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Curriculum
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Past SEED Lessons SEED Library & Materials Local Contacts Environmental Education Links |
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3rd Grade - Ecology
Our Community and Its Resources This curriculum guide begins with the 10 lessons distributed for 5th grade classes for fall 1998. New lessons for winter 1998 begin with Section 4. The previous lessons were provided so that if you were not with your current class last quarter, you have an idea of the topics they covered and can think of ways to connect the current themes with those discussed in the fall. If you worked with the same class last quarter but did not get to all of the lessons slated for fall, you can go back to those lessons you didn’t cover and present them to your class in the winter since the winter curriculum is slightly more open. These lessons explore how we define our community, the resources we use, our impacts, and how we can make positive change. Each lesson focuses on the source and function of resources specifically in EPA while simultaneously challenging students to see their unique environment as part of a much larger system. There is a strong emphasis on interdependence and interrelationships with the hope that students will 1) understand that they are an integral part of a larger system, and 2) feel empowered to make positive changes within that system. 1. Defining Our Environment
2. Water Resources
4. Materials Resources
Defining Our Community Purpose:
Key Concepts:
Activities: My Neighborhood: This activity also serves as a pre-activity since the students should have prepared their neighborhood/community maps prior to this lesson. Ask the students what they believe the purpose of a map to be. Are there different kinds of maps? Have the students share the maps that they have drawn. Discuss what the maps have in common such as certain landmarks (school, home, etc.) and the scope of the map (each represents a section of EPA). Do the maps include streets, trees, the bay? Introduce the idea of ecosystems and explain that their community is a system within a larger system just as their immediate neighborhood is part of East Palo Alto which, in turn is a part of SM County, etc. Examination of city street and topographical maps: Explain the two types of maps, how they are laid out, what they represent, and how to read them. Divide the students into two groups giving one group the topo map and the other a street map. Have the students first locate familiar landmarks such as the bay, the bridge, the freeway etc. Then have students look for specific streets, the location of their school, home etc. Once the students are familiar with the maps ask them to list all of the special locations/elements in their community (bay, wetlands, parks, creek, bridge, etc.) See if the students can find the highest/lowest points in EPA. Do all of these areas appear on both maps? Have the students explain why the maps are different and what purpose they might serve. Explain that the maps, although quite detailed, do not present a complete picture of the community. What is missing? The people, plants, animals, cars, houses, etc. Discussion of Habitat: Ask the students to define habitat and the four important elements that are essential for a good habitat: food, shelter, water, space. My Habitat: Students should now be able to apply the concept of habitat to their own lives by looking at their special arrangement and mapping the facilities, services and people that make it possible to live where they do. Split the students up into small groups and have them map out their habitat. Pulling it all Together: Ask the students to compare the maps that they made before class to the habitat they just completed. What does the second map illustrate? (people, interrelationships and interdependence). Could a family tree then be a map? (lead them to the conclusion that maps not only show location, but can show interrelationships). Briefly mention the web of life and how it focuses on these interrealtionships. Preview of the rest of the "semester": As a summary to the unit, discuaa how the rest of the semester will be spent discussing the interactions between the natural and the man-made communities in greater detail (i.e. water, waste, energy and transportation). Pre-Activity:
Post-Activity:
Using the "habitat maps" that the students created, have the students link the elements of the community together by connecting them with arrows. The purpose is to get the students to think about how the separate elements connect together to create a community. 1.2: Our Community as Environment Purpose:
At A Glance:
Key Concepts:
Activities: Review of community habitat maps: Ask the students to display the habitat maps they make the previous week. What do the arrows mean? Explain that similar relationships exist between all living things. Outdoor Activity, "Hawk, Mushroom, Rabbit": Use the game
as a transition from mon-made communities to natural communities.
