Resource Development & Field Experience Lesson, Ocean Literacy Orientated Resource

Lesson: School-Wide Waste Audit & Field trip to Vancouver Landfill
Grade: 6
Topic: Ocean Plastics
Objective: Teach Life cycle analysis of plastic & impact of single use plastics

 Resources:

• Ocean Wise, Plastic Wise https://ocean.org/plastic-wise/
• Green Peace Story of a Spoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg-E1FtjaxY
• BC Sustainable School, Best Practices guide, School Waste Audit (page 16): https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teaching-tools/environmental-learning/sustbestpractices.pdf
• City of Vancouver staffer or SFU/UBC Graduate student expert in waste management willing to zoom with class to offer expertise
• MetroVancouver, Lea Elliot, Senior Policy Staff of Solid Waste zoom call with class to offer knowledge about how single use plastics impact the water system in Metro Vancouver.
• MetroVancouver, Vancouver Landfill- School Tour: http://www.metrovancouver.org/events/school-programs/K-12-field-trips/facility-tours/vancouver-landfill/Pages/default.aspx

Materials: scale, tarp, garbage bins, plastic gloves, clipboards, data sheets (waste audit data spreadsheet), map of the school, permission slips to Landfill

Overview
I will do a four-week mini-unit on single plastics and life cycles and their impact on the water cycle.

Week 1: Teaching basics about single-use plastic and the harm to the planet. I will use Ocean Wise’s Plastic Wise platform-extracting videos and resources. In addition, I will use Green Peace’s powerful video titled Story of a Spoon. In addition, I will go through the life cycle of a polyester sweater using the document, titled 5 Components-Life Cycle Analysis found in the appendix. Students will work in five groups, each with their own chart paper in the centre of their table group. Group one will focus on Production (What is made of, and where was it made?), and group 2 on Process (who manufactured it?), and group 3 Distribution (How did this item get to you?), group 4 will focus on Consumption (how will it be used and for how long?) group 5 Disposal (what happens to this item when you’re done with it?). Students will rotate through the tables and add on the chart paper all of the aspects related to the polyester sweater. Water and oceans will be considered at each step.

Week 2-3: Students will zoom with waste management experts (graduate students or city staffers). This will be arranged in advance, to help frame how to waste is framed within the context of Vancouver. Here moving from the micro to the macro regarding waste management, within the context of single-use plastics. What is the CoV doing to combat single-use plastics? Students will create their own interview questions. We will also interview Lea Elliot, who is an expert at MetroVancouver about single used plastics and how it impacts water streams. Interviews will last 20 minutes and be chaired by a collaborative waste team within the class.

Students will design a school-wide waste audit. They will do an inventory of bins in each classroom. What bins are we missing? What signage is working/not working? During week 3 students will collect waste from across the school (after lunch), in collaboration with the custodian and admin. Students will weigh the waste streams: organics, recycling (paper and plastic), and landfill. Students will discuss and create a strategy to reduce material going into the landfill. Week three will focus on integrating systems design and creative planning. Identifying an issue and working in teams to develop school strategies. The principle could be invited to be an audience for a classroom pitch session, where students share their ideas about how to reduce school-wide waste.

Week 4: Students will visit the Vancouver Landfill, with MetroVancouver’s landfill school tour.

 

APPENDIX

Five Components– Life Cycle Analysis, polyester Sweater

 

1. How is it produced? 

• What raw materials are used? (natural or synesthetic)
• How were the materials extracted or transformed?
• How was it made?
• Where was it harvested, mined, or manufactured?
• Who made it?
• Are the people who made it paid fair wages?
• Were people exposed to pesticides or contamination during this process?
• Consider: mine waste, farm waste, forest waste, water used and wastewater

 

2. How is it processed? 

• Did it get produced and processed at the same place? (often things are made in a different country than where they are processed)
• Was it manufactured in a factory?
• Who manufactured it?
• Are the people who manufactured it paid differently than the people who produced it?
• Does it go to a different factory?
• How is it packaged?
• What materials were used to package it?
• Did the processing impact the water system surrounding it?

 

3. How is it distributed? 

• How long did this item travel? (Km?)
• How did this item get to you (e.g., boat, train, truck)
• How much carbon will be emitted? https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator or https://sea-distances.org/ (cargo ship emits on average 16 g of CO₂/tonne-km )
• Was the water disrupted? Think sound, pollution, etc.
• Who distributed it?
• Are the people who distributed it paid a different wage than those who produced or processed it?
• Consider: transportation from manufacturing to the wholesaler and to the retailer

4. How is it consumed?

• How many times will this item be used?
• How long will it be used?
• How much money was paid for the item?
• Energy the consumer uses to use the product

 

5. How will it be disposed of? 

• What happens to this item when you’re done with it?
• Was is designed to be obsolete? (i.e., Was it designed to break or become unusable)
• Can it be gifted to a friend or family member?
• Can it be repaired? Is this something that usually gets repaired?
• Can it be repurposed (made into something else)?
• Can it be recycled? If so, where is it recycled? (Most electronics are recycled in Asia)
• Can it be donated? If so, who can use this again?
• If it goes to the landfill will it decompose? Will it emit GHGs? If so which GHG? Will it impact the oceans?
• Who pays for it to be recycled or brought to the landfill?