ETS1: Engineering Design

While there are trash monitoring protocols for waterways and shorelines, less attention is paid to plans for addressing trash along urban streets. Marine debris education, activities and messaging are predominantly geared toward coastal areas, leaving out urban areas. 

“Plastic Pollution and You,” published by New York Sea Grant, is a 15-lesson curriculum focused on marine debris sources, impacts, and solutions. These hands-on lessons and activities help students learn the different types of plastics, their impact on marine and freshwater ecosystems, and about ways to address and prevent plastic pollution.

Have you ever found litter on the beach and wondered what it is and where it came from? In this project, organized by Oregon Sea Grant and supported through funding by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, students focus on one particular item of marine debris and try to learn about the item's story. What was the item originally used for?

Marine debris is a pervasive, global problem and one that is felt locally in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI).

Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund created this Marine Debris Keiki (Children) Education & Outreach curriculum for grades K-5 as part of a project supported by the NOAA Marine Debris Program.

Developed as a means to educate the next generation about ocean trash and, most importantly, how we all can prevent it. Created through an educational partnership between Ocean Conservancy and the NOAA Marine Debris Program. Flexible curriculum, appropriate for all ages.

Designed as a stand-alone teaching tool or to supplement lessons for educators in both formal and informal settings. Appropriate for students grades K-12, with a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) objectives.

This guide is designed for educators in both formal and informal education situations. It is a regional introduction to three main categories of marine debris: litter; derelict or abandoned boats; and lost or abandoned commercial and recreational fishing gear. Appropriate for grades 5-8.

Turning the Tide on Trash is a learning guide on marine debris. This set of lesson plans and background information introduces educators, students and researchers to the topic of marine debris. The interdisciplinary education guide is designed to provide maximum flexibility in the classroom: it can be used as a stand-alone teaching tool or to supplement work in other subject areas.

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.

Team-building/active activity where students use verbal directions to guide blindfolded classmates through an obstacle course, simulating navigation around abandoned and derelict vessels.

In this lesson, students assess where particles are suspended in the water column (using a premade plastic slurry). Next, the slurry is mixed into a tub of water that is designed to mimic seawater and students take samples to assess the amount, size, and type of the particulates. Students relate this activity to what they might actually find in the ocean.

This lesson plays on students’ creativity by asking them to design a machine that collects debris in the ocean without impacting wildlife.

In this lesson, students are introduced to marine debris and participate in a role-playing exercise acting as beachgoers, boaters, homeowners, factory managers, or managers of a waste disposal company. Students discuss their role and how they can manage or prevent marine debris. Students then make a commitment to decreasing their plastic consumption.

Students will extend their experience in the cleanup by discussing and analyzing ways to prevent marine debris from entering the environment, including Reduce/Reuse/Recycle strategies, Personal habits; Policy change, etc. Using a 4-corners style activity, students will separate debris materials (from the debris deck) into categories for Reduce/Reuse/Recycle/Other.