Jessica Shaeffer

Jessica Shaeffer

Nicole Cook

April 9, 2012

Math 124

Waste in our Water!

The teacher is going to bring in all of the coffee cups that s/he has acquired over the next couple of weeks until the project is due. (One coffeeincludes: 1 Cup, 1 Lid, 1 Straw, and 1 Warmer Sleeve).

- Have the students figure out how many coffee cups, lids, straws, and warmer sleeves their teacher would obtain over 5 weeks if s/he has 4 coffeesa week.

- Have the students calculate how many cups, lids, straws, and warmer sleeves the whole class would accumulate in just 5 weeks if every student would have brought in coffee cups (We are going to estimate about 30 people in the class). Share your answers with your neighbors and explain how you came to that conclusion.

- Place all of the cups into garbage bags that have been provided by the teacher. How much space does the garbage bag hold? How many bags did you fill up with the trash from the coffee cups?

- Given the amount of cups that are provided, stack them as high as you can. Once you have done that make note of how high the stack is and how many cups you used. Now, place the cups side by side with no space in between for as long as you can go and note your results. Compare the two results and explain why they are different or the same.

- Next, we will compare statistics to how much trash ends up in the sea each year.

* 90% of all trash floating in the world’s ocean is plastic.

* The United Nations Environment Program estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean hosts about 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.

* In certain areas, the amount of plastic outweighs the amount of plankton by an outrageous ratio of 6:1.

* More than 200 billion pounds of plastic in the world is produced each year and about 10% of that trash ends up in the ocean every year. Although 10% may seem as a small number, the total is 20,000,000,000. This means that there is 14.32 billion pounds of trash in every square mile of the ocean if you spread it out evenly.

* Even though these coffee cups are paper, the straws, which are plastic, may end up in the ocean. Even paper products make their way into the ocean but they break down more than plastic does.

- Now give examples of what happens to wildlife, and how it is affected by the trash that is lead into the ocean each year.

* Seals’ necks get caught in plastic netting (packing straps), eventually killing them through starvation or infections.

* Plastic soda rings, bags, Styrofoam pellets are mistaken for food, essentially clogging intestines of turtles and seabirds.

* Whales get caught in translucent fishing nets and drown.

- We are then going to continue by just looking at the different sizes of bodies of water that is near us and how trash levels vary from one location to another. Since the Puget Sound is located closest to us, as well as the Pacific Ocean, one may guess by the size of the bodies of water which one collects more trash than others. This is supposed to help students gain an understanding of how big the body of water that is closest to them is, and how much trash that it is capable of accumulating.

OCEAN / SQUARE MILES
Arctic Ocean / 5,106,000
Southern Ocean / 7,848,000
Indian Ocean / 28,350,000
Atlantic Ocean / 33,420,000
Pacific Ocean / 64,186,000
**Puget Sound** / 1,020

During this project, we want to show the students how much trash gets into the ocean and how it negatively affects our wildlife, their habitat, and their lives. Most people do not realize how much trash actually goes into the ocean every year and that just because you put it in a trash can, doesn't mean it always makes it to the dump. It has a tendency to end up in the ocean. Think of all the plastic bags we accumulate from going to the store. What do we do with them? Then think about how much coffee your teacher may drink. As elementary teachers, they may drink an enormous amount compared to others out in our society.Some teachers may drink 2-3 coffees a day: that's 3 cups, 3 straws, 3 warm sleeves, and 3 lids. That is a total of 12 articles of trash that can land into the ocean in just one day from one person for just that drink! How do we know that any of that one drink makes it to the trash and not in the ocean?

If all of the teachers switched to a reusable cup, lid, and straw, (no warmer sleeve needed) that is 12 pieces of trash that will NOT make it into the ocean, and which can be reused over and over again! By using reusable cups, lids, and straws, this will limit the trash that goes into our water system that harms more than just our drinking water; it harms our water activities like swimming and rowing, but it also hurts the local (or worldwide) sea animal habitats.

- Now, we will show the comparison between reusable cups and 4 different sets of cups a day for one week.

- The class will be asked to make a comparison between the two different sample sizes of reusable cups vs non-reusable cups that the teacher will bring in.

- We will continue to ask the students which choice they would like to pick, if they had the option to choose.The one-time use cups, or the reusable cups?

We think it would be a good idea to have the students show their math on eraser boards to demonstrate that we need to minimize garbage waste, or we can use the white boards in the classroom and split the students up into different groups. We also will show some pictures of trash in the water, and how it harms wildlife.

After receiving all of the information provided, some other activities that we will have the class focus on doing is:

1) Have each student predict how many cups, lids, warm sleeves, and straws they personally go through in a 5 week period.

2) Have the students estimate how many cups, lids, straws, and warmer sleeves their family goes through in a 5 week period.

3) Now think of your school. Do your best to estimate how many cups, lids, straws, and warmer sleeves that you school would use for one day. One week. Now 5 weeks.

-The students will now share their answers with the class for all three questions. They may work in groups or individually. No more than 3 students in one group.

** We said that our project targets students around the 4thgrade. Different standards that our lesson meets are: Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Measurement and Data, and Mathematical Practices.

Water Lesson Worksheet

On a separate sheet of paper, please answer the following questions and be prepared to share your answers with the class. Show your work!

1.If Jessica drank 4 hot chocolatesevery week for 5 weeks total, how many cups, lids, warmers sleeves, and straws did she accumulate?

2.If every student in the class (estimate 30 students) drank 4 hot chocolatesevery week for 5 weeks how many cups, lids, straws, and sleeve warmers did the class collect in all?

3.Let us say that every week 10 different teachers did not get a warmer sleeve for their coffeesfor the 5 weeks. What is the total amount of pieces of trash accumulated for our class? Discuss with your neighbors your answers and how they vary.

4.With your neighbor, come up with different examples of how the trash of your hot chocolate cups can become a hazard for animals in the ocean? Do these hazards differ from ocean to ocean? Does the Puget Sound differ from these oceans?

5.What is the difference between using a reusable cup, lid, and straw 4 times a week for 5 weeks versus using a new cup, lid, warmer sleeve, and straw 4 times a week for 5 weeks? By looking at all the numbers/statistics we have come up with which cup would you use (new or reusable)?

6.Individually, predict how many cups, lids, straws, and warmer sleeves you go through every week? What is your total for 5 weeks?

7.Estimate the amount of cups, lids, straws, and warmer sleeves you and your family go through every week. What is the total for 5 weeks?

8.Think of the school you are currently in. How many classes are there? If every class has an average of 30 students, how many cups, lids, straws, and warmer sleeves does your school go through every day? Every week? What is the total for 5 weeks?

RESOURCES

1.Silverman, Jacob “Why is the world’s biggest landfill in the Pacific Ocean?”

2.Amaral, Kimberly “Plastics in Our Oceans.”

3.Tulloch, James “Pollution and Ecocides.”

4.Sarah “Getting Trashed: Wildlife in the Waste.”

5.McLeandon, Russell “What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.”