Solid Waste
by Jane Wang Moy
Introduction:
Every aspect of learning is contingent upon the quality of communicationwhich transpires between parties. Therefore, by recognizing that in deedEnglish and the language arts is part of the humanities approach to study,understand and appreciate language acquisition, English is a means to facilitatelearning in all content areas. In regards to learning concepts related tosolid waste issues, students will be exposed to reinforce their knowledgeof the content as a means of expanding their schema base, vocabulary development,and undergo the reading, writing, and thinking process in education.
Lesson One:
Objectives: Students will interpret poetry. Students will identify the elementsof poetry including alliteration, personification, rhyme, meter. Studentswill identify sources of pollution. Students will develop awareness of goodconservation habits through recycling, reusing, and reducing. Students willincrease their awareness and change their behavior through the identificationof the problem of solid waste.
Recommended Time: One class period, 50 minutes
Materials: Copies of Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would Not Take the GarbageOut, blackboard, chalk.
Advance Preparation: copies of poems, define elements of poetry on the board.
Procedure: Define alliteration, syllables, rhyme, line, personification,meter and give examples or have students brainstorm for simple examples.Have students read the poem selection. Have students answer questions aboutwhat Sarah did in the poem. What should Sarah have done to improve her behavioror response to garbage? Have students find examples of the elements of apoem in that selection. Ask what other problems deal with solid waste. Definerecycle, reuse and reduce and ask how they could solve the problem to solidwaste.
Hands on Activity: Students will write their own poem to help the environment.They will identify the alliteration, syllables, rhyme, line and personificationin the poems.
Introduction to Scientific Principles: Science is part of every day life.It is practical and applicable even in human communication regarding humanbehavior. Solid waste highlights this.
Related Activity and Concept: Students will read their poems and post themto relay the message as to the possible problem and solution regarding solidwaste.
Connect to Other Everyday Examples: Students will collect the scrap papersresulting from developing their poems for recycling. They may reuse theback of their paper. They will reduce paper collection by using both sides.
Summary: Since solid waste is a concrete concept, students can visibly learnthrough volume and appearance. By associating habits, study skills, andissue, the topic of solid waste will be communicated throughout the school,home, and community.
Home Activity/Parental Involvement: Students can read their poems to theparent.
Lesson Assessment: Students will define and identify the different elementsof poetry. Students will define the 3 R's.
Extension of Activity: Ask students to bring clean garbage to class. Listitems on the board. Have students make rhyming words with three of the items.
Bibliography: Solid Waste: From Problem to Solution. Fall 1990. IllinoisDepartment of Energy and Natural Resources: Springfield, Illinois.
Lesson II
Objective: Students will learn some research techniques. Students will learninterviewing, surveying and data collection techniques.
Recommended Time: one week, 200 minutes
Materials: notebook, paper, pens, board, chalk
Procedure: Divide the class into 3 teams. Each team will have person/personscollecting data from school, home, community. Given the question, "Whatsteps are being taken to reduce accumulated waste and by what proportionof the population?, students will do the following to collect, organize,and produce a report:
-ask participants their name, age, sex, educational level, write the dateof the interview.
-each day, students will correlate their responses and draw conclusion.
-each group on day 3 or 4 will start to write a draft presenting their dataand conclusion.
-visual aids will help to illustrate the number of participants and responses.The responses may be charted under recycle, reduce, reuse or no action taken.
Hands on Activity: Work on visual presentations such as charts or graphsshowing the amount of recycling, reusing and reducing done at home, schoolor the community.
Introduction to Scientific Principles: Nature takes time to renew, or regenerateits resources. Land is a valuable resource which takes lots of time to regenerate.The problem deals with man-made products which are becoming obsolete atsuch a rapid rate that the accumulated waste becomes pollution. This isdetrimental to the health, cleanliness, and beauty of the earth. Since itis a man-made problem, man should help solve it.
Related Activity & Concept: Create posters and public messages on the3R's to be used at school, home, and community.
