Grade 4 | |||
Science | |||
Waste in Our World | Students will recognize that human activity can lead to the production of wastes, and identify alternatives for the responsible use and disposal of materials. 4.1.1 Identify plant and animal wastes and describe how they are recycled in nature. 4.1.2 Identify and classify wastes that result from human activity 4.1.3 Describe alternative methods of disposal, and identify possible advantages and disadvantages of each. 4.1.4 Distinguish between wastes that are readily biodegradable and those that are not. 4.1.5 Compare different kinds of packaging, and infer the relative advantages and disadvantages and disadvantages of the packing. In evaluating forms of packaging, students should demonstrate the ability to consider a consumer perspective as well as environmental perspective. 4.1.6 Identify methods of waste disposal currently used within the local community. 4.1.7 Identify alternative materials and processes that may decrease the amount of waste produced 4.1.8 Identify kinds of wastes that may be toxic to people and to the environment 4.1.9 Identify ways in which materials can be reused or recycled, including examples of things that the student has done 4.1.10 Develop a flow chart for a consumer product that indicates the source materials, final product, its use and method of disposal. 4.1.11 Identify actions that individuals and groups can take to minimize the production its use and the method of disposal. 4.1.12 Develop and implement a plan to reduce waste, and monitor what happens over a period of time. | The Garbage Gyre directly relates to this unit. Teachers can show videos about the garbage gyre to show them what has happened because of improper disposal of garbage, the harmful effect of plastics to the environment and what we can do to change the situation. Students can create flow charts (on poster paper or on the computer) to show the life of a consumer product such as a pop can or a water bottle to show their understanding of how materials end up in the land fill or in the ocean. Teachers can ask open ended questions about the state of the Garbage Gyre: Who is responsible for cleaning up the garbage? How does the garbage affect marine life? Can anything be done to prevent it from getting larger? Can we use the plastic in any way? What can we do to reduce the amount of garbage we produce? Teachers can encourage students to start social action projects that either support or help non-profit initiatives to save marine animals, reduce pollution, protect the environment, and advocate for the safety of humans and animals. The class can also start school community initiatives such as a recycling club, an art club that only uses recycled material; start a fundraiser to get enough money for each student in the school to get a reusable water bottle. Teachers must show students how the ocean currents work and how the garbage is collected in the gyre. This can be done in an experiment with rubber duckies which is a smaller version of the rubber ducks that oceanographers have used to track real ocean currents. In 1992, a shipping crate containing around 28000 rubber duckies fell overboard from a ship carrying it from Hong Kong to the USA. The crate evidently opened somehow and the duckies were spilled. Now, after almost 20 years they’ve been used to track marine currents as well as to examine how plastic degrades over time. Some have been found along the shores of Hawaii and Alaska and some were even found frozen in the arctic ice. The students will learn about ocean currents, different ocean gyres, latitude and longitude and how to track movement on a map. Students will see if different plastics of different sizes and compositions float or sink, if they move with wind and if they pick up other things along its movement. Students will use the longitude and latitude positions to track the path that the rubber duckies have taken over the years. They will have a map and pin points and in the end they will see where the major gyres and ocean currents are. Here is the lesson plan: http://www.scientistinresidence.ca/pdf/earth-science/Marine%20Pollution%20PDF/SRP_Marine%20Pollution_Lesson%205%20WF.pdf This website has different ideas of what we can do to learn about the ocean and how it is connected to our lives: http://oneocean.cbc.ca/pledge/issues/pollution This website has an informative slide show that covers ocean currents, plankton, and marine pollution: http://www.slideshare.net/js8479/plastic-pollution-in-our-oceans This website has great images of maps and provides information about numerous renewable sources of energy and global issues: http://www.nature-education.org/earth-map.html This is an experiment that shows students how marine pollution will affect our food supply. It uses the concept of fractions and can be used to incorporate that unit into the study: http://www.populationeducation.org/docs/earthmatters/activity-a_drop_in_the_ocean.pdf This website is a great resource for lesson plans pertaining to different science objectives and topics, which include