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| |  | SCI-LIT LINKS QUICKPLAN
LITTER BUGS
(QuickPlan developed by Dr. Ken Mechling, Clarion, Pennsylvania)
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OVERVIEW: Students read The Wartville Wizard, identify litter around the school and their homes, and suggest solutions to litter-related problem situations.
BOOKLINK: The Wartville Wizard by Don Madden, Aladdin Paperbacks, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1986. ISBN 0-689-71667-2
SCIENCE ACTIVITY LINK: Children identify litter, consider its impact upon their environment, and formulate group solutions to litter-related problems.
OBJECTIVE: Students will identify and classify litter, identify and describe litter examples in their own community, and work cooperatively in groups to formulate solutions to litter-related problems.
SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT: Processes-Observing, communicating, inferring, measuring, classifying, gathering and analyzing data, investigating, and problem-solving. Content-Trash disposal; constructing rules, regulations, and laws regarding litter disposal; and recycling.
NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (2) Physical Science, (3) Life Science, (4) Earth and Space Science, (5) Science and Technology, (6) Science in Personal and Social Perspectives, (7) History and Nature of Science, (8) Science as a Human Endeavor
MATERIALS: Book The Wartville Wizard, examples of locally-found litter, disposable plastic gloves, trash bags, butcher paper, and glue.
PROCEDURE:
1. Read the humorous story The Wartville Wizard. Have the students identify and record examples of litter in the story. Challenge the children to classify the trash into groups: e.g. biodegradable-not biodegradable; organic-inorganic; paper, metal, glass, plant parts, animal parts; harmful to animals-not harmful to animals, recyclable-not recyclable.
2. You may wish to take the children on a litter-collecting field trip around the school. Have them identify and record the litter, where it was found, infer how it got there, and classify the litter into piles that can be measured by number, weight, or volume. Children should wear gloves when handling trash. Discuss their findings. Have teams of children make collages or graphs of their findings.
3. Next, divide the class into four groups. Give each group one of the problem-situations described in 3.a, b, c, or d and ask them to read and discuss the problem and, by group consensus, arrive at a solution to be reported to the entire class by a student selected by the group. Encourage discussion by having the other groups analyze the reported recommendations followed by agreement, disagreement, or concerns. Discuss ways to reduce litter. Problem-situations:
a. Suppose that you are on your way to meet a good friend after school. Just as you observe your friend coming out of school, you notice him/her take a wrapper off a candy bar and throw it on the school sidewalk. What advice would you give your friend? Why? What are some things you could do to reduce littering around your school?
b. Assume that you are a student in an international school in a country whose culture appears to tolerate littering. As you look about your school and the community surrounding it, even a nearby park, everywhere you look there is litter-paper, bottles, cans, Styrafoam containers, and all sorts of rubbish discarded by people who live and work nearby. Is this a problem? Why? What could you and your classmates do to reduce littering?
c. As you travel in an automobile down a highway, you notice signs that read, "Littering: $300 Fine." Just as an auto passes you, someone in the vehicle throws out two bags of litter, the remains of fast food restaurant meals. When the bags hit the side of the road, they break open and paper, boxes, plastic, soda and milkshake containers, and other debris are strewn along the highway for 25 meters. You are close enough to the auto to clearly read the license number. Should you report this incident to the police? Why? How?
d. You go on vacation to one of your favorite vacation spots--the seashore. While there, you go for a walk along the beach and notice a substantial amount of litter left by people and washed in by the tides. There are lots of cigarette butts, plastic bottles and caps, expended fireworks parts, paper, plastic form containers, aluminum cans, plastic six-pack rings, candy and gum wrappers, empty cigarette packs, balloon pieces, dog feces, and other rubbish. What could be done to keep the beaches free of litter? What could you do?
4. Identify and discuss ways that litter can endanger wildlife: e.g. bottle caps, pop tops, cigarette butts, and plastic wrappers may be eaten by wildlife, injuring or killing them; monofilament fishing line may get tangled in the legs of water birds like geese or herons; and animals can get caught in plastic six-pack holders. (See "Litter We Know" in Project Wild K-12 Activity Guide.)
5. Have the children investigate the relationship between litter and recycling. NatureScope Pollution Problems and Solutions have some excellent suggestions for teaching about trash disposal, pollution, and recycling.
SAFETY: Students should wear gloves when handling trash. They should not collect garbage.
RELATED BOOKS:
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, Random House, New York, 1971. ISBN 0-394-82337-0
Dear Children of the Earth by Schim Schimmel, NorthWord Press, Inc., Minocqua, WI, 1994. ISBN 1-55971-225-2
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