Connect to Other Every Day Examples: Have students make a map or diagramof where litter is found. They can use deductive reasoning to back trackwhere tires, shoes, newspapers and cups come from when found in water orstreets.
Summary: Litter is a growing problem affecting us on a daily basis. It canbecome hazardous to our lives because of the decreasing availability tolandfill areas. Man's awareness should promote better conservation habitsto perform the 3 R's.
Home Activity/Parental Involvement: Visit a landfill facility and interviewthe worker. Ask what problems exist for their operation. How long will thelandfill remain open. Hold garbage or rummage sales to reuse and recycleproducts.
Lesson Assessment: Students will define interviewing and surveying techniques.Students will summarize and conclude findings from their data collection.Students will develop other research hypothesis and attempt to reach conclusions.
Extension Activity: Students can find surveys and responses in several magazinesand report them to class.
Lesson III
Objective: Students will develop letter writing skills and address envelopes.Students will learn who their aldermen are. Students will learn about theDepartment of Streets and Sanitation and where it is located. Students willlearn abbreviations.
Recommended Time: one class period, 50 minutes.
Materials: pen, paper, blackboard, chalk, envelopes, stamps, phone directory
Advance Preparation: go over the form for business and personal letters,obtain phone books
Procedures: Review forms of letters with the class: date, salutation, body,closing, signature. A business letter will have a return address and a letterheador business address. Go over abbreviations for city, state, months of theyear, improper use of abbreviations, etc. Go over appropriate salutationsand closings (examples: Dear Sir, Dear Alderman, Dear Department of Streetsand Sanitation, Dear City Official, Your truly, Sincerely yours, Respectfullyyours, To the Honorable Mayor, etc.)
Present this scenario to the students. They are to identify an area theyregard as a "garbage dump". Identify the location, how long theyhave observed it, how often does it become a "garbage dump" ifit is a recurring problem, the types of items, what the impact on the communityis, who you represent (the community, age group, private citizen, etc.),what action you want from the person who receives your letter. Write thatyou would like a reply and expect to hear from them soon. Have studentswrite letters correctly, address envelopes for mailing and have studentsread letters which receive responses. Students may use the phone book orcall City Hall to identify their alderman. Before mailing, have studentsrecognize that their letters would be taken more seriously if they wereproperly spelled, written, using appropriate language, etc.
Hands On Activity: Students could read letters from the editorial page orDear Abby and respond as if they were letters received by them.
Introduction to Scientific Principles: Science and technology impacts uponthe daily life of citizens. Citizens also direct public activity in thisdemocratic society. Science and technological residue such as garbage dumpingcan and should be avoided through public action or human behavior.
Related Activity & Concept: Have students collect the junk mail receivedin their homes for one week to bring to class on one day. Have studentsdecide what action to take regarding junk mail.
Summary: Letter writing is a major form of communicating important ideas,issues and requests. But students need to differentiate between needs andwants in terms of the way they communicate.
Connect to Other Everyday Examples: Write to other governmental agencieslike the federal agency for Consumer Affairs or Environmental ProtectionAgency for literature regarding recycling, reusing, reducing to bring toclass for a bulletin board.
Home Activity/Parental Involvement: Discuss the amount of paper productsfound in the home and decide how best to recycle, reuse or reduce thosegoods in order to help with the problem of limited landfills.
Lesson Assessment: Students will write letters in appropriate forms. Studentswill correct their writing for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, andabbreviations.
Extension Activity: Students can chart the number of responses and fromwhich officials or departments to monitor actions and intentions of ourgovernment officials.
Lesson IV
Objective: Students will develop awareness into the 3R's. Students willdecide on appropriate action to take with material things no longer newor utilized.
Recommended Time: one class period, 50 minutes
Materials: blackboard, chalk, charts, pens
Advance Preparation: Students will be instructed to list 10 things whichtheir family bought but can be thrown away.
