K-3

• Matter occupies space, it has substance and we can measure its weight.

• When matter interacts with other matter under ordinary circumstances, it changes in various ways, but does not disappear nor is it created.

• Mixtures of elements or compounds can be separated using physical processes.

• Change is affected by surroundings.

• All resources... ultimately come from the earth... they must be used with care, conserved, and recycled.

• Some materials are non-renewable; they cannot be replaced or can be replaced only at such slow rates and under such rare conditions that they are for all practical purposes not renewable at all.

• Conservation and management of resources are ethical and practical concerns involving public policy and individual responsibility. Public landfills must be planned responsibly to allow maximal use of the land once it is reclaimed.

• Non-renewable resources can be conserved through careful use, recycling, and application of energy. If the energy applied in recycling and conserving comes from another non-renewable source, then the effect is to trade one non-renewable resource for another.

• Environmental reclamation involves the need to restore mining sites... these responsibilities always accompany the exploitation of natural resources.

• Human practices can often affect the well-being of other species in the environment... It is important for humans to respect nature, conserve natural habitats, resources and species.

• Waste disposal, the use of land... and the destruction of natural habitats through human-caused disasters have contributed to the extinction of species... and have threatened to destroy ecosystems.

• Pollution, which can be defined as unnatural excess of abnormal materials in an ecosystem, is a primary human cause of local extinction.

• Land use...and application of technology all involve ethical considerations for individuals and society. Conservation is not simply an ethical question; it is in the vested self-interest of humans to conserve and respect nature.

• Pollution comes in many forms: The introduction of unnatural substances into an ecosystem; an excess of natural substances; or the acceleration of nutrient flow through an ecosystem, bypassing natural processes.

The following activity is to introduce the lessons on solid waste. Unless students understand why there is a need to reduce, reuse, and recycle trash, the individual activities will have little or no connection to a conceptual understanding of waste and waste management.

Students will be able to describe what waste is and define alternative views of waste.

• l banana
• 1 potato
• 1 orange
• 1 t-shirt
• Vegetable peeler
• Knife
• Can of soda

1. Discuss resources with students. Ask how a potato, orange, and banana are a resource.
2. Divide the class into groups of four or five students.
3. Have students prepare the foods by peeling.
4. Discuss what the peels are.
5. Ask what other things are like these foods (where what we want to eat is inside something that we throw away).
6. List student ideas on the board.
7. Hold up an unpeeled potato. Ask the students where the waste is. Help students understand that waste only occurs when the desired part of an item is used and the rest is thrown away. (Waste is what we no longer want; waste does not mean there is no value for others in what is thrown away.)
8. Have students think of practical uses for the waste created by peeling food items.
9. Use the same procedure in #7 with soda pop. Discuss ways of reducing the waste generated, including reusing and/or recycling the can.

10. Repeat the procedure with the t-shirt. What can be done with a worn out or too small shirt.

1. What do we usually do with waste?

2. How can we reduce waste?

3. How can waste be a resource for other uses?

1. Have students draw "Decision Paths" for an item of their choosing. Draw a picture of something in the classroom trash can. Have students decide what can be done with the item. Draw the different pathways that the item could take (i.e. the path to the trash can or the path to reuse.)

2. Play the game "What Else?" Have teams compete to try to stump the other team by naming an object for which the other side cannot find another use.

3. Create an art piece using waste items gathered from the school yard.

4. Have students play "Fast Food Detective". When students buy food at the nearby fast food restaurants have them save the wrappers. Weigh and compare the wrappings for similar items from the different stores. Have students chart their results to discover which chain sells the most "trash-free" food.