Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District
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  Classroom Presentations

All classes address one or more science indicator for the given grade. Also, many classes meet indicators for math, social studies and language arts.

Climate Change
Putting on Pollutant Pounds
5-8
Human activity has impacted the environment including changing the climate. Students will calculate the amount of pollutants emitted for their energy needs, and they will discuss how actions and activities impact the environment. Students will brainstorm solutions such as how recycling and other activities lessen the effect of global warming and climate change.

Compost
Compost/Decomposition
K-2
Composting slowly changes once living materials into healthy soil, which help plants grow. Students will learn about non-living and living materials, how living materials decompose, what can be composted and the organisms that help with the composting process.

Edible Compost
1-4
The proper amount of greens and browns are needed in a compost pile to have organic matter decompose properly. Students will learn the ingredients needed to build a compost pile that will break down organic matter by creating an edible model of a compost pie.

Compost and Soils
3-4
Students will learn the composition and properties of compost, sand, soil and mulch through testing the materials. Students will construct compost pile in a jar to observe organic waste decomposing over time.

Composting Organics
7
Composting fruits, leaves, grasses and other organic wastes create humus, which is high in nutrients. Students will learn about how organic matter decomposes into compost and how nutrients are cycled to be reused by other plants.

Cycles
Nature & Human Cycles
K-3
People should follow the example of natural cycles to live more in harmony with the earth. Students will discuss several natural cycles and how they can mimic nature by reusing natural resources through recycling.

Econo-Puzzle*
2-3
Natural resources are used to make products that we want and need, but people end the cycle if they throw the products in the trash. Students will examine cycles of goods by creating a diagram of how goods are produced and finding out what happens to them.

Earth Challenge Games
4-10
Students will work together as a team through a series of group initiatives and games that teach environmental concepts and issues.

Energy
Energy Bills
1-2
Energy comes from many sources such as the sun, food, gas and coal. Students will learn how energy is used, and they will add up the cost of their energy habits and brainstorm ideas on how simple actions can conserve energy.

Energy Wheel
5-6
Energy comes from renewable sources like the sun and water and nonrenewable sources like coal and oil. Students will create an energy resource wheel to learn about renewable and nonrenewable energy sources and they will discuss ways to extend energy use through conservation and efficiency.

Far Out Fossil Fuels
5-6
Fossil fuels are energy used to make factories and car operate, warm or cool homes and are made into many products all of which make life more comfortable for people. Students will learn how fossil fuels are formed and how crude oil is processed into other energy sources. Students will discover how to conserve nonrenewable energy resources.

Forestry Resources
Town Meeting
5-7
A town meeting has been called to decided what land use plan will be the best environmentally and economically for the town's forest. Students as a team will design a land use plan for local forest resources based on environmental and economic needs, they will present their plan at a town meeting for a vote.

Household Hazardous Waste
Harmful Home
K-3
Many products founds in the home can be dangers to children, adults and pets. Students will recognize symbols and words that indicate hazardous substances and create a recipe book for safe household substitutes.

Home, Safe Home*
4-6
Cleaning will keep the house neat and tidy, but the products used in cleaning may be hazardous to people and the environment. Students will learn the difference between toxic and nontoxic home products and create a green cleaning wheel for environmentally safe cleaning products.

What Home Haz Envirochallenge
7-9
Air fresheners really do not freshen the air instead they limit people's sense of smell. Students will learn about household hazardous wastes and how they effect humans and the environment through answering questions and obtaining points for their team.

Landfills
Building An Edible Landfill
2-6
Trash goes away to a landfill and no one worries about it. Students learn about how a landfill is constructed and the environmental problems of their trash when constructing a landfill, which when completed they can eat.

Finer Liner*
5-6
When trash is put in a landfill, it creates environmental and human health problems. Students learn the environmental problems their trash creates and how landfills are constructed and they will build a landfill model in a cup and test if it will leak.

Litter Prevention
Wartville Wizard
Pre-K-1
Litter can make the neighborhood look trashy. Students will learn about litter through listening to the wonderful story of the Wartville Wizard, and they will make a bracelet out of pop bottles to remind them to not litter.

Fishing for Litter
K-1
Litter is caused by careless actions of people who do not take care of their trash properly such as putting a tight fitting lid on the trash can. Students will learn the difference between good and bad environmental habits through fishing for litter habits and what are the seven sources of litter.

Map Out Litter
1-2
Litter can be found almost everywhere. Students will learn about basic map parts, place litter on a map of a park based on directions and discuss what litter can do to the environment.

Lasting Litter Timeline
4-5
Litter has a negative impact on the environment, especially since some litter will not decompose. Students will organize common litter items by how long it will take to degrade in the environment, and they will brainstorm action steps for a litter prevention program.

Pollution
The Costly Thing*
5-6
Products and pollution results when factories use energy, water and natural resources to manufacture products that people want and need. Students will infer pollution values during manufacturing processes, and they will deduce the environmental impact of using recycled source in manufacturing.

Pollution on the Move*
5-6
Pollution negatively impacts the environment and can create human health problems. Student will identify sources of natural and human made pollutant and how they enter the environment.