The game incorporates the interrelationships that exist within tropic levels
and the energy flow through these levels into a fun, fast-pased, running
activity. The game is played on a small field which has a middle
line and two endlines (safety zone). Students are divided into two
even teams. Each team decides as a group which organism they want
to be (either a hawk, mushroom or a rabbit). After choosing an organism,
both teams line up, facing eachother, at the middle line. On the
count of three, both teams simultaneously reveal their choice by the expression
of a hand signal, unique to each creature. After revealing each teams’
choice the following occurs:
This game is meant to be cyclical and will, in theory, go on indefinitely. However, to demonstrate various occurances in the natural environment, the Hawks can be killed off, due to over hunting. Now the two teams can only choose Rabbits or Mushrooms. Quickly, the Mushrooms are eaten up and only Rabbits remain. Discussion of the game: Help students realize the fallacy of their assumption that the Rabbits had won by setting out equal amounts of food (a cookie) for the Rabbits and missing Hawks and Mushrooms. Since everyone in the class is now Rabbits, point out that there is not enough food for all of the Rabbits. Make sure that the students realize that each organism has a specific type of food that it can eat and that they cannot consume another organism’s food. Discuss the Rabbits’ scarcity of food due to their over-population and their eventual starvation/death. Focus on the interdependence of the three organisms in the game, draw parallels to the interrelationships in the community web created earlier in the unit . Create a natural web based on the game: As a group, piece together the food web showing the interrelationships present in the game. From the food web, and ensuing tropic level pyramid, discuss concepts such as energy cycling through tropic levels, competition and preditor/prey relationships . Integration of local communities and the natural web: Facilitate a discussion in which the students combine the two webs into an integrated web that shows a greater interrelationship between both natural and man-made needs. The Webbing Activity: Students will reference the community web that we constructed and look for things listed on the web that are shared in common with other creatures. Using one or two of those words/elements as the center point for the web, the students should conseptualize a new web which connects animals and plants with arrows showing how we as a community might also use this resource. Examples of common resource include land, water, sun, soil, trees, etc. Pre-Activity:
Post-Activity:
Lesson Water, Water Everywhere? Purpose:
At A Glance:
Key Concepts:
Activities: Create a web of the natural water cycle: Work with the students to piece together the water cycle. Facilitate this process by focusing on the local elements (i.e. specific creeks, mountains, bays). Introduce many of the key concepts mentioned above . "Go To The Head Of The Cloud" (see attached sheets): In this activity, students play the role of water and pass through various stages of the water cycle. Review maps of the Hetch Hetchy Water System: Using the maps provided (I’m still waiting on maps from the SF Water Department ), retrace the exact route of the water from its source in Yosemite to the taps in East Palo Alto. Demonstration of the water cycle and reservoir ratios: Use different sized containers to represent the appropriate amount of water stored in the ocean, clouds, rivers/lakes, and mountains. Show how the water cycles through the various elements and is continually regenerated. Scarcity of freshwater: By focusing on the water cycles that the students created, discuss how much of the water is in reusable form at any one time. By looking at how little water is in freshwater form, discuss the idea of scarcity, reiterating how water cannot be created. Talk about the pre-activity and have the students examine how they used water. Create a list of ways to reduce water consumption in their lives. Pre-Activity:
Post-Activity:
Lesson 2.3 From Your Toilet to the Bay, Waste Water Treatment Purpose:
At A Glance:
Key Concepts:
Activities: Introduction: Ask the students where they think the water goes that: empties into the gutters, waters the lawn, and gets flushed down the toilet, sink and shower. Discuss the possibilities and whether or not the water is contaminated after or treated before each use. (i.e. do we contaminate the water when we use it for our lawn?) This discussion should get students thinking about possible contaminates including engine oil, pesticides, solid waste, and household chemicals. Where Does Dirty Water Go?: This is a 30-40 minute presentation made by staff members from the Regional Water Quality Control Plant and includes the following: Discussion, Did you pollute water this morning? : staff members open with this question to get students thinking about waste water. They then compare this to storm water runoff. Video, "H2O TV" : This video focuses on the local water cycle, runoff, wastewater and waste water treatment. Pollutants Game : Have a group of items, some of which are acceptable to dump down the sink or stormdrain and some of which are not. Ask the students to decide individually what should happen to the items (all of the answers are in the previous video section, thus this activity should serve as a subtle review). To arrange for this presentation, SEEd volunteers should call either Mary (650/329-2598) or Stephanie Huges (408/246-7868). Demonstration of wastewater treatment: Show primary, secondary,
and chemical treatment of water at wastewater treatment facility.