Procedure: Define the 3R's. Students will chart the items their family wantsto throw away and decide if the items are recyclable, reusable or reducible.Discuss which items are major sources of landfill refuse.
Hands on Activity: Students can look around the classroom for things thatare recyclable, reusable and list them.
Introduction to Scientific Principles: Technology is a 2-headed monster.It can improve our lives with conveniences and the ability to perform faster.Technology can also hurt our environment through over production and creatingstock piles of consumer goods. There is a need to balance need and wants,consumption and ownership.
Related Activity & Concept: Students could use magazines to find fashionsfrom the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's, etc. and describe their unique style.Ask which items or materials are returning into fashionable use. Are women'sor men's fashions recyclable, reducible or reusable?
Connect to Other Everyday Examples: List materials you purchased and broughthome from a grocery store such as paper or plastic bags, packaging film,types of containers, etc. Have students list if those materials are recyclable,reusable or reducible. List art projects and the consumable materials whichthey require. Ask which things from home or the store could be reused inart projects.
Summary: People can change their behavior through awareness about the needsand crisis created from over purchasing or under utilizing goods. The 3R'sare simple responses to an immediate problem to decrease landfill spaceand people's need for personal property.
Home Activity/Parental Involvement: Students could clear up products nolonger in use at home and make donations to shelters for the homeless, familyin crisis centers, hospitals, or other organizations.
Lesson Assessment: Students will define the 3R's and identify items whichare recyclable, reusable, and reducible.
Extension Activity: Read Vance Packard's Master of Deceit. Summarize wayspackaging and product design promote obsolescence. Write letters to communitybusinesses and organizations to promote recycling by having available containersto collect plastic, metals, and paper. The Chambers of Commerce might promotea contest where a community business could be highlighted. This could alsobe a school event.
Lesson V
Objective: Students will define and use vocabulary associated with solidwaste. Vocabulary will include: degradable, decomposition, generated, photodegradable,biodegradable, receptacle, incineration, biomass, accumulation, disintegration.
Recommended Time: two class periods, about 60 minutes
Materials: pen, paper, blackboard, dictionaries
Procedure: Introduce the topic of non-durable goods. List them on the boardas students respond. Then ask how would they make them disappear. Give themthe list of words related to making solid waste disappear. Students areto define them, use each word in a sentence, put them in alphabetical orderand have a short spelling quiz the next day.
Hands on Activity: Students could create their own puzzles using the vocabularywords. They are to use the definitions as their clues for across and down.
Introduction to Scientific Principles: Students can think about how to makethings disappear or change. Things change with a physical or chemical reaction.
Related Activity & Concept: Students will discover that they can makesolid waste disappear through some of the vocabulary given. Students couldhave class demonstrations showing the decomposition of leaves through biodegradable,incineration, creation of gas through biomass. Students will decide whichare more efficient processes of disintegration. Have students make a diagramof the life and death of a tree and what it goes through to show some naturalstages of decomposing. Then have students make a diagram of the life anddeath of a wood product like a chair. Conclude with statements about man'srole in utilizing resources.
Connect to Other Everyday Examples: Ask what happens to leaves which areleft in a pile to dry, crushed, or burned. What is the aftermath or productfrom these processes? Which are more beneficial to man and nature?
Summary: Solid waste is disposed in a variety of ways. Some are naturalprocesses, but some may require awareness as to their impact upon otherliving organisms.
Home Activity/ Parental Involvement: Parents can show how much of theirtaxes are spent on a landfill. They should be prepared to answer what theyare putting in that landfill. What actions can be taken to reduce landfill?
Lesson Assessment: Students will correctly define and spell vocabulary.
Extended Activity: Interview a friendly person from Streets and Sanitationor your garbage collector and ask how many trips he makes in one day andwhat items does he see needlessly thrown away. Research what things takeup the most time to decompose. Imagine yourself as an archaeologist. Whatwould your garbage tell us about this civilization?