Green Chemistry

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 09.05.03

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Overview
  2. Objectives
  3. Background
  4. Strategies
  5. Activities
  6. Annotated Bibliography
  7. Resource Bibliography
  8. Delaware State Standards 44 and Implementation 45 - Appendix A
  9. Typology Classification of Plastics, Density and Examples of Use of Each 52 - Appendix B
  10. Market Price of Recycled Items as of July 9, 2009 53 - Appendix C
  11. Materials Delaware Solid Waste Authority Collects and Recycles 54 - Appendix D
  12. Phase Change Graphs for Aluminum, Steel, Iron, and Tin 55 - Appendix E
  13. Endnotes

It's Not Waste: Teaching Recycling through Density, Phase Change and Solubility

Victoria Lyn Deschere

Published September 2009

Tools for this Unit:

Objectives

The aim of this unit is three fold: to create questioners and lifelong learners, to make an impact on the environment and to influence businesses in our area to act more responsibly.

"Education has for its object the formation of character." 3 Though I have standards to teach (Appendix A), my greatest goal as a teacher is to help raise responsible, capable citizens, not to impart knowledge or skills. Individuals should act not only in their own best interest but also in the interest of others; thus, I must teach empathy and ethics. They should adapt when confronted with new situations; thus, I must teach flexibility and critical thinking. As a teacher, I have no higher calling than to lead students toward their fullest potential as human beings.

Students must not just see their responsibility as only for themselves and other humans but also for the environment in which they live. Through this unit, students develop plans to recycle, mitigating climate change and reducing the pressures on biodiversity. Recycling saves nonrenewable resources and cuts air and water pollution: protecting not only the human inhabitants of this planet but all life and the earth itself. 4

"The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action." 5 Remediation of our planet can only happen if the students act at home and with the business community. They must insist that businesses have a recycling plan in place for every product. Life cycle management of products is an essential component of production. Resource recovery and end-of-life issues for a product conserve natural resources, provide a cost-effective feedstock, create jobs, 6 and build more competitive industries. 7 For example, polyethylene tetra phthalate (PET) bottles were introduced in 1978. Only one year after the introduction, eight million bottles were recycled. Disposable societies do not lead to sustainability of a company, the planet, or the human race. Through this unit, students will learn what it means to recycle and be an active part of reducing our negative impact on the environment.

Comments:

Victor Joseph

September 30, 2014 at 1:08 pm

Appendix-E of above article

The graph of Al, Fe,Sn & steel phase change temperature T in centigrad vs Time. The time axis is in what units hr, minutes, seconds or days?

Brudvig Gary

October 2, 2014 at 12:54 pm

. It's Not Waste: Teaching Recycling through Density, Phase Change and Solubility

The time axis is arbitrary because the time required for the phase changes will depend on the size of each sample and the rate that heat is applied.

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