Classroom idea-sparkers.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

Here is a collection of ideas to help students become more ecologically aware and help save our planet.

Tally Your Garbage

Our first Idea-Sparker was submitted by Sudha Swaminathan, a doctoral student at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In India, Sudha worked with primary and middle school children, helping them learn to use computers. One 4th-grader's comment about the "mess" around the school provided the catalyst for a school-wide project.

Swaminathan's student wanted to know whether all the school's garbage would reach to the top of the school's temple tower if stacked together. Her classmates also became interested. Soon, they were participating in a drive to clean their school. Every day they sorted and stored their garbage instead of disposing of it. The children stuck gum on boards, stacked loose paper in piles and collected pieces of plastic in a box. They took pride in counting the amount they had collected each day and used bar graphs to depict the stark details of their garbage data.

By displaying this chart on the school bulletin board, the class helped increase the environmental awareness of the school community. Children and their teachers were astounded at the amount of gum not properly disposed of in a single month. The 7th-graders followed up this project with a study about how gum affects those who chew it. The 10th-graders started to explore options for proper disposal of garbage. The rest of the school made similar charts each month, delighting as the amounts of garbage decreased.

The project ultimately incorporated mathematical reasoning and problem solving (e.g., How do you scale down 153 gum blobs, 93 sheets of paper and 111 pieces of plastic into a bar graph that would fit a sheet 3 feet long and 2 feet wide?) and health issues (e.g., What are the chemical differences between the various gums available in the market and how do they affect the user?). The project offered many possibilities for similar ideas.

School Recycling

Has your school joined the recycling movement? Why not work with your local town or city waste management company to develop a plan to recycle within the school? Your efforts may be initially limited by the community's level of involvement in recycling. In such cases, students can write to local officials, encouraging them to expand their recycling efforts.

You can set up recycling bins in classrooms for paper/paper products and other bins in the lunch area for cans, bottles and plastics. Juice boxes and/or milk cartons might also be recycled. Students can weigh and measure, chart and graph their trash, comparing recyclable and nonrecyclable materials. They can calculate the average amount of recyclable and nonrecyclable material generated per student. As the students collect this data, they can also develop strategies for reducing the amount of daily trash.

Other classroom activities might include creating community display posters that promote recycling, writing a play or puppet show about the topic and writing letters to editors of local papers.

Picking at Packaging

Have all students bring in a packaged product (a cereal box, for example). Ask them to examine the package and answer the following questions:

1. Is the package made from recyclable materials?

2. Is this product available in more than one kind of packaging? (If so, compare the packaging in terms of recycling and waste reduction.)

3. Is there a better way to package this product? Design a new package for this product that is environmentally sound.

4. Could this product be stored and purchased in bulk quantities?

5. Why do you think the package was designed this way?

6. What happens to this package after it's thrown away?

This activity may help students begin to think about "precycling," which means buying items that are already made from recycled products or that can be recycled.

Captain Recycle

The GAIA Theater visited Glencoe West Elementary School in Glencoe, Illinois, this year to perform a play called "Use It Again." "Captain Recycle" and his friends use drama and song to promote recycling. The project is supported by a city arts grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, with additional funding provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council. The GAIA Theater also receives funding from the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County, the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the General Reinsurance Corporation. In addition to the performance, the theater troupe shared the learning activities on the next pages. (For more information on this project contact the GAIA Theater, 6506 North Maplewood, Chicago, IL 60645.)

Paper Conservation

In conjunction with their recycling efforts, students could keep track of the amount of paper they use each day by setting up a collection point in the room. Students could weigh the amount of paper they use in one day and then determine how much they use in a week, a month or the entire school year. They could also develop strategies for conserving paper in their classrooms and at home.

Make Your Own Recycled Paper

Students can get first-hand experience with the actual process of recycling by making their own recycled paper. When planning for this activity, please note that it takes at least two days.

In a blender, mix 5 cups of water and 2 1/2 pages of newspaper that have been torn into small pieces. Blend the paper and the water until the resulting mixture looks like pulp. Next, add-about 1[inches] of water to the pan, put the screen in the pan and pour one cup of the paper pulp over the screen. Spread the pulp in the water evenly Over the screen. Lift the screen and let the water drain off. Now, take a complete section of the newspaper and open it so that it is several pages thick and open like a book. The screen with the pulp should be placed to the right side of the fold on the open paper. Close the newspaper and then very carefully flip the newspaper section over so that the screen is on the top. Then place the board on top of the newspaper and press down to squeeze out the moisture. Carefully take out the screen and leave the newspaper open for the "new" paper to dry. This should take at least 24 hours. After the pulp paper is dry, you may peel it off the newspaper and write on it. Have fun! You can experiment with other kinds of paper and use the same process.

Waste-Free Lunch Day

In order to encourage students to be environmentally conscious, why not sponsor a waste-free lunch day? Students who bring their lunches would try to use reusable containers, reusable tableware and reusable lunch bags. Students could chart the amount of garbage produced on a "regular" lunch day and compare it to the amount on a "waste-free" day. Students could also work with cafeteria personnel to help design similar activities for a hot lunch program to emphasize using products made from recycled materials, and to determine how much of the waste was recyclable.

Make Your Own Landfill

This activity will help students develop an understanding of which items are biodegradable and which produce long-term pollution. You will need the following materials:

5-gallon fish tank Sand and/or gravel Charcoal (to prevent odor) Organic waste (vegetable scraps - avoid cabbage, mustard greens and fruit)

Students should layer each item as depicted below. They need to begin with 2-3[inches] of sand and / or gravel. Add a small amount of charcoal on top of the sand. Add 4[inches] of real soil. Then add about 3[inches] of vegetation (pressed down to make a solid layer), finally ending with about 1[inch] of soil on the top. Place small amounts of paper, plastic, glass, wood and aluminum foil next to the aquarium glass so they can be seen in the soil. Each item should be labeled on the outside of the glass. Students should observe their "landfill" on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. The mixture needs to be stirred once or twice a week to maintain a high oxygen level. If the mixture seems to be getting dry, you may wish to add some water or cover the top to allow moisture to build up. Once decomposition begins, students can record their observations.

RELATED ARTICLE: Materials:

Blender Water Newspaper Large pan, at least 3[inches] deep Window screen, cut to fit the pan Large, flat piece of wood (as large as a newspaper page) Measuring cup