Student Advocacy

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. 

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. 

Plastic pellets (also called “nurdles”) are small pre-production pieces that are shipped around the world to factories that melt them to produce a variety of products. Pellets are often lost during transit, and because they float can be found throughout the ocean and on beaches everywhere.

This activity will serve as a catalyst for students to derive connections between their actions and the impact on the environment. Students will observe marine debris from around the world, collect their own trash data around school, and use technology to further research. Once the data can be compared, students will communicate their findings in a group setting.

In this lesson, students will collect debris on their school grounds,“x” number of miles from the ocean and compare the quantity of plastic in the sample with a similar sample at the mouth of the river, where it empties into the ocean.

In this lesson, students follow a scientific data collection procedure to collect and analyze debris at their school campus. They compare their results to a larger existing marine debris database in California, and make connections between campus debris and marine debris using the concept of watersheds. This activity is available for Grades 4-5, within the "Sources and Transport" unit. 

Students explore a local riverbank or beach and carry out a survey to assess human impacts on the area. Students analyze and share their findings. This activity is available for Grades 4-5, within the "Composition and Abundance" unit. 

In this activity, students will have the opportunity to research and present different perspectives from community members considering a policy on plastic bags.