pollution, ocean currents, and climate change: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/lessons/welcome.html National Geographic offers many different lesson plans to show students the importance of taking care of the earth. This one in particular is called “Oceans: the Global Connector”. The lessons are very thorough and include assessment rubrics, activities, and cross curricular assessments: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/15/g68/seatoshiningsea1.html The garbage gyre has affected the ocean currents and the changes in these currents can affect climate, and possibly cause many major natural disasters. This lesson plan from National Geographic allows students to study different natural disasters and the effect of it on the human population. There is an art component as well: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/15/g35/ This is an article about a billionaire that created a boat from plastic and is setting sail to study the garbage patch. This story can be used as a starting point for students to brainstorm ways that they can reuse plastics and other non-biodegradable materials: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/12/david-de-rothschild-plastiki-pacific Students should study the effect of pollution and garbage on animals. This article describes the plight of the polar bear that are in peril because of increasing pollution: http://polarbearcentral.blogspot.com/2008/01/polar-bears-and-pollution.html This is a great lesson plan that teaches students about ocean currents and the connection to El Nino and other weather phenomena’s and how these currents carry debris and garbage to even the most secluded parts of the ocean. Students will formulate inquiry questions and a video link is included: http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/affiliates/prism/documents/OceanCurrentsUnit.pdf This webpage offers some neat ideas of science projects that utilize water bottles. When teaching students about reusing materials you could create some of these easy projects to spark ideas: http://www.ehow.com/info_7964581_science-projects-plastic-bottles.html Students can create a mini greenhouse using a plastic water bottle to observe a small version of the greenhouse effect: http://cosee.umaine.edu/cfuser/resources/making_a_greenhouse.pdf This lesson can be used for Grade 5 Weather studies as well, but it goes through cloud cover and greenhouse gases: http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/educators/resources/cloudsat/guide_phase3.asp The website Ocean Motion offers multiple lesson plans, resources, and assessment modules pertaining to oceanography. The lessons are tailored for older grades (middle school) but many lessons can be tweaked for younger grades, and many of the resources are good for teachers to get informed themselves: http://oceanmotion.org/html/teachers/introduction.htm This is a website that offers information about the rising temperatures of the oceans due to pollution and how that may affect marine life: http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/global-ecology.php This is a really cool blog/ social action project that shows a crew that has created a boat using 12000 plastic bottles and they have set sail. You can follow their journey through the blog posts. You could try to get in touch with a person from this program to answer questions from the students about how they came up with the idea and why it is important to think outside of the box with such a large and almost impossible situation: http://www.theplastiki.com/ This website is a great resource for teachers and students to get informed about marine preservation initiatives. They have ideas for creating social action projects that would support marine life; it also includes a marine guardian activity booklet, lesson plans and interactive games: http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/welcome.html | |
Plant Growth and Change | Students will demonstrate knowledge and skills for the study, interpretation, propagation and enhancement of plant growth. 4.2.1 Describe the importance of plants to humans and their importance to the natural environment. Students will be able to give examples of plants being used as a source of food or shelter, and be aware of the role plants play in the environment. 4.2.2 Identify and describe the general purpose of plant roots, stems, leaves, and flowers. 4.2.3 Describe common plants and classify them on the basis of their characteristics and uses. 4.2.4 Recognize that plant requirements for growth vary from plant to plant and that other conditions may also be important to the growth of particular plants 4.2.5 Identify examples of plants that have special needs. 4.2.6 Recognize that a variety of plant communities can be found within the local area and that differences in plant communities are related to variations in the amount of light, water and other conditions. 4.2.7 Recognize that plants of the same kind have a common life cycle and produce new plants that are similar, but not identical, to the parent plants. 