Curated OER
Invention
Students create an invention, or simple machine, out of items taken from the recycling bin. Students draw diagrams of their proposed inventions, then create simple machines.
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Where Shoult it Go?
Students label boxes and sort trash into those items that can be recycled, composted, incinerated or taken to the landfill.
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Mini-Sanitary Landfill
Second graders work in groups to bury a variety of trash items and arrange them in a mini-landfill. They predict which items will biodegrade and then keep records of what the items look like every ten days. Students consider how...
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1-Use, 2-Use, Re-Use, New Use
Students list the possible uses of grocery bags. They trace the steps of a grocery bag either to recycle or trash. In groups, students use the grocery bags to create posters promoting reuse.
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Compost Columns
In this unit of lessons, students examine the role of compost columns and recycling. They create a KWL chart about garbage in Chicago. They also examine life cycles and packaging of everyday products.
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Growing With Compost
Students discuss the positives and negatives of composting. They plant their own plant using composting material and record results. They create a poster for the classroom.
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Positively Paper
Students discover how paper is recycled. In this recycling lesson, students investigate which types of paper recycle best and are best for the environment.
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Going Green School Campaign
Students explore ways to make their school's interior and exterior environmentally 'green.' In this environmental concern activity, students work in groups to examine their school's interior and exteriors to make them 'green.' Students...
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Safe Subs
Students investigate ways to reduce use of hazardous materials. In this safe substitutes lesson, students review hazardous wastes used in many homes and possible safe substitutes for these harmful chemicals. Students write and decorate...
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Land Art
Students use natural materials outside to create a work of art. In this land art lesson plan, students plan their sculpture inside in one day and create it outside over a period of 2 days.
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Thinking about Energy
Students examine their understandings about energy concepts by completing an online survey. Students participate in a class discussion about their uses of resources and the differences between perpetual, renewable, and nonrenewable...
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Gandhi's "Good Life"
Eleventh graders use a Gandhian lens to analyze critically materialism in a capitalist society. In this Gandhian philosophy lesson, 11th graders cultivate awareness, explore materialism and sustainability, examine the idea of 'what is...
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Reusing Winter Waste
Students use waste materials to build a snowman decoration. In this reusing activity, students create a new object out of disposable items left over from the holidays. Students discuss ways of cutting down waste. Students understand how...
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A Growing Market
Students research plants and the bedding plant industry and then make a list of materials they need to plant seeds. In this planting lesson plan, students then plant their seeds, chart their progress, and write what they have learned.
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Gettysburg Rocks Recycle to Win
Eighth graders use a geologic cross section to study the rock cycle of the Gettysburg battlefield. In this rock cycle instructional activity, 8th graders connect the rock cycle and continental rifting.
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How Can We Reuse It?
In this recycling worksheet, learners view a picture of a structure on a piece of land and brainstorm about whether it is best to knock down the structure and reuse the land or leave it standing and reuse the structure. The picture of...
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Recyclers to the Rescue
Fifth graders examine the concept of the food chain and define producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore. They draw a food chain for a mouse and discuss the different organisms involved in the chain, and conduct an...
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PAPER RECYCLING
Students examine the availability and use of important resources, people practice conservation. They explore the needs of an expanding human population, societies practice resource management and employ technology.
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Recycling of Plastics
Students separate plastics according to their densities, develop a method for separation and identify variables in an experiment and a fair test, changing only one variable at a time for a fair comparison. After testing, they develop a...
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Sandcastle Rooflines
Learners research the architecture of Antonio Gaudi and his first buildings of Gothic architecture. Then they combine, texture, and paint recycled containers to construct a detailed castle. Students also fill in surrounding areas with...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Good Litter, Bad Litter
Which ones can be thrown on the ground? Discover the difference between natural litter and unhealthy trash, helping scholars by using several examples. Use the information here to give them a basic background, but also encourage prior...
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Build an Outdoor Compost Heap
Students study how to create a compost heap. In this composting lesson plan, students create a compost heap. Students write an essay describing the process.
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Lesson: Transformational Tapestries
Art can be found anywhere, even in the class recycle bin. El Anatsui is an artist that uses found materials to create two and three-dimensional art. Kids examine his techniques, discuss the differences between found art forms, and then...