Lesson Plan on Waste and Recycling

Theme:

• trash and recycling

Goals:

Students will go through this class plan about garbage and recycling learn:

• Work together in groups to formulate your best estimate of how long some garbage items might last in a landfill;
• learn about the environmental consequences in case the recycling.

Required Material:

• can of soda
• banana
• cotton
• glass bottle
• leather boot
• cigarette butt
• plastic bag
• paper bag
• styrofoam cup
• wool sock
• can of vegetables

(Write the list above on a board)

Introduction:

Before Lesson Showing, copy the list of items above on the board.

Draw students' attention to the items you have gathered. You might ask: What do all the items have in common? If your students are too young to figure out the answer, share with them that each of the items is likely to end up in a landfill.

Then ask: What will happen to these items when they end up in the landfill? How long do you think they will last there? Do they disappear / disintegrate / degrade immediately? Or will they continue to take up landfill space? Let students freely discuss these questions.

Development:

Direct the children's attention to the list on the board. Ask students to copy the list. Then ask them to:

• Think for yourself about how long each of the items on the list can last when buried in a landfill.
• Recreate the list, writing each item in order according to how long they think it might last in a landfill. Students should start their lists with the item they think will degrade the fastest and end with the one that will last the longest.

Then organize students into small groups. (Groups of 4-5 students will work best.) Let students share their lists and discuss what they believe is the correct sequence. Ask each group to come to a consensus on the correct order of the items.

Now it's time for the groups to share their lists. Call a group to share their answers first. Ask them to name the sequence they decided on. Do the same with the other groups. When this activity is completed, draw students' attention to the discrepancies in the graph. For example, why do some people include the plastic bag before the banana? At the conclusion of the discussion, reveal to students that the correct sequence is as follows:

• banana
• paper bag
• cotton
• cigarette butt
• wool sock
• leather boot
• can of vegetables
• can of soda
• Plastic bag
• styrofoam cup
• glass bottle

Now provide students with the following table and ask them to put the time each item will last beside it.

After providing students with data on how long the displayed items will last, discuss the following questions: Do the items continue to degrade and make room for new trash? Or will those landfills eventually fill up? Does this data tell us anything about the importance of recycling?

Assessment:

Ask students to write a paragraph explaining what they learned about landfills and the importance of recycling.

Related Contents:

• School Recycling Project
• Lesson Plan on Threatened Ecosystems
• Dynamics on the Environment