Project Title: Plastic, Plastic Everywhere
Mission:
How can we protect earth’s spheres from plastic pollution?
Culminating / Take Action Project
Create an original podcast that educates others about single-use plastic or inspires them to change their behaviors.
What Kids Learn
In this project students explore how the production, consumption, and disposal of single-use plastics is having a devastating impact on the environment. Students will learn about the key milestones in the history of plastic, and how, when it was first invented, it was perceived as beneficial to the environment. Students will then learn about Earth’s four spheres, how they interact, and how plastic pollution harms them. Students will also learn about fresh vs. salt water and how plastic impacts the hydrosphere on Earth. Students grapple with who is responsible for plastic pollution and whether or not single-use plastics should be banned altogether. Finally, students will take action by creating and performing a podcast that will teach others about plastic pollution or inspire them to make a change.
Overview
Life Habit Focus: Kinship
Subject: Earth Science, ELA
Grade: 3-5
Topic: Earth’s spheres, interaction of earth’s spheres, plastic pollution, songwriting.
Project preview
Project Materials
Project Module
Student Notebook
Teacher's Guide
Materials List
Virtual Field Trips
One of our goals is to help kids connect what they are learning in our projects to the real world beyond the classroom. To do that, we’ve partnered with experts worldwide to help students deepen their understanding of their mission and learn about interesting careers. The Plastic, Plastic, Everywhere project partners with:
Captain Charles Moore
Podcaster Maurice Cherry
Students meet podcaster Maurice Cherry. Maurice has been podcasting for over ten years and was the first podcaster featured in the Smithsonian Museum of African American History.
Aligned Standards
Common Core Reading (CCSS):
- Informational/Nonfiction Standards R.I. 1-10 for grades 3-5
- Reading Literature Standard R.L 5.5
- Reading Literature Standard R.L 4.2 & 5.2
- Reading Literacy Standard L 5 & 6 for grades 3-5
- Writing Standards W. 1,4,5 for grades 3-5
- Listening and Speaking Standards SL. 1-6 for grades 3-5
NGSS Standards:
Performance Expectations (PE):
- 5-ESS2-1. Develop a model using an example to describe ways the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere interact.
- 5-ESS2-2. Describe and graph the amounts of saltwater and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth.
- 5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment
Science and Engineering Practices (SEP):
- Develop a model using an example to describe a scientific principle.
- Describe and graph quantities such as area and volume to address scientific questions.
- Construct an argument with evidence.
Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI):
- ESS2.A. Earth’s major systems are the geosphere (solid and molten rock, soil, and sediments), the hydrosphere (water and ice), the atmosphere (air), and the biosphere (living things, including humans). These systems interact in multiple ways to affect Earth’s surface materials and processes. The ocean supports a variety of ecosystems and organisms, shapes landforms, and influences climate. Winds and clouds in the atmosphere interact with the landforms to determine patterns of weather.
- ESS2.C. Nearly all of Earth’s available water is in the ocean. Most freshwater is in glaciers or underground; only a tiny fraction is in streams, lakes, wetlands, and the atmosphere.
- ESS3.C. Human activities in agriculture, industry, and everyday life have had major effects on the land, vegetation, streams, ocean, air, and even outer space. But individuals and communities are doing things to help protect Earth’s resources and environments
Crosscutting Concepts (CC):
- A system can be described in terms of its components and their interactions
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