4.2.8 Describe ways that various flowering plants can be propagated, including from seed from cutting, from bulbs, and by runners. 4.2.9 Nurture a plant through one complete life cycle from seed to seed 4.2.10 Describe the care and growth of a plant that students have nurtured 4.2.11 Describe different ways that seeds are distributed (wind, animal, currents) and recognize seed adaptations for different methods of distribution | Students can examine how ocean pollution and increased garbage accumulation is affecting the growth of marine plant life and how some harmful algae is forming and rapidly propagating and suffocating other plants. Students can create experiments to see if a plant can grow in a plastic container that is heated by the sun. Students can also grow and care for plants so that they have a sense of ownership over plant life and empathize with plant life and see the value in caring for the environment. A social action initiative would be to care for the school garden and have planters in the classroom. Another great activity would be to get the students to observe the accumulation of algae in a fish tank with an algae eater fish and one without and see how rapidly it grows. | |
Social Studies | |||
Alberta: Sense of the Land | 4.1 Alberta: A Sense of the Land- Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how elements of physical geography, climate, geology and paleontology are integral to the landscapes and environment of Alberta. 4.1.1 Value Alberta’s physical geography and natural environment - appreciate diversity of elements pertaining to geography, climate, and geology - appreciate fossil heritage - appreciate abundance of natural resources - appreciate provincial parks and preserved areas in Alberta - appreciate how land sustains communities and qualities of life - demonstrate care and concern for the environment through choices 4.2.1 Examine the physical geography of Alberta by exploring and reflecting on the following questions and issues: - Where is Alberta located in relation to the other provinces and territories? - What are the major geographical and natural vegetation regions, landforms, and water? - What factors determine climate in diverse regions of Alberta? - What are the significant natural resources in Alberta, and where are they located? - How are Alberta’s provincial parks important to sustainability of the environment? | Students will learn about geographical landforms and resources specific to Alberta, but can connect this to appreciation for Alberta’s environment to a bigger appreciation for the ocean and find how every body of water is somehow connected through currents and movement. Students can write stories about the life of a rock and how it travels through Canada through streams, rivers, erosion, how it travels into larger ocean currents, ends up in the Arctic, gets frozen in a glacier etc. When students learn about climate they can predict what would happen if the climate changes in Canada due to pollution and green house gasses. They can begin to think critically about how we care for our provincial parks and what would happen if there were 3.5 million tons of garbage in our forests or in our water. They could research the uses of the water in the Glenmore reservoir and see how it would affect our way of life if there were massive piles of plastic and garbage in our water supply. | |
The Stories, Histories and People of Alberta | 4.2 The Stories, Histories and People of Alberta- Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the role of stories, history and culture in strengthening communities and contributing to identity and a sense of belonging. 4.2.1- appreciates how an understanding of Alberta’s history, peoples and stories contributes to their own sense of belonging and identity. - recognize how stories of people and events provide multiple perspectives on events - recognize oral traditions, narratives, and stories as valid sources of knowledge - recognize the presence of diverse Aboriginal peoples as inherent to Alberta history - demonstrate respect for places and objects of historical significance - What do the stories of Aboriginal peoples tell us about their beliefs? | Students will learn about how Aboriginals used every part of their hunted animals and how they used only what they needed. Students need to see how we can live without creating extra waste. Students will learn about endangered and extinct species of animals and how many can still be saved if we decrease pollution and waste production. Students can begin to think about what their legacy will be, and if we were to tell our stories, what would we say about this garbage island. Garbage Island is something that is very real, but because it is small shards of plastic, and there seems to be no immediate solutions, it has already become mythologized. Students can tell stories of how the garbage gyre came to be. What does this garbage legacy tell about our beliefs and values? Students can create scripts and act out the many different life forms and plant life affected by marine and water pollution. | |
