In this activity, students monitor plastic garbage produced in their own household, describe potential effects on aquatic wildlife, and identify specific actions they can take to remedy the problem.
You will keep track of the plastic trash from your home for two days and make a list of discarded plastic items. Then you will explore potential impacts and remedies.
What is marine debris?
Huge amounts of plastics, metals, rubber, paper, textiles, derelict fishing gear, vessels, and other lost or discarded items enter our oceans every day.
Marine debris is a global problem, and it is a threat to our environment, navigation safety, the economy, and potentially human safety and health.
Most of all, marine debris is preventable. Learn more about marine debris and find out how you can prevent it.
Keep track of plastic trash in your home for two days. Open the Jamboard.
Share your list of plastic garbage, along with what the plastic was used for before it was discarded, on page 1.
Check out the information about plastics in the ocean the NOAA website (shared above) and then watch How Much Plastic is in the Ocean?
On the page 2, sort the items from your list into groups based on the potential hazard they pose to marine life if they were to enter the ocean.
Think about ways to reduce, re-use, or recycle plastic garbage and add ideas for specific actions you can take to help keep plastic out of the ocean on page 3.
Additional resource: Great Pacific Garbage Patch