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Sustainability Lesson Clearinghouse
What Happens to Litter?
Lesson Description:
- Describe litter, and explain where it comes from, what happens to it and why that matters.
- Collect, record, organize, and interpret data using a variety of graphic representations.
- Describe a year in terms of months.
- Make observations and draw conclusions.
Lesson Type:
- Discussion
- Lecture
- Other
Sustainability Topic:
- Waste Reduction
GEF Program Category:
- Waste Reduction Challenge
Standards Addressed:
Technology Standard 3: Understand the relationship among science, technology, society and the individual.
Science Standard 10: Understand force and motion.
Science Standard 12: Understand the nature of scientific inquiry.
Health Standard 2: Know environmental and external factors that affect individual and community health.
Mathematics Standard 4: Understand and apply the basic and advanced properties of the concepts of measurement.
Mathematics Standard 6: Understand and apply the basic and advanced concepts of statistics and data analysis.
Language Arts Standard 6: Use reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary text.
- Benchmark # 3: Know that man-made materials, products, and systems can affect the environment adversely, yet there are things that can be done to circumvent this process (e.g., disposing of waste properly).
Science Standard 10: Understand force and motion.
- Benchmark # 3: Know that the position of an object can be described by locating it relative to another object or the background.
- Benchmark # 5: Know things move in many different ways (e.g., straight line, circular motion).
Science Standard 12: Understand the nature of scientific inquiry.
- Benchmark # 1: Know learning can come from careful observation and simple experiments.
Health Standard 2: Know environmental and external factors that affect individual and community health.
- Benchmark # 1: Know the sources and causes of pollution in the community.
- Mathematics Standard 2: Understand and apply basic and advanced properties of the concepts of numbers.
- Benchmark # 3: Understand symbolic, concrete, and pictorial representations of numbers.
- Benchmark # 4: Understand basic whole number relationships (e.g., 4 is less than ten).
Mathematics Standard 4: Understand and apply the basic and advanced properties of the concepts of measurement.
- Benchmark # 2: Understand the concept of time and how it is measured (e.g., months in a year).
Mathematics Standard 6: Understand and apply the basic and advanced concepts of statistics and data analysis.
- Benchmark # 1: Collect and represent information about objects or events in simple graphs (e.g., tally charts, bar graphs).
Language Arts Standard 6: Use reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of literary text.
- Benchmark # 1: Use reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of familiar literary passages and texts (e.g., picture books, predictable books,…).
- Benchmark # 5: Relate stories to personal experiences.a
Materials Needed:
- Copy of “Where Does Pollution Come From?” by C. Vance Cast
- Poster markers or colored chalk
- Grade appropriate grid paper
- Pencils
- Rulers
- Chart paper
- "Rotting Litter" data table provided below
Submitted By:
Green Education Foundation (GEF)
Green Education Foundation (GEF)
School or Group:
Green Education Foundation (GEF)
Green Education Foundation (GEF)
Contact Email:
service@greeneducationfoundation.org
service@greeneducationfoundation.org