Ideas and Activities for Recycling Education for Grades K-12.

Overview & Synopsis

In June 1997, Tennessee Technological University's Center for Manufacturing Research conducted a one-week program on plastics recycling for science teachers. The purpose of the program was to increase the teachers' basic knowledge about the importance of recycling plastics and to better prepare the teachers for teaching recycling in the classroom. As part of the mini-course activities, teacher participants developed a series of lesson plans they felt were practical and would be of use in the classroom. Emphasis was placed on integrating recycling activities into the existing curriculum rather than producing a new curriculum. Activities were developed that could be coordinated with subjects found in the regular school curriculum including mathematics instruction, art education, and language arts. This manual is the compilation of these lessons. The activities in this manual have been classified into the following areas: (1) art; (2) consumer education; (3) language arts; (4) mathematics; (5) music; (6) physical education; (7) science; (8) social sciences; and (9) technology. Activities are arranged by grade level within each area. The classifications were arbitrary and some activities can be classified into more than one area. Recycling subjects such as litter, waste categories, composting, open- and closed-loop recycling, construction materials, renewable and nonrenewable natural resources, and polymers are also included. (PVD)