Lesson Two: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Grade: 4th/5th Time Needed: 45 minutes Unit: From Trash to Treasure
Essential Questions addressed in this lesson:
· How can we adjust our habits and lifestyles to help save our planet?
· What are the 3 R’s?
Standards addressed in this lesson:
NCSS Standards-
· II. Time, Continuity and Change
· III. People, Places and the Environment
· VII. Production, Distribution and Consumption
MMSD Standards-
· A.4.6 (Geography) Identify and distinguish between predictable environmental changes, such as weather patterns and seasons, and unpredictable changes, such as floods and droughts, and describe the social and economiceffects of these changes.
· A.4.9 (Geography) Give examples to show how scientific and technological knowledge has led to environmental changes, such as pollution prevention measures, air-conditioning, and solar heating.
· D.4.7 (Economics) Describe how personal economic decisions, such as deciding what to buy, what to recycle, or how much to contribute to people in need, can affect the lives of people in Wisconsin, the United States, and the world.
UW-Madison Teacher/School of Education Standards-
· Standard 7: Understands and adapts to multiple forms of communication. During this lesson, I use individual, small group, and large group instruction. This provides my students with many different opportunities to communicate and demonstrate their knowledge.
· Standard 8: Employs varied assessment processes. In this lesson, I will use both informal and formal assessments to evaluate the growth of my students. I will also use individual, small group, and large group structures to give students several chances to participate in the way that works best for them.
Materials Needed:
· Overflowing garbage cans
· Made-up news release from the Mayor
· Chalkboard/Whiteboard
Objectives:
· Students will understand the definitions and meanings of the 3 R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle.
· Students will develop their own beliefs for using and implementing the 3 R’s in their lives.
· Students will work together to develop a plan of action to solve the hypothetical news release.
Lesson Context:
This will be the second lesson in a larger unit on trash, recycling and consumption. Previously, students were exposed to how much their own families and communities use and waste. This lesson will act as a way to empower students and have them confront the issues of consumerism and what will happen if we continue to use resources at the rate that we have been.
Lesson Opening:
I will tell the class something along the lines of, “Yesterday, we looked at how much garbage our own houses produce. Today, we will continue to explore the idea of waste and trash and how many resources we use. ” Then, I will ask my students if any of them know what happens to the trash once we throw it away and its picked up by the garbage truck.
Procedures:
1. Before students enter the room, I will have our classroom garbage cans overflowing with trash.
2. After the lesson opening, I will record student’s responses to what happens to the garbage that is thrown away on the board.
3. Once every student has shared their thoughts, I will inform the class that most of the trash is put into a landfill or dump. In case this is new vocabulary, I will have images to show each concept and also the definitions of landfill and dump to ensure every student understands these terms. Once each landfill is full, they must find a new one to hold the trash.
4. I will then invite students to think about their own city and environment, and if they can think of any open places that there could be a landfill. Eventually, there will be no more room for landfills and I will ask the class to think about what it would be like if our city ran out of room to put garbage. (I will not take comments at this point, but instead just have them imagine and keep their thoughts in their heads.)
5. At this point, I will read the students a fake news story from our mayor. The Press Release will be along the following lines:
-MAYOR ANNOUNCES THAT THE CITY HAS RUN OUT OF ROOM FOR GARBAGE. TRASH BINS OVERFLOWING! In a news conference yesterday, the Mayor announced that the garbage landfills have started to overflow. Despite the mayor's efforts to find a suitable location for a new dump, the garbage crisis has not been resolved. An emergency meeting has been called for this evening to discuss final plans for dumping the city's garbage. During the news conference, the mayor said, "Our best plan so far is to eliminate school playgrounds. If we dumped the garbage in the space currently occupied by all school monkey bars and fields we should be able to resolve the problem for another year or two. And hey, the kids will still have their gyms to play in... " Parents and students began protesting the proposed action but stopped when they realized that the next best plan was to dump garbage in everyone's backyards.
6. I will then divide the class into teams with 3 to 4 students in each group. Their task in these groups will be to come up with ways to prevent this news story from coming true, and finding other possible solutions to the garbage crisis. If students do not want any trash to be put in their backyards or schoolyards, they must figure out a way to get their community to stop producing so much trash. They will make a poster, write a press release of their own, come up with a short commercial, or use a different creative avenue to present their ideas.
7. After groups have had enough time (25 minutes or so), they will present their thoughts to the class. I will keep a running list of various solutions generated by the class on the board.
8. Once all groups have presented, I will summarize and group their solutions together. Hopefully, some students will have said one of the 3 R’s in their solutions and I can use this as a segue to tell the students more about the 3 R’s. If no one mentions one of the 3 R’s, however, I will go back to our brainstorming list and tell them that reducing, reusing, and recycling are some of the solutions that I came up with on my own to solve the problem.
-Tell students the 3 R’s:
Reduce- Make less garbage. For example, use a water bottle instead of bottled water.
Reuse- Use an item more than once. For example, when you go to the grocery store use the plastic or paper bag again.
Recycle- Turn an item into another useful item. For example, use a bottled water bottle and put soil in it and plant a seed.
9. After this, I will have the students go back to their solutions and identify which one of the 3 R’s they employed. If they did not use any of the 3 R’s, I will ask them to revise their solution to include one of them.
10. To reinforce the 3 R’s, I will ask students if they have any other examples of how they can reduce, reuse, or recycle in their own lives. I will then challenge them each to think about the 3 R’s as they continue the rest of the day and go home, and look for situations in which they can reduce, reuse, or recycle.
Lesson Closing:
Today, we learned more about how quickly our world is running out of space to put all of our garbage and trash. Next, we will explore ways that our world is trying to fix this problem and what various countries are doing to help save our planet’s resources.
Assessment:
· Students will be informally assessed based on their participation in the discussions surrounding their thought about where trash goes and how to fix the problem.
· Students will be formally assessed on their presentation, whether it be a poster, news release, commercial, etc., about their solution to the news release. These solutions are to be practical and revised to include one of the 3 R’s, being reduce, reuse, or recycle.
· Students will be informally assessed based on their cooperation in working in a group.
Special Considerations:
· Make sure students are in pre-made groups to account for ability levels and personal relationships.
· Give students enough time to form their beliefs about how the 3 R’s can be applied in their lives.
· Make sure we have watched the entire video clip of “The Story of Stuff” prior to this lesson to ensure students have learned facts and real information surrounding this concept.
Sources Used:
(2011). Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (before we run out of space at the dump!).
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