First create dirty water by adding leaved, dirt, pieces of garbage to the
water. Then add one or two drops of food coloring for added effect...
Post-Activity: A great follow-up to this unity is a visit to the Palo Alto Regional Water Quality Control Plant! Contact Mary at 650/329-2598. Lesson 3.1 The Cycle of Energy Purpose:
At A Glance:
Key Concepts:
Activities:
Demonstrating how energy is neither created or destroyed.... Begin asking students how many believe energy can be created or destroyed. Most students will believe that this is the case. Tell the students that you will do a demonstration to prove why this is not actually the case. Using a blown-up balloon, rub it against your head to create static electricity. Emphasize to the students that it takes energy from your arms to move the balloon back and forth, and create the static electricity which then allows the balloon to stick to your shirt. To demonstrate further on this point use a pencil to describe the difference between kinetic and potential energy. When a pencil is on the ground, it has no potential energy, because it has no potential to change energy forms. However, when a pencil is raised up into the air, it increases in potential energy because it has the potential to do work. Drop the pencil and demonstrate to the students that as the pencil drops, there is a conversion of energy from potential energy ( the ability to do work), to kinetic energy (the energy of movement or velocity), so that dropping the pencil is changing energy forms between potential and kinetic energy. Resource Puzzle Activity: Students are broken up into small groups of about 10 students each to work on solving three separate puzzles. Students are asked to piece together the different steps, chronologically, that go between the source of the resource base (i.e. fossil fuels come from fossilized plant material) and an example of the final form to which the fuel is converted for human use. For example, for the fossil fuel puzzle, students are given a cardboard piece with plants on one end and a car on the other. There are a number of intermediate pieces given to the students (i.e. burial and fossilization, extraction through drilling, refinement, shipping, and delivery to the gas station) that students must piece together in the proper order. The same idea is done with electricity (same as above with the process of creating electricity through steam turbines and delivery method the only exceptions) and hydroelectricity (same as electricity except water’s kinetic energy is used to turn the turbines). At the end, give students the option to present their puzzle to the class. Pre-Activities: Please see the attached handouts to give to teachers. These can be used as quick exercises to get the students thinking about energy in their own communities. "Energy is important": Have the students think of three different ways in which energy is important to them. Students can either think of themselves as members of a community or as individuals. Some possible ideas that students may come up with include: "Energy is important because it keeps me alive", or " Energy is important because it lights our home at night." Students should then illustrate these three different ways on a sheet of paper, using pictures to show how energy is a part of their lives Post-Activities:
Lesson 3.2: Fueling Up Our Lives, Energy Consumption Purpose:
At A Glance:
Key Concepts:
Activities: Review of "Finding Out About Fuel": Ask the students to share the information that they recorded while in small groups (i.e. the activities they do that require energy, the types of energy needed for each activity, where they think the energy comes from, what impacts its use might have on the environment). Explain the different types of energy sources listed above (key concepts). Which system do they think provides energy to EPA (most will probably say PG&E). How do we get our energy?: Using the information provided by PG&E and the department of Energy (I’m still waiting on these fact sheets ), reconstruct the path of energy from its source to EPA. You may turn this into an interactive lesson by writing clues on a piece paper and conducting a scavenger hunt for energy. Explain that although PG&E does supply energy to EPA, it in turn has various sources and, like all companies, can buy energy on the "market" if necessary. Primary Uses in EPA: discuss the amount of energy used by the various sectors including residential, public services (such as hospitals and schools), commercial, and industrial. Why the difference? What could the different sectors due to cut down on their energy consumption? Reading the Energy Bill: Break the class into small groups of 3-4 students and give each group a copy of a PG&E bill. Ask them to look it over. Help them to understand how it is laid out by asking some simple questions like: For