Urban Environmental Quality and Human Health: Conceiving a Sustainable Future

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 08.07.04

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale
  3. Objective
  4. Student Activity 1
  5. Polymers and Plastics
  6. Impact of Plastics on the Environment
  7. Impact of Plastics on Health: DEHP and BPA
  8. Recycling Plastics
  9. Student Activity 2
  10. Schools and Their Food Trash
  11. What Can We Do?
  12. Student Activity 3
  13. Notes
  14. How Plastics Breakdown in Landfills
  15. Implementing District Standards
  16. Bibliography for Teachers
  17. Students Resources
  18. Classroom Resources

Our Environment: A World Away?

Michell Carter

Published September 2008

Tools for this Unit:

What Can We Do?

Clearly, there are numerous issues resulting from food packaging: trash accumulations, toxins from plastics contaminate the environment, animals and humans; our recycling system is insufficient, and prepackaged lunch foods are costly. The objective of this unit is to inspire action on the part of the students. The second and third student activities call for the students to define the food waste problem in their school and generate solutions. The easiest, fastest solution will be to make the switch to reusable containers. They will create a campaign to encourage their homeroom classes to do the same. As the school year progresses they will collect ongoing data and determine whether or not their campaign is working. If it is not working then what can we do? If it is working, how can we convince more grade levels, schools, and families to make the change?

Learning to recognize human impact on the planet is difficult. Families are busy and sometimes it is inconvenient to do the "right thing." However, we are the only ones who can control our actions. The solution to some of our environmental impact is easy to fix - simply use reusable containers! Students will find strength in their ability to help save our planet. They will use many skills in doing so such as sorting, graphing, drawing conclusions, defining problems, researching, generating solutions, and most importantly taking action to make our world a better place!

Comments:

Add a Comment

Characters Left: 500

Unit Survey

Feedback