For our Action Plan Deliverables we focused on outreach involving children. We prioritized the emphasis of upcycling and recycling as a means of reducing our carbon intake and saving biodiversity. We created lesson plans that educators could use in their classrooms, pamphlets, and eco-passports.

Pictured above: examples of reused-bottle birdfeeders made by children at Neighborhood House on Monday 12/5/22.

Lesson Plan

Upcycled Crafts and Games for the Holiday Season

This lesson plan was designed and implemented in 2022 by Conservation Biology students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is our hope that it can be used by others to spread the importance of recycling, upcycling, and reducing product consumption to even more young students.

Expected Time to Complete: 1.5 hours

Lesson Focus and Goals

• Center on importance of recycling

• Arm students with knowledge about their consumption habits and its connection to biodiversity

Learning Objectives

• Get students thinking about material waste and consumption habits

• Teach students how to turn “trash” into a fun and/or useful craft

Background:

This activity is centered around introducing the concepts of recycling and upcycling to elementary-aged students. These are important topics to learn about at a young age, because the choices each person makes regarding their consumption and waste can have significant impacts on global biodiversity as well as the climate. This activity hopes to make these ideas accessible to younger students by showing them how waste materials found around their homes can be turned into something completely different (and very cool!) instead of being thrown away. This lesson plan outlines the steps to make two different crafts: plastic bottle bird feeders and plastic bag ornaments.

Introduction:

Begin by asking the kids if they all have a favorite natural/outdoor spot. This was recommended by our course TA, and it is a great way to ensure that the kids can connect the lesson to a spot they know well.

• Ask why they like these spots

• Ask how they would feel if it was full of trash (or whether they have already seen litter in this place!)

• Mention that spots like this are in danger due to littering and global warming, and that these can harm animals.

Topic 1: the length of time it takes for plastic to degrade

• How long do you guys think it takes for this bottle to turn into dirt? (have a plastic bottle as a prop)

  • 450 years (“Trash: How Long” 2020)

Topic 2: Plastic is dangerous for wildlife

• Why do you guys think that plastic is bad for the environment

• Have you guys ever been to a zoo? What is your favorite wild animal?

  • What does your favorite animal eat?

    • Nothing eats plastic! Plastic is bad for animal’s tummies. Think about what happens when a pet eats something that isn't food!

• In what other ways could plastic be dangerous for animals?

  • Prompt them to think about how wildlife can get stuck in plastic

Topic 3: small actions can make a difference, and can even be fun!

• Connect bird feeders to biodiversity

  • Bird feeders support birds by giving them another food source

  • Bird feeders can increase the diversity of birds in an area

• We want to save the animals! They’re important to the planet

Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder:

OBJECTIVE:

The objective of the plastic bottle bird feeder activity is to create an engaging way for kids to upcycle a common household item, the water bottle. This activity will also serve to connect the importance of recycling/upcycling(by making the feeder) with the importance of biodiversity (the birds they can feed).

MATERIALS:

• Plastic bottle (water, sports drink, etc) or plastic drinking carton (milk carton, juice carton, etc)

• Scissors or box cutter

• String

• Decorating supplies

  • Paint

  • Stickers

  • Markers

• For Design 2: Two of a material for a perch

  • Pencils

  • Chopsticks

  • Spoons

  • Dowels

  • Sticks

EXPECTED TIME TO COMPLETE: 30 minutes

DIRECTIONS:

Design One:

1. Have students draw on the bottle where they want their opening to be with a marker

   • NOTE: be sure to have students leave a partial lip on the bottom, so that bird seed stays in the feeder while hung

2. Cut opening out, leave partially attached for a little roof or cut entirely off

   • If students are younger, have adults present do this step

3. Use decoration supplies to embellish the feeder as desired

4. Cut string to hang desired length and tie around bottleneck

5. Fill with birdseed and hang from a tree or shepherd’s hook

6. All done! Enjoy your eco-friendly birdhouse

Design Two:

