Lesson 1: Everything's Connected
Simple actions can change the health of an ecosystem. Help students discover how different kinds of trash decompose in a landfill.
OBJECTIVE
Science Goal: Students will learn about ecosystems and the process of decomposition. They will also understand what it means to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and how these human behaviors can impact ecosystems.
Language Arts Goal: Students will practice reading comprehension skills.
Math Goal: Students will practice graphing skills.
MATERIALS
Everything's Connected Lesson Printable 1 (PDF) , pencil, paper
DIRECTIONS
1. Ask: What does it mean to be at the 'top of the food chain'? Explain that humans are the most influential members of the planet because of our ability to influence our surroundings and the lives of every plant, animal, and environment. Discuss whether students think that this power comes with a responsibility to the overall health of our environment.
2. Review with students how an ecosystem works, including:
- The sun is the source of energy for all living things—plants and animals.
- Plants are called producers because they use light energy from the sun to make their own food from air and water.
- Animals cannot make their own food, so they eat plants and animals for energy. They are called consumers.
- Decomposers are another important link in the food chain. Decomposers are the bacteria and fungi that feed on decaying matter.
3. Ask: Think about old, moldy food that you have seen. Mold is a decomposer. Do you know why things decompose? (Decomposition releases nutrients back into the soil to be absorbed by plants.) Explain that water and oxygen are needed for materials to decompose. That is why frozen or tightly stored food does not decompose. Tell students that this lesson will focus on decomposers and how they work within a landfill.
4. Explain how landfills work including the following facts:
- Every day people throw trash away. Some is recycled, but most of it will be picked up by garbage trucks and dropped into a landfill to move it away from the areas where people live and work.
- When trash is brought to a landfill, bulldozers cover it with dirt so that it won't smell and so that animals and bugs will stay away.
- Given enough time, the trash will decay naturally, in a process called biodegradation. But not everything in a landfill is biodegradable, and some things take a very long time to decay.
- Modern landfills are lined on the bottom with clay and plastic, to help prevent poisons from seeping out of the garbage and getting into the groundwater that people, plants, and animals need to survive.
- Water or oxygen is needed for things to decay, so heat (which brings water out of organic trash) and dirt (which allows oxygen to penetrate the tightly packed landfill) allows the decomposition process to happen more quickly.
- After landfills close, they are carefully monitored for up to thirty years to make sure the trash does not damage the water, soil, or air quality of nearby ecosystems.
Using the Printable:
5. Ask: Why is it important to reduce our waste? (Our natural resources are limited, we are running out of landfill space, and our actions have an impact on other living things and future generations.)
6. Explain that students will now read a series of journal entries that describe the changes in a landfill ecosystem over time.
7. Distribute Everything’s Connected Lesson Printable 1 (PDF) to each student. Read the introduction together and provide students with enough time to read the journal entries and complete the graph.
8. Ask: In your opinion, is it important to reduce plastic waste to protect the environment? Why or why not? Discuss why reducing plastic waste makes environmental good sense. Compare plastic to the biodegradable power of paper and food waste like orange peels. Reinforce the following concepts:
- Reducing (using less or using the same things again, like carrying a reusable bag to the grocery store)
- Reusing (using things more than once in the same way or in a completely new way, such as using a coffee can to hold pens and pencils)
- Recycling (turning old, used things into different, new things, such as fleece made out of old plastic bottles)
Extending the Lesson to Home:
Help your students gain an understanding of how much plastic waste their families generate in one day. Go to Tracking Your Trash Activity and review the instructions. Then distribute copies of Tracking Your Trash Activity Printable 1 (PDF) and send it home with students. Instruct your students to bring the filled out printable to class with them for the next lesson.
ARTICLE
ONLINE ACTIVITY
