IOWA 4-9 SCIENCE PROJECT

TEACHER GUIDE for: The Litter Investigation Mary Ward & Mark Schneider
ECOLOGY.460 Grades 4-6

CONCEPT OBJECTIVE:
The student will become aware of litter in their
environment. The student will investigate the kinds of
litter that are found and will create their own system for
classifying litter.

PROCESS OBJECTIVES:
The thinking skills that are developed in this cycle are
observing, classifying and recording.

TEACHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

1. The teacher needs to locate a safe location to pick up
litter. Possible locations could be the school yard,
neighborhood, or park. Caution students to be careful when
picking up glass and other materials.

MATERIALS NEEDED:
For Each Group of 2-4 Students
garbage bags and paper towels

EXPLORATORY ACTIVITY:

1. Give each pair or small group of students a garbage bag.
Have the students collect litter in the designated area
established by the teacher. Caution students about the
safety of picking certain items. Spend approximately 10-15
minutes collecting the litter.

2. When students have collected the litter and returned to
the room, empty the bags of garbage and sort it into
different groups. Each group needs to devise their own
system for sorting the litter and be able explain it to the
rest of the class. After each group has classified their
litter, have two groups get together to try and guess the
other group's system for classifying the litter.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT:

1. Introduce the term "litter". Invite students to create
their own definition for the word.

2. Discuss the types of litter that were found during the
exploratory activity. Other possible questions for class
discussion include:

"How many kinds of litter did your group find?"
"How many different categories or groups of litter were
there in your group."
"Which type of litter was the most common?"
"Which type of litter was the least common?"

3. Have the students count the number of items in each
group and list the category names and the items on Student
SHEET #1. Have the students transform the information into
a graph (bar graph, or line graph).



STUDENT SHEET #1 NAME __________________

THE LITTER INVESTIGATION


RECORD YOUR INFORMATION ON THIS SHEET

CATEGORY | LITTER ITEMS IN THAT CATEGORY
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(continue this chart to bottom of page)


APPLICATION:

1. Try collecting litter in a different location. Have the
students compare and contrast the types of litter and the
amount of litter between the second location and the first.
Have the students classify the second location's litter
using the classification charts that were devised during the
concept development activity to see if their system is still
useful.

2. Have the class brainstorm ways to use, or reuse the
different litter categories, ie., cans can be returned for
deposit, bottles and plastics can be recycled. If there is
sufficient interest in your class, devise a project to clean
up litter and reuse and recycle as much of the material as
possible.

3. Have the students brainstorm ways of reducing the amount
of litter left in different locations.

ADDITIONAL TOPICS RELATED TO THIS LEARNING CYCLE:

1. Investigate ways different states in the United States
reduce or get rid of their waste products.

2. Discuss the types of diseases that a person can pick up
from not disposing of litter properly.

3. Discuss the types of people who leave different types of
litter.

EVALUATION

The application activity is often the most valid appraisal
of what each student has learned. The teacher should
carefully observe each student's performance during the
application activity. Students' responses to individual
questions during the application activity is also a valid
appraisal.