Meredith Lane

PED 265

Health Lesson Plan

Title: Beach Recycling

Grade Level: Middle School

Number of Students: 24

Location: Classroom

National Health Education Standards:

Standard 2: Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture,

media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors.

Next Generation Science Standards:

MS-ESS3-3: Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and

minimizing a human impact on the environment.

Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations:

L.EC.06.41: Describe how human beings are part of the ecosystem of the

Earth and that human activity can purposefully, or accidentally, alter the

balance in ecosystems.

Welcome middle schoolers! Today we will be doing another activity from our

unit on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. You’ve already learned so far that humans have a

profound affect on the world, including the release of greenhouse gases, the amount

of water that we use on a daily basis, and reducing waste. Today we are going to

focus on marine pollution, which is defined as any man-made solid material that is

disposed of or abandoned into a marine environment, or the Great Lakes. This is

something that is familiar to nearly all of us living in the Great Lakes state of

Michigan! We’re going to start out with a little activity before we start learning

about the causes and effects of marine pollution.

Behavioral Objectives: Cognitive

TTW: Distribute a tub of sand to each table group and instruct students to work as

groups to filter through the sand to find the items that are commonly found on

beaches, and place them aside in the buckets. The teacher should emphasize that the

students should be careful not to get sand on the floor.

TSW: Work in groups to carefully find all of the items in the sand.

TTW: Write all of the items that the students found on the board. Ask students if

they think whether or not certain items found in the sand are recyclable. Some items

they should find in their tub are:

Pop cans

Cigarette butt

Plastic bags

Glass bottles

Bottle caps

Straws

Plastic silverware

Styrofoam cup

Food wrappers

Pop can holders

Popsicle stick

Fishing buoy

TSW: Discuss whether or not they think items found in the buckets are recyclable.

TTW: Start a discussion about how students think that the items found in the sand

got there, and why. Ask how they think this kind of debris affects our beaches, and

how we can avoid this kind of pollution in the future.

TSW: Participate in the discussion about the various aspects of beach pollution,

offering their suggestions about recycling different items.

TTW: Project Figure 1 on the board and ask

the students to discuss with their table

group for a few minutes which of these nine

things contribute to marine pollution and

how they think they contribute.

TSW: Discuss with each other which of the

factors on the board contribute to marine

pollution and how each might contribute.

When they are done discussing in their

groups, they will come together as a class

and give their predictions and explanations for each.

TTW: Go through each of the pictures and explain to the class why each of the

pictures does or does not contribute to ocean pollution.

1. A cruise ship DOES contribute: they dump large amounts of sewage into the

oceans, destroy coral reefs, leak oil and gas into the water, and other

pollutants into the air.

2. Picnickers DO contribute: people that picnic on beaches may leave their

plastic bottles, bags, and other trash on the beach, which the tide pulls out.

Figure 1: possible factors that lead to marine pollution.

3. A man washing his car DOES contribute: soap and harmful chemicals that

this man is washing off of his car can drain directly into storm drains, which

eventually lead to the ocean, rivers, or lakes.

4. A fisherman DOES contribute: net debris and other pollution from fishing

activities can get in the ocean, rivers, or lakes and tangle its organisms.

TSW: Ask any questions or raise any concerns that they may have thus far.

TTW: Ask the students if they have ever been on the beach and seen anything that

doesn’t belong, specifically pollution like trash or litter.

TSW: Call out different objects they have seen on the beach.

TTW: Make a list of student

suggestions on the board, then

project Figure 2 on the board and

ask students to estimate how long

it takes for each of the items listed

to decompose.

TSW: Work in their same table

groups to come up with a time of

how long they think each item

takes to decompose, then again come together as a class to discuss their estimations.

TTW: Write the students’ estimations of the decomposition times on the board, and

then reveal the answers about decomposition times of these various items:

Glass bottle = UNDETERMINED

Fishing line = MANY years; UNDETERMINED

Figure 2: decomposition times of various items.

Plastic beverage bottle = MANY years; UNDETERMINED

Aluminum can = MANY years

Styrofoam cup = MANY years; UNDETERMINED

Cigarette filter = MANY years

Milk carton = A few months

Banana peel = A few weeks

TTW: Ask the students how they think this pollution originated, what items could

be the most dangerous, and how this debris could affect the ecosystem in which it

has been introduced.

TSW: Participate in class discussion based on the teacher’s questions.

TTW: After all of these activities, play the video called, “Plastic Pollution, Our

Oceans, Our Future…” and ask students to write down three interesting facts that

they learned in the video.

TSW: Watch the video and write down their interesting facts.

TTW: Ask the students whether or not they think doing a similar beach-recycling

project would be feasible in Michigan and why it would be important. Facilitate a

discussion about how plastic impacts its surrounding ecosystems and how we can

prevent this kind of pollution.

TSW: Participate in the class discussion, using examples from the video and the

interesting facts that they wrote down while watching.

TTW: End the lesson by showing Figure 3, an infographic about small ways that

students can prevent marine and beach debris

themselves. Ask students if they already do some

of these things, how they can start doing them, or how they can get their friends and

family involved.

Materials:

4 plastic or metal bins

Enough sand to fill the bins

4 buckets

Enough various materials for each tub of sand (listed below)

Overhead projector

Figures 1, 2, and 3

YouTube video

24 Student Surveys

Class Management: This lesson uses groups; students should be arranged in four

groups of tables or desks with 6 students in each group.

Visual Aids: The hands-on activity will be the sand sorting activity, where students

will sort through tubs of sand to find various recyclable materials. There will also be

three pictures used throughout the lesson, for which students will discuss and

provide their ideas.

Skill/Activity Practice: This lesson can easily be adapted for special needs, ESL,

and ELL students. To differentiate the lesson and provide more information, the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has an Activity Book, which has all

different kinds of activities for students – crossword puzzles, word searches,

coloring book pages, infographics, printable posters, and assessments.

Closure Activity: Students will complete the Student Survey to bring together

everything that they have learned throughout the lesson. This survey will not be

graded, but rather will be a sort of review for students about the material and to

reinforce the ideas they have learned.

References:

"Understanding Marine Debris." Marine Debris. NOAA, 2015. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.

"Educational Materials." OR&R's Marine Debris Program. NOAA, 29 Sept. 2016. Web.

03 Oct. 2016.

"What Is Marine Debris?" OR&R's Marine Debris Program. NOAA, 29 Sept. 2016.

Web. 03 Oct. 2016.

"Talking Trash & Taking Action!" Ocean Conservancy & NOAA Marine Debris. NOAA,

n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.