Natural Resources
Resource Tree
K-1
Whatever humans use come form nature and it is called a natural resource. Students will differentiate between resources that are natural and man-made and that came from a living or non-living resource. Students will discuss how the 3R's can conserve resources.

Puzzling Plastics
1-3
Plastics are found more and more in the trash partly because only two types of plastic can be recycled. Students will learn about characteristics of plastics, how they are made, which types of plastics can be recycled and how they can be reused if they cannot be recycled. An optional extension is to create shrinking plastic crafts out of no. 6 plastic.

Follow That Bottle
2
Recycled plastic soda pop bottles can be made into several products such as clothing and carpeting. Students will discuss how plastic bottles are recycled into new products through organizing the process and coloring in cartoon pictures to create a book.

Resource Bingo
3-4
Natural resources can be categorized by more than just animal, vegetable and mineral. Students will brainstorm products made from sand, metal, fossil fuels, animals and plants and apply the list during the bingo game.

Mining Expedition*
4-6
The origin of all materials is natural resources. Students will learn about mining of natural resources through extracting chocolate out of a cookie, and they will calculate the financial and environmental cost of obtaining natural resources from the earth.

The Paper Factory*
4-6
Paper makes up 80-90% of what schools send as trash to the landfill, although most of the paper is recyclable. Group of students will make paper from various paper sources and they will deduce the amount of energy and monetary value of the materials they used during the manufacturing process.

Nonrenewable Energy Resources
5-6
Fossil fuels run cars and electronics and provide safe packaging just to name a few uses of this natural resource. Students will discover how oil and natural gas are found, extracted and used to make products through a series of demonstration and observations. Student will brainstorm the reason why it is important of conserve resources and recycle.

Plastics
9
Plastic were discover over 100 years ago, but only have been widely used in the last 25 years. Students will learn about how plastics were invented, plastic properties and why more and more plastic products are today's garbage. Students will discuss cultural and environmental impacts of plastics.

Dwindling Resources
10
Americans use 120 pounds of resources everyday from food, clothing to transportation. Through a hands-on activity where students decide how to develop a town by using resources and finding a solution for their waste. Students will discuss how people cause change that effect the environment and the quality of life.

Recycling
Where From?, Where Go?
K-1
When people recycle then natural resources are used again and again. Students will learn that products come from natural resources and they will determine which materials can be recycled.

The 3 Rs
K-1
Reduce, reuse, recycle are ways to decrease the amount of trash going to landfills and it is one way students can be involved with taking care of the earth. Students learn what can be recycled in their community through sorting a trash bucket and demonstrating ideas on how to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Sir Johnny Recycling Adventure
K-2
Students will listen to the story, which focuses on why people should recycle and how paper is made from recycled paper. Students then can make one piece of recycled paper.

Mini-MRF
4
A MRF or material recovery facility sorts recyclables into categories through the use of machines and material's properties and human labor. Students will test materials for properties that can be used to demonstrate how to sort recyclables.

Reuse Craft Projects
K-adult
Craft projects can be used as a class or paired with most other classes offered.

Glass: stain glass vase
Holiday theme crafts
Metal: can man, luminary
Paper: Junk mail jewelry, paper mache, rain sticks, newspaper baskets, treasure boxes
Plastic: Kites, bottle beings, jug heads and animals, lid sun catchers
* Many more projects are available at request.
* Reuse items are collected by participants and craft supplies are provided by the Solid Waste District.

Trash
Making A Garbage Pie
1-2
The garbage that is thrown away can be categorized to into groups for research purpose. Students will learn about what percentage garbage is paper, plastic, metal, glass, yard waste, food waste and other by creating a garbage pie out of those materials. The students will learn what can be recycled instead of thrown away in the trash.

Secrets in a Garbage Can*
4-5
Students will be able to explain what discarded materials might reveal about a family or society and their relationship to the environment when they unearthed artifacts from "the back forty."

Trash for Around the World*
4-6
The United States is one of the most wasteful countries in the world. Students will examine trash and interpret data about global solid waste practices and explain relationships between country's physical geography, population, wealth and disposal methods.

Garbage Games
6-9
Learning about garbage can be as fun as talking trash. Students will learn about garbage and related environmental problems when they take turns answering questions for a point for their team.

Waste Reduction
Packing Zero
K-6
School lunch time is waste time, so let's learn the 3 R's of lunch: reduce, reuse, recycle. Students learn how to pack a lunch to minimizes the amount of trash that they throw away, and they will learn what items that can be recycled.

A Pig's Tale
K-2
This is a pig story with a twist. Students will listen to the story, which illustrates reusing trash and they will create a classroom trash air-balloon from trash items students saved or create a collage from old magazine pictures.

Environmental Shopping
4-6
Peoples' choices about what to buy effect the environment. Students will brainstorm ways to reduce waste and help the environment when shopping for food, clothing and other products.

Notes:
*Activities from Windows on Waste.
*Presentation can be geared to other grade levels at teachers request.
*Activities geared to other environmental issue can be requested if the teacher has a specific need. For example, activities from Project WET, WILD, Learning Tree and Food, Land and People.

Environmental Education Programs


Home Cuyahoga County
Solid Waste District

323 Lakeside Ave W, Suite 400
Cleveland, Ohio 44113-1009
Tel: 216-443-3749
Fax: 216-443-3737
[email protected]