Solutions

Students learn about community organizations and what actions they are taking to reduce marine debris. Students then can organize a cleanup of the school campus, a local waterway or beach, or join another community cleanup project. This activity is available for Grades 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12, within the "Solutions" unit. 

Students engineer an artistic and sturdy item from single-use plastics that might otherwise end up in landfills or as marine debris, effectively removing these plastics from the waste stream. This activity is available for Grades 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12, within the "Solutions" unit. 

Student "Green Teams" analyze school waste, work with school and community partners to reduce, reuse and recycle materials, and set goals to make a difference locally and globally. This activity is available for Grades 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12, within the "Solutions" unit. 

Students will explore the mathematical concept of probability in the context of marine debris in the ocean. Using a spinner with items an animal could potentially ingest, students calculate the probability that the animal will encounter marine debris instead of food.

Students focus on one characteristic of some marine debris – the “loop” shape – and learn how marine debris items with this shape negatively impact sea lions. This activity is available for Grades 4-5, within the "Impacts" unit. 

Students will review key marine debris vocabulary using BINGO. They will explore and discuss different solutions to and prevention for the marine debris problem. Students will also brainstorm new creative solutions through art. Students will be asked to make a commitment to decreasing their plastic consumption by signing a Plastics Pledge.

Students will explore the concept of packaging, both what it has been and what it is. Then they will consider how modern packaging is affecting the environment and what they can do about it.

Students will create a class definition for single use plastics. Next, students will create T-shirt bags as an alternative to plastic bags and explore the environmental cost of different types of bags.

Students split into teams on opposite sides of a visual barrier in the classroom. Debris will be spread over each team’s side of the barrier. Their goal will be to remove all the trash from their side, and they will win when there is no trash on the ground. Students will find that the only way that they can win is by taking care of their own trash rather than throwing it onto the other side.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  A summary of the "Keepin' It Clean in 2017" project, which paired middle school students with master's students to learn about marine debris and create an action project to reduce it.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  A summary of educational efforts to reduce single-use plastics and provide students with the tools to communicate about marine debris issues through presentations at local schools and other events.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  A summary of a project through a local high school to conduct a research project on historic debris accumulation on the islands.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  A summary of the efforts of University of the Virgin Islands master's students' efforts to conduct outreach on single-use plastic and other marine debris reduction across the islands.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  A summary of student divers who conducted in-water debris removal projects.

<!--td {border: 1px solid #cccccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}-->  A summary of efforts to find new ways to communicate Marine Debris information through the University of the Virgin Islands.