what types of energy is the individual being billed? What is a billing cycle? How many days are in the billing cycle? Then go on to ask more involved questions such as the price per Kwh/therm, differences in meter readings etc. Explain, briefly, the existence of surcharges but concentrate on the basic cost and baseline usage. Have the students write the price per Kwh and per therm in their notebooks. They will need this information to complete the post-activity. Finish up by reviewing ways that they, as individuals, could conserve energy...and save money and resources! Pre-Activity: The Ever-Spinning Needle: Ask the students to locate their energy meters at home and conduct a little experiment with the help of an adult. How fast is the needle spinning on the electric meter? Ask them to observe the changes in the needle when they 1) turn all of the lights on in the house and 2) turn off the lights, their TV and radio/stereo. The students should record all observations in their journals. Have them also list the appliances that require energy which are plugged in all of the time (refrigerator, clock, lights etc.), often (TV and/or lights) and occasionally (vacuum?). Which of these appliances require a constant electric current? Which could be turned off or used more sparingly? Post-Activity: Keeping Track of Consumption: Similar to the water-meter reading activity, ask students to choose a form of energy for which they will track their family’s consumption. Students may choose to keep track of how much gas their parents/the bus use(s) to take them to school, read their electric meter or monitor their electric bill. Students who choose electricity may also want to investigate where there energy comes from...hydroelectric, nuclear, wind, etc. This could lead to a discussion on green energy. Have students record all data and notes in their journals. Using the figures from the bill, ask them to calculate the amount of money they spend on energy each day? Does it fluctuate at certain times (i.e. when its extremely hot or cold)? Lesson 3.3 On the Go, Transportation in EPA Purpose:
At A Glance:
Key Concepts:
Activities: Introduction: Transportation is yet another major resource vital to the community. Discuss importance of transportation. Have students list common/important destinations such as work, school, the grocery store, etc. Discuss the difficulty in finding work close to home in populated areas and mention that it is easier to change jobs or schools than it is to change one’s home location. Have the students list the different means of transportation: public transit (SamTrans buses and CalTrain), cars, bicycles, walking and perhaps tele-commuting. The City is Full of Streets: Streets have two purposes: to allow for through traffic and to provide access to adjacent properties. Pass out maps of existing traffic volumes in EPA. The figures indicated on the map represent traffic volumes around the PM peak hour. Each figure indicates the number of vehicles per hour passing in a certain direction. Direction is indicated by the arrow. The letter represents the amount of time drivers are delayed at a given intersection where A is no delay and F is a long delay. Ask students a few questions so they can practice using the map (i.e. How many cars per hour are driving down Bay Road and crossing at the Bay Road-University Avenue intersection). Ask students why there are so many cars out at this time and where are they going. Explain that much of the traffic at this time is due to the large number of commuters who cross the Dumbarton Bridge to return home to the East Bay after working in the Silicon Valley. You can demonstrate this by pointing out that the largest traffic volume is 1600 vehicles per hour at the University-Bay intersection, and that many of these cars are headed to the Dumbarton Bridge. Traffic Stinks: Discuss problems with traffic: safety (accidents with other cars and pedestrians), noise, pollution (air quality, global warming), gasoline as a limited resource, expense of maintaining streets that are broken down by high volumes of traffic. Brainstorm with the class ways to reduce these problems. Act it Out!: Have the students imagine that they are each driving a car across town to the bridge. Tell 4 of these students that they are in a hurry and must get home by 6pm. Select one or two students to be pedestrians trying to cross at an intersection. Let the chaos play out. Now ask students to form carpools etc. and try again. Ahh, that’s better! Methods for Reducing Traffic: These methods include traffic calming measures, public transit, carpooling, and alternative methods such as biking, blading, or walking. Traffic calming measures help reduce problems with safety and noise to preserve tranquillity in neighborhoods. These measures also discourage people from using neighborhood streets as shortcuts to get around