

  2. Students will identify and classify types of materials.

     

  3. Students will learn to predict and evaluate information.

     

  4. Students will work cooperatively in groups to process information.

     

  5. Students will make decisions about further actions to be taken concerning solid waste management in their environment.

Resources/Materials: Science and Children, October l990, Volume 28, Number 2.

Activities and Procedures:

  1. Have samples of the types of materials found in the solid waste compositions of municipal landfills. Have students classify these items into the following categories: paper, plastics, metal, glass rubber/leather, yard waste, textiles, wood, food waste, miscellaneous.

     

  2. On l00 separate sheets of paper (used paper, of course...remember the environment!!), label the categories from #1 above: Paper(34), Plastics(20), Metal(12), Yard Waste (10), Rubber/Leather (6), Textiles (5), Wood (4), Miscellaneous (4), Food Waste (3), Glass (2). This needs to be done before class, as the slips of paper will be passed out to the students.

     

  3. Have students predict how many slips of paper will have the names of each category. Write the predictions down individually and set aside.

     

  4. Pass out the slips of papers to the students until all the slips have been distributed.

     

  5. Write each category on the board. Each student reads a slip of paper in turn while a class recorder marks the tally on the board.

     

  6. After all l00 slips have been recorded, have the students compare their predictions with the actually tally.

     

  7. In small groups, discuss why different predictions worked or didn't work. (In classes where percentage has been covered in math, groups should explore the meaning of percentages applied to stacks of papers of 50, 200, 500 and l000 sheets.)

     

  8. Have groups discuss the following questions:
    a. Do the landfills in my town fit the national percentages? What would be a practical way to find out?

    b. What would you call a person who studies garbage? If you were interested in working with the environment, what kind of jobs could you have?

    c. What are some practical things you can do and as a class to help protect your own immediate environment?

     

  9. Collect the garbage in your own home for three days. Compare your percentages to the national numbers.

Tying It All Together: This is the beginning of any study on waste management. My class analyzes garbage from the students' homes, the school cafeteria, the neighborhood. We then take on projects to recycle and study the occupations associated with environmental science.