Spotlight

Across the Great Lakes basin, many educators are interested in the topic of marine debris but lack the resources needed to explore this topic with their students. In partnership with the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the Center for Great Lakes Literacy, a Great Lakes Sea Grant team made up of Ohio Sea Grant, Wisconsin Sea Grant, and Michigan Sea Grant worked to improve access to critical educational resources for Great Lakes educators through the Trash Trunk: a kit for learning about marine debris. This kit includes lesson and activity materials, as well as these display cards with specific, place-based information about marine debris in the Great Lakes. 

To learn more about the Trash Trunk, visit the Wisconsin Sea Grant website.

“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. Interdisciplinary elements of this curriculum include policy research, environmental justice, and effective outreach and communication strategies. The curriculum is designed to be appropriate for multiple grade levels, meet New York State and Next Generation Science Standards, and align with several regional environmental action plans. Educators from New York who are interested in getting involved in future revisions to the curriculum can connect with New York Sea Grant through their website.

To learn more about “Plastic Pollution and You,” including an instructional webinar reviewing the units and lessons, visit the New York Sea Grant website.

One Cool Earth, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program and Bay Watershed Education and Training program, created a series of standards-aligned lesson plans exploring issues related to marine debris and environmental stewardship. Each of these lessons focus on experiential, project-based learning to support student engagement and action. 

Pollution Solutions

In this lesson students pose questions about the nature of the litter found around their school, make predictions, do a campus cleanup to cultivate environmental stewardship, and then brainstorm solutions to prevent litter.
Download: K-2nd (docx) | 3rd-6th (docx)

Garbology

In this lesson students will learn about which types of matter can decompose by conducting a simple experiment. Students will observe changes over time due to decomposition, notice patterns and classify materials based on their ability to decompose, and explain how matter changes through decomposition.
Download: K-2nd (docx) | 3rd-6th (docx)

Waste Audit

In this lesson, students will learn about the impact of school waste on the environment. They will use math to measure some/all of the waste produced in one day on campus, and brainstorm ways to reduce that waste. Additionally, teachers can expand on this lesson by encouraging students to take on leadership roles to organize a campus-wide waste audit to collect more data, and design and implement solutions for reducing waste on campus. Download: 3rd-6th (docx)

The full collection includes 24 lesson plans focused on Next Generation Science Standards, all of which are available on the One Cool Earth website. The lessons are grouped in “Phenomenal Series” to link related lessons. Lessons can be taught stand-alone, but may have more significance if taught in the suggested order, within a given phenomenal series. Each of these lessons are also available in a virtual format. 

You can learn more about One Cool Earth at their website. Additionally, explore their previously funded work with the NOAA Marine Debris Program: 

• Promoting Marine Debris Prevention through the Earth Genius Program in California
• Salinas River to the Sea Waste Reduction and Marine Debris Prevention in San Luis Obispo County California

This toolkit, created by Falmouth Water Stewards/Skip the Straw and Sea Education Association (SEA) with funding provided by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, provides strategies, best practices, and examples of successful, student-driven campaigns to reduce single-use plastics in communities. The materials in this toolkit include educational information about marine debris types, sources, and prevention; suggestions for creating logos and other communication materials; tips and scripts for interacting with restaurants; and templates for letters to community members and organizations to promote student efforts. 

These resources were inspired by a 2015 “Skip the Straw” campaign in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Five middle school students, in partnership with Falmouth Water Stewards, developed and used communication tools that reached various audiences for the campaign, such as surveys and scorecards for restaurant owners and managers. This campaign, paired with ocean research conducted by undergraduate students studying with SEA Semester, created the Trash Shouldn’t Splash partnership. Ten restaurants in Woods Hole posted signage supporting the “Trash Shouldn't Splash” single-use plastic reduction message, some of which are featured in the toolkit. Additional resources and example materials are available on the Trash Shouldn’t Splash website. 

Created by One Cool Earth with funding provided by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, this Marine Debris Prevention Best Practices Manual is a comprehensive guide to help establish lasting change on school campuses. It covers tips and tricks for engaging students in assessing school waste, bringing student leaders together into “Green Teams,” and supporting the entire school community with marine debris prevention. Learn creative ways to minimize waste in the classroom, in the cafeteria, in school gardens, and on the playground. These strategies are accompanied by case studies, standards-aligned lesson plans, videos, and other resources. 

You can learn more about this project, as well as find additional lesson plans and other resources for formal and informal educators on One Cool Earth’s Educator Resources page.

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? How does it move through its life cycle of manufacture, transportation, use, and disposal? How did this item end up abandoned or discarded in the marine environment?

Once students know the object's story, they identify solutions that would prevent this particular type of marine debris from ending up on the beach, and share their ideas with decision makers. The goal is to interrupt the processes that lead to this type of marine debris. These three 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) lessons are centered around the anchoring phenomena of yellow rope fragments, plastic shotgun wads, or balloons on the beach.

On the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, you can find additional resources for teaching these unique problem-based lessons, including a field guide for marine debris items of concern and a blank lesson template to create similar lessons for other marine debris objects.

These colorful, engaging activity books were created by Prince George’s County, Maryland, with funding from the NOAA Marine Debris Program. Follow along as Spencer the Sprout learns about how litter becomes marine debris and ways to make a difference in your community. Each book features content and activities ideal for a different age group, from kindergarten through high school. 

• Volume 1: Kindergarten-Grade 2 - Meet Spencer and learn about how litter impacts our favorite places and how we can make a difference.
• Volume 2: Grades 3-5 - Support Spencer on a mission to learn all about watersheds, how litter can get from our streets into the ocean, and how we can prevent it.  
• Volume 3: Grades 6-8 - Explore with Spencer the many impacts of debris, everyday activities that can lead to it, and ways that individuals and communities can commit to taking care of the environment.
• Volume 4: Grades 9-12 - Spencer is trapped! Kim, Renaldo, and Shawn are Prince George’s County’s only hope to save the environment from marine debris and free Spencer.

Dive into the world of Spencer the Sprout and learn more about the work of Prince George’s County at the Spencer the Sprout website.