Grade 3-5

This lesson will activate students’ existing knowledge and experiences, stimulate their desire to learn more, and provide an opportunity to reflect on their knowledge acquisition in the future. Activating their prior knowledge is helpful to assess what students already know, understand any misconceptions, and pinpoint areas of interest.

In this session, students will learn about the Chumash History of the Swordfish and how it is connected to the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini tribe.

In this session, students will learn about various types of plastic and work together to create a reusable sandwich bag. 

In this session, students will learn about various types of plastic and work together to create a reusable beeswax wrap. 

We make a recommendation, or feasibility study, on how our school can reduce the amount of lunchroom trash. We present this to our class, community partner, and to school decision makers.

We share our ideas with each other and our community partner about how to reduce the amount of trash produced in our school lunchrooms. We talk about the results of our lunchroom audit. We decide which ideas, for reducing our lunchroom trash, we want to research.

We investigate where the trash is produced in our school and compare it to the trash produced at home. We investigate how our school manages trash. We audit what type and how much trash is produced in our school lunchrooms.

We explore how trash gets into the water. We investigate the common marine debris in the Great Lakes. We learn how trash (plastic) impacts animals including people.

Students learn about what happens to plastic items and food when we throw them away. Students will use the 5R words to think about ways to keep trash from the landfill.

Students investigate where the things go when we throw them away.

Students analyze pictures of trash (and the trash data from their cleanup) and come up with their own definition for trash. 

Students will complete a trash cleanup with a community partner and learn why this partner thinks reducing marine debris is important.