Erase the Waste and Turn Trash Into Cash

Inquiry-Based Science Lessons for Advanced and Gifted Students in Grades 3-4

Jason S. McIntosh

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000492798
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation inclusive

Recipient of the 2021 NAGC Curriculum Award

Americans throw away 254 million tons of trash every year, and students are naturally curious about where it all goes. Erase the Waste and Turn Trash Into Cash, a 30-lesson interdisciplinary science unit:

• Is designed to teach high-ability third and fourth graders how to think like real-world environmental engineers.
• Requires students to reduce, reuse, recycle, and reimagine trash in new and innovative ways.
• Was designed using the research-based Integrated Curriculum Model.
• Features challenging problem-based learning tasks and engaging resources.
• Includes detailed teacher instructions and suggestions for differentiation.

In this unit, students study the concept of innovation and learn to manage and dispose of waste in creative and environmentally friendly ways, all while building an understanding of sustainability, recycling, environmental science, and the green economy. Suggestions and guidance are included on how teachers can adjust the rigor of learning tasks based on students' interests and needs.

Grades 3-4

LESSON 1
Appraising Prior Knowledge

D01: 10.4324/9781003235040-2

Objectives

• ► Students will complete a preassessment.
• ► Students will be introduced to the concept of change over time.

Materials

• ► Handout 1.1: Pretest
• ► Clean trash (10-20 items)
• ► Butcher paper
• ► Markers
• ► Tape
• ► Student journals (blank notebook for each student)

Assessments

• ► Preassessment
• ► Journal prompt

Procedures

1. Greet students as they arrive.
2. Use the following anticipatory set to focus attention and engage learners:
   • ► Introduce the title of the unit: Erase the Waste and Turn Trash Into Cash.
   • ► Show students a small bag of clean, safe garbage (e.g., empty water bottle, tissue box, orange peel, mayo jar, crumpled newspaper, etc.). Dump the bag of garbage out on a table for students to see,
   • ► Pose the following question: How is it possible to turn this trash into real money?
   • ► Give students several minutes to talk to a partner about their ideas.
   • ► Ask for a few volunteers to share their thoughts. Do not confirm or deny the accuracy of any ideas that are shared. Simply listen.
3. Inform students that they will now take a short preassessment designed to determine what they already know about reducing, reusing, recycling, and reimagining waste. Explain that the assessment is not for a grade.
4. Distribute Handout 1.1: Pretest. Give students time to take the pretest. (Collect and score before the next lesson and put away for safekeeping until the last day of class.)
5. As students are taking the preassessment, lay a large piece of butcher paper on the ground in the front of the classroom along with markers, crayons, and colored pencils.
6. Invite students to sit around the butcher paper and collaboratively draw a mural of the most beautiful city park or outdoor green space they can possibly imagine. As soon as the mural is finished, ask students to help you attach the butcher paper mural to the wall using tape.
7. Direct students to return to their seats and then begin to tape the clean garbage you used in the anticipatory set right on top of their mural.
8. Ask students to describe how this makes them feel.
9. Provide students with the following data:
   • ► According to the Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA, 2016), each American produces 4.4 pounds of trash a day. Only 1.51 pounds of that trash is recycled.
   • ► According to TheWorldCounts (n.d.), people around the world produce 2.12 billion tons of trash every year.
   • ► According to National Geographic (Leahy, 2018), people around the world produce 3.5 million tons of plastic and solid waste every day. This is 10 times more than the amount of waste produced a century ago.
10. Challenge students to hypothesize why we produce so many more pounds of trash today as compared to years ago.
11. Write the term change over time. Create a class definition and generate a list of three or four generalizations about the idea of change (e.g., change is not always easy, change can be good or bad, change is unavoidable, etc.).
12. Ask students to record the definition and any thoughts they have about what they discussed in this lesson in a notebook or journal.

TEACHER'S NOTE

Hilda Taba created the concept development strategy described in this lesson. For more information on how to use this strategy effectively in your classroom, please read Concept Development Questioning Strategy: The Taba Approach by Shelagh A. Gallagher.

Name:_______________________________________________________________________________ Date:__________________________________________

HANDOUT 1.1
Pretest

Directions: Please answer the questions on this test to the best of your ability.

1. Give an example of something changing over time.

Past	Present

• 2. What is an environmental engineer?
• 3. List the four tools we can use to erase waste.
• 4. What does it mean to reimagine something?

Name:_______________________________________________________________________________ Date:_____________________________________

• 5. What is SCAMPER, and how would you apply it to an empty water bottle?
• 6. How many pounds of garbage does the average person in the United States create each day?
  1. 1 pound
  2. 2-3 pounds
  3. 4-5 pounds
  4. 6-8 pounds
• 7. What are two ways you can reduce the amount of trash you produce each day?
• 8. Define the following terms in your own words:
  1. Throwaway society:
  2. Solid waste management:
  3. Overconsumption:
  4. Compostable:
  5. General ledger:

Name:________________________________________________________________________________ Date:_____________________________________

• 9. Complete the pie chart below so that it represents an estimate of how much of the garbage produced in the United States is of each type:
  • ► Metal
  • ► Plastic
  • ► Glass
  • ► Yard trimmings
  • ► Paper
  • ► Rubber, leather, fabric
  • ► Food scraps
  • ► Wood
  • ► Other

• 10. Give three reasons why plastic is such a problem around the world.
• 11. What are the steps involved in recycling a recyclable item of your choosing (e.g., tin can, plastic water bottle, etc.)?
• 12. What do you hope to learn during this unit?

LESSON 2
What Is Waste Warriors?

D01: 10.4324/9781003235040-3

Objectives

• ► Students will predict the amount of waste created in the United States by type and compare and contrast their predictions with actual EPA data.
• ► Students will be introduced to the problem-based learning scenario and the goal of thinking like an environmental engineer.

Materials

• ► Handout 2.1: Pie Chart Predictions
• ► Handout 2.2: Waste Warriors Logo
• ► Handout 2.3: Need to Know Board
• ► Student book, computer, and Internet...