heavy traffic on the main streets such as University Avenue. These measures include speed limits, speed bumps, chokers (narrow section of streets at intersection), planting trees in the parking lane (visually narrows the street which results in slower traffic), and additional four-way stop signs (no additional traffic lights). Have students give specific examples/locations of such measures. Public transit and carpooling reduce the amount of traffic and thus reduce the problems associated with it. Public Transit is especially important in East Palo Alto where a higher than average percentage of people do not own cars and need transit to get to jobs. Similarly, since there is no high school in EPA, students rely on transit to get to school. The percentage of East Palo Alto residents who use public transit is twice as high as the average percentage for the entire San Mateo county. SamTrans provides East Palo Alto’s three bus lines: 50C runs through the Weeks Neighborhood and then down University to the CalTrain; 50V runs from northern part of EPA, down University to the CalTrain; 6A runs from Ravenswood Industrial Park down Willow and through Menlo Park and Redwood City. Many people have ideas about changing the bus service. The Weeks Neighborhood Plan indicates that the bus service should be changed to go more frequently, include nights and weekends, include links to express buses that run on the freeway, and avoid traveling on small neighborhood streets. SamTrans on the other hand has ideas Biking and walking can be encouraged by adding bike lanes and mid-block pedestrian paths through large blocks. The advantages not only include traffic reduction but, for the individual, all the benefits of daily exercise. Pre-Activities:
"Put a Sock in It ": To demonstrate the effect of car exhaust
on air quality, have the students try this experiment with a parent or
other responsible adult. Take a pair of white sweat socks.
Pull one sock tightly over the mouth of the car’s tail pipe. Have
the parent/adult start the engine and let it run for a few minutes.
Take the sock off and compare it with the other sock. Chances are,
students will see large pollutant particles from the exhaust trapped in
the sock fabric, turning it black. Many other pollutants with smaller
particles such as ozone and CO2 pass through the cloth.
Break students into small groups and ask each group to come up with a plan that would reduce commuter traffic through EPA. Some suggestions might include a shuttle service across the bridge, carpooling, park and rides, plans for a future BART line, etc. Have the groups present their plans to the class using city and congestion maps. 4.1: Where Does the Trash Go? Purpose:
At A Glance:
Key Terms:
Activities: Discussion of how waste is processed in nature: Using a visual showing a cycle, describe to students how all living organisms produce waste which is then recycled through a process of decomposition. When plants and animals die, they sit in the soil. In the soil, tiny critters called decomposers, which include things such as termites, ants, mushrooms, and earthworms, take this dead material and eat it up. When they poop, they create dirt which allows new plants to grow, completing the cycle. Remind students of the importance of decomposers from the Hawk, Mushroom, Rabbit Game. What is Biodegradable?: There are certain things that decomposers like to eat and other things that they don't like to eat. Imagine that you were a decomposers. All of us like to eat things that taste good. To humans that means things such as chocolate chip cookies, or ice cream, but to a decomoser those things include anything that was once living such as a plant or animal. Things that decomposers like to eat are known as biodegradable because these items will turn back into dirt after the decomposers have eaten them. There are also things that decomposers don't like to eat, just like we don't like to eat things such as brussel sprouts or broccoli, for example. Examples of items decomposers don't like to eat are plastics, aluminum, and metals. Because decomposers don't like to eat these sorts of things, they will not decompose and are known as non-biodegradable. Landfill in a Bottle: Create a landfill in a bottle by cutting
two soda bottles in half, and capping one end with plastic cap, and the
other end with mesh, and underneath placing the bottom half of one of the
bottles. Place a layer of clay at the bottom, followed by sand, and then
alternate layers of dirt and garbage. Demonstrate to students that this
is the way landfills are structured. Landfills often contain a pipe from
the bottom of the landfill to the top, in order to let the gases that are
created during decomposition escape. Discuss with students the various
problems and hazards associated with landfills (see diagrams A, B and C
for landfill model and construction).
