Grade 6-8

Students complete a form that requires them to make decisions about how severely different types of marine debris affect animals, people, vessels, and habitat. As a class, results are totaled and analyzed to determine which types of marine debris are most harmful to the different categories.

In this unit, students will explore the effects of marine debris on wildlife and coastal communities and the potential hazards it poses to humans.

Students will observe and record litter they see in their neighborhood, reflect on how the litter came to be there, then make predictions on how the littered items might make their way to the ocean. Students will compare the litter they have observed with data collected during the International Coastal Cleanup.

Over the span of a week, students keep a log of the types and amounts of trash they generate, and how they dispose of that trash. Students also learn which items were (or could/should have been) recycled, and which items could become marine debris.

Students learn about different trash items and define “marine debris” through a discussion about these items. Students then categorize debris and use statistics and graphing to describe the types and amounts of marine debris that are found each year.

Students perform an experiment to learn how different types of debris break down in the environment (degrade) and how weather and sunlight affect the rate of degradation.

Students perform experiments to examine whether or not trash can float, blow around, or wash away. The effects of these characteristics on marine debris in the environment are then discussed.

Students will first define marine debris, discuss its possible impacts, and then sort household trash items into different categories to learn about different sources of marine debris. Older students then use statistics and graphing to better understand the types of marine debris that are collected each year.

In this unit, students will examine what marine debris is, where it comes from, and how it enters the marine environment.

The students will create their own laws and legal consequences concerning marine debris and identify the litter laws and legal consequences of litter in their own state.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  Students will review and analyze a data set from a local marine debris cleanup. After drawing conclusions about the data, they will use it as evidence for a campaign to prevent marine debris.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  Simple upcycling activity making a fish mobile out of aluminum cans.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  Simple maze activity featuring a fish and a recycling bin.

Brief reading passage focused on ways to prevent marine debris (reduce/reuse/recycle).

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  Team-building/active activity where students use verbal directions to guide blindfolded classmates through an obstacle course, simulating navigation around abandoned and derelict vessels.