Celebrations and Challenges | 4.3 Alberta: Celebrations and Challenges- Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how Alberta has grown and changed culturally, economically, and socially since 1905. 4.3.4 – Examine recreation and tourism in Alberta by exploring and reflecting on questions and issues- - How do physical geography and climate affect seasonal activities throughout Alberta? - To what extent do recreation and tourism foster appreciation of Alberta’s natural environment? - In what ways do interest concerning tourism and the natural environment? | Students explore geography and climate; they can also examine changing ocean currents and the effect of the garbage gyre on climate and the increase in natural disasters. The students can discover how interconnected we are to the global issues of pollution. They can begin to think about quality of life if we were drowning in our waste. | |
Grade 5 | ||
Science | ||
Wetland Ecosystems | Describe the living and nonliving components of a wetland ecosystem and the interactions within and among them | Discuss what kind of wildlife and water animals live on or around garbage island, and research how they are being affected by the garbage and its components. Discuss ideas to prevent further animal deaths from the components of the Garbage Gyre, and find out what types of things are being done to help the ecosystem around the Garbage Gyre. Example of water life effects surrounding gyre: http://beach-blog.hostei.com/?p=627 Investigate the Dutch engineer’s idea of building an island out of the garbage collected in the ocean. What are the different things you can build that would be sustainable in the ocean against the elements and constant salt water? Discuss and build an experimental structure to survive in the ocean. |
Classroom Chemistry | Students learn properties and interactions of some safe to handle household liquids and solids, with experiments. | Students can learn about the types of chemicals that are mixing in the garbage gyre. Once they know household chemicals, they can research and come up with ideas to prevent this from entering the garbage (ie. Recycling of chemicals), if there could be further use for the chemicals, and alternatives to using the chemicals in the first place. |
Weather Watch | Investigate relationships between weather phenomena and human activity. | Students can research and find out how the weather is affected by the Garbage Gyre even at home in Canada. They can find out what kind of weather happens on Garbage Island and how it effects the gyre. |
Language Arts | ||
All areas of Language Arts can be considered; below are possible ideas for implementation. | ||
1.1 Discover and Explore | Experiment with language and forms | Write an online blog that students write on to talk about the Garbage Gyre and to write down what they have done to make a difference and further ideas to inform the general public. Example of a high school science class blog: http://frobinett.edublogs.org/2011/02/25/ocean-gyres-and-floating-garbage-patches/comment-page-1/ |
Consider others’ ideas | Research different viewpoints that are associated with the Garbage Gyre and have debates following all viewpoints on what should be done about the Garbage Gyre to create a better understanding for students. | |
Express ideas and develop understanding | Show a video to students of Garbage Island (several on YouTube) and have them share their ideas and do individual or group written research projects on something that interests them to further understand what is going on. | |
2.1 Use Strategies and Cues | Use textual cues (to enhance understanding) | Students can find maps, diagrams and graphics on numerous websites online that can help them explain the Garbage Gyre to better present information to the class and the public. |
2.2 Respond to texts | Experience various text (express points of view) | Have students pick a country to study and see what they are doing about their garbage and waste (ie. Recycle programs) and have students present their findings, expressing their opinion on what the country should be doing about their waste. |
2.3 Understand forms, elements and techniques | Understanding techniques and elements | Students can discuss what makes television commercials effective while discussing techniques used (ie. Music, costume, humour, etc.) and create their own 30 second commercial about the Recycling (must include some aspect of the Garbage Gyre) |
Social Studies | ||
Physical Geography of Canada | 5.1.1 Value Canada’s physical geography and natural environment 5.1.2 Examine, critically, the physical geography of Canada 5.1.3 Analyze how people in Canada interact with the environment | Have students find out what is happening locally in producing waste and garbage problems in our own lakes and rivers. How are we dealing with our waste and how is it effecting the natural environment? Look into agencies and government projects that are working to prevent garbage from destroying our natural environment and our ecosystems. How does what we import/export affect their waste management? Investigate how long our garbage would take to get to the garbage gyre or would it? |