1. Cut two Xs into the bottle opposite each other where you want a perch placed

   1. If students are younger, have adults present do this step

   2. Size them appropriately to the diameter of your perch item

   3. Repeat for number of perches per feeder (Recommended 1-2)

2. Insert your perch items, keeping equal amounts on either side of the bottle

3. Cut additional Xs or upside-down Vs an inch above each side of the perch

   1. If students are younger, have adults present do this step

   2. These serve as openings for birds to retrieve seeds

4. Use decoration supplies to embellish the feeder as desired

5. Cut string to hang desired length and tie around bottleneck

6. Fill with birdseed and hang from a tree or shepherd’s hook

7. All done! Enjoy your eco-friendly birdhouse

Plastic bag crafts

OBJECTIVE:

This craft is ideal for younger kids (early elementary) to experiment with reusing materials. This is an open-ended activity. I brought examples of things they could make, but the main goal of this activity was to show kids that they can be creative with almost any material that they find around them!

SUPPLIES AND PREPARATION:

Collect plastic grocery bags in various colors and textures, as well as yarn. You could plan ahead and have the students bring in bags from home, or look for places they are used around school. This would ensure you have enough supplies, and help the students understand where the materials come from.

• Cut some into large rectangles and squares by trimming off the bottom seal, cutting a straight line up one side and removing the handles.

• Cut some as described above, then make into strips by cutting each bag into 4 long pieces. I found that the easiest way to cut bags was to lay them flat on the ground, and use a sharp pair of scissors to glide through the plastic like wrapping paper.

For very young kids, bring paper bags, scrap paper, newsprint, and sharpies. Tell them that they can color on things that otherwise would be thrown away. Paper snowflakes are also fun to make with these materials, and they even work with squares of plastic bag material!

***Please note that these activities result in many plastic scraps around the room, and so it should not be done in the same room with toddlers or any kid who tends to put things in their mouth! Whole plastic bags are also a suffocation hazard and should not be used without supervision. ***

Cleaning up after the activity is another good opportunity to teach kids that they can pick up and throw away trash they see on the ground. Remind them why this is good for the outdoor areas around them!

Activity Wrap Up:

Questions to measure engagement:

1. What is pollution?

2. What daily items do your friends and loved ones use that can be recycled?

3. What can you do to keep plastic out of the environment?

4. Why is plastic bad for the planet?

5. What should you do with trash if you aren’t near a trash can?

If you use this lesson plan, please let us know how it went by filling out our feedback form!

Link: https://forms.gle/zYfZtowYf1rnzJSt

Results & Outreach

In-person:

Our group visited the Neighborhood House Community Center on December 5 for our outreach program. We were able to work with 14 elementary school-aged children. We were able to teach these children about the importance of recycling through the recycling game, and also emphasized how easy it can be to up-cycle by using trash as craft materials.

As an introduction to our activity, we asked the kids about their favorite outdoor places. A lot of the children were excited to share their special places, which included Olbrich gardens, Chicago, Harry Potter World, Lake Wingra, Henry Vilas Zoo, Edward Klief park, and Ohio. They ranged from local Madison parks to an entire state. We then discussed how they would feel if these areas were full of trash. They understood that this would take away from the beauty of these areas and harm natural areas. Several kids also commented that many of these places already have trash litter.

In our outreach, with the kids, we used eighteen bottles for bird feeder-type crafts and twelve plastic shopping bags. We calculated the amount of carbon dioxide emissions we saved by upcycling these items, instead of them being incinerated. We saved 1.18 kilograms of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere by reusing and repurposing our materials.

Below are some graphs that visualize our students' engagement:

Concluding Thoughts:

Our biggest accomplishment was that we effectively taught these kids that reducing waste can be fun, and is an action that people of all ages can take part in. The overconsumption of single-use disposables (plastic in particular) is a major threat to biodiversity in that it can be harmful to the health and well-being of wildlife. This can manifest in many forms, including death by ingestion and/or death by degradation of habitat. Additionally, this overconsumption is helping to drive the climate crisis. When plastic products are created, carbon dioxide is emitted in the process. Our action plan prevented the disposal of several plastic waste products, which intercepted several potential sources of plastic pollution. We hope that the kids will keep what they learned with them as they grow as consumers, so they can continue to better our planet throughout their lives.