introduction task_description process evaluation conclusion

Introduction

The Recycle Challenge is a series of activities that allow students to set-up and evaluate a recycling program in their school. The Challenge is designed to be used primarily with grades four through eight, it is flexible enough to use with a diversity of learning styles and grade levels. Many of the activities can be scaled up or down depending on individual needs. The experiential nature of the activities require students to take a hands-on approach to learn about the value of recycling by:

  • Identifying their school's system for dealing with waste
  • Designing a recycling plan to implement a recycling program
  • Collecting data on recycled material or through waste audits and constructing graphs and charts to aide in monitoring and adjusting the plan
  • Exploring nature to learn about how recycling is an important part of nature's systems for dealing with waste
  • Extending their understanding of the importance of technology to recycling by looking at "low-tech" recycling of paper and new techniques for recycling sport shoes.

The culminating activity in The Recycle Challenge is a presentation by students to the administration of their school or district that summarizes what they have learned. The purpose of the presentation is to use data and evidence from nature to convince the administration to continue recycling efforts at the school.

Standards

The standards used to align the activities in The Recycle Challenge are summarized in The Recycle Challenge Standards Overview. The standards used are based on Arizona Department of Education Standards.

Teacher's Notes on Implementing How Are We Doing?

Purpose

To use data collected from recycling in the classroom and through waste audits to create graphs that help to refine a recycling plan and to use in the final presentation.
Context This activity follows the design of a recycling plan that included data collection. Students look at the data and define the graphs that will help them understand what the data tells them about the effectiveness of their recycling effort. In addition waste audits are conducted to spot check recycling and provide more feedback to help modify the recycling plan. The graphs created here are compared and contrasted to the predictive graphs created in earlier activities. In the next part of The Recycle Challenge students look to nature for evidence that recycling is part of Earth systems.
Skills
  • Organize data into tables.
  • Create graphs to present data in a visual, easy to understand form.
  • Conduct waste audits to spot check recycling efforts.
  • Modify the recycling plan if needed.
  • Contribute and work cooperatively in group and class discussions.
Recommended Procedure

Part 1

Time
2 - 4 Class Periods

(Ongoing)

Deciding on the kinds of graphs to create from the data and creating the graphs.

  1. Be sure to modify the criteria for evaluation to fit your needs.
  2. The product students create in this part of the challenge will vary depending on the data collected (as defined in your plan), the skills of the students, technology available, and time allowed to create graphs. The simplest product may be a hand written table organizing the amount of recycled material collected weekly together with a bar chart of recycled material collected per week.

    At Black Mountain Elementary School our recycling club took over the organization of data into tables and the creation of graphs. Examples of our data and graphs can be seen at:

  1. It is best to have students work in groups to brainstorm and sketch ideas for tables and graphs.
  2. Once students have created their sketches, have them share their work and discuss it as a class. Decide on the graphs that make the most sense for your class to concentrate on. One strategy for effective creation of the graphs is to divide the effort up and assign specific responsibility for different tables and graphs to groups of students.
  3. Since the recycling effort is a year long process, try and use Excel or some other spreadsheet program to organize and graph the data. This will let students add to their previous data and graphs without having to recreate them every time. Be patient as refining and defining the graphs can take some time depending on how much you have to teach students about organizing data and using a graphing program.

Part 2

Time
1 Class Period for simple waste audit

5 - 7 for lunch waste audit

(Ongoing)

Conducting waste audits to spot check how well people are recycling.

  1. Be sure to modify the criteria for evaluation to fit your needs.
  2. A typical waste audit for a classroom or other area should be conducted unannounced and at the end of the day. A simple audit for paper can be conducted by:
  • Placing a tarp or protective covering in an area to work.
  • Have students use gloves to protect themselves from germs.
  • Empty trash on to the tarp and separate the garbage into paper that should be recycled and garbage.
  • Mass each pile and record.
  • Clean up work area.
  • Calculate the percent of paper relative to the total garbage.
  • Report how much of the garbage should have been recycled.

    For a more in-depth waste audit format see:

  • The Oregon Green School Tools - Contains lots of useful information on recycling in general, and a great waste audit form with instructions.

    At Black Mountain Elementary School students decided to conduct a lunch room waste audit. To help focus the effort we required students to work in teams and create an Executive Summary that could be used as part of their presentation to the administration in the district. Students separated food, styrofoam, plastic, paper, and other materials into trash containers. They massed the waste and measured the height of the trash containers so that they could calculate volume using the formula for volume of a cylinder. Information on our lunch audit can be found at:

  • Executive Summary of lunch waste audit
  • Grading criteria for lunch waste audit
  • Data and graphs for lunch waste audit (This data is for our first lunch audit and for a second conducted on Earth day when students brought Earth-friendly lunches to reduce waste.

Part 3

Time

(Ongoing)

Modifying the plan.

Use the information collected here to modify your recycling plan as necessary.

The product students create here are data tables and graphs that are important to help explain how effective the recycling program is. Be sure to save the graphs for use in the final presentation.

Note: Be careful when sharing results with teachers and students. The information, especially from waste audits, should be presented in a positive manner. Also, it is important foster a cooperative rather than competitive atmosphere pitting one class against another. A competitive atmosphere can cause students to "recycle" unused paper just to get a better showing when the data is graphed.