Math | ||
Number | Develop Number sense Estimation strategies Apply mental mathematic strategies and number properties | Students can collect and count bottles and other recyclables. Calculations and estimates can be made based on information they gather regarding the collection of bottles and other recycles and consider their data as representative of their class, school, city, province, country etc. |
Patterns and Relations | Sort objects, using one attribute, and explain the sorting rule. Record equalities, using the equal symbol. | Calculate unknown information using one-step addition and subtraction. |
Shape and Space | Describe the characteristics of 3-D objects and 2-D shapes and analyze the relationships among them. | Calculate the time garbage takes to collect: in a household, city, country etc. Calculate how long the garbage takes to travel from: the store to the household recycle bin, the recycle bin to the city waste management facility, the facility to the ocean, from the ocean to the gyre. Calculate the weight and size of the recyclables that are collected in class. Measure the estimated size of the gyre. Create a sample gyre in a basin in the classroom and measure the distances the garbage travels. Research the actual distances from key port points ( |
Statistics and Probability | Collect, display and analyze data to solve problems. | Compare recycling estimates of the classroom with Calgary as a whole and with other countries in the world by researching statistics online. |
Fine Arts | ||
Component Seven and Eight | Create emphasis through structural devices and strategies. Perfect images through economical use of material and efficiency of effort. | Students will create a form of artwork using garbage as the media. Students will chose a shape to emphasize(ie. Outline of Canada or the world, things made of recycled material, etc) using garbage to fill the shape. |
Component Ten | Record and document activities, people and discoveries. Express a feeling or a message. Develop themes, with an emphasis on global awareness. | Record the amount of garbage that is thrown out and recycled on day one. Keep a weekly record and observe if there are any changes in the classroom as well as the whole school as the year progresses and as students make others aware of the Garbage Gyre. |
Grade 6 | ||
Science | ||
Evidence and Investigation | 6-8 Apply observation and inference skills to recognize and interpret patterns and to distinguish a specific pattern from a group of similar patterns 6-9 Apply knowledge of the properties and interactions of materials to the identification of a material sample | Students could investigate the pattern of garbage and how it has accumulated over time. Students could also look at garbage and investigate the properties of it and discern why it could be harmful to nature and humans. |
Social Studies | ||
Democracy: Action and Participation | 6.1 Citizens Participating in Decision Making 6.1.1 Recognize how individuals and governments interact and bring about change within their local and national communities: a. Value citizens’ participation in a democratic society b. Recognize and respect the democratic rights of all citizens in Canada | Students could investigate and understand how the government and its people can become involved in the cleaning up of the garbage gyre. Understand what a big project it would be and see how they can make a change |
Math | ||
Number | Develop Number sense | Students can collect and count bottles and other recyclables. Calculations and estimates can be made based on information they gather regarding the collection of bottles and other recycles and consider their data as representative of their class, school, city, province, country etc. |
Patterns and Relations | Use pattern to describe the world and to solve problems | Understand the pattern of the gyre and how it works |
Shape and Space | Describe and analyze position and motion of objects and shapes | Understand the pattern of the gyre and how it works |
Statistics and Probability | Collect, display and analyze data to solve problems. Use experimental or theoretical probabilities to present and solve problems involving uncertainty | Create and interpret graphs including information collected in class, websites and videos. |
Language Arts | ||
Applicable to all areas of the Program of Studies for Grade 6 | Reading, writing, collaboration, etc. | |
Health | ||
Wellness Choices | W-6.8 Analyze how laws, regulations and rules contribute to health and safety practices W-6.9 Evaluate the impact of personal behavior on the safety of self and others | |
Relationship Choices | R-6.9 Make decisions cooperatively | |
Life Learning Choices | L-6.3 Analyze influences on decision making L-6.6 Analyze and apply effective age-appropriate strategies to manage change | |
Volunteerism | L-6.7 Identify the volunteer accomplishments of the community, and communicate information and appreciation | |