Materials: 2 two-liter soda bottles, piece of wire mesh or cheesecloth,
Tracking trash from your door to the dump: Help students construct the path of trash by starting with their garbage can. For EPA, BFI hauls the trash to the San Carlos Transfer Station from which it departs for its final resting place in the Ox Mountain Landfill. All sludge goes to the Redwood City Landfill . Use images and arrows to illustrate the path on the board. Include the trucks. Remind the students that hauling trash also takes energy! What are we throwing away in EPA?: Begin by asking students what they throw away (you can refer to the pre-activity). List these items on the board. Now, using the charts taken from the SMC Joint Solid Waste Generation Study, ask the students to carefully examine the two charts. Why two (students should answer that one is a "current measure" from 1995 and the other is an estimate for the year 2000.) Beginning with the first chart ask students to compare their list with the items listed under "Material Type". Next, ask the students which category they belong to (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) Who generates the most waste? Who generates the most food waste? Where do the restaurants fit in? Now look at the second chart. How do the numbers differ from those for 1995. Why are they different? Finally, have the students examine the diverted column for each section. What is being diverted and to where? Are their other items that can be diverted? Depending on the questions you ask, you may turn this activity into a subtle mathmatics lesson. Pre-Activity: Ask the students to keep track of all of the items that they throw away in one day. Have them make a list in their journals to share with the class when the SEEd volunteers come. Post-Activities: Ask students to re-examine the list they made and decide if any of the items could be "diverted" from the landfill, and how. Graph Worksheet (see attached) Based on the numbers in the Graph Worksheet, fill 4 large plastic garbage bags with 1.5, 3, and 4.5 pounds of sand or other material to represent the daily waste generated by a single person from Spain, Canada, and the U.S., respectively. Hold a relay race in which a team of students representing each of these countries must carry their "bag of waste" to the finish line or dump. Hopefully Spain will win. Again ask the students what they could do to reduce the amount of waste they consume so as to "win" the race. (recycle, compost, buy foods with no or minimal packaging). Lesson 4.2 Cutting Back, The Three R’s Purpose:
At A Glance:
Key Concepts:
Activities: The Most Appealing Peanut Activity: This activity is a great way to explore how consumer choices influence the amount waste we produce. This activity also serves as the pre-activity for this unit as students are expected to prepare their peanuts, either individually, or in groups before the in-class visit. Before the class all students are given a single unshelled peanut. They are read the following description: "Each of you is in the department of advertising for a peanut company, and it is your job to sell this peanut. You can use any technique you would like. You can give your peanut a name, write poetry about it, and even use gimmicks that you have seen on TV. You also have the opportunity to decorate your peanut the way you see fit for people to buy it, using materials laid out before you. (Included in this box are things like gift paper, little boxes, sequins, foil, and whatever else the teacher or volunteers feels like contributing to the box.)" The students are then given one classroom hour before the in-class visit by the volunteers to prepare their peanuts. Each peanut package is then assigned a number. Materials : bag of unshelled peanuts, various art supplies including
At the time of the in-class visit by BAA volunteers, the students will be asked to play consumers and decide what peanut they would like to buy. They are given two votes (they cannot vote for their own peanut). Display each peanut one at a time. Start the voting and keep a tally on the board. Usually, the end result will be that the more elaborately packaged peanuts will win. Discuss why this is the case. Point out that the students were really buying the same exact same thing. This can then lead into a more detailed discussion on packaging and marketing, the effect it has on our consumer choices, and the result of these choices on the quantity of waste we produce. The Magic Show: This activity is a way to reinforce the discussion on what is biodegradable and what isn't. To do this activity you will need two people. One a magician who puts things into and out of the hat, and another, the helper, who holds the hat while the magician works the magic. The way this works is you put a chunk of dirt in a long top hat or bucket beforehand. You also need to gather up certain types of trash that you will put into the hat. These items might include an apple core, a piece of paper, a glass bottle, and a plastic container. The apple core goes into the hat first and you cover the top of the hat with a bandanna and say some magic words. Tell the kids that the magic hat is also a time machine and that it takes whatever you put into the hat and turns it into what is will be 100 years in the future. After saying a few magic words, and rubbing the hat, lift the bandanna off and grab the chunk of dirt while leaving the apple core in the hat. Show the kids the dirt to demonstrate how the apple core changed. Next, repeat the same process with a piece of paper and again grab the piece of dirt. Now, repeat the same process with the plastic bottle. Instead of grabbing the piece of dirt this time, however, grab the plastic bottle back out of the bottom and act confused as if the magic isn't working. Repeat the process a couple of times, as if expecting the plastic bottle to change as well. Give up in frustration and try the same with the glass. Act frustrated again with the glass and then finally ask the class why the glass and plastic didn't change. Ask students to think about the fact that if plastic and glass doesn't change, where will it stay and what will happen to it. Materials: 1 bucket or "hat", 3 cups of dirt/compost,
Three R's: In order for students to understand the Three R's have each student take out a piece of paper, and have them in their seats individually decide from a series of ten objects which ones can be reused, which ones could be recycled, and which ones have to end up at the landfill. Make sure to explain each of the terms first, and have students ready to justify their answers in a group discussion following this activity. Have students be creative in their answers. Hazardous Waste: Ask students to give examples of hazardous waste. Who do they think generates the majority of hazardous waste in EPA? Give the students a copy of the hazardous waste flyer from the EPA program 1-800-HHW-FREE. Ask students to identify types of hazardous waste listed that they did not already mention. Do they have hazardous wastes in their homes? You may also make references to previous discussions regarding water and the improper disposal of hazardous waste via storm drains, etc. ROMIC: Using the fact sheet provided, facilitate a discussion of ROMIC’s role in the community (still waiting in this as well! ). Who do they serve, what do they do. ROMIC provides a valuable service, but what are the disadvantages to the community? What is the best way to deal with hazardous waste? Pre-Activity:
Post-Activity:
4.3 Other Winter Lesson/Activity Ideas Material Use and Waste Production What materials do you use?: Work with the students to develop a list of important materials that we use on a daily basis. Break into groups to discuss the origin of some of these materials. Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources: Attempt to develop a classification system with the class to organize the Natural Material Use vs. Human Material Use: Everything must go somewhere: No such thing as waste in nature because what is excreted by one organism as waste is taken up by another as food. Basically the law of conservaiton of mass: mater only changes forms -- it never disappears. That’s why the planet survives. If we continue our one-way trail of materials in which products become waste, our resources will be depleted. Cost savings and revenue generation from waste management strategies. Reduce cost of garbage service. Sell recyclable, reusable material. New jobs in recycle/reuse industry. What waste do you produce? Dump/Landfills: Pollution of groundwater after rain water percolates
through garbage
New landfills are required to have impermeable membranes to contain the leachate. The leachate must be collected to ensure that none escapes through leaks in the membrane. Why is dump located where it is (low population, cheap land . . .) and what is its impact on the surrounding area? Bottle Experiment Recycling: Make trash sculptures. Bring random (clean) items of trash from around your dorm into the classroom with some glue, construction paper, or other art materials, and let students turn trash into art. This activity teaches kids about reuse and recycling and is a lot of fun! Field Trip: contact BFI Katie Daye (650) 637-1411 x6457
Hazardous Wastes, Industry: Romic Enviromental is a local company that recycles hazardous wastes. Call them for info. Also contact San Mateo County Waste and Environmental Services (Outreach),
Lilian,
San Mateo County takes East Palo Alto’s waste. The county
has a contract with BFI (franchise, no competition) which takes the waste
from East Palo Alto, to a Recyclry Transfer Station where the recyclables
are put in bails to be shipped of to recycle plants, and finally to the
Ox Mountain dump. Ox Mountain is a modern landfill that pumps out
the leachate and outgasses and burns the methane.
YUCCA Charrise (650) 322-9115
UJIMA Security Council
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